In the midst of the flurry of screenplays popping up on studio awards websites for your consideration over the past few days, astute NFS reader deanareeno tipped us off to the official Looper tumblr page posting the screenplay for Looper on Saturday. Rian Johnson includes a short intro in the PDF of the screenplay to point out that this particular draft was the final draft before production, so for fans of the film, you'll be able to find several points of departure from this script and the final film.
Here's a trailer for Looper to refresh your memory:
Looper has certainly been a hot topic of conversation here at NFS, whether it's writer/director Rian Johnson discussing how budget doesn't affect the fundamentals of making movies to an in-theater commentary track from Johnson to the sizzle reel for Looper to using Looper as a case study for the MacGuffin. I think publishing the final draft of the screenplay instead of the conformed production draft provides yet one more unique perspective for NFS readers to learn about this story as conceived in the mind of the writer Rian Johnson before the director Rian Johnson had to make the film.
Here's a link to the screenplay:
- Looper, written by Rian Johnson (final draft before production)
What I find remarkable about the posting of this screenplay is Rian Johnson is putting it out there himself (just like Ava DuVernay and her screenplay Middle of Nowhere). This is particularly remarkable because Looper has already picked up the award for Best Original Screenplay from the National Board of Review and will likely receive other nominations this awards season. But we don't see an official awards campaign online for the film (however, it's quite possible that guild members have been approached directly with screenplays as well as screeners). Hopefully, the studio is stumping on Johnson's behalf behind the scenes, but I get the feeling Johnson is used to promoting his own work at this point in his career.
Regardless of who is pushing for the awards attention, we'd like to thank Rian Johnson and his Looper team for posting this version of the screenplay (and for NFS deanareeno for the heads-up). Again, as always, please use this screenplay for your educational purposes only and don't wait to download it as we never know when it may go offline.
Does this draft of Looper give you a deeper understanding of the story or a better understanding of the directorial choices Johnson decided to make? Let us know in the Comments.
Link: Looper Movie tumblr page
