How to Use This Site
If you’re looking for something in particular you can either use the search function above or check out our indexes.
Regarding Sendspace
I don’t want to use public filesharing sites, and I’d really prefer not to do it that way, but it’s what I have to do to curb the bandwith problem. Perhaps if I were to receive more donations I could upgrade Sendspace to use No-Ad direct links, but until then…
When you arrive at Sendspace and are given the options: HIGH SPEED DOWNLOAD or REGULAR DOWNLOAD, always choose REGULAR DOWNLOAD. That’s the FREE option. You DO NOT have to pay.
Mission Statement
How do most veteran screenwriters respond when asked how someone can become a better writer? Usually by stating the obvious: write often and read a lot.
That said, we exist so that burgeoning screenwriters and filmmakers everywhere have a free resource that provides them with the highest quality screenplays available on the internet. That’s a bold statement, you say? Well, that’s because this site is about quality and not quantity. We want screenplays that look like screenplays. Why? Because we write screenplays. Because we study screenplays. Because we know what a properly formatted screenplay should look like, and John Boy’s 352 page digitally converted script in 32 pt. Arial Bold isn’t it. That’s why we only provide PDF formatted scripts, because they represent the most accurate representation of a tangible script, which we feel is crucial when studying the craft of screenwriting where so much emphasis is placed on structure and page count.
Every script available on this site has been double-checked to ensure quality, stripped of extraneous non-essential information, and file sizes have been reduced when possible.
For optimal script viewing, it’s strongly recommended that you upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Acrobat or Reader.
About Us
- Hi, I’m Sheridan. I’m an independent filmmaker with my own (very) small production company. I’ve mostly made music videos, but I’m currently working on a couple projects that I’ve written and will be producing, directing, and editing. You can check out some of my work online here: sheridancleland.com
As a student of film, I usually look for screenplays in PDF format so that I can study and break them down by page or print them, so transcripts, HTML and text files greatly annoy me. In fact, I loathe scripts in those formats, but have read and studied them when no other versions were available.
I created this site because it’s a site that I thought should exist, but didn’t, and to share with the rest of the world screenplays that I felt were of a certain standard and quality. The original idea was to have a database for my own personal use so that I could access the screenplays from anywhere, but it has quickly grown into something far greater than that initial purpose.
In fact, the site now has several contributors who help with the organization and archiving of scripts, site maintenance, writing various reviews, interviewing industry professionals, and general tomfoolery.
For more info you can check out an interview I did with Scott Myers of Go Into the Story here: Blog spotlight: myPDFscripts.com
History
December 22, 2006 – Sheridan purchases the pdfscreenplays.net domain name.
May 1, 2008 – Sheridan launches the first version of the site with less than two hundred scripts.
May 25, 2008 – After a “small” database glitch, Sheridan relaunches the site.
June 10, 2008 – Sheridan posts Frank Darabont’s draft of Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods. That’s right. If you own that script, it was found here first… unfortunately.
June 11, 2008 – All hell breaks loose after Ain’t It Cool News and the entire internet hotlink to the Indiana Jones script. Contrary to popular belief, the site was not shut down because of any legal rumblings from the studios, it was actually because of bandwith/server processor consumption:
The account referenced above was found to be consuming an inordinate amount of processor time, to the point of degrading overall system performance.
While we do limit each account to no more than 25% of a system’s CPU in our terms of service, we do not actively disable accounts until they greatly exceed that number, which is what happened in this case.
Load: 33.26, 24.67, 18.21 at 2008-06-11 21:06 (25.6% SQL)
41.89/usr 11.60/ni 13.87/sys 5.90/wa 0.00/idApache: 60.8 requests/sec – 264.8 kB/second – 4459 B/request
230 requests currently being processed, 30 idle servers
Apache Uptime 37 secondsTop: 175: pdfscreenplays.net (21: /pdfscripts/screenplays/Indiana%20Jones)
It’s simple math, really. That snapshot shows that 230 requests were being processed at that moment with an average rate of 60.8 requests per second for the Indiana Jones script, which is a 5.7 MB file. Voila! Insta-gargantu-bandwith.
June 24, 2008 – J.C. purchases the pdfscreenplays.com domain name.
June 28, 2008 – The site relaunches care of weneedahobby.com.
June 30, 2008 – Traffic volume and bandwith consumption force the site to shut down once again.
August 29, 2008 – J.C. launches the forum.
August 1, 2009 – Sheridan officially launches myPDFscripts.
August 1, 2011 – The forum closes down.