A screenplay is a script of a movie. It may be drawn from a previous work like a novel, a short story, or an epic, but may be a totally original composition. Movie buffs worldwide have been eager to get hold of the scripts of their favorite movies. Film school students want to learn the ropes of screenwriting from the old scripts of classic movies.

Free movie scripts are now available from a number of sources. Books, Magazines, libraries, and the Internet are sources of free screenplays of movies. Downloading the script of a movie has become child's play thanks to the many sites that have mushroomed on the Internet. The movies are arranged according to alphabetical order or organized by genre, actor, or director.

Some of the popular sites include BestMovieScriptsForFree.com, Dave'sScript-O-Rama, JoBlo.com, MovieScriptSource.com, SimplyScripts.com, and WeeklyScript.com. Sites are also organized around genres like Science Fiction (Sci-FiMovieScripts.com), Horror (JewelsLittleSiteofHorrors.com), Classic (ClassicMovieScripts), and Silent movies (Photoplays.com). Some sites are fan sites of actors and directors like HarrisonFordWeb.com and QuentinTarantinoArchives.com. It is important to note that most screenplays are copyrighted, which means that people should pay a royalty fee to obtain them.

Aspiring screenwriters can find a wealth of information in these sites. They can learn the tricks of the trade from the great masters and pick up trends or hit up on variations on existing themes. They can learn nuances of dialogue, action scenes, and scheming of plots.

Screenwriters work in two ways -on spec or on assignment. Specs refer to totally independent and original content by the writer, which is risky. The work has to be approved by a number of movie studio professionals before it sells. On assignment, the writer maybe asked to work on an original screenplay, or one based on other work like a story or novel, or even rewrite an existing screenplay.

Often, what is available in the media are transcripts of movies rather than screenplays. Transcripts are copies of dialogue that appeared on screen and not what was supposed to be in the screenplay. A full postproduction transcript suffers in quality, as it is not written by a professional writer but probably by a production assistant. Most of the published screenplays available in bookstores and on the Net are Production Transcripts. So one has to be wary while trying to download the screenplay of their favorite movie because it may not be original.