Hollywood Film Script 1985 Ferris Bueller's Day Off Screenplay John Hughes Movie

Description

Rare script by John Hughes  - Ferris Bueller's Day Off which starred a young Matthew Broderick
Dated July 24, 1985
The movie was released in 1988
142 pages but it is not paginated
This is not the finished, completed shooting draft of the script - it is an early draft
So there are some differences between this screenplay and what became the final version
Finding those differences is what makes having this version of the script especially interesting
The signature on the front cover of the script is Matthew Broderick and it is a photocopy - not an original signature! Please, I do not want to over-represent this item. It is a copy of the shooting script and was not necessarily a script that was ever used in production.
The reason this script is special is because it is NOT the final movie script - I looked up some history on the film and found this:
As he was writing the film in 1985, John Hughes kept track of his progress in a spiral-bound logbook. He noted that the basic storyline was developed on February 25. It was successfully pitched the following day to Paramount Studios chief Ned Tanen. Tanen was intrigued by the concept, but wary that the Writer's Guild of America (WEST) was hours away from picketing the studio.
Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week.
Editor Paul Hirsch explained that Hughes had a trance-like concentration to his script-writing process, working for hours on end, and would later shoot the film on essentially what was his first draft of the script. "The first cut of
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
ended up at two hours, 45 minutes. The shortening of the script had to come in the cutting room", said Hirsch.
"Having the story episodic and taking place in one day
...
meant the characters were wearing the same clothes. I suspect that Hughes writes his scripts with few, if any costume changes just so he can have that kind of freedom in the editing."
Hughes intended the movie to be more focused on the characters rather than the plot. "I know how the movie begins, I know how it ends", said Hughes. "I don't ever know the rest, but that doesn't seem to matter. It's not the events that are important, it's the characters going through the event. Therefore, I make them as full and real as I can. This time around, I wanted to create a character who could handle everyone and everything
It is in good condition but not perfect condition as it is a photocopy that was given to me. So, it is a complete and full copy - all pages are complete and intact but it is not what you would call a super clean copy. They are "artifacts" from it being photocopied all those years ago, in 1985. This was before word processing was rampant and way before digital copies, scans or the like. This script was most likely written on a typewriter and then copied on a Xerox machine at the agency.
If you look at particular pages or scenes you will notice there are differences between this draft and the final movie - and that is what is interesting about having this earlier draft. What was an early, original idea for the movie and what gets changed and/or added in later.
I have added a clear plastic sheet over the cover to keep it from color fading and also from getting scuffed. You can easily remove this clear plastic "cover" if you do not want it.
This script is from my private collection. I lived in LA in the 1990's and had a small production company and was given many scripts over those years to read, review, give coverage for, etc. I have a few hundred scripts left. Although, sadly, I threw out hundreds of them over the years.
Will be bagged and boarded for safe shipment!