Deadline has debuted its Read the Screenplay series to celebrate “scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.” Among the first offerings are the screenplays for two musical feature films: the animated Encanto (with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda) and live-action West Side Story (with songs by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim). Encanto centers around Mirabel Madrigal, an outcast in a Colombian family where everyone has a unique gift except her. Co-directors and screenwriters Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith chose Colombia for its intersection of indigenous, African, and European cultures and visited the country in 2018 for inspiration and research. Disney released the film in November, and it has earned $216.3 million at the box office so far. It has also won awards as Best Animated Feature from the Golden Globes and National Board of Review and earned nine Annie nominations. You can read the script HERE.
West Side Story director Steven Spielberg asked Tony and Pulitzer winner Tony Kushner to reframe the story of the original 1957 Broadway production (from Arthur Laurents’s libretto) and Oscar-winning 1961 film (from Ernest Lehman’s screenplay). “I was moved by how many of our current struggles Steven felt could be explored in this 60-year-old masterpiece,” said Kushner. One key alteration was substituting Doc with his widow Valentina, who knows the challenges of mixed-heritage romance. The film premiered in cinemas last December and has earned $57.9 million at the box office so far. It has also won Best Picture at the Golden Globes and been named one of the year’s best films by AFI and the National Board of Review. You can read the script HERE.