Without writers, there would be no Hollywood. Everything you see on the screen began as an idea in someone’s mind, who then translated that idea to the page, thus writing a screenplay that directors use as a blueprint for the movie they’re making. Words might get changed, and scenes might get cut, but despite all that, it still took a writer to bring the initial idea to life.
They are the unsung heroes of the film industry, and with the ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike, we thought it might be time to give them their flowers, so here are the ten best screenplays of the 21st century so far, as designated by the Writers Guild of America.
10 Memento (2000)
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Memento had its United States premiere on March 16th, 2001. The film, about a man suffering from anterograde amnesia, follows a non-linear fashion, a technique that wasn’t seen much at the time of the movie’s release. It was a commercial and critical success, and it pretty much solidified Nolan as one of the great directors of our time.
It was his brother, Jonathan, that actually pitched the story to him initially, and he went to work penning the short story, ‘Memento Mori.’ From there, Christopher Nolan developed it into a screenplay, which he wrote linearly, and then rearranged to form what we see on screen. When it was done, his girlfriend at the time, Emma Thomas (who would later become his wife), showed it to an executive at Newmarket Films, who called it the most innovative script he’d ever seen. They optioned the script, and the rest is history.
9 Almost Famous (2000)
The 1980s may have had John Hughes, but the ’90s belonged to Cameron Crowe, whose film Almost Famous followed the success of Say Anything…, Singles, and Jerry Maguire. Despite being a financial failure, the film received widespread critical acclaim, and nabbed Crowe his first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Crowe based the story on his real-life exploits as a teenage journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine, as we follow a young Patrick Fugit who tours with the fictional band, Stillwater, in the 1970s, so he can write his first cover story for the legendary magazine. Though this wasn’t Crowe’s first foray into screenwriting, it was the script that was most personal to him, and he took the old saying, ‘Write what you know,’ to new heights, and would follow it up with Vanilla Sky, and Elizabethtown, before branching off to make documentaries.
8 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
After the success of Reservoir Dogs, and Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino could do no wrong in Hollywood. The director followed up those two hits with Jackie Brown, the Kill Bill duet of films, and Death Proof, before he went to work on making Inglourious Basterds, which became his highest-grossing film up to that point.
While it may seem like just another in a long line of Tarantino films, he actually spent more than a decade working on the screenplay for the movie. After it became bigger than he planned it to be, he set the script aside when he couldn’t come up with an ending. This led him to work on the two Kill Bill movies, before he went back to Inglourious Basterds, and used his screenplay for Pulp Fiction as a sort of guideline to trim it down. The result was a smash hit, and one of the best things Tarantino has ever written.
7 There Will Be Blood (2007)
Released on December 26th, 2007, There Will Be Blood was director Paul Thomas Anderson’s fifth feature film, and starred Daniel Day-Lewis as an oilman seeking wealth during the oil boom of the early 20th century in California. The movie was met with widespread acclaim, and though it didn’t win Best Picture that year, it did nab Daniel Day-Lewis the Oscar for Best Actor.
Based on the 1927 novel ‘Oil!’ by Upton Sinclair, Anderson only adapted the first 200 pages into the screenplay due to how dense the source material was. Research trips to museums dedicated specifically to oilmen aided him in the creation of the script, which he wrote with Daniel Day-Lewis in mind. The actor has enjoyed Anderson’s previous film, Punch Drunk Love, so much that when he was asked to do There Will Be Blood, he didn’t hesitate to say yes.
6 Moonlight (2016)
With a total of eight Academy Award nominations, 2016’s Moonlight took home the award for not only Best Picture, but Best Adapted Screenplay as well. The story, about the life of a young black man dealing with his sexuality, identity, and childhood trauma, is heralded as one of the best films of the 21st century, and was director Barry Jenkins’ third film.
The director would also pen the screenplay, which he adapted from Tarell Alvin McCraney’s semi-autobiographical stage play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. McCraney wrote the play in 2003, but it went unproduced for a decade before Jenkins was introduced to it. Though the play was written in three parts that wove the life of the character together throughout, Jenkins structured his script so that each part would follow a child, a teenager, and an adult. The finished product not only reflected the life of McCraney, but Jenkins as well, as the two came from similar backgrounds.
5 No Country for Old Men (2007)
Regarded as the Coen brothers’ best film, No Country for Old Men premiered on November 9th, 2007, and won an astounding 76 awards during its initial run. The film, about a hitman stalking a Vietnam War vet who stumbles upon a stash of money that isn’t his, was adapted from the novel by the late Cormac McCarthy, who was lauded as one of the greatest writers of his generation.
Staying true to the source material, the Coen brothers trimmed what was necessary to adapt it to the big screen, as not every script produced from a novel is mimicked scene for scene. Josh Brolin, who starred in the film alongside Javier Bardem, and Tommy Lee Jones, was a little concerned that the screenplay featured minimal dialogue, as that’s what an actor relies upon to convey dramatic ideas. In the end, it all worked out, challenging the actor’s talents, and is now regarded as one of the best screenplays of the 21st century.
4 Parasite (2019)
Directed by Bong Joon-ho, Parasite was released on October 11th, 2019 here in the United States, and this South Korean thriller came seemingly out of nowhere to win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film, and Best Original Screenplay. It’s a simple story about a poor family who become employed by a wealthy family was a gripping look at class warfare, and kept audiences on the edge of their seats throughout, staying with viewers long after the film’s ending.
Joon-ho was initially encouraged to write the film as a stage play, and from there, he adapted it into a 15-page treatment for the movie. He then went to work on Okja, while his production assistant on the film Snowpiercer, Han Jin-won, took the treatment and turned it into a screenplay. Bong eventually returned to the project and completed the script, though because of his extensive work on the project, Han Jin-won also received writing credit.
3 The Social Network (2010)
Adapted from the book ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich, The Social Network is one of only two films on the list to not be both written and directed by the same person. David Fincher was tasked with bringing the project to the screen, while it was Aaron Sorkin who penned the screenplay.
Telling the story of the creation of Facebook, Sorkin was attracted to the book’s universal themes of friendship, betrayal, jealousy, and power, and took an unfinished draft of Mezrich’s work to use as his basis for the script. Doing his own extensive research, Sorkin was about 80% done with the screenplay by the time he saw the finished book, completing a script that would earn him the only Academy Award of his career thus far for Best Adapted Screenplay.
2 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Focus Features
Starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of those films that has become a cult favorite over the years, though it’s considered by many to be one of the greatest films of the 2000s, if not of all time. Dealing with themes of happiness, identity, and fear, the film takes a look at the possibility of erasing someone from your memory when you no longer want to remember them.
Initially starting as a story by director Michel Gondry, and co-writer Pierre Bismuth, Gondry approached Charlie Kaufman to pen the screenplay. The eclectic screenwriter took on the project, but didn’t get started right away. Instead, he wrote the films Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Human Nature, before returning to work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Though he struggled with the writing process throughout, the finished script took home the award for Best Original Screenplay, and gave Kaufman the confidence to try his hand at directing.
1 Get Out (2017)
Shot in just 23 days, the horror film Get Out marks the directorial debut of Jordan Peele, who also penned the screenplay. Though he was coming from a background in comedy, Peele saw correlations between the two genres, and was confident in his abilities to try something different from his previous work on the sketch comedy show, Key & Peele.
Taking inspiration from The Stepford Wives, Jordan Peele spent a good five years just thinking up the story of Get Out before he ever wrote anything down. Meeting with producer Sean McKittrick, Peele pitched him the idea, which McKittrick instantly bought, leading to him finally having to put his ideas down on paper. Once he started writing, it took Peele two months to finish the first draft, and by the time it was all said and done, Get Out would win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and led him to pen the horror films Us, Candyman, and Nope as his next projects.