Summer Blockbusters
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Clockwise from top: Back to the Future; Grease; Who Framed Roger Rabbit C OURTESY : U NIVERSAL H OME E NTERTAINMENT ; P ARAMOUNT H OME E NTERTAINMENT ; B UENA V ISTA H OME E NTERTAINMENT 86 Script magazine WWW.SCRIPTMAG.COM BY RAY MO R TON L e g e n d s o f Screenwriting Legendary Summer Blockbusters Since this issue of Script is all about the blockbuster, we thought it might be fun to take a look back at the biggest hits of summers past and the writers who penned them. The summer season (which from the pre-air-conditioning era on had always been considered a slow period) became a key time for movies starting in the mid-1970s. n the wake of the successes of Jaws and Star polish from his American Graffiti collaborators 1982 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: Director Wars, the weeks between Memorial Day Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck. Steven Spielberg asked screenwriter Melissa and Labor Day proved they could be 1978 Grease: Producer Allan Carr adapted Mathison (The Black Stallion) on a character lucrative ones indeed. Since then, studios Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s book for their from an unproduced script called Night Skies Ihave commissioned writers to create screen- 1971 stage musical (changing the location that John Sayles had written for Spielberg as plays (often in the sci-fi or fantasy genres) from Chicago to Los Angeles and the national- a follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third for films that have the potential to empty the ity of the female lead from American to Austra- Kind. Although Spielberg eventually decided beaches, fill the coffers, and possibly even lian to accommodate star Olivia Newton-John, that the story—about a group of hostile aliens become worldwide cultural phenomenons— among other things) and then hired Bronte that take a farm family hostage—was too and writers have complied at an astoundingly Woodard to write the script. grim, he became enamored of a subplot in successful rate. Since Jaws is considered the 1979 Rocky II: Screenwriter/director/star which one of the aliens (the only nice one) first real summer blockbuster, we’ll start back Sylvester Stallone based the story of how the befriended a young boy and decided to make in 1975 and find out who wrote the highest- Italian Stallion coped with the ups and downs it into a movie all its own. grossing films (in the U.S. and Canada) of of fame and fortune in the aftermath of his 1983 Return of the Jedi: George Lucas the past 32 summers. bout with Apollo Creed on his own experiences devised the story for the final chapter of his 1975 Jaws: Peter Benchley adapted his following the success of the original Rocky. original trilogy, which he and Lawrence Kas- 1974 novel into a screenplay that was then 1980 The Empire Strikes Back: George dan then turned into a screenplay. reworked by an uncredited Howard Sackler Lucas wrote the story for the second (and 1984 Ghost Busters: Saturday Night Live and a credited Carl Gottlieb. Hal Barwood what many consider the best) Star Wars epi- alumnus Dan Aykroyd created the famous & Matthew Robbins, John Milius, Robert sode, which was then turned into a screenplay team of paranormal eliminators in a 300-page Shaw, Steven Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss, and by veteran screenwriter Leigh Brackett (The epic that sent the team on adventures through Roy Scheider (who improvised the classic line Big Sleep) and newcomer Lawrence Kasdan. space, time, and a number of alternative “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”) also made 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark: George dimensions. Harold Ramis (Animal House) significant (if uncredited) contributions. Lucas (that name does seem to pop up a lot, came on board to help Aykroyd streamline the 1976 The Omen: The saga of the adopted doesn’t it?) dreamed up the character of Indi- concept and turn it into a producible comedy, child from (literally) hell, Damien Thorne, ana Jones, and the film’s original director Philip and star Bill Murray contributed a number of began as a spec script called The Antichrist Kaufman contributed the idea that the notori- priceless ad libs during filming. written by David Seltzer (Willy Wonka & the ous obtainer of rare antiquities should go on a 1985 Back to the Future: Robert Zemeckis Chocolate Factory), who also turned it into a quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant. After and Bob Gale’s original first draft of the comic best-selling novel. lengthy story conferences with Lucas and new time-travel adventure was subtitled “I Was a 1977 Star Wars: It took George Lucas director Steven Spielberg (another name that Teenage Oedipus.” Executive producer Steven three years and countless drafts to craft the pops up a lot on this list), during which many Spielberg contributed a number of key ideas, workable script for his landmark space opera, of the film’s legendary set-pieces were dreamed including the notion that the time machine which later received an uncredited dialogue up, Lawrence Kasdan penned the screenplay. (a stationary object in the original) should be MAY JUNE 2 0 0 8 Script magazine 87 L e g e n d s o f Screenwriting Beverly Hills Cop II they accomplished in just a few short weeks of 2000 Mission: Impossible II: Numerous near around-the-clock writing. writers, including William Goldman, worked 1992 Batman Returns: Sam Hamm wrote on various versions of this second big-screen the first draft of this sequel, which featured a iteration of Bruce Geller’s classic TV series. relatively straightforward story in which the The final version was credited to Ronald D. Penguin and Catwoman teamed up to commit Moore and Brannon Braga (story), and China- a series of robberies. Heathers author Daniel town author Robert Towne (screenplay). Waters came on board to turn the piece into 2001 Shrek: Screenwriters Ted Elliott & something more appropriately bizarre and Terry Rossio and Joe Stillman and Roger Burton-esque. Wesley Strick (Cape Fear) did S.H. Schulman adapted William Steig’s clas- a production rewrite. sic children’s book for the big screen. Cody C OURTESY : P ARAMOUNT H OME E NTERTAINMENT 1993 Jurassic Park: Michael Crichton Cameron, Chris Miller, and Conrad Vernon wrote the initial drafts of this adaptation of received credit for additional dialogue. housed in a DeLorean. his 1990 novel. Malia Scotch Marmo (Once 2002 Spider-Man: A large number of writ- 1986 Top Gun: Jim Cash and Jack Epps Around) did some work on the characters, and ers labored to bring the comic-book character Jr. adapted Ehud Yonay’s California magazine David Koepp did the final production drafts. created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko to cin- article “Top Guns” into a screenplay that was 1994 The Lion King: Irene Mecchi, ematic life over a protracted 16-year develop- then reworked by a number of other writers. Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton ment process. The final version began with a Warren Skaaren (Fire With Fire) did the final were credited with writing the screenplay for detailed “scriptment” by an uncredited James production draft. Disney’s animated musical smash, although an Cameron, which was then adapted by David 1987 Beverly Hills Cop II: Star Eddie Mur- astounding 17 other writers were credited with Koepp. Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls) and phy and his then-manager Robert D. Wachs helping to devise the story and eight more Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People) did uncredited devised the story for this follow-up to the were given “additional story material” credit. rewrites as well. 1984 action-comedy smash, which was then 1995 Batman Forever: Smoke & Mirrors 2003 Finding Nemo: Co-director Andrew turned into a screenplay by Larry Ferguson authors Lee Batchler & Janet Scott Batchler Stanton devised the story for this animated (Highlander) and Warren Skaaren. David Giler devised the story for the Caped Crusader’s underwater classic and also wrote the screenplay (The Parallax View), Dennis Klein (Buffalo third adventure, which featured the Riddler as along with Bob Peterson and David Reynolds. Bill), and Chris Thompson (Bosom Buddies) the script’s sole villain. When Joel Schumacher 2004 Shrek 2: The story for the big green also contributed. replaced Tim Burton at the helm, he brought ogre with a Scottish burr’s second feature out- 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Jeffrey in Akiva Goldsman (The Client) to add Two- ing was devised by director Andrew Adamson, Price and Peter S. Seaman (Trenchcoat) based Face to the baddie roster and to camp the who then wrote the screenplay along with Joe their script for this groundbreaking combina- whole thing up. Stillman, J. David Stem, and David N. Weiss. tion of live action and animation on Gary K. 1996 Independence Day: This affectionate 2005 Revenge of the Sith: In his last ap- Wolf’s 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? pastiche of 50s’ alien-invasion films, 70s’ sci-fi, pearance (to date, anyway) on our list, George 1989 Batman: In consultation with direc- and 80s’ and 90s’ action movies was written Lucas wrote the final installment of his epic tor Tim Burton, Pulitzer Prize screenwriter by its producer Dean Devlin and its director saga and then (allegedly) brought Tony® Award- Sam Hamm brought the legendary comic- Roland Emmerich. winning playwright Tom Stoppard (The Real book character created by Bob Kane and Bill 1997 Men in Black: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Thing) in to do a final dialogue polish. Finger to cinematic life in a brooding, action- Adventure co-writer Ed Solomon adapted 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead packed screenplay that was then reworked by Lowell Cunningham’s graphic-novel series into Man’s Chest: Shrek vets Ted Elliott & Terry a credited Warren Skaaren and an uncredited a script that was lauded as much for its wit as Rossio expanded the story they created (along Charles McKeown (Brazil).