Script To Screen: “The Devil Wears Prada”

Miranda arrives in the office in this scene from the 2006 comedy, screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna, novel by Lauren Weisberger.

IMDb plot summary: A smart but sensible new graduate lands a job as an assistant to Miranda Priestly, the demanding editor-in-chief of a high fashion magazine.

Here is the scripted version of Miranda’s introductory scene:

Compare to the movie version of the scene:

The movie is exceptionally close to the script. The only change in dialogue is swapping out “gird your loins” for “man your battle stations.”

What is really informative is compare the action description to the shot by shot arrival sequence. Notice how spare the script’s description is, yet clear enough to convey action, tone, and pace.

The Devil Wears Prada is a terrific movie, one I highly recommend watching while reading the excellent script.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on Go Into The Story where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more Script To Screen articles, go here.