'The Big Short' Screenplay Available For Your Consideration

Author Michael Lewis has a knack for writing non-fiction books about inscrutable or niche topics and making them understandable to the average reader. But he never suspected these books would become popular Hollywood movies.(Who would've thought when reading a book about baseball statistic geeks that it would turn into the excellent and extremely watchable film Moneyball?)

While reflecting on the current critical acclaim of the movie version of his book The Big Short in a recent article for Vanity Fair, Lewis writes,

One problem I distinctly did NOT worry about when I wrote The Big Short was how to write it so that it would become a movie. Who’d make a movie about credit-default swaps? Who for that matter would make a movie of any book of mine?

With the successes of The Blind Side, Moneyball, and now The Big Short, Hollywood won't stop making movies based on Michael Lewis' books. And now, thanks to Paramount Pictures, we can read the just released screenplay adaptation of The Big Short by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay.

First, here's the trailer:

Just the mere mention of credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations will make most people's eyelids heavy. (Are you even still awake to read the rest of this post?) McKay not only has his main characters break the fourth wall to explain things along the way, he uses clever visuals and unexpected cameos to feed the audience the information they need while also entertaining them. Maybe turning the complexities of the financial collapse and the outsiders who profited from it into an entertaining film isn't the biggest revelation of The Big Short. Maybe it's the fact that comedy writer/director Adam McKay should tackle more complex dramatic subject matters and bring his unique comedic sensibilities to make them extremely engaging movies.

Thanks to Paramount Pictures, here's the link to the screenplay:

• The Big Short, screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, based on the book by Michael Lewis

If you missed our earlier posts about screenplays available for free, legal download this awards season, check them out here. Titles include:

• Spotlight
• The Danish Girl
• Suffragette
• Concussion
• Trumbo
• I'll See You in My Dreams
• Pawn Sacrifice
• Danny Collins
• The Hateful Eight
• Brooklyn
• Youth
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
• Mistress America
• Far from the Madding Crowd
• Bridge of Spies
• Inside Out
• Carol
• Woman in Gold
• Macbeth
• Grandma
• The Diary of a Teenage Girl
• Infinitely Polar Bear
• The Lady in the Van
• Son of Saul
• Testament of Youth
• Truth
• Room
• Ex Machina
• The End of the Tour
• While We're Young
• Mississippi Grind
• Slow West
• Remember
• Straight Outta Compton
• Trainwreck
• Legend

As always, please use these screenplays for educational purposes only, and don't wait to download the scripts as we never know when the distributors will take them off the Internet.

We'll keep sharing the screenplays as they become available, so be sure to check back.

Source: Paramount Pictures Awards 2015