Most of us can name a lot of directors and their work. We can name some of the most outstanding directors of the past decade like Inarritu, Fincher, Scott, Gondry, Eastwood, Clooney, Aronofsky, Bier, Haneke, Jackson, Greengrass, Scorsese, etc. etc.  But screenwriters - without whom these films would not have been made - are often forgotten and remain anonymous. Sccreenplays are ofthen written by several people, so it might be hard to say who ‘masterminded’ it but when there’s a brilliant mind, we’ll know. We can recognise them from a body of work consisting of films that everyone has seen and enjoyed. So, I hereby invite everyone to share their thoughts on the most influential and outstanding screenwriters of the past decade.

I’d start with Charlie Kaufman whose truly original work has brought a flow of new exciting ideas and concepts on the movie screen. Films like Being John Malkovich (1999) where we’re taken to the 7/1/2th floor and get to go inside John Malkovich’s head; Adaptation (2002) where Kaufman named the character after himself and created himself a twin brother - Donald Kaufman, we witness the different levels of author-audience experience when we see a screenwriter adapting a book the contents of which is simultaneously visible to us turning into a wild ride with unimaginable consequences for the subject and the writer himself. In The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) we get to see what it’s like when you have your memory erased and you discover that you want to hold on to the dearest ones. It’s a roller-coaster ride through the mind, memories and subconsciousness constructed into an exciting structure and actually a simple story idea - the boys just wants the girl. We’ll be looking forward to seeing Kaufman’s directorial debut Synecdocke, New York next year.

Which screenwriters do you think deserve attention and why?

M.

This is really hard since so often writers get re-written.

William Goldman - Butch Cassidy, Princess Bride extends way beyond the decade

John Hughes - Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller also extends beyond the decade

Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott- Pirates, Shrek, etc. are definitely high profile

Zac Helm - Stranger than Fiction and Mr. Magorium’s wonder Emporium - he’s influential for me in that his stuff is really different

I also would include Kaufman as well as Quentin Tarrentino.

Robin Swicord Memoirs of a Geisha, Jane Austin Book Club I think is one of the best at adaptation

And Joss Whedon has a brilliance in genre writing.

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg - Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz

I could probably ramble on and on --- in learning more about writers—go to http://www.creativescreenwriting.com—there’s free podcasts you can download with some of the greatest writers of the last decade (a cheap out for me since it’s past my bedtime) - I’ll come back to this thread later.

Thanks for the Creative Screenwriting podcast tip! I subscribed to their newsletter a while ago but it stopped coming and I’ve forgotten about them. So, thanks!

Also Tony Gilroy (Bourne films) and Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive) are some awesome action writers.

Can’t forget TV - David Chase (creator, writer, director) and Terence Winter, Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green are some of my favourite writers of The Sopranos.

Most of us can name a lot of directors and their work. We can name some of the most outstanding directors of the past decade like Inarritu, Fincher, Scott, Gondry, Eastwood, Clooney, Aronofsky, Bier, Haneke, Jackson, Greengrass, Scorsese, etc. etc.  But screenwriters - without whom these films would not have been made - are often forgotten and remain anonymous. Sccreenplays are ofthen written by several people, so it might be hard to say who ‘masterminded’ it but when there’s a brilliant mind, we’ll know. We can recognise them from a body of work consisting of films that everyone has seen and enjoyed. So, I hereby invite everyone to share their thoughts on the most influential and outstanding screenwriters of the past decade.