Yes, awards season has begun and it's not even Halloween yet (except at the movie theaters). To kick things off, we have a treat for you. Thanks to Paramount, the screenplay for A Quiet Place is now available to download for free for your consideration. As if you needed a refresher, here's the trailer.
Beyond the great yet simple premise of the necessity of silence for survival, A Quiet Place worked so well as a story because the film explored the breakdown of communication in a family, not just via the apocalypse they are experiencing. Blame, misunderstanding, anger, and ultimately love—all of these common family themes play a crucial role in the film, giving the story emotional depth that makes any potential loss of a character almost unbearable for the audience to watch. From a writing perspective, this screenplay is an excellent example of how limits (e.g. a nearly complete omission of spoken dialogue) forces writers to find new and creative ways to tell their story on the page.
Here is the link to the screenplay, courtesy of Paramount Pictures:
- A Quiet Place, screenplay by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski, story by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck
As always, please use this script for educational purposes only. Also, don't wait to download the script because we never know when the studio will take the screenplay off the internet.
For a great lesson in how a script changes on its way to production (and a fascinating look at a visual screenplay that writes its own rules), be sure to check out the spec screenplay for A Quiet Place that Woods & Beck originally sent out to buyers that caught the attention of John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and Platinum Dunes.
And if you're attending the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference this week, I'll be moderating a Script-to-Screen panel with Woods & Beck, taking an in-depth look at A Quiet Place, this Friday, Oct. 26.
