Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe direct a lot of praise at stars like Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Evans. But it’s screenwriters like Drew Pearce, James Gunn, and Jon Spaihts that give these actors quippy one-liners to deliver. MCU movies all follow a formulaic story structure, but writers like Taika Waititi and Destin Daniel Cretton have put their own personal spin on that formula.
From Anchorman to Tropic Thunder to Short Term 12 to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, some of the best screenplays of the 21st century have been written by MCU screenwriters.
Hotel Artemis (2018) – Written By Drew Pearce
Five years after co-writing Iron Man 3 with director Shane Black, Drew Pearce made his directorial debut with the underrated dystopian sci-fi gem Hotel Artemis. Jodie Foster stars as a nurse who runs a secret hospital where she treats injured criminals in futuristic Los Angeles.
Foster elevates the pulpy, violent narrative with a powerful performance as a grizzled veteran nurse who conceals vulnerability under a tough facade. She’s seen the worst of humanity and had to come to terms with it.
Pain & Gain (2013) – Written By Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
In the midst of writing Steve Rogers’ entire MCU arc from Captain America: The First Avenger to Avengers: Endgame, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely penned the true-crime caper Pain & Gain for Michael Bay.
The dark humor, voiceover narration, and amoral characters of Pain & Gain marked a drastic tonal shift from Markus and McFeely’s superhero movies. This film provided audiences with further proof that Bay does his best work on a modest budget.
The Black Phone (2021) – Written By Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill
After dropping out of directing the second Doctor Strange movie, Scott Derrickson reteamed with one of his co-writers from the first one – C. Robert Cargill – to adapt Joe Hill’s short story “The Black Phone” for the big screen. The titular phone is used by a kidnapped teenager to communicate with former victims of his creepy captor.
Ethan Hawke gives a truly unnerving turn as “The Grabber,” and while the pacing was met with some criticism, Derrickson and Cargill’s faithfulness to the source material was praised.
Super (2010) – Written By James Gunn
Four years before he turned the Guardians of the Galaxy from C-listers to globally adored icons, James Gunn wrote and directed an original superhero movie. 2010’s Super is a decidedly darker take on the genre than the Guardians movies.
Rainn Wilson stars as a frustrated short-order cook who becomes a masked vigilante when his wife is abducted by a drug lord. The pitch-black comic tone was a touch too much for some critics, but Super is a fiercely subversive deconstruction of the superhero mythos.
The Lego Batman Movie (2017) – Co-Written By Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers
Before co-writing all three of the MCU’s Spider-Man movies and working on the script for Ant-Man and the Wasp, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers tackled a DC Comics property as two of the five credited writers on The Lego Batman Movie.
Despite starring animated toys, The Lego Batman Movie is one of the Dark Knight’s greatest on-screen adventures to date. From his denial of his feelings to his co-dependent relationship with the Joker, The Lego Batman Movie uses humor to capture a poignant character study of Bruce Wayne.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016) – Written By Taika Waititi
Before joining the MCU – first as a director and later as a writer-director – Taika Waititi wrote and directed the heartwarming adventure movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It stars Julian Dennison as a troubled foster kid and Sam Neill as the curmudgeonly husband of his legal guardian. When that guardian passes away and the state wants to put the kid back in foster care, they go on the run.
The movie is carried by Dennison and Neill’s chemistry as a juvenile delinquent and his reluctant father figure, but Waititi’s script gave them plenty to work with.
Short Term 12 (2013) – Written By Destin Daniel Cretton
Just under a decade before he directed and co-wrote Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Destin Daniel Cretton made his independent filmmaking debut on a fraction of the budget with Short Term 12.
According to the Washington Post, this was a deeply personal work for Cretton, who drew on his own experiences working with troubled teens to write the script. As a result, the movie has a profound sense of authenticity and intimacy.
Tropic Thunder (2008) – Co-Written By Justin Theroux
Justin Theroux is mainly known as an actor, but he’s also done some high-profile work as a screenwriter. Two years before he scripted Iron Man 2, Theroux co-wrote Tropic Thunder with Etan Cohen and the film’s director and star, Ben Stiller.
Tropic Thunder is a searing satire of Hollywood filmmaking, poking fun at method acting, Oscar-baiting, and meddling studio executives in its tale of A-list movie stars unwittingly going into a real warzone to shoot a war movie.
Dune (2021) – Co-Written By Jon Spaihts
Five years after being credited on the Doctor Strange script, Jon Spaihts worked on an adaptation of a different psychedelic sci-fi property. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, adapted from the first half of Frank Herbert’s seminal literary masterpiece, was co-written by Villeneuve, Spaihts, and Eric Roth.
The script gets its exposition out of the way nice and succinctly in order to focus on bringing the world of Arrakis to life with Greig Fraser’s immersive cinematography and Hans Zimmer’s mesmerizing score.
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (2004) – Co-Written By Adam McKay
After Edgar Wright departed from Ant-Man, the script he’d co-written with Joe Cornish was reworked by star Paul Rudd and former SNL head writer Adam McKay. McKay previously worked with Rudd on his delightfully absurdist directorial debut, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which he co-wrote with Will Ferrell.
With classic gags like the news team battle and the “glass case of emotion,” Anchorman has its own uniquely bizarre comedic sensibility and has since been ranked as one of the greatest comedies ever made.
