Lane Library and the Media Arts and Technology Dept. present...a collection of original film screenplays
LCC Library has acquired a unique set of original movie screenplays, from the collection of a local voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Each screenplay comes with a matching dvd of the movie. The dvds and screenplays can be borrowed separately, or as a set - a perfect way to examine how the movie transforms from page to screen. These screenplays represent some of the best movies of the last 15 years, and we hope to expand this unique collection even further in the future.
New - Most screenplays check out for 4 weeks!
For further information about the movie, click on the Internet Movie Database logo: 
Screenplays and information about screenplay writing
About A Boy
Screenplay by Peter Hedges and Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz
Will: The thing is, a person's life is like a TV show. I was the star of The Will Show. And The WillShow wasn't an ensemble drama. Guests came and went, but I was the regular. It came down tome and me alone. If Marcus' mum couldn't manage her own show, if her ratings were falling, it wassad, but that was her problem. Ultimately, the whole single mum plotline was a bit complicated for me.
Adaptation
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman: The script I'm starting, it's about flowers. No one's ever done a movie about flowers before. So there are no guidelines...
Donald Kaufman: What about "Flowers for Algernon"?
Charlie Kaufman: Well, that's not about flowers. And it's not a movie.
Donald Kaufman: Ok, I'm sorry, I never saw it.
Alabama Dreaming
Screenplay by David W. Rintels
Almost Famous
Screenplay by Cameron Crowe
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Lester Bangs: So, you're the one who's been sending me those articles from your school newspaper.
William Miller: I've been doing some stuff for a local underground paper, too.
Lester Bangs: What, are you like the star of your school?
William Miller: They hate me.
Lester Bangs: You'll meet them all again on their long journey to the middle.
American Beauty
Screenplay by Alan Ball
Lester Burnham: [narrating] I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.
American Splendor
Screenplay by Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman
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Real Harvey: [the real Harvey Pekar introduces his on-screen character] OK. This guy here, he's our man, all grown up and going nowhere. Although he's a pretty scholarly cat, he never got much of a formal education. For the most part, he's lived in s**t neighborhoods, held s**t jobs, and he's now knee-deep into a disastrous second marriage. So, if you're the kind of person looking for romance or escapism or some fantasy figure to save the day... guess what? You've got the wrong movie
An Unfinished Life
Screenplay by Mark Spragg and Virginia Korus Spragg
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Einar Gilkyson: You think the dead really care about our lives?
Mitch Bradley: Yeah, I think they do. I think they forgive us our sins. I even think it's easy for them.
Einar Gilkyson: Griff said you had a dream about flying.
Mitch Bradley: Yeah. I got so high, Einar, I could see where the blue turns black. From up there, you could see all there is. And it looked like there was a reason for everything.
Being John Malkovich
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman
Craig Schwartz: There's a tiny door in that empty office. It's a portal, Maxine. It takes you inside John Malkovich. You see the world through John Malkovich's eyes, then, after about fifteen minutes, you're spit out into a ditch on the side of The New Jersey Turnpike.
Maxine: Sounds delightful. Who the **** is John Malkovich?
Craig Schwartz: He's an actor. One of the great American actors of the 20th century.
Maxine: What's he been in?
Craig Schwartz: Lots of things. He's very well respected. That jewel thief movie, for example. The point is that this is a very odd thing, supernatural, for lack of a better word. It raises all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of self, about the existence of the soul. Am I me? Is Malkovich Malkovich? Was the Buddha right, is duality an illusion? Do you see what a can of worms this portal is? I don't think I can go on living my life as I have lived it. There's only one thing to do. Let's get married right away.
A Beautiful Mind
Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman
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Nash: Alicia, does our relationship warrant long-term commitment? I need some kind of proof, some kind of verifiable, empirical data.
Alicia: I'm sorry, just give me a moment to redefine my girlish notions of romance.
Billy Elliot
Screenplay by Lee Hall
Tutor 1: What does it feel like when you're dancing?
Billy: Don't know. Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going... then I like, forget everything. And... sorta disappear. Sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body. And I've got this fire in my body. I'm just there. Flyin' like a bird. Like electricity. Yeah, like electricity.
Chocolat
Screenplay by Robert Nelson Jacobs
Luc Clairmont: [at confession] Each time I tell myself it's the last time but then I get a whiff of a hot chocolate...
Madame Audel: Chocolate seashells, so small, so innocent. I thought it wouldn't do any harm just to taste but it turns out they were filled with rich, creamy...
Yvette Marceau: And, God forgive me, it melts ever so slowly on your tongue and tortures you with pleasure...
The Cider House Rules
Screenplay by John Irving
Fuzzy: Is your father dead?
Dr. Wilbur Larch: Cirrhosis. It's a disease of the liver.
Fuzzy: What, a liver killed him?
Dr. Wilbur Larch: No, alcohol killed him. He drank himself to death.
Fuzzy: But did you know him?
Dr. Wilbur Larch: Barely. But it hardly mattered that I knew him.
Fuzzy: Did you know your mother better?
Dr. Wilbur Larch: Mm-hmm. She's dead now too. She was a nanny.
Fuzzy: What's a nanny do?
Dr. Wilbur Larch: She looks after other people's children.
Fuzzy: Did she grow up around here?
Dr. Wilbur Larch: No. She was an immigrant.
Fuzzy: What's an immigrant?
Dr. Wilbur Larch: Someone not from Maine.
City of God
Screenplay by Braulio Mantovani
Sandro Cenoura: Have you lost your mind? You are just a child!
Filé-com-Fritas - Steak and Fries: Listen man, I smoke, I snort... I've been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I've cleaned windshields at stop lights. I've polished shoes, I've robbed, I've killed... I ain't no kid, no way. I'm a real man
Dirty Pretty Things
Screenplay by Steve Knight
Guo Yi: You know, Okwe, good at chess usually means bad at life. You do realize that she's in love with you, don't you? I've been with her 20 minutes, and I know it. But then, I'm bad at chess...
Election
Screenplay by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
Tammy Metzler: [her campaign speech] Who cares about this stupid election? We all know it doesn't matter who gets elected president of Carver. Do you really think it's going to change anything around here; make one single person smarter or happier or nicer? The only person it does matter to is the one who gets elected. The same pathetic charade happens every year, and everyone makes the same pathetic promises just so they can put it on their transcripts to get into college. So vote for me, because I don't even want to go to college, and I don't care, and as president I won't do anything. The only promise I will make is that if elected I will immediately dismantle the student government, so that none of us will ever have to sit through one of these stupid assemblies again!
[Student body erupts in huge cheers]
Tammy Metzler: Or don't vote for me... who cares? Don't vote at all!
[more cheers]
The English Patient
Screenplay by Anthony Minghella
Katharine Clifton: My darling. I'm waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone, and I'm horribly cold. I really should drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we've entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we've hidden in - like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. Where the real countries are. Not boundaries drawn on map swith the names of powerful men. I know you'll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends, on an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness.
Erin Brockovich
Screenplay by Susannah Grant
George: How many numbers you got?
Erin Brockovich: Oh, I got numbers comin' outta my ears. For instance: ten.
George: Ten?
Erin Brockovich: Yeah. That's how many months old my baby girl is.
George: You got a little girl?
Erin Brockovich: Yeah. Yeah, sexy, huh? How 'bout this for a number? Six. That's how old my other daughter is, eight is the age of my son, two is how many times I've been married - and divorced; sixteen is the number of dollars I have in my bank account. 850-3943. That's my phone number, and with all the numbers I gave you, I'm guessing zero is the number of times you're gonna call it.
Far From Heaven
Screenplay by Todd Haynes
Cathy Whitaker: That was the day I stopped believing in the wild ardor of things. Perhaps in love, as well. That kind of love. The love in books and films. The love that tells us to abandon our lives and plans, all for one brief touch of Venus. So often we fail at that kind of love. The world just seems too fragile a place for it. And of every other kind, life remains full. Perhaps it's just we who are too fragile.
Gods and Monsters
Screenplay by Bill Condon
James Whale: Hatred was the only thing that kept my soul alive. And amongst the men I hated... was my dear old dumb father, who put me in that hell in the first place.
Good Will Hunting
Screenplay by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
Will: Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll give it a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a problem with get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Send in the marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number was called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some guy from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes home to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddy from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish to scare up oil prices so they could turn a quick buck. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And naturally they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what do I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job and give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.
The Green Mile
Screenplay by Frank Darabont
Paul Edgecomb: On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That is was my job? My job?
John Coffey: You tell God the Father it was a kindness you done. I know you hurtin' and worryin', I can feel it on you, but you oughta quit on it now. Because I want it over and done. I do. I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we's coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time. Can you understand?
Paul Edgecomb: Yes, John. I think I can
The Hours
Screenplay by David Hare
Clarissa Vaughn: I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn't the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then.
In The Bedroom
Screenplay by Rob Festinger and Todd Field
Willis Grinnel: Ever notice that even the worst bastards have friends?
The Insider
Screenplay by Eric Roth & Michael Mann
Lowell Bergman: You pay me to go get guys like Wigand, to draw him out. To get him to trust us, to get him to go on television. I do. I deliver him. He sits. He talks. He violates his own ***ing confidentiality agreement. And he's only the key witness in the biggest public health reform issue, maybe the biggest, most-expensive corporate-malfeasance case in U.S. history. And Jeffrey Wigand, who's out on a limb, does he go on television and tell the truth? Yes. Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we gonna air it? Of course not. Why? Because he's not telling the truth? No. Because he is telling the truth. That's why we're not going to air it. And the more truth he tells, the worse it gets!
Jerry Maguire
Screenplay by Cameron Crowe
Jerry Maguire: I love you. You... complete me.
Dorothy: Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at "hello."
Life is Beautiful
Screenplay by Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Benigni
Guido: [carrying his son through the camp] You are such a good boy. You sleep now. Dream sweet dreams. Maybe we are both dreaming. Maybe this is all a dream, and in the morning, Mommy will wake us up with milk and cookies. Then, after we eat, I will make love to her four or five times. If I can.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson
Gimli: Nobody tosses a dwarf.
The Natural
Screenplay by Roger Towne
Iris Gaines: You know, I believe we have two lives.
Roy Hobbs: How... what do you mean?
Iris Gaines: The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.
Out of Sight
Screenplay by Scott Frank, based on the novel by Elmore Leonard
Buddy Bragg: Here ma'am. Let me help you with these. Beautiful young lady like you shouldn't be carrying groceries. Let a man do that for you.
Parking Lot Woman: Now, I didn't ask you for help, so don't expect a tip.
Buddy Bragg: Oh, that's okay ma'am. I'll just take your car.
The Pianist
Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
Dorota: No-one play Chopin like you.
Wladyslaw Szpilman: I hope that's a compliment.
The Royal Tenenbaums
Screenplay by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson
Royal: [after he faked a terminal illness, took residence in the house under false pretenses, tried to instigate a fight with his estranged wife's fiancé, generally lied to his family and was then found out] I know I'm going to be the bad guy here.
Shakespeare in Love
Screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.
Shrek
Screenplay by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Joe Stillman and Roger S. H. Schulman
Donkey: Don't die, Shrek. And if you see any long tunnels, stay away from the light.
A Simple Plan
Screenplay by Scott B. Smith
Lou Chambers: It's the American Dream in a goddamn gym bag!
Hank Mitchell: You work for the American Dream. You don't steal it.
Lou Chambers: Then this is even better.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Screenplay by Anthony Minghella
Tom Ripley: I always thought it'd be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.
Talk To Her
Screenplay by Pedro Almodovar
Topsy-Turvy
Screenplay by Mike Leigh
Helen Lenoir: The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs.
The Truman Show
Screenplay by Andrew Niccol
Truman Burbank: Was anything real?
Christof: You were real. That's what made you so good to watch...
What Dreams May Come
Screenplay by Ronald Bass
Chris Nielsen: There's a man Ian never got to know, the man he was growing up to be. He's a good-looking clear-eyed fella... about 25. I can see him. He's the type of guy men want to be around, because he has integrity, you know? He has character. You can't fake that. And he's a guy women want to be around, too. Because there's tenderness in him... respect... and loyalty, and courage. And women respond to that. Makes him a terrific husband, this guy. I see him as a father. That's where he really shines. See, when he looks in his kid's eyes and that kid knows that his dad really, really sees him... he sees who he is. Then that child knows that he is an amazing person. He's quite a guy... that I'll never get to meet. I wish I had.
Wonder Boys
Screenplay by Steve Kloves
James Leer: Professor Tripp? Can I ask you a question?
Grady Tripp: Yeah, James.
James Leer: What are we going to do with... it?
Grady Tripp: I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out how to tell the Chancellor I murdered her husband's dog.
James Leer: You?
Grady Tripp: Trust me, James, when the family pet's been assassinated, the owner doesn't want to hear one of her students was the trigger man.
James Leer: Does she want to hear it was one of her professors?
Grady Tripp: ...I've got tenure.
