"Batman Begins," directed by the award-winning Christopher Nolan ("Memento," "Insomnia"), unveils the untold origins of the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham City. In the wake of his parents' murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham City and unveils his alter ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect, and an array of high-tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city. 
As Bruce Wayne/Batman, Christian Bale heads an all-star cast that also includes Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer and Morgan Freeman. Visionary director Christopher Nolan has delivered the Batman we've been waiting for - a dark legend brought to life in a way never before imagined on the big screen. 
This volume contains the complete screenplay of "Batman Begins" by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, together with storyboards for the picture drawn by Martin Asbury and James Cornish, and an exclusive interview with Christopher Nolan in which he reveals his cinematic vision of The Dark Knight.

A TRIO OF TERRIFYING TALES FROM THAT LAND "OF SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE." Meet a little girl's doll who says charming things like, "My name is Talky Tina and I'm going to kill you."Say hello to Martin Senescu of Ferguson's Museum, where the wax figures of notorious murderers seem a little too real.And shake hands with movie star Pamela Morris, who gives new meaning to the phrase "eternally young." These classic scripts, two of which have never been published, are The Twilight Zone at its shivery best! WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHRISTOPHER CONLON AND AN AFTERWORD BY GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON

The Tony Award-winning drama deals with a psychiatrist's exploration of the psyche of a troubled seventeen-year-old boy who senselessly and systematically blinds six horses.

""Stuff happens . . . And it's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.""
Such was Donald Rumsfeld's response on April 11, 2003, following the infamous looting and pillaging of Baghdad. In David Hare's powerful new play chronicling the extraordinary process leading to the American invasion of Iraq, this statement provides entree into the melee of diplomacy, political power, and terrorist vendetta still making headlines around the world. Using direct quotes meticulously culled from interviews and public appearances, combined with the playwright's nuanced reimagining of what went on behind closed doors, Hare has fashioned a historical narrative and human drama that presents the Iraqi conflict in all of its
haphazard notoriety. "Stuff Happens" uses a uniquely evenhanded approach to a deeply contested invasion--seen from the perspective of international leaders and journalists, as well as Iraqi refugees--and raises a series of provocative questions regarding the most heartfelt and manipulative machinations of domestic and international politik.

From "The New York Trilogy" to" The Book of Illusions," Paul Auster's novels have earned him a reputation as "one of American's most spectacularly inventive writers." Here, published together for the first time, are the screenplays of the three films he made in the 1990s.
"Smoke "(starring Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker, and Stockard Channing) tells the story of a novelist, a cigar store manager, and a black teenager who unexpectedly cross paths and end up changing each other's lives in indelible ways.
Set in contemporary Brooklyn, "Smoke "directly inspired "Blue in the Face," a largely improvised comedy shot in a total of six days. A film unlike any other it stars Harvey Keitel, with featured performances by Roseanne, Lily Tomlin, Lou Reed, and Michael J. Fox.
"Lulu on the Bridge" (Auster's solo directorial debut, again starring Harvey Keitel, with Mira Sorvino, Willem Dafoe, and Vanessa Redgrave) opens with the accidental shooting of jazz musician Izzy Maurer during a performance in a New York club. Izzy is then led on a journey into the strange and sometimes frightening labyrinth of his soul. Both thriller and fairy tale, Lulu on the Bridge is above all a story about the redemptive powers of love.

The screenplay of Poliakoff's award-winning BBC drama about the forgotten son of King George V and Queen Mary The Lost Prince follows the life and times of Prince John, the forgotten youngest son of King George V and Queen Mary, who was born in 1905. Although remembered as a charming boy, he was diagnosed as epileptic and suffering from learning difficulties similar to autism and shut away at the age of twelve at the in Wood Farm near Sandringham to prevent the family from public embarrassment. He died there when he was just thirteen. Dramatising the historical facts, Poliakoff portrays with extraordinary sensitivity, a child's experience of the Royal Family in the late Edwardian period and during the First World War. Set against a backdrop of unprecedented upheaval in Britain, The Lost Prince tells the very human story of a unique family and an extraordinary boy. Published to tie in with the BBC's production, broadcast in two feature-length instalments in January 2003, The Lost Prince stars Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Gina McKee, Tom Hollander, John Sessions, Billy Nighy and Bibi Andersson.

Rapture is a vivid, timely new play that shines a revealing light on Australia's unsettled soul. It is set among smart and educated people - whose cynicism appears to answer all questions. They navigate a world of uncertainty with ease. What could possibly shock or unsettle them? Faith. When two of their number 'find God', the consequences are profound. Ethics and certainties are tested on the battleground of inexplicable belief. Long-term friendships are pushed to their limits as the faithless wrestle with the affront of moral judgement.

The First Time I Got Paid for It is a one-of-a-kind collection of essays by more than fifty leading film and television writers, with a foreword by screenwriting legend William Goldman. Linked by the theme of a writer's "first time",usually the first time he got paid for his work, but sometimes veering off into other, more unconventional, "first times",these always entertaining (and sometimes hilarious) pieces share what it takes to succeed, what it takes to write well, and other aspects of maintaining creativity and integrity while striving for a career in Hollywood. Richard LaGravanese ( The Fisher King , The Horse Whisperer , Living Out Loud ) confesses that his first paid writing job was crafting phone-sex scripts. Nicholas Kazan ( Reversal of Fortune , Matilda ) explains why, in Hollywood, an oral "yes" often turns out to be a written "no." Peter Casey writes about the unparalleled pitch meeting for the award-winning series Frasier . Virtually every big-name writer in Hollywood has contributed to this collection, making it essential research material for anyone trying to make it in the entertainment industry, and a perfect read for movie and television buffs everywhere.

"A Beautiful Mind, the intensely human drama of a true genius, is inspired by events in the life of mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. The handsome and highly eccentric Nash made an astonishing discovery early in life and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But his white-hot ascent into the intellectual stratosphere drastically changed course when Nash's intuitive brilliance was undermined by schizophrenia. Facing challenges that have destroyed many others, Nash fought back, with the help of his devoted wife Alicia. After decades of hardship, he triumphed over tragedy, and received the Nobel Prize in 1994. A living legend, Nash continues to pursue his work today." Directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer, this Universal and DreamWorks production stars Russell Crowe as John Nash. The screenplay of A Beautiful Mind was written by Akiva Goldsman and based in part on the biography of Sylvia Nasar. The cast also includes Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, and Judd Hirsch.

These four early works by the internationally lauded filmmaking team deal with the subject for which they are best known: corruption and crime in situations that combine the real and the surreal with the hilarious.

Blood Simple deals with a cuckolded Texan bar owner who hires a slimy private investigator to kill his unfaithful wife and her boyfriend, but this is merely the start of a grisly chain of back-stabbings and murders.

In Raising Arizona, oddly paired criminal H.I. McDonnough and police woman Edwina marry, only to discover they are unable to conceive a child. In the name of parenthood, the couple kidnap one of the quintuplets of furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona. While trying to keep their crime a secret, H.I's convict friends, his boss, and even the Lone Biker Of The Apocalypse look to use Nathan Jr. for their own purposes.

Miller's Crossing, set in the era of Prohibition, focuses on Tom Reagan, the trusted lieutenant of irish crime boos Leo, endeavours to keeps the peace when Leo gets locked into a feud with rival mobster Jonny Caspar.

This edition also includes Barton Fink—an intense look at the psychological ruin of a New York playwright trying to make it in 1940s Hollywood—which is a masterful culmination of these themes.

Three Aboriginal girls have been forcibly removed from their outback families in 1931 to be trained as domestic servants, as part of official government policy. They escape and begin a 1500-mile journey home using a rabbit-proof fence as a guide, with authorities chasing them all the way. Adapted fro m Doris Pilkington Garimara's book 'Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence', which is based on her mother's true story.

What did Basil Fawlty fail to avoid mentioning? Why did Sybil keep snagging her cardies? Where was Polly on the night of the great wedding anniversary disaster? And what is the Spanish word for "donkey"?The answer to all these questions can be found in this, the complete and unexpurgated scripts of Fawlty Towers ,the most celebrated "Brit-com" of all time, and the show was voted the top UK television series ever by the British Film Institute. The snobbish, manic Basil...his over-coiffeured, domineering wife Sybil...the hopeless but ever-hopeful waiter Manuel...the calm and capable Polly...and of course the steady stream of abused guests,all live again in the pages of The Complete Fawlty Towers. Gahan Wilson in the New York Times has called John Cleese "arguably one of the funniest people now living." And as one British periodical ( Literary Review ) put it, the book is "superbly well written. If you're on a bus and can't see Basil Fawlty thrashing his car with a large branch, it is some compensation to read it happening." Or as one anonymous fan put it on-line: "Yes, it's all here, all the comedy, the frustration, the dead body, even the rat."

The script of BBC's major 3-part drama for Spring 2001, starring Michael Gambon, Timothy Spall, Lyndsey Duncan and Toby Stephens If you take any family and get them together, and get them to stay up long enough, the stories will come tumbling out ...there are at least three great stories in any family...At an elaborately organised reunion, held in a grand London hotel, Raymond, his wife Esther and their son Daniel are slowly drawn into their ancestors' family tree. Meeting distant - and not so distant - relatives for the first time they begin to establish their positions within this eccentric and eclectic family. Helping them on their way, Stephen, the appointed 'pedigree-hunter' and archivist, unravels their entwined stories with the aid of his extraordinary collection of family photographs. In an attempt to pieces together and make sense of their forgotten or obscured personal histories, the past impacts on the present and they come face to face with the darkest of family secrets.

When The Life of Brian was first released in 1979 it was hailed by most as Monty Python's finest parody and denounced by a few as the most blasphemous film of all time. But, with its unforgettable songs and its infinitely quotable script it has gone on to become an enduring cult classic.

A series of three-hour-long linked plays for BBC2 plus two shorter plays Oswald and Marilyn, played by Timothy Spall and Lindsay Duncan, are the custodians of the collection of 10 million black and white photographs housed in a beautiful period building on the edge of London. Their peaceful old fashioned existence is threatened when some Americans buy the property to turn it into a business school. They have to use their resources and ingenuity to fight the forces of the modern world and as they do so their battle uncovers a mystery from the past, hidden away amongst the photos which has a dramatic effect on the lives of all those involved. "A meditation on the nature of photographic images, a celebration of old-world English eccentricity at threat in a world of high-technology glossiness, and a reminder that nothing in our heritage is sacred" (Sunday Times)

The most innovative and creative screenwriting book yet, from an author who knows first-hand what it takes to get a movie made.

Based on an award-winning website hailed as "smart enough for professional screenwriters and accessible enough for aspiring screenwriters", Crafty Screenwriting is the first book not only to offer a successful screenwriter's tricks of the trade, but to explain what development executives really mean when they complain that the "dialogue is flat," or "the hero isn't likeable." Fresh, provocative, and funny, Alex Epstein diagnoses problem that other screenwriting books barely address, and answers questions they rarely ask, like "Why is it sometimes dangerous to know your characters too well before you start writing," or "Why does your script have to be so much better than the awful pictures that get made every day?" As a development executive who has accepted and rejected countless screenplays, and a produced screenwriter himself, Epstein can take you into the heart of the most important question of all: "Is this a movie?" A crucial book for anyone who has ever wondered what it takes to get their movie made.

Adapted for the screen by the author from her enormously successful novel about Josie Alibrandi and her relationship with her friends and family in her last year at school. Includes stills from the film and an introduction from the author.

For the first time in English, and in his signature prose poetry, the film scripts of four of Werner Herzog's early works "Herzog doesn't write traditional scripts," Film International remarked of the master filmmaker's Scenarios I and II. "Instead, he writes scenarios which are like a hybrid of film, fiction, and prose poetry." Continuing a series that Publishers Weekly pronounced "compulsively readable . . . equal parts challenging and satisfying, infuriating and enlightening," Scenarios III presents, for the first time in English, the shape-shifting scripts for four of Werner Herzog's early films: Stroszek; Nosferatu, Phantom of the Night; Where the Green Ants Dream; and Cobra Verde. We can observe Herzog's working vision as each of these scenarios unfolds in a form often dramatically different from the film's final version-as, in his own words, Herzog works himself up into "this kind of frenzy of high-caliber language and concepts and beauty." With Scenarios I and II, this volume completes the picture of Herzog's earliest work, affording a view of the filmmaker mastering his craft, well on his way to becoming one of the most original, and most celebrated, artists in his field.

"Stalag 17" (1953), the riveting drama of a German prisoner-of-war camp, was adapted from the Broadway play directed by Jose Ferrer in 1951. Billy Wilder developed the play and made the film version more interesting in every way. Edwin Blum, a veteran screenwriter and friend of Wilder's, collaborated on the screenplay but found working with Wilder an agonizing experience.
Wilder's mordant humor and misanthropy percolate throughout this bitter story of egoism, class conflict, and betrayal. As in a well-constructed murder mystery, the incriminating evidence points to the wrong man. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction enriches the reading of "Stalag 17" by including comparisons with the Broadway production and the reasons for Wilder's changes.

The greatest love poetry in the English language provides the springboard for master playwrights' never-before-published works about the triumphs and tragedies of the heart.

The sonnets and plays in Loves' Fire are the seeds and fruit of an extraordinary project: seven sonnets by Shakespeare, newly envisioned for the stage, in one-act plays by seven brilliantly gifted contemporary playwrights.

Shakespeare's sonnets of romantic and sexual love are timeless, for they are not bound to any particular setting or to either sex. These seven plays, each paired with the sonnet that inspired it, are startling not only in the variety of their mood, content, and setting, but also in their unusual interpretation. For example, Wendy Wasserstein's version of Sonnet 94 is a one-act play set in the Hamptons, where a well-to-do couple is getting ready for a society benefit; Eric Bogosian creates a story of sexual jealousy and obsessiveness from Sonnet 118; and composer William Finn has transformed Sonnet 102 into a song about an artist attempting to paint his lover -- and failing.These seven new works, commissioned and produced by the Acting Company, will be performed in June. Brought together in this slender volume with the sonnets, they form a unique tribute to Shakespeare -- a rich and marvelously entertaining celebration of the modern playwrights' adoration of the Bard.

In this, the first anthology to focus exclusively on the lives of black South African women, the work of both emerging playwrights and national and international award-winners are represented. Plays by Maishe Maponya appear alongside the work of notable emerging writers, including Lueen Conning, Ismail Mahommed, Thulani Mtshali, Muthal Naidoo and Magi Williams. The collection consists of six full-length and four one-act plays as well as editorial introductions, interviews with the playwrights, photographers, artistic statements and production histories. Written during and after the apartheid era, the plays present a variety of approaches and theatrical styles, from solo performances to collective creations. An array of women's and men's voices are represented, dramatising diverse issues such as women's rights, racial identity, displacement from home, the struggle to keep families together, violence against women and education in the old and new South Africa.

Foreword by Jeremy Irons, preface by Adrian Lyne. Based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, Schiff tells the astounding story behind the most controversial movie of our time. 75 movie stills. "Like Nabokov's novel, it is an eloquent tragedy laced with wit and a serious, disturbing work of art..." - The New York Times