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