After a shooting in London goes hideously wrong, two hitmen, Ray and Ken, are sent to hide out in the strange, Gothic, medieval town of Bruges, Belgium, by their volatile and dangerous boss, Harry Waters. While awaiting instructions from him as to what to do next, the pair attempt to deal both with their feelings over the botched killing and their differing attitudes towards this curious, otherworldly place they've been dumped in ('Bruges is a shithole.' 'Bruges is not a shithole'), until the call from Harry finally comes through, and all three men are enmeshed in a spiral of bloody violence that few will get out of alive. This jet-black comedy marks the feature-film debut of writer/director Martin McDonagh, award-winning author of such plays as The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman, and the film Six Shooter, which won the Academy Award for the Best Live-Action Short Film. The film stars Colin Farrell as Ray, Brendan Gleeson as Ken, and Ralph Fiennes as Harry. In Bruges was the opening night film at the Sundance Film Festival.

Examining the centrality of dialogue to American independent cinema, Jennifer O'Meara argues that it is impossible to separate small budgets from the old adage that 'talk is cheap'. Focusing on the 1980s until the present, particularly on the films by writer-directors like Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach and Richard Linklater, this book demonstrates dialogue's ability to engage audiences and bind together the narrative, aesthetic and performative elements of selected cinema. Questioning the association of dialogue-centred films with the 'literary' and the 'un-cinematic', O'Meara highlights how speech in independent cinema can instead hinge on what is termed 'cinematic verbalism' when dialogue is designed and executed in complex, medium-specific ways.

Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
From the Obie Award-winning author of "Quills" comes this acclaimed one-man show, which explores the astonishing true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. A transvestite and celebrated antiques dealer who successfully navigated the two most oppressive regimes of the past century-the Nazis and the Communists--while openly gay and defiantly in drag, von Mahlsdorf was both hailed as a cultural hero and accused of colluding with the Stasi. In an attempt to discern the truth about Charlotte, Doug Wright has written "at once a vivid portrait of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century, a morally complex tale about what it can take to be a survivor, and an intriguing meditation on everything from the obsession with collecting to the passage of time" (Hedy Weiss, "Chicago Sun-Times").

Christopher Nolan's previous films have reflected the uncertainties of the twentieth-first century. With Dunkirk, Nolan has gone back into the past and brought to life one of the momentous events of the twentieth-century - the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, telling the tale by land, sea, and sky. Dunkirk opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea, they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in. The film features a prestigious cast, including Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, and newcomer Fionn Whitehead, with Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy. The screenplay is accompanied by a conversation about the film between Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, as well as selected storyboards.

This collection includes the complete screenplays of The Princess Bride, Misery, The Marathon Man and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid along with introductory essays to each screenplay by William Goldman.

'The finest writing in the land. Limitless, joyous and terrifying' - RUSSELL T. DAVIES Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's darkly comedic creations are an endlessly dazzling masterclass in storytelling. Inside No. 9: The Scripts features every episode from Series 4-6 of the award-winning BBC2 anthology, including the live Halloween special and an original foreword for each series from the show's creators. 'One of the best pieces of British television in years' - INDEPENDENT

Aimed at students and educators across all levels of Higher Education, this agenda-setting book defines what screen production research is and looks like-and by doing so celebrates creative practice as an important pursuit in the contemporary academic landscape. Drawing on the work of international experts as well as case studies from a range of forms and genres-including screenwriting, fiction filmmaking, documentary production and mobile media practice-the book is an essential guide for those interested in the rich relationship between theory and practice. It provides theories, models, tools and best practice examples that students and researchers can follow and expand upon in their own screen production projects.

Chinatown, generally regarded as the Great American Screenplay, follows a seedy private investigator, Jake Gittes, as he becomes involved in a case far more complicated than he ever imagined. Instead of adultery and divorce, he uncovers a conspiracy reaching to the economic foundations of Los Angeles. Set in the 1930s, the film was directed by Roman Polanski and stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston.

Best known as one of the leading Irish poets of her generation, Paula Meehan is also an accomplished and much-admired playwright, and her stage work has been performed by, among others, Team Theatre Company, Rough Magic, Calypso Theatre Company and The National Theatre Company at the Peacock. As well as her work for stage, in recent years she has also written for radio, a medium which provides particular scope for the oral and sonic qualities so often admired in her writing. Music for Dogs presents, for the first time in print, a selection of that work for radio from a poet of "perfect pitch" (Midwest Book Review). Janey Mack is Going to Die, The Lover and Threehander were all written for and first performed on RT Radio 1.

From concept to finished draft–a nuts-and-bolts approach to adaptations

Aspiring and established screenwriters everywhere, take note! This down-to-earth guide is the first to clearly articulate the craft of adaptation. Drawing on his own experience and on fourteen years of teaching, screenwriter Richard Krevolin presents his proven five-step process for adapting anything–from novels and short stories to newspaper articles and poems–into a screenplay. Used by thousands of novelists, playwrights, poets, and journalists around the country, this can’t-miss process features practical advice on how to break down a story into its essential components, as well as utilizes case studies of successful adaptations. Krevolin also provides an insider’s view of working and surviving within the Hollywood system–covering the legal issues, interviewing studio insiders on what they are looking for, and offering tips from established screenwriters who specialize in adaptations.

• Outlines a series of stages that help you structure your story to fit the needs of a 120-page screenplay
• Explains how to adapt anything for Hollywood, from a single sentence story idea all the way to a thousand-page novel
• Advises on the tricky subject of just how faithful your adaptation should be
• Features helpful hints from Hollywood bigwigs–award-winning television writer Larry Brody; screenwriter and script reader Henry Jones; screenwriter and author Robin Russin; screenwriter and author Simon Rose; and more

In this film, a down-on-his-heels puppeteer working as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a New York City office building discovers a secret portal leading directly into the consciousness of actor John Malkovich. Deeply hilarious, dramatically compelling, and deliciously off-beat, Being John Malkovich was perhaps the most unique American movie of the 1990s. It drew countless rave reviews—especially for its jubilantly inventive script, the remarkable debut of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.

Star Wars exploded onto our cinema screens in 1977, and the world has not been the same since. After watching depressing and cynical movies throughout the early 1970s, audiences enthusiastically embraced the positive energy of the Star Wars universe as they followed moisture farmer Luke Skywalker on his journey through a galaxy far, far away, meeting extraordinary characters like mysterious hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi, space pirates Han Solo and Chewbacca, loyal droids C-3PO and R2-D2, bold Princess Leia and the horrific Darth Vader, servant of the dark, malevolent Emperor. Writer, director, and producer George Lucas created the modern monomyth of our time, one that resonates with the child in us all. He formed Industrial Light & Magic to develop cutting-edge special effects technology, which he combined with innovative editing techniques and a heightened sense of sound to give audiences a unique sensory cinematic experience. In this first volume, made with the full cooperation of Lucasfilm, Lucas narrates his own story, taking us through the making of the original trilogy-Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi-and bringing fresh insights into the creation of a unique universe. Complete with script pages, production documents, concept art, storyboards, on-set photography, stills, and posters, the XXL-sized tome is an authoritative exploration of the original saga as told by its creator.