If you’ve never heard of Scenario Magazine, we highly encourage you to seek out every back issue you can find and read them cover-to-cover. Released during the late 1990’s, each issue is packed with fantastic screenplay reprints and interviews with screenwriters and filmmakers. The pub’s tagline was “The Magazine of Screenwriting Art” and it takes that tagline seriously – by treating screenwriting as an ART. But if you think it’s just for screenwriters, think again. We think anyone working or aspiring to the industry (and even fans for that matter) would enjoy and benefit from the nuggets each issue offers. In fact, we love the magazine so much, we’re going to write an entire series on it.

Early in my screenwriting education I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who turned me onto Scenario Magazine and who praised its riches. That night I jumped on eBay and was fortunate enough to win two auctions and procure for myself nearly all of the quarterly issues, which span about five years from 1995 to 1999. I’ve read or skimmed most of them, and I plan to share them with you over the coming weeks and months over this blog.

To the issues themselves, here’s what you typically get – four complete screenplay reprints, followed by interviews with the screenwriter(s).  Many times the screenwriter also played either a direct or indirect role during the production of the film, so the interviews offer wonderful insight on how the movie was brought from script to screen.  The magazines also offer occasional essays and other commentary on screenwriting and filmmaking.

And these magazines are beautiful pieces of art in their own right. Printed on wide and heavy stock and coming in at typically 200 pages or more, these magazines have the look & feel of the substantive journals that they are.  And let’s not forget about the art itself.  Each screenplay has several wonderfully drawn, original artwork that accompanies each story.  Oh, and each issue has very little advertising to clutter up the reading experience.  It’s really rather amazing to me that such a publication ever existed, but I’m thrilled that it did.

Below please find a summary of the magazine's volumes with the screenplays that each volume contains.  In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be sharing some of the insights from the volumes that I own.  Although I don’t have any of Volume 1, I think my collection is complete beyond that, with the last issue being “Vol. 5, No. 3” in the Fall of 1999.  If any of you out there are familiar with this publication, its history, and any other interesting tidbits, please join in on the conversation by commenting below and throughout the series.

SCENARIO MAGAZINE VOLUMES AND ISSUES

Vo1. 1, No. 1 – Summer 1995
FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL by Richard Curtis
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS by Ted Tally
NASHVILLE by Joan Tewkesbury
BERNARD AND HUEY by Jules Feiffer

Vol. 1, No. 2 – Fall 1995
GROUNDHOG DAY by Danny Rubin
FIVE EASY PIECES by Carole Eastman
WHAT HAPPENED WAS … by Tom Noonan
1-800 by Frank Pierson

Vol. 1, No. 3 – Winter 1995
THE USUAL SUSPECTS by Christopher McQuarrie
SAFE by Todd Haynes
PICTURE BRIDE by Kayo Hatta and Mari Hatta
HEAVY by James Mangold

Vo1. 2, No. 1 –  Spring 1996
GET SHORTY by Scott Frank
TO SLEEP WITH ANGER by Charles Burnett
A LITTLE PRINCESS by Richard LaGravenese & Elizabeth Chandler
GEORGIA by Barbara Turner

Vol. 2, No. 2 – Summer 1996
LONE STAR by John Sayles
TO DIE FOR by Buck Henry
ATLANTIC CITY by John Guare
VICKY by James Toback

Vol. 2, No. 3 – Fall 1996
BIG NIGHT by Stanley Tucci and Joseph Tropiano
BOUND by Larry and Andy Wachowski
WALKING AND TALKING by Nicole Holofcener
GIRLS TOWN by Jim McKay and Denise Casano, Anna Grace, Bruklin Harris, Lili Taylor

Vol. 2, No. 4 – Winter 1996
TIN CUP by John Norville & Ron Shelton
CITIZEN RUTH by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK by Millard Kaufman
THE DREYFUS AFFAIR by Peter Lefcourt
TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US by Michael Petroni (1996 Student Screenplay Competition Winner)

Vol. 3, No. 1 – Spring 1997
ROSEWOOD by Gregory Poirer
BREAKING AWAY by Steve Tesich
SCREAM by Kevin Williamson
NORTH BY NORTHWEST by Ernest Lehman

Vol. 3, No. 2 – Summer 1997
DONNIE BRASCO by Paul Attanasio
I CAN’T SLEEP by Claire Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau
ADDICTED TO LOVE by Robert Gordon
DETOUR by Martin Goldsmith

Vol. 3, No. 3 – Fall 1997
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Hossein Amini
ALL ABOUT EVE by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
LOVE SERENADE by Shirley Barrett
THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy

Vol. 3, No. 4 – Winter 1997
THE SWEET HEREAFTER by Atom Egoyan
MIDNIGHT COWBOY by Waldo Salt
TELLING LIES IN AMERICA by Joe Eszterhas
ONE CRASH, THREE ACCIDENTS by Jason Greiff (1997 Student Screenplay Competition Winner)

Vol.4, No. 1 – Spring 1998
THE FULL MONTY by Simon Beaufoy
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks
THE SPANISH PRISONER by David Mamet
THE BLACK DOLL by Edward Gorey

Vol. 4, No. 2 – Summer 1998
OUT OF SIGHT by Scott Frank
PI by Darren Aronofsky
THE FISHERMEN OF BEAUDRAIS by Ring Lardner Jr. and Dalton Trumbo
EVE’S BAYOU by Kasi Lemmons

Vol. 4, No. 3 – Fall 1998
SLAM by Marc Levin, Bonz Malone, Sonja Sohn, Richard Stratton, Saul Williams
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET by Samuel Fuller
SHOCK CORRIDOR by Samuel Fuller
WEEDS by Alex Lewin (1998 Student Screenplay Competition Winner)

Vol. 4, No. 4 – Winter 1998/99
LIVING OUT LOUD by Richard LaGravenese
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW by Larry McMurtry & Peter Bogdanovich
GODS AND MONSTERS by Bill Condon

Vol. 5, No. 1 – Spring 1999
THE CONVERSATION by Francis Ford Coppola
ENEMY OF THE STATE by David Marconi
MRS DALLOWAY by Eileen Atkins

Vol. 5, No. 2 – Summer 1999
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE by Stewart Stern
ELECTION by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
THE BIRDS by Evan Hunter

Vol. 5, No. 3 – Fall 1999
BOWFINGER by Steve Martin
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH by Charlie Kaufman
MIDNIGHT RUN by George Gallo