Though there is frequently a heavy emphasis on the directorial debut, the debut of a new screenwriter can be just as exciting in its heralding the arrival of a new and unique talent in the film business. Getting a first-time screenplay produced is a very difficult task, near impossible to preserve the original manuscript's complete vision.
Over the history of the medium, numerous screenwriters have made themselves a formidable presence with their debut project, especially when they are given the opportunity to direct the film. It's hard to find debut scripts as polished as these.
10 David Ayer - Training Day (2001) MC: 69
While Ayer's first credit was his contribution to the screenplay for U-571, his debut solo effort proper was the highly acclaimed Training Day. Led by an incredible Oscar-winning turn from Denzel Washington in the lead role as an extremely corrupt detective who takes on a young protégé, played by Ethan Hawke. The film's performances are no doubt one of the high points of the film, but Ayer's script is also a star feature due to its gritty and smooth flow and excellent pace that impels the story forward from the get-go. A slick and effortlessly cool crime film debut.
9 Kevin Smith - Clerks (1994) MC: 70
For a while, in the '90s, Kevin Smith was the poster-boy for budding auteurs everywhere. Smith is the ultimate overnight success story due to his incredible breakout debut in 1994 with Clerks. Smith's script manages to mix the witty with the profane in a genuinely brilliant mixture that inspired countless copycats.
The slacker classic was produced on a shoestring budget with an unknown cast while Smith was still an employee of a video store. A surprise hit that's now a bona-fide classic, Kevin Smith is one of the great left-field talents of his generation.
8 Jon Favreau - Swingers (1996) MC: 71
Another unlikely male-bonding comedy that helped launch a now-stratospheric career, Swingers was the first screenplay by Jon Favreau, who now presides over many high-profile projects over at Disney. The film is a low-key comedy about a ne'er-do-well living in L.A., and his somewhat sleazy friends as they engage in various shenanigans at the height of the short-lived "swing-revival" movement of the mid-'90s. Favreau's script whips and crackles with hip lingo and brilliant one-liners, delivered perfectly by a young Vince Vaughn. The final scene, in particular, is a stroke of screenwriting genius.
7 Rian Johnson - Brick (2005) MC: 72
Before he helmed a Star Wars flick or revived the whodunit with Knives Out, Rian Johnson played his hand at reinventing the hard-boiled detective noir with his writing and directing debut Brick.
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high school loner who decides to solve his ex-girlfriend's murder, the film is a cerebral and darkly hilarious homage to a long-gone genre once dominant in Hollywood. One of Johnson's more acclaimed and purely entertaining films, it is really the script that is the key to the film's success.
6 Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs (1992) MC: 79
Arguably the most well-known and celebrated popular screenwriter currently working, Quentin Tarantino managed to introduce a signature writing style to his works that have rippled into his films almost belonging to their own subgenre. Though a great director, Tarantino's impact on the film world in the long-term is in his screenplays, which are ablaze with fast dialogue and bursts of shocking violence. His debut, Reservoir Dogs, is a masterclass in building tension through interesting conversations and clever misdirects as it deconstructs a heist-gone-wrong and the disastrous aftermath.
5 Cameron Crowe - Say Anything... (1989) MC: 85
One of the greatest coming-of-age films of all time, Cameron Crowe's opus Say Anything... was released at the tail end of a decade where the genre was overwhelmingly dominated by the films from John Hughes. Crowe's film is similar in some ways to the Hughes films, but with an added dose of melancholic realism thrown into the mix. Though still a fairly lighthearted affair, Crowe's first screenplay manages to seamlessly blend real pathos with more comedic overtones to create a minor masterpiece and one of the best films ever about teen romance.
4 Todd Field (w/Robert Festinger) - In the Bedroom (2001) MC: 86
Todd Field, along with partner Robert Festinger, made one of the most mature and nuanced screenplay debuts of all time with their contemplative and bleak project In the Bedroom. Field went on to make his directorial debut with the film, which was released to near-unanimous acclaim in 2001. The story centers around the tragic ripple effect of a violent act of jealousy. The quiet film patiently builds tension throughout until it reaches a fever pitch in the final devastating moments. An impressive and intellectually fascinating portrait of tragedy that marked a major new creative talent.
3 Ari Aster - Hereditary (2018) MC: 87
With his feature-length screenplay debut, Hereditary, Ari Aster put himself squarely in the horror film limelight as a potential new messiah of the genre. While there are many many masterful and impressive features on display in the finished product, it is the blueprint of Aster's script that is the most essential. A deeply serious, unflinching, restrained, and genuinely surprising piece of work, Aster's unsettling dive in familial tragedy is one of the best horror films of the last twenty years, and that is thanks to Aster's work behind the typewriter.
2 Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko (2001) MC: 88 (The Director's Cut)
In hindsight, Richard Kelly might have been a one-trick pony; if that's true, then it's still a hell of a trick. Kelly's debut as a writer and a director was with the now-cult-classic Donnie Darko.
The screenplay is sort of a marvel in and of itself as it is chiefly responsible for weaving together several related story threads into a complicated but fascinating tapestry of philosophy, heady science-fiction, and teen drama. A singular experience that is truly original in every way, it is a shame its creator has been unable to replicate its magic.
1 Charlie Kaufman - Being John Malkovich (1999) MC: 90
It is extremely rare that debuts of any kind come this fully formed and with such an obvious amount of raw genius that Charlie Kaufman's first screenplay is a bit of an anomaly. Kaufman is now considered one of the most unique and revered figures in the business, having crafted some of the most cerebral and original films ever made. However, his debut screenplay is a masterwork of the absurd, a surreal meta-comedy about a puppeteer who can enter into the mind of the titular oddball thespian. Weird, dark and hilarious, the screenplay is the best debut of any first-time writer.
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