Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay: Thelma & Louise, Terminator 2, The Silence of the Lambs, and Dances with Wolves

Understanding how and why screenplays work is one of the surest paths to writing your own successful script. Few people have known this better than Syd Field, who dissected thousands of films and screenplays in order to discern the vital elements that all great screenplays share. His books, lectures, workshops, and classes brought clarity and confidence to a great many accomplished screenwriters, a quartet of whom are featured in this one book:

• Callie Khouri, in her first film script - Thelma & Louise - rewrote the rules for road movies by challenging long-entrenched gender stereotypes to create a revolutionary American classic.

• James Cameron, writer/director of Avatar and Titanic, is also responsible for Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in which he crafted a sequel integrating innovative special effects and storyline that transformed the Terminator - a quintessential killing machine - into a sympathetic character. This is how spectacular action films are written.

• Ted Tally adapted Thomas Harris' chilling 350-page bestseller, The Silence of the Lambs, into a riveting 120-page script - a critical lesson in the specialized art and craft of adapting novels for film.

• Michael Blake, in Dances with Wolves, achieved every writer's dream as he translated his own epic novel into an uncompromising film. Learn how he leveraged the theme of transformation as a spiritual dynamic in this memorable work of mythic sweep.