With Christmas fast approaching, I’m seeing links to downloadable film screenplays shared as if they were gifts. In reality, they perpetuate a misunderstanding about what a screenplay actually is and how a film is made. The screenplays you find online are almost never the pre-shooting drafts. Most of them are revised versions produced after the

Star Wars, E.T., Titanic, The Intouchables, Avatar,… all were expected to flop, or at best draw a modest audience. And yet! Megalopolis, Waterworld and The Marvels were all destined for triumph. And yet! And Fight Club, Blade Runner and The Big Lebowski needed time to find their audience, and success. So obviously, you can’t ;) Cinema is an industry of prototypes. You can’t