Research Guides: COM 244 Script and Screenwriting: Books & Ebooks (primary and secondary sources)

In-Class Activity

Share select answers from your in-class research with everyone by posting in the class Google Sheet.

High Library Catalog

WorldCat - To search for materials you can order via ILLiad

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The WorldCat database contains more than 90 million records describing items owned by libraries around the world. Includes records for books, videos, journals, microfiche, websites, and much more. Access the old WorldCat (FirstSearch) interface here.

Searching for Screenplays

Our library has a limited number of screenplays available in either print or as ebooks that you can find most easily by searching the library catalog. As you might note from the examples in the box below this one, screenplays can be searched by using the film title and the screenplay writer (which will often be different from the name of the director).

If you don't find the screenplay you are interested in using from our library catalog or QuickSearch, then you might try to use WorldCat next. Just be sure to use Advanced Search to specify the Format as Book. Otherwise, you are likely to pull up DVD copies of the film itself. If you find a library that has a copy of the screenplay through WorldCat, you can use a link to ILLiad in WorldCat to request the item via ILLiad (interlibrary loan).

You may also try to find unofficial copies of the screenplay from online sources. Please note that the quality and accuracy of free online copies of screenplays will vary greatly and will not be as reliable as an officially published screenplay. For instance, you might find early drafts (i.e. not the final version of the screenplay that was used in the film). So be careful when you are using scripts found for free online.

For some examples of online websites that provide free screenplays, go to the Internet Resources page.

Example Officially Published Screenplays (Primary Sources)

Barbie (screenplay) by Greta Gerwig; Noah Baumbach
Call Number: PN1997.2.B367 G47 2023
ISBN: 9780571390137
Publication Date: 2023-12-19
"Anarchically hilarious and unexpectedly emotional, Barbie is a magical cinematic confection of absurdity, heart, and Technicolor musicals. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have created a deeply personal and idiosyncratic film from the polarizing icon that is the doll Barbie" - from the publisher.
The Citizen Kane book : Raising Kane and the Shooting Script by Herman Mankiewicz & Orson Wells
Call Number: PN1997 .C5117 1971
ISBN: 9780436230301
Publication Date: 1971
Contains the shooting script to Citizen Kane by Herman Mankiewicz & Orson Wells with notes on the shooting script by Pauline Kael. Illustrated with 81 frames from the film & the cutting continuity of the completed film. The classic film follows the tragic life of newspaper titan, Charles Foster Kane, a character loosely based upon the newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst. It is considered Orson Welles' masterpiece and is one of the most critically acclaimed films in cinema history.
Lincoln: The Screenplay by Tony Kushner
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781559364539
Publication Date: 2013-02-05
A decade-long collaboration between three-time Academy Award® winner Steven Spielberg and Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, Lincoln is a revealing drama that focuses on the 16th President's tumultuous final months in office. Having just won re-election in a country divided, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of America, and generations, to come. The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln.
Manchester by the Sea by Kenneth Lonergan
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781468316612
Publication Date: 2021-03-09
Kenneth Lonergan's Academy Award and BAFTA–winning screenplay for the acclaimed film Manchester by the Sea (2016) is a staggering achievement and an emotionally devastating meditation on grief that stars Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams.
My Beautiful Laundrette by Hanif. Kureishi
Call Number: PN1997 .M887 1986
ISBN: 9780571202546
Publication Date: 2000-09-01
Omar is a restless young Asian man, caring for his alcoholic father in the hustling London of the mid-1980s. His uncle, a keen Thatcherite, offers Omar an entrepreneurial opportunity to revamp a dingy laundrette, and ambitious Omar rolls up his sleeves, enlisting the assistance of his old school-friend Johnny, who has since fallen in with a gang of neo-fascists. Omar and Johnny soon form an unlikely alliance that leads to business success, as well as other, more intimate surprises. The film starred Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis.
My Old Lady: Complete Stage Play and Screenplay by Israel Horovitz
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781941110379
Publication Date: 2016-03-29
The book includes the full script of both the play version and screenplay of My Old Lady, along with an in-depth analysis by Horovitz of the challenges of adapting the written language of a play to the visual language of the screen.
Oppenheimer (screenplay) by Christopher Nolan
Call Number: PN1997.2 .O624 2023
ISBN: 9780571381319
Publication Date: 2023-08-01
"'The award-winning film 'Oppenheimer' centers on the life of the 'father of the atomic bomb,' theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book 'American Prometheus' by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film stars Cillian Murphy as the man who led the effort, in the midst of a world war, to unleash the power of the atom." - from the publisher
When Harry Met Sally... by Nora Ephron
Call Number: PN 1997.W466 1990
ISBN: 9780679729037
Publication Date: 1990-02-24
The screenplay of the classic, will-they-won't-they romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally (1990) that starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

Examples of Books Analyzing Films (Secondary Sources)

Constructing Dialogue: Screenwriting From Citizen Kane to Midnight in Paris by Mark Axelrod
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781441108517
Publication Date: 2014-01-02
Unlike most screenwriting guides that generally analyze several aspects of screenwriting, Constructing Dialogue is devoted to a more analytical treatment of certain individual scenes and how those scenes were constructed to be the most highly dramatic vis á vis their dialogue. Screenplays analyzed include Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Lolita, Goldfinger, The Graduate, and When Harry Met Sally.
Lolita Between Adaptation and Interpretation: From Nabokov's Novel and Screenplay to Kubrick's Film by ,ska, Anna PiliÅ
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781443880497
Publication Date: 2015-10-15
This book offers a comparative analysis of three versions of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita: namely, the original novel (1955), the script written by the novelist himself and published as Lolita: A Screenplay (1974), and Stanley Kubrick's film based on Lolita's storyline (1962).
Closely Watched Films : An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique by Marilyn Fabe
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9780520279971
Publication Date: 2014-10-14
How do films work? How do they tell a story? How do they move us and make us think? Through detailed examinations of passages from classic films, Marilyn Fabe supplies the analytic tools and background in film history and theory to enable us to see more in every film we watch. Example chapters that focus on particular films include Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, and James Cameron's Avatar.