Skip to content
Curated category

United States National Film Registry films

  • Psycho (1960 film)Alfred Hitchcock acquired the rights to Robert Bloch's 1959 novel for $9,500 in 1960. He faced a studio system that refused his usual budget and rejected his…
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)Walt Disney stood before his staff on the evening of the 30th of October 1934, and acted out an entire story for three hours.
  • Alien (film)Dan O'Bannon sat on Ronald Shusett's couch in Los Angeles during the early 1970s, broke and homeless after a failed project.
  • The Outlaw Josey WalesForrest Carter was the name on the 1972 novel that inspired this film. That name belonged to Asa Earl Carter, a former Ku Klux Klan leader and speechwriter…
  • Vertigo (film)Paramount Pictures commissioned a synopsis of the French novel D'entre les morts in 1954, before it had even been translated into English.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingIn the Second Age of Middle-earth, the Dark Lord Sauron forges the One Ring in Mount Doom. This single act imbues the object with power to control other…
  • Blade RunnerPhilip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? sat on a shelf for years before anyone could make it into a movie.
  • Star Wars (film)George Lucas conceived a space opera in 1971, shortly after finishing his first feature film THX 1138. He initially planned to adapt the Flash Gordon serials…
  • 2001: A Space OdysseyStanley Kubrick told a publicist from Columbia Pictures in 1964 that his next project would be about extraterrestrial life.
  • The TerminatorIn Rome, Italy, during the release of Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982, director James Cameron fell ill and experienced a vivid dream.
  • National Film RegistryIn the early 1980s, a quiet crisis began unfolding in American film archives. Colorization companies started altering black and white movies for television…
  • Jaws (film)Principal photography began on the 2nd of May 1974, on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The production team faced immediate logistical…
  • Toy StoryToy Story premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on the 19th of November 1995. It marked a turning point for animation history as the first fully…
  • A Clockwork Orange (film)Anthony Burgess sold the film rights to his 1962 novel for a modest sum shortly after its publication. The project initially targeted the rock band the…
  • Ben-Hur (1959 film)Ben-Hur, the 1959 epic directed by William Wyler, arrived at a moment when Hollywood was fighting for its life. Television had eaten into ticket sales, and…
  • Return of the JediLuke Skywalker stands before the massive jaws of a rancor, his lightsaber glowing green in the dim light of Jabba the Hutt's palace.
  • Mary Poppins (film)Walt Disney first asked to buy the film rights to Mary Poppins in 1938. He traveled to London to meet author P.L. Travers at her home in Chelsea.
  • Apocalypse NowJohn Milius wrote the first draft of Apocalypse Now in 1969, just months after being rejected from military service due to asthma.
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)Kirk Douglas announced his company Joel Productions had acquired the rights to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1962. He intended to star as McMurphy and…
  • The Day the Earth Stood StillIn 1951, a flying saucer landed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The United States Army surrounded it with tanks and soldiers.
  • InceptionChristopher Nolan first wrote an 80-page treatment about dream stealers in the early 2000s. He originally envisioned Inception as a horror film before…
  • The Empire Strikes BackGeorge Lucas stood at a crossroads in 1978. The unexpected success of Star Wars had made him wealthy, but it also brought threats and unwelcome requests for…
  • Gone with the Wind (film)Selznick International Pictures spent two years delaying the start of filming until January 1939. The production was troubled from its inception, with…
  • Apollo 13 (film)On the third day of their journey to the Moon, an electrical short circuit caused a liquid oxygen tank to explode inside the Apollo 13 spacecraft.
  • City LightsIn 1928, the film industry was rapidly shifting toward sound. Charlie Chaplin chose to ignore this trend when he began developing City Lights.
  • Titanic (1997 film)James Cameron stared into the dark Atlantic in 1985 and saw a ghost. He had spent years studying shipwrecks, but the Titanic felt like Mount Everest to him.
  • Taxi DriverPaul Schrader wrote the screenplay for Taxi Driver in under a fortnight during 1974. He had spent weeks living in his car after a divorce and a breakup with…
  • Annie HallPrincipal photography for the film began on the 19th of May 1976, on the South Fork of Long Island. The project started as a murder mystery draft before…
  • The GodfatherIn 1967, a literary scout for Paramount Pictures contacted Peter Bart about an unfinished sixty-page manuscript titled Mafia.
  • Flash Gordon (serial)Alex Raymond launched the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934, introducing readers to a hero who would soon conquer cinema.
  • Badlands (film)In 1959, Holly Sargis narrates the film as a fifteen-year-old living in Fort Dupree. This dead-end South Dakota town serves as the starting point for her…
  • Citizen KaneOn the 21st of August 1939, Orson Welles signed a contract with RKO Pictures that granted him unprecedented creative control.
  • Paths of GloryStanley Kubrick purchased the film rights to Humphrey Cobb's 1935 novel Paths of Glory for ten thousand dollars. The book itself drew from a real historical…
  • The Birth of a NationD. W. Griffith began filming on the 4th of July 1914 and finished by October 1914. The production used approximately 150,000 feet of footage to create a…
  • Easy RiderPeter Fonda held a still photograph of himself and Bruce Dern from the 1966 film The Wild Angels. He saw two bikers traveling across America after selling…
  • Groundhog Day (film)In 1990, screenwriter Danny Rubin sat in a theater lobby reading Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat. He began musing about vampiric immortality and what one…
  • High NoonCarl Foreman wrote a four-page plot outline that became the foundation for High Noon. This outline closely mirrored The Tin Star, a 1947 short story by John…
  • The Shawshank RedemptionFrank Darabont purchased the film rights to Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption for five thousand dollars in 1987.
  • American GraffitiGeorge Lucas sat in a Modesto, California diner during the early 1960s and watched teenagers cruise Main Street. He later explained that cruising was gone by…
  • The General (1926 film)In 1862, eight Union spies stole a Confederate locomotive named the General during the American Civil War. They traveled northward for over one hundred miles…
  • Glory (1989 film)Kevin Jarre stood in Room 421 of the Gramercy Park Hotel during a few weeks in 1988. He wrote the screenplay for Glory on spec while staring at the Robert…
  • Harold and MaudeColin Higgins wrote the script for Harold and Maude as his master's thesis at UCLA film school. While working as a pool boy for producer Edward Lewis…