Who do you think is the best screenwriter of all time? Why?
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | June 12, 2022 5:58 PM |
Paddy Chayefsky? Joseph Mankiewicz? (All About Eve has a crackerjack script)
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | June 11, 2022 2:08 AM |
LOL @ the inclusion of Nora Ephron (and R3's Alan Smithee).
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 11, 2022 2:12 AM |
[italic]Andrew[/italic] Sorkin, OP?
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 11, 2022 2:16 AM |
Oliver Stone was a pretty decent director (and made some very good movies in the 1980s) but he was a terrible writer -- if you read his scripts, they're so over the top they barely track.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 11, 2022 2:16 AM |
I have no favorite, but Paddy Chayefsky beats everyone on your list, OP.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 11, 2022 2:20 AM |
OP: Are we going to distinguish original screenplays from adaptations? Film and television?
William Goldman ("All The President's Men") ("Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid") - both Oscar winners
Richard Price
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 11, 2022 2:23 AM |
R5: You scoff at Academy Award nominee Nora Ephron ("Silkwood" and "When Harry Met Sally")?
My noting the prolific Mr. Smithee?😂
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 11, 2022 2:34 AM |
OP this is a very good list. But I have to go with William Goldman. Look him up. Also want to say that IMO, there really is no "Greatest of all time" because writing is funny. A person can come up with one or two absolutely brilliant works, and then disappear. or they can churn out hit after hit forever, but will be uneven in quality. So it's subjective. at any given moment.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | June 11, 2022 3:03 AM |
[quote]But I have to go with William Goldman.
Go. Please, go. 'Tis no longer the season for Goldman.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | June 11, 2022 3:17 AM |
R11 Thank you! I tried to get the field as diverse as possible
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | June 11, 2022 3:25 AM |
Robert Towne, wrote Chinatown and Shampoo.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | June 11, 2022 3:30 AM |
R3 Yeah, given that Shakespeare has 1690 credits on IMDb and over 40 titles in some stage of production with his name attached ....
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | June 11, 2022 3:32 AM |
You need to see more movie OP.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | June 11, 2022 5:16 AM |
Came in here to echo r16 — Wilder was my immediate first thought
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | June 11, 2022 5:20 AM |
Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. wrote some of the most beautifully worded dialogue and masterfully structured character exchanges in cinema history. The results look deceptively simple but they verge on poetic. Watch the movies they wrote and you'll impressed: HUD, HOMBRE, CONRACK, NORMA RAE, MURPHY'S ROMANCE.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | June 12, 2022 12:59 AM |
Why isn’t Billy Wilder on the poll you cretinous buh boon?
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | June 12, 2022 1:03 AM |
No choices prior to the late 60s?
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | June 12, 2022 1:06 AM |
R23 Billy Wilder. OP you are a Philistine.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | June 12, 2022 1:20 AM |
I’ll be on your list in two years.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | June 12, 2022 3:01 AM |
Ernest Lehman, Dalton Trumbo, Billy Wilder, Paddy Chayefsky (SOLO WINNER OF THREE ACADEMY AWARDS for originial and adapted screenplays) & Orson Welles ALL belong on this poll.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | June 12, 2022 3:33 AM |
[quote] Ernest Lehman
But he's the same as Arthur Laurents isn't he?
Same decades in the same milieu?
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | June 12, 2022 3:58 AM |
[quote] Robert Towne, wrote Chinatown
And then Polanski completely re-wrote it.
Towne is grotesquely overrated and was a real piece of shit as a person.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | June 12, 2022 4:08 AM |
[quote] Towne is … a real piece of shit as a person
R30, you sound as though you've had personal experience of his excrement.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | June 12, 2022 4:31 AM |
Billy Wilder. How old are you OP?
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | June 12, 2022 4:32 AM |
Billy Wilder Preston Sturges Woody Allen That's just the top three I could think of. But again, how the fuck old are you OP? Do some research. Or better, watch some movies that were made before 1980.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | June 12, 2022 4:36 AM |
BTW, the fucking Coen Brothers? Are you kidding me? They stole everything they did from the masters.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | June 12, 2022 4:53 AM |
The OP is obviously a 20 year old who surprisingly included two Brits in his list.
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | June 12, 2022 5:13 AM |
Another vote for Billy Wilder, and another vote for the OP being an idiot.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | June 12, 2022 5:30 AM |
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won an Oscar for screen writing!
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | June 12, 2022 5:40 AM |
Yes they did, R39. What a crock. What have they written since then?
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | June 12, 2022 5:56 AM |
[quote]No choices prior to the late 60s?
Millennials and GenZers don't believe anything existed prior to their birth.
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | June 12, 2022 5:58 PM |
