First Draft

First Draft: 15 Outside-the-Box Screenplays That Found Box Office Success

Published by

Ken Miyamoto

In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting.

While pundits will testify to the notion that novice screenwriters should write high concept screenplays that major movie studios and production companies would want to make—otherwise known as trend-chasing—it’s the innovative screenplays that really get a writer noticed.

Here we feature our top fifteen most successful innovative screenplays (in no particular order), complete with the actual scripts and brief insight as to why these scripts are so innovative.

It’s important to remember that we’re looking at successful screenplays. Yes, many more innovative screenplays have been produced, but we’re primarily focusing on those that actually had some success while standing out amongst the studio tentpoles and franchises.