Screenplays, screenplays, screenplays

May 12, 2005 9:24 AM

Internet Movie Script Database - It's not new, but it's blowing up recently, perhaps because of the Revenge of the Sith screenplay? (*SPOILERS*) Is it for real? Is it legal? Some scripts say "For educational purposes only." Hmm.
posted by mrgrimm (29 comments total)

AT LAST!!! I can read the delicate wordplay & subtle nuance that is sure to be present in the EpIII script! Now I have no need of watching, as no one has ever gone to see a Star Wars film for the effects, the lightsaber battles, the space dogfights, etc. Finally, my many year long jones for more Lucas Prose (tm) will be sated.
posted by jonson at 9:30 AM on May 12, 2005

KHAN'S VOICE
I've done far worse than kill you,
Admiral. I've hurt you. And I
wish to go on hurting you. I
shall leave you, as you left me --
where no one will ever find you:
poetic justice; marooned for
eternity in the center of a dead
planet -- buried alive.

KIRK
Khan -- !

KHAN
Goodbye, Admiral. Oh, and don't
count on Enterprise. She can't
move. My next act will be to blow
her out of the heavens.

KIRK
KHAN!

posted by poppo at 9:42 AM on May 12, 2005

Thanks for the link – now I can read Sideways.
posted by disgruntled at 9:43 AM on May 12, 2005

KIRK
My God Bones what have I done?

DR McCOY
What you've always done Jim – turned death into a fighting chance to live.
posted by disgruntled at 9:44 AM on May 12, 2005

A vast sea of stars serves as the backdrop for the Main Title, followed by a rollup, which crawls into infinity.

I can't believe he even has to write this in anymore. Wouldn't they know?
posted by fungible at 10:31 AM on May 12, 2005

Oh, and for the farkers, Scene 9:

ANAKIN: I sense Count Dooku . . .

OBI-WAN: I sense a trap.

I shit you not.
posted by fungible at 10:35 AM on May 12, 2005

Is it legal? Yes, if the owners gave their permission. Did George Lucas and Fox give their permission for the script to be published online a week before it premieres? Um... And neither did the owners of any other of the scripts.
posted by stacyhall1 at 10:43 AM on May 12, 2005

(Oops, I posted this to the wrong thread, try again)
Welcome to sfy.ru, famous selected collection of hundreds free movie scripts and screenplays!
posted by Schroder at 10:48 AM on May 12, 2005

Is it for real? Maybe. Didn't click on all the scripts, but one looked legit (Sideways) the other was not a script, but an admitted transcription (The Incredibles). Reading the transcript of a film is not the same thing as reading its screenplay, as there's a nuance and level of precision to action lines that the screenwriter writes designed (not always successfully) to set the tone and pace of the film. So, if one wanted to read a film's screenplay, IMSDB may not be that useful. Then again, if you wanted to check somone's film credits, IMDB isn't always that useful, either.

Is it legal? I doubt it...
posted by herc at 11:01 AM on May 12, 2005

Is it legal?

Does it really matter?

Shouldn't be legal to charge $12 to see a film in my opinion. The least thing the the public deserves is the ability to read the screenplays without it having an affect on the moral conscience.

A couple of more:

iScriptdb | Scriptpimp
posted by ttopher at 11:42 AM on May 12, 2005

Khaaan!

I never get tired of that.
posted by homunculus at 11:49 AM on May 12, 2005

RIPLEY: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
posted by brownpau at 11:54 AM on May 12, 2005

Pure poetry:

PATIENCE -- now pure CATWOMAN -- springs down gracefully and scans the dark apartment. She stretches her limbs languorously, licks her lips. She flexes her fingers, watching appreciatively as her CLAWS EMERGE.
posted by brain_drain at 12:12 PM on May 12, 2005

I love the roll-up text: There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere. The whole script plays out like a febrile nine year old's fantasy of what a Star Wars flick ought to be. Really. A child could have written this hokey, bantering, creaky screenplay (from scene 39:"Anakin and Dooku continue their fight. It is intense!").

The only adult aspect emerges in the Jedi Council scenes, which resemble production committee meetings more than anything else, with egos flaring and schedules triumphant. Even if this were a fake, it captures the Star Wars spirit so completely that it wouldn't matter much.

On preview: the spell check suggested "Anacin" for Anakin, "dodo" for Dooku, and "edit" for Jedi. I think Star Wars would be vastly more entertaining with those kinds of changes.
posted by palinode at 12:12 PM on May 12, 2005

Did you see the last two movies? Both of them played out like a febrile nine year old's fantasy of what a Star Wars flick ought to be.

I can't believe I just posted three times to this thread.
posted by fungible at 12:20 PM on May 12, 2005

poppo...huh. I just saw that movie at the all-seats-$1 place yesterday.

"Let them eat static!"
posted by alumshubby at 12:26 PM on May 12, 2005

Did you see the first three movies? You're giving them waaay more credit than they deserve. They play out like a nine year old's fantasy too.

(Note: I own the trilogy on DVD)
posted by graventy at 12:36 PM on May 12, 2005

The interesting thing about that Star Trek II screenplay is that it really illustrates how important the actor's delivery is to selling a line. On paper, this:

KHAN
Save your strength, Captain, these
people have sworn to live and die at
my command two hundred years before
you were born. Do you mean he...
(i.e. Chekov)
... never told you the tale?
To amuse you, Captain? Never told
you how the Enterprise picked up the
Botany Bay, lost in space from the
year 1996, myself and the ship's
company in cryogenic freeze?

doesn't look too good, but when Ricardo Montalban delivers what's basically a mouthful of exposition and winds it up later on with "THIS IS CETI ALPHA V!", it works.
posted by Prospero at 12:44 PM on May 12, 2005

Damn you people. I have to run home and Watch ST II now. So good. If I remember correctly, the director of the flic had made several succesful submarine/naval type action movies. That's why IMO so much of ST II looks more naval in action then the rest of them. The uniforms, too..
posted by cavalier at 12:49 PM on May 12, 2005

JAKE:
You traded the Blues Mobile for this?

ELWOOD:
No. For a microphone.

JAKE:
A microphone? Okay I can see that. Well, what the hell is this?

ELWOOD:
This was a bargain. I picked it up at the Mount Prospect City Police auction last spring. It's an old Mount Prospect Police car. They were practically giving them away.

JAKE:
Well, thank you pal, the day I get out of jail my own brother picks me up in a police car.

(Fog horn and warning bell sounds)

ELWOOD:
You don't like it?

JAKE:
No, I don't like it.

(Elwood drives over a raising draw bridge.)

JAKE:
Cars got a lot of pick up.

why must this beautiful treasure trove be in PDF?
posted by tsarfan at 12:59 PM on May 12, 2005

Cool voice-over found in this screenplay on IMSDb:

Angle up through the water from the bottom of the pool, as the body floats face downward. It is a well-dressed young man.
MAN'S VOICE:You see, the body of a young man was found floating in the pool of her mansion, with two shots in his back and one in his stomach. Nobody important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of "B" pictures to his credit. The poor dope. He always wanted a pool Well, in the end he got himself a pool -- only the price turned out to be a little high... Let's go back about six months and find the day when it all started.

Why did they pick the phrase "movie script" for the title when Internet Screenplay DataBase rolls off the tongue better? Answer: because ISDb is the future home of the Internet Song Database...
posted by Lord Kinbote at 1:13 PM on May 12, 2005

Fungible: "I can't believe he even has to write this in anymore."

If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage... er, uhm... screen..?

Then again, comparing the script for Mystery Men to the actual finished film, it's perhaps a good thing that a lot of what was once on the page didn't end up on the screen. Though it's one of my favorite films, it got mixed reviews and we'll probably never see a sequel. Still, it's remarkably good considering the weak script. I would imagine some writers wouldn't want early drafts of their work on the Internet, because now I question how much of the genius of Mystery Men was by Burden, how much was by Cuthbert, and how much got hammered out in front of the camera.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:23 PM on May 12, 2005

Too bad they're not PDFs. I'll stick to script-o-rama.com.
posted by dobbs at 2:00 PM on May 12, 2005

The interesting thing about this site is that many of the scripts are drafts, much different from the end results. (Blade Runner was far better than what's written here)

And I can't read any of that STII stuff without hearing it in Ricardo Montalban's voice.
posted by dreamsign at 3:32 PM on May 12, 2005

Zachsmind, do you really think we won't be seeing a Mystery Men sequel anytime soon? Maybe an animated "Mr. Furious" Saturday morning series.

Don't ever sit down and try to hammer out the genesis of a finished script for a studio, because it will lead you into places where carnivores dwell and madness sleeps lightly.
posted by palinode at 4:32 PM on May 12, 2005

FWIW, they (lucas) had the "official" script for sale as an e-book for 5 dollars (at like e-books.com and amazon, etc)

So if someone was willing to contrast and compare the legitimacy of this copy of the screenplay could be determined (or just wait till may 19th).

These screenplay archives are a great resource (kudos for pointing out script-o-rama which has been on the net forever) for aspiring screenwriters, film buffs, and bored office workers. There's also cool screenplays that were never filmed.

I remember reading the dogma screenplay online and thinking it was brilliant, and the movie actually dissapointed compared to the script ( some of Kevin Smiths dialogue seems to lend itself more to the page than to be spat out by ben affleck verbatim)

In regards to SW EPIII, here's hope ILM can polish a turd! (or we can ignore the bad dialogue of annakin and relish in the palpy lines I guess)

rampy
posted by rampy at 8:24 PM on May 12, 2005

OBI-WAN picks up Anakin's light saber and begins to walk away. He stops and looks back.

ANAKIN: I hate you!

OBI-WAN: You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.


Suck mightily, this new movie will.
posted by fandango_matt at 12:45 AM on May 13, 2005

posted by palinode the spell check suggested "Anacin" for Anakin, "dodo" for Dooku, and "edit" for Jedi.

Anacin Skywalker? I like that. He then could become Darth Bayer.
posted by fandango_matt at 12:50 AM on May 13, 2005

Is everyone on the 'net really George Lucas in disguise?

(Like it's not getting enough hype already?)
posted by HTuttle at 5:25 AM on May 13, 2005