50 Coolest Movie Writers

Allen Ginsberg - Kill Your Darlings (2013)

The Movie Writer: Dan Radcliffe continues on his anti-Potter adventures with this truly excellent tale of the dark side of the Beat poetry gang.

Radcliffe is brilliant as Ginsberg, and the chemistry between him and Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) is palpable.

Coolest Moment: The initial montage in which Ginsberg is swept up into the music and drug-fuelled world of Carr and co is intoxicating, ultimately propelling them from jazz bars to literary stars.

Paul Varjak Breakfast At Tiffanys (1961)

The Movie Writer: George Peppard is suitably swoonworthy as Paul, a struggling writer who falls into the path of the captivating Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) and her manic pixie dream girl capers.

Coolest Moment: His attempts to cheer up a despondent Holly after she loses out on a sugar daddy are movie perfection - their picture perfect day of tomfoolery and mask-stealing simply can't be topped.

Will Shakespeare Shakespeare In Love (1998)

The Movie Writer: Ink-stained fingers have never looked so good.

The Bard got a sexy makeover as Joseph Fiennes pulled on his tights for this romance telling the tale of how Romeo & Juliet really came to life.

Coolest Moment : Overcome by lust for Elizabethan sex-pot Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), Will positions himself underneath her balcony and one of the most famous scenes in literary history is born.

Jack Torrance The Shining (1980)

The Movie Writer : An aspiring novellist is hired to hotel-sit for a winter with his young family. This turns out to be a very, very bad decision.

Coolest Moment: Jack Torrance takes a writer’s block meltdown to a whole new level, as nervy wife Wendy finds his manuscript propped up on his typewriter, displaying page after page after page of the line “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.

Ernest Hemingway Midnight In Paris (2011)

The Movie Writer: Corey Stoll puts in an unbelievably cool turn as a brooding Hemingway in this charming Woody Allen time travel flick.

Great moustache, too.

Coolest Moment: “I think a woman is equal to a man in courage. Have you ever shot a charging lion? ...Would you like to know how that feels?”

Christian Moulin Rouge! (2001)

The Movie Writer: Young, naïve writer Christian arrives in Paris with nothing but a typewriter and a tendency to burst into song, and accidentally falls into the frilly-knickered world of the Moulin Rouge.

Cue beautiful courtesan Satine, a forbidden tryst and OH GOD we’re crying again.

Coolest Moment: We see our protagonist inside a gigantic elephant, ad-libbing the plot for Spectacular, Spectacular to save his own skin.

That's some quick-thinking.

Paul Sheldon - Misery (1990)

The Movie Writer: The unluckiest author ever to have appeared onscreen, Paul (James Caan) lands himself in hot water when his "number one fan" Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) saves him from a car wreck and takes him home.

Coolest Moment: In the ultimate 'screw you' gesture, Paul coldly burns the manuscript of Misery's Retur n , much to Annie's severe distress.

James Mortmain - I Capture The Castle (2003)

The Movie Writer: Bill Nighy engages with his inner eccentric to play Mortmain, father of our protagonist and a man struggling to replicate the success of his first (and only) novel, published twelve long years earlier.

Coolest Moment: In a moment of spontaneity, James buys his young family a decaying castle that they drive past one Summer's day.

It turns out to be more of a burden than a joy, but who can say that their father bought them a castle?!

J. M. Barrie - Finding Neverland (2004)

The Movie Writer: Still reeling from the less-than-glowing reviews of his most recent play, Scottish writer J. M. Barries (Johnny Depp) bumps into The Llewelyn Davies family and everything changes.

Coolest Moment: The ailing Sylvia (Kate Winslet) is too ill to attend the premiere of Peter Pan , so Barrie brings the theatre to her.

Grab your tissues, people. This one's a sobfest.

Margot Tenenbaum The Royal Tenebaums (2001)

The Movie Writer: A child prodigy with serious daddy issues, Margot pens a critically acclaimed play when only in the ninth grade.

Coolest Moment: Her big secret is revealed and we see her hiding away in the bath, smoking a pack of clandestine cigarettes.

There’s no denying it – the girl’s got style.