Here’s what started the phenomenon: the best seller, for over 15 years, that’s been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny and candid look inside the movie business. “Save the Cat” is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying, including: The four elements of every winning logline The seven immutable laws of screenplay physics The 10 genres that every movie ever made can be categorized by ― and why they’re important to your script Why your Hero must serve your Idea Mastering the 15 Beats Creating the “Perfect Beast” by using The Board to map 40 scenes with conflict and emotional change How to get back on track with proven rules for script repair This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a showbiz veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat. Read more

Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience. In Story, McKee expands on the concepts he teaches in his $450 seminars (considered a must by industry insiders), providing readers with the most comprehensive, integrated explanation of the craft of writing for the screen. No one better understands how all the elements of a screenplay fit together, and no one is better qualified to explain the "magic" of story construction and the relationship between structure and character than Robert McKee. Read more

Break out your favorite pencil and roll up your sleeves! The Save the Cat! Beat Sheet Workbook provides key writing prompts and asks all the important questions—but you bring the story, filling out the pages that walk you step-by-step through the Save the Cat! process.The official hands-on companion to the best-selling Save the Cat! and Save the Cat! Writes for TV, this interactive workbook helps you dig deep into every aspect of your story. It’s inspiring, easy to manage, and your guide to:• Idea and Concept Brainstorming – Unlock your idea engine with a series of exercises and prompts geared to help you find your best story idea.• Meaningful Themes – Explore yourself, matching your story to something that speaks to your soul and represents your tastes and personality.• Story Genre Identification – Nail down that pesky question of “What is your story?” with the Save the Cat! Story Genres.• Create Fully Developed Characters – Give life to main characters who have wants, needs, and flaws. Surround them with a supporting cast that provides opportunities for conflict and thematic tension.• The Save the Cat! Beat Sheet – Discover the tools and detailed exercises to give your story the structure to succeed. Read more

Originally an influential memo Vogler wrote for Walt Disney Animation executives regarding The Lion King, The Writer’s Journey details a twelve-stage, myth-inspired method that has galvanized Hollywood’s treatment of cinematic storytelling. A format that once seldom deviated beyond a traditional three-act blueprint, Vogler’s comprehensive theory of story structure and character development has met with universal acclaim, and is detailed herein using examples from myths, fairy tales, and classic movies. This book has changed the face of screenwriting worldwide over the last 25 years, and continues to do so. Read more

Blake Snyder's Save the Cat!, the world's top-selling story method for filmmakers and novelists, introduces The Last Book on Creating Binge-Worthy Content You'll Ever Need.Screenwriter Jamie Nash takes up Snyder's torch to lay out a step-by-step approach using Blake's principles for both new and experienced writers, including:-How to write and structure a compelling TV pilot that can launch both your series and your TV writing career -All the nuances, tricks, and techniques of pilot-writing: the Opening Pitch, the Guided Tour, the Whiff of Change, and more -The 8 Save the Cat! TV Franchise Types that will improve your story and your pitch-The not-so-secret TV Pitch Template that turns your TV series into the necessary read-over-lunch industry document -a how-to in creating layered characters who are driven by complex internal struggles -Beat sheets of the pilots of Barry, Ozark, Grey's Anatomy, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, What We Do in the Shadows, Black-ish, The Mandalorian, This Is Us, Law and Order: SVU and more to help you crack your storyCreate your binge-worthy TV series with Save the Cat! Writes for TV. Read more

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEN/Faulkner Award Winner •  A gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric masterpiece of courtroom suspense—one that leaves us shaken and changed.  "Haunting .... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper." —Los Angeles Times San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies.  But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder.    In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries—memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched. Read more

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Discover the thrills of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in a whole new way with this officially licensed, deluxe edition of the screenplay, complete with in-depth annotations and film stills. Jurassic Park gave moviegoers an unforgettable thrill ride. Now, on the film’s 30th anniversary, fans can experience Jurassic Park in an all-new way with this deluxe, annotated edition of Michael Crichton and David Koepp’s script. This script book is annotated by franchise expert James Mottram (Jurassic Park: The Ultimate Visual History, Jurassic World: The Ultimate Visual History), offering commentary and insight into the behind-the-scenes story of the film. Fully illustrated with film stills, concept art, and other key visuals, this is a must-have collectible for Jurassic Park fans and a fitting tribute to a landmark film. RELIVE TIMELESS THRILLS: A must-have collectible for Jurassic Park fans, this script book is a fitting tribute to a landmark film and a great way to return to Isla Nublar. FILLED WITH INSIGHTFUL COMMENTARY: This script book is annotated by franchise expert James Mottram (Jurassic Park: The Ultimate Visual History, Jurassic World: The Ultimate Visual History), offering commentary and insight into the behind-the-scenes story of the film. COMPLETE WITH ICONIC VISUALS: As a celebration of the landmark film, this book is fully illustrated with film stills, concept art, and other key visuals. OWN A PIECE OF MOVIE HISTORY: This script book presents the final draft of Jurassic Park, written by Michael Crichton and David Koepp. COMPLETE YOUR JURASSIC PARK COLLECTION: This script book joins other fan-favorite titles from Insight Editions, including Jurassic Park: The Ultimate Visual History, Jurassic World: The Ultimate Visual History, Jurassic World: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book, and Jurassic World: The Official Cookbook. Read more

In this classic bestselling screenwriting guide—now revised and updated—author and film consultant Viki King helps screenwriters go from blank page to completed manuscript through a series of clever and simple questions, ingenious writing exercises, and easy, effective new skills.Viki King's Inner Movie Method is a specific step-by-step process designed to get the story in your heart onto the page. This method doesn’t just show how to craft a classic three-act story but also delves into how to clarify the idea you don't quite have yet, how to tell if your idea is really a movie, and how to stop getting ready and start. Once you know what to write, the Inner Movie Method will show you how to write it. This ultimate scriptwriting survival guide also addresses common issues such as: how to pay the rent while paying your dues, what to say to your partner when you can't come to bed, and how to keep going when you think you can't.How to Write a Movie in 21 Days, first published in 1987, has been translated in many languages around the world and has become an industry-standard guide for filmmakers both in Hollywood and internationally.For accomplished screenwriters honing their craft, as well as those who have never before brought their ideas to paper, How to Write a Movie in 21 Days is an indispensable guide. And Viki King's upbeat, friendly style is like having a first-rate writing partner every step of the way. Read more

Delve deeper into the Emmy- and Golden Globe–nominated Hulu series based on Sally Rooney's bestselling novel with this must-have collection of the Normal People scripts, featuring behind-the-scenes photos and an introduction by director Lenny Abrahamson.“You know, I did used to think that I could read your mind at times.”“In bed you mean.”“Yeah. And afterwards but I dunno maybe that's normal.”“It’s not.”Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular. Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation, something life-changing begins.With an introduction by director Lenny Abrahamson and featuring iconic images from the show, Normal People: The Scripts contains the complete screenplays of the acclaimed Emmy- and Golden Globe–nominated television drama that The New York Times called “an unusually thoughtful and moving depiction of young people’s emotional lives.” Read more

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, this authorized, annotated and illustrated edition of the complete, unedited screenplay includes all the little-known facts, behind-the-scenes intrigue, and first-person reflections from cast and crew members on the making of this landmark film.  From its ingenious cinematic innovations and memorable, oft-quoted script to its iconic cast, including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan, The Godfather is considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made. And yet, the history of its making is so colorful, so chaotic, that one cannot help but marvel at the seemingly insurmountable odds it overcame to become a true cinematic masterpiece, and a film that continues to captivate its audience decades after its release.  In this annotated and illustrated edition of the complete original screenplay, nearly every scene is examined and dissected, including:Fascinating commentary on technical details about the filming and shooting locationsTales from the set, including arguments, accidents, and anecdotesProfiles of the actors and stories of how they were castDeleted scenes that never made the final cut, and the goofs and gaffes that didAnd much moreInterviews with former Paramount executives, cast and crew members, and and all-new foreword by Francis Ford Coppola, round out the commentary and shed new light on everything you thought you knew about this most influential film. With more than 200 photographs, this a truly unique, collectable keepsake for every Godfather fan. Read more

Kill the Dog is the first book on screenwriting written by an actual working professional screenwriter. Award-winning screenwriter Paul Guyot exposes the lies other screenwriting books have told, and presents authentic, essential instruction and motivation for anyone wanting a career as a professional screenwriter. This book provides all the answers, from what producers and studios actually want, to what makes one screenplay better than another, to why so many have been doing it wrong for so long. The author takes us inside the exclusive members-only world of professional screenwriters, from television writers rooms to meetings with producers and studio executives, to facts about formatting, structure, craft, art, and voice. Every aspect of screenwriting is covered with an authority and credibility never seen in any book to come before. Told with honesty, humor, and vulnerability from the real-world perspective of a working, professional screenwriter, Kill the Dog reveals the secrets of what it takes to have a successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter. Read more

This isthe only screenwriting guide by two guys who have actually done it (instead of some schmuck who just gives lectures about screenwriting at the airport Marriott); “These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter” (Paul Rudd).Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon’s movies have made over a billion dollars at the box office—and now they show you how to do it yourself! This book is full of secret insider information about how to conquer the Hollywood studio system: how to write, pitch, structure, and get drunk with the best of them. Well…maybe not the best of them, but certainly the most successful. (If you’re aiming to win an Oscar, this is not the book for you!) But if you can type a little, and can read and speak English—then you too can start turning your words into stacks of money! This is the only screenwriting book you will ever need (because all other ones pretty much suck). In these pages, Garant and Lennon provide the kind of priceless tips you won’t find anywhere else, including: -The art of pitching -Getting your foot in the door -Taking notes from movie stars -How to get fired and rehired -How to get credit and royalties! And most important: what to buy with the huge piles of money you’re going to make! Writing Movies for Fun and Profit will take you through the highs and lows of life as a professional screenwriter. From the highs of hugging Gisele Bündchen and getting kung fu punched by Jackie Chan to the soul-crushing lows of Herbie: Fully Loaded. Read this book and you’ll have everything you need to make your first billion the old-fashioned way—by “selling out” in show business! A portion of the authors’ proceeds from this book are being contributed to the USO of Metropolitan Washington, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving active duty military members and their families in the greater Washington, DC, region. Read more

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Quentin Tarantino returns with his most infamous, most brilliant, most masterful screenplay yet?Ķ At the end of the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. Bounty hunter John Ruth and his fugitive captive Daisy Domergue race toward the town of Red Rock, where Ruth will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter Major Marquis Warren, a former Union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter; and Chris Mannix, a renegade who claims to be the town's new sheriff. Lost in a blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren, and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover. When they arrive, they are greeted by four unfamiliar faces: Bob, who takes care of Minnie's in the owner's absence; Oswaldo Mobray, the hangman of Red Rock; cow-puncher Joe Gage; and Confederate general Sanford Smithers. As the storm overtakes the mountainside, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all ...The Hateful Eight is a Tarantino master class in tension-filled atmosphere, singular characters, and razor-sharp dialogue. Read more

Jordan Peele's celebrated screenplay combines horror and dark humor to reveal the terrifying realities of being Black in America"Blending race-savvy satire with horror to especially potent effect, this bombshell social critique from first-time director Jordan Peele proves positively fearless." –Peter Debruge, Variety"An exhilaratingly smart and scary freak out about a black man in a white nightmare."–Manohla Dargis, New York Times"A major achievement, a work that deserves, in its own way, to be viewed alongside Barry Jenkins' Moonlight as a giant leap forward for the possibilities of black cinema; Get Out feels like it would have been impossible five minutes ago."–Brandon Harris, New YorkerA New York Times 2019 holiday gift guide pickJordan Peele's powerful thriller Get Out debuted in 2017 to enormous public and critical acclaim, a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? for the age of Obama and Trump that scared audiences and skewered white liberal pieties at the same time. Rather than rely on popular archetypes, Peele weaves together the material realities and daily manifestations of horror with sociopolitical fears and elements of true suspense, and combines them with pitch-perfect satire and a timely cultural critique. This companion paperback to the film presents Peele's Oscar-winning screenplay alongside supplementary material. Featuring an essay by author and scholar Tananarive Due and in-depth annotations by the director, this publication is richly illustrated with more than 150 stills from the motion picture and presents alternate endings, deleted scenes and an inside look at the concepts and behind-the-scenes production of the film. Continuing in the legacy of 1960s paperbacks that documented the era's most significant avant-garde films―such as Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin/Feminin and Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura―Get Out is an indispensable guide to this pioneering and groundbreaking cinematic work.Jordan Peele (born 1979) is an American writer, director and producer. Peele's directorial debut, Get Out (2017), earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. In 2012, Peele founded Monkeypaw Productions, which amplifies traditionally underrepresented voices and unpacks contemporary social issues, while cultivating artistic, thought-provoking projects across film, television and digital platforms, including Peele's follow-up to Get Out, the critically acclaimed horror epic, Us (2019). Read more

Natural Born Killers is a disturbing and brilliant indictment of violence in the media and American celebrity culture. Mickey and Mallory Knox, outlaw lovers on the run, go on a killing spree of startling viciousness -- and find themselves transformed into cult celebrities by the tabloid media. The film, directed by Oliver Stone, departed significantly from Tarantino's original screenplay, so much so that Tarantino removed his name from the screenplay credits. Now available in America for the first time, the original screenplay offers fans and film buffs of all stripes the opportunity to compare Tarantino's original vision with Stone's version of the story of Mickey and Mallory. Read more

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an American western anthology film written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. It stars Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson, James Franco, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, and Tom Waits. It premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2018, where it won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay and is scheduled to be released November 16 on Netflix after a theatrical run. Six chapters each present a different story from the wild frontier. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs tells the story of a sharp-shooting songster. In Near Algodones, a wannabe bank robber gets his due and then some. Meal Ticket is a gothic tale about two weary travelling performers. All Gold Canyon is a story about a prospector mining for gold, while a woman finds an unexpected promise of love, along with a dose of life’s cruel irony, on a wagon train across the prairies in The Gal Who Got Rattled. Finally, ghostly laughs haunt The Mortal Remains as a Lady rains judgment upon a motley crew of strangers undertaking a final carriage ride. Read more

The twelfth book in the Screenplay Collection, for Academy Award- winner Everything Everywhere All at Once, includes an introduction by Lilly Wachowski, an essay by multiversal philosopher Mary-Jane Rubenstein, a couples therapy session with Dr. Orna Guralnik, alter- nate introductions to the film, and handwritten scene annotations. Read more

“Any shrewd chap who finds his artist girlfriend has a video-camera in the bedroom to film the cut and thrust of their sexual action might well fear he was destined to end up as her artistic fodder. But in THE SHAPE OF THINGS, Neil LaBute’s absolutely chilling report from the sex war’s frontline, where stratagems for sexual humiliations are planned, Adam, the shy chap concerned, takes the video-camera, so to speak, lying down. LaBute, the remarkable American movie director and playwright whose film IN THE COMPANY OF MEN showed a sexually unappealing woman exploited by two vengeful pretend lovers, now returns to this theme. This time it’s a man who’s the victim of female guile... LaBute meticulously plans that the shocking, climatic revelations should cast dark light upon his apparently average people.”Nicholas de Jongh, The Standard “[LaBute] continues to probe the fascinating dark side of individualism, whose ultimate evil is an inability to imagine the suffering of others.... LaBute’s great gift is to live in and to chronicle that murky area of not knowing, which mankind spends much of its waking life denying. Where does truth end and fiction begin? Is the fiction more valuable than the truth? Do the results justify the means?”John Lahr, The New Yorker “What is art? What are you permitted to do in its name?... These questions are thrown up by a piece whose intricate layers of treachery are worthy of David Mamet...”Paul Taylor, The Independent “LaBute is a smart, ambitious writer who, at his best, dares to explore the ambivalence hiding under the weave of our social fabric. He always has a serious intellectual project in mind, and here he aims at no less than the subjectivity of love and the definition of art itself. THE SHAPE OF THINGS is compulsively watchable.”Gordon Cox, Newsday “LaBute is the most gifted, intelligent and wittily moral American playwright since Wallace Shawn; that is high praise, believe me. And this play marks his theatrical maturity. It’s a must see.”Michael Coveney, Daily Mail Read more

The only companion book to Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed 1999 film, Magnolia: The Illustrated Screenplay includes the complete shooting script, introduction and script notes by Anderson, an interview with the writer/director, and complete cast and crew credits.Anderson deliberately withheld information about his new film during production because “I feel lately as if I know everything about a movie before I see it, and I really want the audience to discover this purely.” Featuring an ensemble cast and, in an unbilled role, Tom Cruise (who called Anderson to express interest in working with him), the film is now described by New Line as follows:There are stories of coincidence and chance and intersections and strange things told. There is the story of a Dying Father, the Young Wife, his Lost Son, the Caretaker, the Boy Genius, his Father, the Game Show Host, the Daughter, the Mother, the Ex-Boy Genius and the Police Officer in Love.There are nine plots that tell one story, set in the San Fernando Valley on a day full of rain with no clouds.Along with the story of a pharmacist in London, a scuba diver and an accidental suicide, this is the story of “Magnolia.”This is a story about family relationships and bonds that have been broken and need to be mended in one day. Read more