Script To Screen: “Donnie Darko”
A scene from the 2001 movie Donnie Darko, written and directed Richard Kelly.
A scene from the 2001 movie Donnie Darko, written and directed Richard Kelly.
Logline: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.
Here is the scene.
Here is movie version of the scene:
Rabbits are an entire subplot in the movie. Witness this compilation of all the scenes that feature Frank:
How does the script compare to the movie version? Any differences? Significant changes?
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a Go Into The Story series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
For more articles in the Script to Screen series, go here.