These 10 Screenplays Are Absolutely Worth Reading 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most acclaimed novelists of the modern age. And lucky for us, he also wrote several screenplays. The first one that was ever produced was this Emmy-nominated story set in post-Civil War South Carolina. It is a tale of violence, animosity, and suffering that intertwines two families—the Greggs, who own the local cotton mill, and the McEvoys, who work there. 

When Robert McEvoy loses his leg in an industrial accident, a tragedy is set into motion that may ultimately destroy both families in this riveting screenplay that was made into a celebrated PBS broadcast in 1976.

Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to ever win the Academy Award for Best Director when she helmed The Hurt Locker in 2008, and she followed it up with the equally lauded Zero Dark Thirty in 2012, which was nominated for no less than five Oscars. 

Among those was Best Original Screenplay, for this acclaimed script by Mark Boal, which follows a dedicated team of CIA operatives as they attempt to hunt down Osama bin Laden following the terrorist attacks which took place on September 11, 2001.

Hailed as one of the most influential films of the French New Wave, Hiroshima Mon Amour has been called a “motion picture landmark” by the New York Post. Winner of the Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, not to mention the New York Film Critics’ Award, this French-Japanese co-production tells the story of a brief romance between a French actress and a Japanese architect. 

Praised for its inventiveness, Jean-Luc Godard called it “the first film without any cinematic references.” Among its many celebrated attributes was the one-of-a-kind screenplay, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence, Ken Russell’s 1969 film was hailed as “a visual stunner and very likely the most sensual film ever made” by the New York Daily News and as featuring some of the “most erotic—and tasteful—lust scenes anywhere in contemporary film” by Time magazine. 

Much of this can be traced back to the screenplay by playwright Larry Kramer, whom Susan Sontag called “one of America’s most valuable troublemakers.” Here, the screenplay is included, along with several of Kramer’s other plays, in what has been praised as “a valuable showcase of an important writer’s early career” (Bay Area Reporter).

Kenneth Lonergan is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his 2016 drama Manchester by the Sea. He has also been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, three Golden Globes, three Tony Awards, and more. 

One perfect place to see why is in the screenplay for his contentious 2011 film Margaret, hailed as “a film of rare beauty and shocking gravity” by Rolling Stone. It tells the story of Lisa, a principled teenager struggling to find her way in life, who becomes caught up in tragedy when she inadvertently contributes to the wrongful death of a stranger.

In 1992, Robert Altman’s The Player became “one of the smartest, funniest, most penetrating movies about moviemaking ever made” (Vanity Fair), thanks in no small part to its Academy Award-nominated screenplay by Michael Tolkin, one of the form’s most celebrated satirists. 

This volume combines that acclaimed screenplay with two others, focusing on Christian fundamentalism and modern materialism, to provide a perfect entry point into the writings of the man that the New Yorker described as “Antonioni with a sense of humor.”

The behind-the-scenes story of the writing of On the Waterfront is nearly as interesting as this Academy Award-winning film, which was named the 8th-greatest American movie of all time by the American Film Institute in 1997. 

While Budd Schulberg ultimately wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, it had originally been intended for playwright Arthur Miller, whose refusal to change the story’s corrupt union officials into Communists led to a falling out between Miller and director Elia Kazan, who identified some 8 people within the film industry as Communists before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

While it isn't a screenplay, the script for this off-Broadway cult hit deals with Hollywood, celebrity, and the struggles of actors and screenwriters. Buyer & Cellar is a one-man play about Alex More, a struggling actor who takes on the oddest of odd jobs when he gets a position working in the basement of his idol, Barbara Streisand, who has converted her Malibu basement into a museum for her dolls and other collectibles. 

Told in a series of monologues to his screenwriter boyfriend, this “seriously funny slice of absurdist whimsy” (New York Times) showcases More’s excitement and annoyance when he actually gets to meet his reclusive employer.

It’s hard to believe that Thelma & Louise—a 1991 hit for director Ridley Scott—was the work of a first-time screenwriter. The success of Thelma & Louise catapulted Callie Khouri into the spotlight and enshrined her as one of the leading screenwriters penning authentic roles for women, a trend she continued in films such as Something to Talk About and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, not to mention as the creator of the hit show Nashville. 

Thelma & Louise is where it all started, though, and reading the screenplay, you can see for yourself why this newcomer nabbed an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay her first time out.