Little Miss Sunshine: The Shooting Script

by Michael Arndt, Jonathan Dayton (Foreword by), Valerie Faris (Foreword by)

Here is the official screenplay book tie-in to the uproarious American family road comedy. Brazenly satirical yet deeply human, Little Miss Sunshine introduces audiences to one of the most endearingly fractured families in recent cinema history. Meet the Hoovers, a motley six-member family who treks from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, California, to fulfill the deepest wish of seven-year-old Olive, an ordinary little girl with big dreams.

Starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano, and Alan Arkin, the film strikes a nerve with everyone who's ever been awestruck by how their muddled families seem to make it after all. On the way the family must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreak, and a broken-down VW bus, leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself. On their travels through this bizarrely funny landscape, the Hoovers learn to trust and support each other along the path of life, no matter what the challenge.

Genres: Comedy, Film, Media Tie In, School, Humor, Family, Plays

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Gabriel Mota · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like the movie and I didn't like the script. The movie is very faithful to the script so I guess it makes sense I didn't like both.

I found the story to just be too "normal", sure it's a dysfunctional family in a road trip full of incidents and some moments of craziness, but for me that wasn't enough. There was never the point in the movie where I had to hold my breath on what would happen next. Same way, the characters although nice and sympathetic through their flaws didn't grab me enough to root for one in specific. I just really didn't care and at the end of the day that's what's really important. No movie can be very good to someone when this happens.

[Darin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final movie was very loyal to the shooting script, with a few changes - lines improvised by the great cast or edited out before the shoot or during post production. The addition of several pieces by screenwriter Michael Arndt - including an introduction, scene notes on how the screenplay differs from the final film, and a comical piece on "How to Write a Sundance Hit in Nine Easy Steps" - makes this edition a thoroughly enjoyable read.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An iconic yellow VW Bus/Van. Little Miss Sunshine has been one of my favorite films for twenty years. I immediately re-watched the film after reading this screenplay. The script is enhanced with full-color screen stills. This is what family should be.

Related Works: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Favorite Quotes:
Introduction
What I would recommend - and this is the central hope of the movie - is that we make an effort to judge our lives and the lives of others according to our own criteria, distinct from the facile and shallow judgements of the marketplace.
James Joyce once said we should treat both success and failure as the impostors they are, I would humbly concur - the real substance of life is elsewhere. - Michael Arndt

Little Miss Sunshine - The Screenplay
Richard: Winners see their dreams come true. Winners see what they want, they go out and they get it. They don't hesitate. They don't complain. They don't make excuses. And they don't give up. Losers don't get what they want. They hesitate. They complain. They make excuses. And they give up. On themselves and their dreams.
Inside each of you - at the very core of your being - is a Winner waiting to be awakened . . . and unleashed upon the world. With my Nine Step "Refuse To Lose" program, you now have the tools, the know-how, the insights you need to put your losing habits behind you and make your dreams come true. No hesitating! No complaining! No excuses! I want you to go out into the world . . . and be Winners! Thank you!
______

Doctor: . . . keep him away from sharp objects: knives, scissors . . . if you have medications - depressants - in your house, keep them secured . . .
______

Sheryl: I'm so glad you're still here.

Frank: Well. That's one of us.
_______

Frank: Olive. Boy, you're gettin' big! You're like a real person now!
_______

Richard: I'm serious! I think we could all learn something from what Dwayne's doing! Dwayne has a goal. He has a dream. It may not be my dream, or your dream, but still . . . He's pursuing that dream with focus and discipline. In fact, I was thinking about the Nine Steps . . .

Grandpa: Oh, for crying out loud . . . !

Richard: . . . About the Nine Steps, and how Dwayne's utilizing at least seven of them in his journey to personal fulfillment.

Sheryl: Richard. Please.

Richard: I'm just saying! I've come around! I think Dwayne deserves our support.
_______

Sheryl: No, I'm pro-honesty here. I just think, you know . . . It's up to you.

Frank: Be my guest . . .

Sheryl: Olive, Uncle Frank didn't really have an accident. What happened was: he tried to kill himself.
_______

Richard: It's not about luck. Luck is the name that losers give to their own failings. It's about wanting to win. Willing yourself to win. You got to want it badder than anyone.

Olive: I do!

Richard: Do you? Really?
(a beat; she nods)
Then you're gonna be a winner!
_______

Dwayne picks up his pad and shows it to Frank. It reads:
"Please don't kill yourself tonight."
Frank smiles.

Frank: Not on your watch. I wouldn't do that to you.
Dwayne nods, relieved. He scribbles another note. It reads:
"Welcome to Hell."

Frank: Thanks, Dwayne. That means a lot coming from you.
_______

Richard: Because sarcasm is the refuge of losers.

Frank: It is?! Really?!

Richard: Sarcasm is just the sour grapes of losers trying to pull winners down to their level. Step Four.

Frank: Wow, Richard! You've really opened my eyes to what a loser I am! Say, how much do I owe you for those pearls of wisdom?

Richard: It's on me, buddy. It's on me.
_______

Richard: Yeah, go on and laugh. You're whistling past the graveyard.
_______

Grandpa: I can't help it! When you love someone, you always think they're beautiful!

Olive: No, you know . . . Tell me the truth!

Grandpa: Okay, okay . . . you're old enough - I think you can handle it. I'm gonna tell you the truth.

He takes a deep breath. She gets very quiet. Gently:
Grandpa: Olive . . . I think you're the most beautiful girl in the whole world!

She squeals with laughter.
_______

Richard: Listen to me, everyone. If there's one thing Grandpa would've wanted, it's to have Olive perform at the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. I believe we'd be doing a grave disservice to his memory if we gave up now. There's two kinds of people in the world: winners and losers. And what's the difference? Winners don't give up. So what are we here? Are we winners? Or losers?
_______

Frank: Maybe I can adopt you.
Dwayne stares out the window. Honk! Silence. Hoooonk!
_______

Richard: Oh, Jesus! I'm being pulled over! Everybody: pretend to be normal, okay? Like everything is normal. Here we go . . .
_______

Officer McCleary: Sir, you realize you've just given me probable cause to search your trunk? Put your hands on top of your vehicle. Now don't move.
_______

Sheryl: What happened?

Richard: I'll tell you when I regain consciousness.
(starts the car)
Frank. Dwayne. Get out and push.
______

Sheryl: Dwayne . . . Come on, we gotta go.

Dwayne: I'm not going.

Sheryl: Dwayne . . .

Dwayne: I'm not! I don't care! I'm not getting in that bus again!

Sheryl: Dwayne . . . for better or worse: we're your family . . .

Dwayne stands up and screams at them.

Dwayne: You're not my family! I don't want to be your family! I hate you fucking people! I hate you!
(he points at them) Divorce! Bankrupt! Suicide! You're losers! You're fucking losers!
______

Twin Girl One: Are you on a diet?

Olive: What?

Twin Girl One: Are you on a diet?

Olive: No . . . !

Twin Girl Two: Didn't think so!
_______

Kirby: And sign (Richard signs) . . . And you're done! Here's your receipt; tickets; sash; tiara. Anything else?

Richard: Yeah. Is there a funeral home around here?
_______

Richard: . . . We're driving five, six hours - we thought he was napping. By the time we figured it out it was . . .

Worker One: . . . Too late. So where's the body?

Richard turns, pops the trunk, averts his eyes, and opens it. The Workers look in the trunk. Then look at Richard.
_______

Dwayne: . . . If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love and fuck the rest.

Frank stares at Dwayne, impressed. Dwayne glances at Frank, who tries to play it cool.

Frank: I'm glad you're talking again, Dwayne. You're not nearly as stupid as you look.
_______

Olive: I'd like to dedicate this to my Grandpa, who helped me do this routine.

MC: That's sweet! Is he here? Where's your Grandpa right now?

Olive: He's in the trunk of our car.

[Annah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how the script expanded Dwayne and Frank’s dynamic, as well as Richard’s character development/family tension.

My favorite improv in the movie is definitely Dwayne blowing the straw wrapper at his dad during breakfast. 😂💛

So heart-warming every time. ☀️☀️☀️

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Miss Sunshine by Michael Arndt


Little Miss Sunshine is one of the best films of 2006, indeed, it was nominated for the Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA in the category of Best Film of the Year and it won two Oscars and BAFTAs, for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Alan Arkin and Best Original Screenplay for Michael Arndt.

This is a fresh, creative, imaginative, entertaining, quirky, brave, worthwhile and amusing comedy-drama about a family that is often dysfunctional and yet finds a way to push together and support the Little Miss Sunshine aka the very precocious and talented Abigail Breslin, nominated for both the Academy Award and the BAFTA for her performance as Olive Hoover, the seven year old who wants to take part in a beauty pageant.
Toni Collette is excellent in the role of Sheryl Hoover, who is often the only sensible adult character, who has to cope with the insecurity and wrong plans made by her husband, the suicidal brother Frank Ginsberg, the peculiar, funny, but outlandish and heroin addicted grandpa Edwin Hoover and finally, her son Dwayne, who has taken a vow of silence and has a breakdown half way into the narrative.

Richard Hoover is played by the always exceptional Greg Kinnear, and he has developed a self-help and self-improvement technique in nine steps- this seems to be a stab at the industry that is supposed to make one so much better, bring achievement, often with ease and unearthly speed, that is most often a delusion, a scheme to fleece and get money from naïve customers.
The plan from the film might be feasible, even if it does not take off, Richard keeps calling the partner in this enterprise, Stan Grossman aka Bryan Cranston, without much success, because there is no signal for the telephony network, the man is absent and eventually, Stan says that the improvement technique would not work because of…its creator.

Frank Ginsberg says that he is the best American expert on Proust and this is a phenomenal achievement, given that Marcel Proust is considered by many- including the undersigned- to be the greatest writer, at least on a level with William Shakespeare and his chef d’oeuvre is a very long, magical, glorious, resplendent and radiant saga.
The Proust expert is homosexual- like his favorite author- he has just separated from his lover, and to this traumatic event one must add the fact that his rival has just been published and acclaimed as…Number one in the field of Proust!

Psychology studies have shown that after coping with adversity and trauma, many people- probably most- experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, while some have the chance- and this is because they are more resilient- to have Post Traumatic Growth…it may be the case of Frank, but only later, because when confronted with this stress he tries to commit suicide.
There is a funny scene, when he meets his colleague in a gas station, where he was asked by Grandpa Edwin Hoover- the memorable Alan Arkin- to get some nasty pornographic magazines, which Frank tries hard to hide while pretending he is doing very well and the truth is he is so depressed…

The five adults and the girl are travelling to this beauty contest for children- a very inappropriate, offensive idea, which is rightly ridiculed and satirized by this film-and they try to come to terms with their issues, from drug addiction, through suicidal tendencies, vow of silence to feelings of inadequacy, failure.
Initially, there are some tensions and conflicts, Frank is thinking that the scheme concocted by Richard- achievement in nine steps – is ludicrous, like most if not all quick solutions to serious problems- and he is right in that- but given his attitude towards life and desire to end it, the suicidal man is not the best role model either.

Grandpa Edwin is perhaps the most pleasant, amusing of all, in spite or because of his habits-, the heroin addiction has had him expelled from the institution where he had resided- he has a very good relationship and empathy with Olive and they share a room on the road.
The van they use is an old model, legendary Volkswagen model- before they cheated on the value of the emissions of their cars- that has problems with the steering wheel, the horn and more seriously, cannot be moved from the parking spot unless everyone got out and pushed the car, only to run later and jump in the moving vehicle, offering spectators some very good moments, when the car cannot stop or the funny crew has to run for life after the yellow, good looking vehicle.

Alas, grandpa does not wake up one morning, in the motel where they had stopped along the road, they call the ambulance, but he dies at the hospital and they have to use the funeral services, burry him and that would mean losing the entry to the competition and all the effort with the failing van, the travelling for so many hundreds of miles would have been for nothing.

So they take a bold, outrageous decision to take the body, stealing it from the institution, place it in the trunk and they are very scared when a policeman stops them on the road and he insists on looking in the back, from where the porn magazines requested by the dearly departed fall to the ground and the lascivious man takes them away.
Dwayne reaches a nadir when he learns that he cannot become an airplane pilot, as he had intended, because color blind are eliminated out front and he has a collapse, stops the van, starts shouting and says that he hates each one, only to be soothed and brought back on track by little Olive.

They arrive at the weird, sick, unbelievable pageant for girls that are all dressed up, made up to look like adults, act, dance and sing for the bizarre, if not pathological pleasure of grownups that make such effort to create very disturbing, abusive ultimately premises for their children.
There are unexpected developments and the film has some healthy, humorous, sensible messages, it is not just a complex comedy, but also a motion picture that is educational and thought provoking.

[Amy Kitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Miss Sunshine is one of my favorite movies, so it was fun to read how author, Michal Arndt, went about creating the characters and the plot and how he wrote the screen play. It was also nice to see the process in which certain scenes were cut and the reasons behind those cuts. Good companion to the movie.

[Jeffrey Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It all happened so quickly. It is an efficient but brief story about a dysfunctional and quirky family, as they travel to a beauty pageant for the non-beauty pageant like daughter. It didn't go deep enough to impact me emotionally, but it was comedy with an important message. I imagine it is a great film given the actors chosen for the parts.

[Leah C. Peat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading the shooting scripts and comparing the difference between what was written and what actually made it to the final cut of the movie. This has some gems in it that the movie does not, and vice versa. Worth it to read.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's cool reading the shooting scripts and comparing the difference between what was written and what actually made it to the final cut of the movie. This has some parts that made you wonder why they didn't keep it in the movie and, vice versa.

[Diana Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have no idea how i like this so much. character, storyline, and everything. i can't stop to watch this movie over and over it's such a good movie i've ever seen. memorable and... yeah family's stuff as usual. check it out!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading for my Screenwriting class

[Itsonlychrista]

I don't see the button to read the book, someone can help me ?:-)

[Graydon Panzica · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's just perfect. Read it and/or see the movie. Now.

[D. Carson Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

LMS is a master work. Ardnt took a year off from his day job, wrote 3 scripts and submitted the one he felt like had the most promise, that script was LMS.

[Tom C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm loving this series of shooting scripts from Newmarket Press. Great introduction, great scene notes, and they appear to have preserved the page count of Arndt's script. The story's great. Each character has a clear arc (except for maybe Sheryl, but one scene that expanded on her backstory got cut). Each character is at the end of his/her rope, and their issues get worked out in Act III in much the same way things get worked out during the big fight/match/game in a sports drama. Arndt's story behind the story is really inspiring, too. This is the first script he sold, and it happened at a point when he was desperately broke.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this movie and decided to read the screenplay. I found it to be a really enjoyable and interesting read, especially with the notes added by Michael Arndt. He gives some insight into scenes and dialogue that were changed or improvised, but these were mostly on the margins. What I read here was essentially the same as the finished product of the movie. He also gives some insight on the process of writing the script and getting it out there. Anyway, it’s a quick, easy read, and I would recommend it for anyone that loved the film or even anyone with an interest in screenwriting.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both profoundly funny and moving. A story about a family on the brink of disaster but always pulls through because at the end of everything they love each other and will go to bat for one another again and again. I found myself laughing and crying intermittently throughout. Olive is one of the greatest children characters ever written for a movie. Adorable but never cutesy. She feels like a real five year old and I dont think many writers can pull that off convincingly.

[Michael Cerrato · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that the film, Little Miss Sunshine, is an entertaining and heartbreaking depiction of the not uncommon dysfunctional American family. The film is educational in the sense that it conveys a deeper message pertaining to the current state of society and where people hold their values, while at the same time providing ample comic relief to keep the film from depressing the audience.

[grantlovesbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably the film is quite good, but the script is just another syrupy feel-good family movie.
Film scripts are nothing compared with literature.
That maybe why I don't like to see literature turned into films, they end up lacking depth.
A script is 100 pages that races towards the climax with very little nuance. Real literature is all about nuance.

[Lupita Villa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es fresco, entretenido, divertido e incluso conmovedor.
Adore cuando mencionaron a Marcel Proust y la busqueda del tiempo pérdido, gracias a esta pelicula y este guión pude conocer un nuevo autor tan maravilloso como él.

[Jon Birondo]

Read while re-watching the movie. At the end, Arndt includes Scenes that were changed either in rehearsal or in post-production. Valuable insight into what to write and what not to write (all of it. the answer is write all of it.)

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly enjoyed this script! On a whirlwind adventure right alongside the characters one gets to experience universal highs and lows to the most basic knowledge, but needed reminder: life is fun.

[Mike Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool to see the behind the scenes process from the POV of the guy who created the scenes!

[Samantha Prosser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried while READING the final dance sequence. What the fuck

[Nick Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

school, then college, then work: fuck that.
and fuck the air force academy.
if i want to fly, I’ll find a way to fly.
you do what you love, and fuck the rest.

[Toad Soup · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolute gem, like what a literal treasure. This screenplay is gorgeous. I cannot stress the importance of it enough, if you want to write scripts then you should read this for research >:(

[Narges · Rating 5 out of 5]

High school those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that.

[river · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to adopt olive

[estel · Rating 5 out of 5]

great movie and great script

[Paul Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and occasionally moving screenplay for a good film. Reading the script didn't add an incredible amount to the overall experience though.