The Great American Screenplay

1. "Casablanca"

2. "The Godfather"

3. "Chinatown"

4. "Citizen Kane"

5. "All About Eve"

6. "Annie Hall"

7. "Sunset Boulevard"

8. "Network"

9. "Some Like It Hot"

10. "The Godfather II"

"Casablanca" and a pair of "Godfathers" are among the 101 greatest screenplays, according to members of the Writers Guild of America. Film and television writers ranked the screenplays in the guild's first best-of list, released this month.

The screenplay for 1942's "Casablanca," by Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, was chosen from more than 1,400 nominated works.

Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Billy Wilder each have four screenplays on the list. Charlie Kaufman, William Goldman and John Huston earned three mentions each.

10 HIGHEST-PAID SPEC SCRIPTS

$5 million: "Unbreakable," by M. Night Shyamalan

$4.5 million: "The Long Kiss Goodbye" by Shane Black

$4 million: "Land of the Free" by Joe Eszterhas (unproduced); "Panic Room" by David Koepp; "Foreplay" by Joe Eszterhas (unproduced)

$3 million: "Basic Instinct" by Joe Eszterhas; "Medicine Man" by Tom Schulman; "Bad Dog" by Dale Launer (unproduced); "The Sixth Sense" by M. Night Shyamalan; "The Superconducting Supercollider of Sparkle Creek, Wisconsin" by David Koepp and John Kamps (unproduced)

SCREENWRITERS SURVIVAL GUIDE

Soundest advice from a veteran: William Goldman's 1983 "Adventures in the Screen Trade"

Best screenwriting software: Final Draft 7.1 (List price: $289)

Most reliable instructional manual: Syd Field's 1979 "Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting"

Classic screenplay worth studying: Robert Towne's "Chinatown"

Best local screenwriting seminar: The Film School (spring session April 29-May 20, applications due April 10, go to thefilmschool.com)

Best local screenwriting showcase: Public readings at the SIFF Screenwriters Salon (seattlefilm.org)

Best local support system: The Northwest Screenwriters Guild (nwsg.org)

One-stop rundown of script contests: The Northwest Screenwriters Guild's Contest Database (nwsg.org/resources.php).

Read all from Seattle PI