10 Almost-Great Screenplays

Created by Igor_Brynner.

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An almost-great screenplay can be more frustrating than a really bad one. The potential is strong and the execution is almost there, but something went wrong at the final hurdle.

Of course, it’s easy to pick out flaws in retrospect or to credit (or blame) the writer for something that wasn’t their idea. So many things can go wrong on a script’s journey to the screen that it can feel like a miracle there are any almost-great films in the first place.

The problem is, as author and screenwriter William Goldman famously said:

“Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”

With all that in mind, and judging from what made it into the finished films, for this list we focus on 10 almost-great screenplays, what flaws each script has and how, with a few tweaks, they could have been great.