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June 24, 2013

My Top 60 All-Time Favourite Screenwriters

Too often overlooked, without a writer you simply have no story. No movie. Nada.

These are my personal choices, based on:
  • Originality of concept and characters 
  • Strength of story elements (characters, dialogue, plot, arc, tone, overall structure)
  • Coherence and effectiveness in storytelling
  • The writer's influence on other writers, filmmakers, and society
  • The sheer pleasure I got watching their films, critics and box office be damned!
Whether a co-writer, adapting another writer's work, or making it all up by themselves, I pay homage to the incredible contributions that this hardworking, hair-pulling bunch has made, and the life-changing moments we've enjoyed as a result. 

The movies listed are the ones I love most. Enjoy! 

1. Woody Allen
Where to begin and where to end? No other writer has shaped both my writing and my life like Woody. Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Zelig, Midnight in Paris and 2013's Blue Jasmine.

2. David Mamet
Then this guy, who gives Woody a run for his money. So to speak. The Verdict, Glengarry Glen Ross, Wag the Dog, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Untouchables

3. Francis Ford Coppola
Patton, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now

4. Oliver Stone
Midnight Express, Scarface, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK

5. Martin Scorsese
Mean Streets, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Casino

6. Robert Towne
Chinatown, The Last Detail, Frantic, Mission Impossible, The Firm, Tequilla Sunrise

7. Quentin Tarantino
Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, From Dusk Till Dawn, Natural Born Killers, Jackie Brown, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained

8. Steven Zaillian
Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Awakenings, Clear and Present Danger, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Hannibal, American Gangster, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball, A Civil Action

9. Charlie Kaufman
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, The Dana Carvey Show

10. Paddy Chayefsky
Network, Marty, Altered States

11. Billy Wilder
Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment

12. Joel & Ethan Coen
Fargo, Raising Arizona, No Country For Old Men, Paris Je T’aime, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, Blood Simple, Barton Fink, Burn After Reading, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?

13. Tennessee Williams
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, The Night of the Iguana

14. William Goldman
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, A Bridge Too Far The Princess Bride, Misery. (Plus a gazillion others "uncredited"!)

15. Paul Schrader
Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Affliction

16. Robert Benton
Bonnie and Clyde, Superman, Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart, Nobody’s Fool

17. James L. Brooks
Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets, The Simpsons (TV), Rhoda (TV), Mary Tyler Moore, (TV), Taxi (TV), 

18. John Logan
Gladiator, The Aviator, The Last Samurai, Sweeney Todd, Rango, Hugo, Skyfall

19. Christopher Nolan
Batman Begins, The Dark Night, Inception, Memento

20. Kevin Smith
Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Red State

21. Nora Ephron
Sleepless in Seattle?, When Harry Met Sally, Silkwood

22. Christopher Guest
Saturday Night Live (TV), This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind

23. Robert Bolt
Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago

24. George Lucas
Star Wars, American Grafitti, THX 1138, Raiders of the Lost Ark (story)

25. John Carpenter
Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, Escape From New York, The Fog, Prince of Darkness

26. Wes Craven
Paris Je T’aime, The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street

27. Harold Ramis
Groundhog Day, Bedazzled, Animal House, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Meatballs, Analyze This, SCTV (TV)

28. James Cameron
Terminator 2, Titanic, The Abyss, True Lies, Avatar

29. Paul Thomas Anderson
There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights

30. Tom Stoppard
Brazil, Shakespeare in Love, Empire of the Sun, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Russia House, Anna Karenina

31. Sofia Coppola
The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, New York Stories

32. Mel Brooks
Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Producers, Spaceballs, Your Show of Shows (TV), Caesar's Hour (TV), Get Smart (TV)

33. Frank Darabont
The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, The Walking Dead, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, The Mist, Godzilla

34. Horton Foote
To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies

35. Judd Apatow
40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Ben Stiller Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Freaks & Geeks, Pineapple Express

36. Lawrence Kasdan
The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Body Heat, The Big Chill, Silverado, The Accidental Tourist, Grand Canyon, Wyatt Earp 

37. Cameron Crowe
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous


38. Waldo Salt
Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home

39. Larry McMurtry
The Last Picture Show, Brokeback Mountain

40. Mardik Martin
Mean Streets, Raging Bull

41. Wes Anderson
The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

42. Terry Gilliam
Brazil, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Meaning of Life, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Monty Python's Flying Circus (TV)

43. Raymond Chandler
The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia

44. David Webb Peebles
Blade Runner, Unforgiven, Hero, Twelve Monkeys

45. Eric Roth
The Insider, Forrest Gump, Suspect, Wolfen, Ali, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

46. Steven Gaghan
Traffic, Syriana, American Gothic

47. John Cleese
A Fish Called Wanda, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

48. Sam Raimi
The Evil Dead, Darkman, The Hudsucker Proxy, Drag Me To Hell

49. Peter Jackson
Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Lovely Bones, The Hobbit

50. Alvin Sargent
Ordinary People, Paper Moon

51. Paul Haggis
Million Dollar Baby, Crash

52. Akiva Goldsman
A Time to Kill, A Beautiful Mind, Fringe (TV)

53. Orson Welles
Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil

54. Herman J. Mankiewicz
Citizen Kane

55. Ernest Lehman
The King and I, North by Northwest, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? 

56. Dan O’Bannon
Alien, Total Recall

57. George A Romero
The Night of the Living Dead

58. Deric Washburn
The Deer Hunter, Silent Running

59. I.A.L. Diamond
Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Monkey Business

60. Christopher McQuarrie
The Usual Suspects

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