This is a comprehensive guide to writing the first draft of a feature length screenplay. While it focuses on the college semester (16 Weeks), it is also completely appropriate for anyone attempting to write a screenplay within a timeline. The text breaks down different approaches to designing a screenplay by providing pragmatic guidelines enhancing your ability to use creativity rather than focusing on rules. It highlights the skills necessary to execute compelling visual language to achieve good story, plot, dialog, dynamic characters, and help you put it all together. Think of this as a companion tool as you write. The language is simplified and yet academic, theoretically sound and yet pragmatic. It also offers additional insight into the history of screenwriting, the re-write process, and the specific skill sets needed for adaptation. This book is easy to understand and provides accounts for context from the author as a professional screenwriter, as well as anecdotes from other professionals (David Mickey Evans - The Sand Lot, and Vince McKewin - Fly Away Home, and Jeb Stuart - Die Hard, The Fugitive, Dana Coen - JAG, NCIS, and Anthony Tambakis - Warrior, Suicide Squad 2).

The most popular series of movies in the history of cinema, the Star Wars trilogy altered forever our notion of what the movies could do. Return of the Jedi is the trilogy's concluding section. With its myriad peculiar creatures, it seems, at first, to be a lighter film than the others. However, as its subtle narrative unfolds, it becomes apparent that the centre of the trilogy is not Luke Skywalker but Darth Vader, and it is his redemption that forms the culmination of this epic story. The power of this conclusion excites curiosity about how someone who began so idealistically could have turned to the dark side of the Force - the story of which will be revealed in the next three instalments to the Star Wars saga . . .

It is a near-future world, and in many ways London is the same bustling metropolis it has been for centuries; but look a little closer and Viral Inspectors roam public places delivering fines and forced immunisation against Avian Flu, and an organisation called the Genetic Protection Authority has been established with unnerving oversight. It is the role of the GPA to oversee the genetic future of mankind: a noble mission to protect humanity from the worst genetic diseases and impairments, but one that seems increasingly liable to abuse, using its vague definitions of eradicating anything more than 'three standard variations from the human norm'. When Sandra Small becomes pregnant with a child that has the same strain of achondroplasia dwarfism as her husband, Ivan Henry, an ugly domestic dispute escalates to a legal battle with the GPA and the High Court. What could have been a marital issue becomes a challenge to the GPA's authority and jurisdiction, in a test case that could set an alarming precedent for the whole country, redefining the very definition of what is, and isn't, human. The stakes for Ivan, dwarfs, and anyone else with a genetic condition, become increasingly larger threatening to engulf London and beyond. This ambitious and provocative script is a faithful recreation of Ross Martyn's original vision, looking at ethics, science, and society; a story of how small actions can lead to catastrophic consequences.

"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.