Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna rerun from the grave, and screenplays gonna be online for your consideration. We have recently posted links to screenplays available to download for your consideration from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Sony Pictures Classics and Lionsgate. Now, thanks to Fox Searchlight, we can read all of Hushpuppy's pearls of wisdom in the screenplay for Beasts of the Southern Wild, plus download (legally) screenplays for The Sessions, Hitchcock, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
To refresh your memory, take a trip to the Bathtub in this trailer for Beasts of the Southern Wild:
The Sessions continues to expand its platform release, adding more theatres across the U.S. this weekend:
Hitchcock opens in limited release in the U.S. on November 23 to join the awards race:
Finally, here's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, an exemplar of summer counterprogramming:
[UPDATE: After initially being taken offline, the links to the screenplays have been rediscovered. The links below have been updated to take you to the screenplays.]
To download a PDF of each of the screenplays from Fox Searchlight, click on the links below:
- Beasts of the Southern Wild, screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin, based on the stage play Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar
- The Sessions (formerly The Surrogate), written by Ben Lewin, based on a true story
- Hitchcock (formerly Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho), screenplay by John J. McLaughlin, based on the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello
- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, screenplay by Ol Parker, based on the book These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach
Three out of four of these scripts are adaptations from previous works, and the fourth is based on a true story, so each of these screenplays offer great examples of how to adapt existing material or shape a true story into a screenplay.
As always, please use these screenplays for your educational purposes only. Also, don't wait to download the PDFs as we never know when Fox Searchlight will make these links inactive.
Have you adapted existing material or a true story into a screenplay? Share your experiences with us in the Comments.
Link: Fox Searchlight Awards
Your Comment
14 Comments
Plenty of scripts at imSdb.com
November 15, 2012 at 7:59PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Thank you NFS!
November 15, 2012 at 11:32PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea. It was one of the very best films I saw there. Fantastic movie!
Does it being a consideration for awards disavow it from criticism? With that said, I would delete the first line of the script:
EXT. HUSHPUPPY’S HOUSE - DAWN
Instead, start with the next paragraph. My philosophy is to write the screenplay like the movie. So, delete that line and let the reader (like the audience) discover it is Hushpuppy's trailer.
Anyways, it's fun to read these scripts and nit-pick. Thanks for posting!
November 16, 2012 at 2:07AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
to answer the criticism of EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN is that you need the slug line. Writing like the movie is one thing, but writing a clear technical document that tells production what location we're in, what scene we are in, and geographically what is happening.
November 17, 2012 at 7:25AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Hi Christopher, maybe I'm dense or just too late, but I can't find anything off the link to download BOTSW?
November 17, 2012 at 3:33AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Hey Lliam, you're not dense. It looks like Fox Searchlight has taken down the script for Beasts - perhaps temporarily. I believe there was some contact info on the cover page that wasn't supposed to be on the public version of the screenplay (as Koo noticed).
November 17, 2012 at 6:53AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Looks like Fox Searchlight has temporarily taken all of these screenplays offline. On the awards page for each film, the "Download Script" button is now grayed out. Again, we never know when the screenplays will go offline.
November 17, 2012 at 7:00AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
The Sessions is an awesome film. Unexpectedly funny
November 17, 2012 at 2:34PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
There is a copy of the scripts still available on google cache, go for it fast.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pdf%20site%3Afoxsearchlight.com%2Fawards%2F
Yo have to use the preview option and save a copy on your google docs
November 18, 2012 at 12:19PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Thanks GG, much appreciated!
November 22, 2012 at 12:42PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Yeah, thanks!
November 23, 2012 at 6:59PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Rookie question here: When studios release screenplays like this, are they they original shooting scripts that the filmmakers worked from? Or have they been updated to reflect the scenes and dialog in the finished film? Like if an actor ad-libs a line or if a scene is cut will that get into the scripts we see here?
November 23, 2012 at 10:29AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I second that question.
December 16, 2012 at 3:41PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
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August 5, 2013 at 6:39AM, Edited September 4, 8:21AM