Screenwriting : Beginning screenplays by Michel Gordon

For formatting buy the book, The Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6QD5Pbc50I This guy has a lot of cool stuff.

STORY by Robert Mckee is the best book on this planet.

Sid Field The Foundations of Screenwriting is pretty good as well.

Syd Fields books are very good. Save the Cat is an easy read and good for beginning screenwriters.

For new screenwriters I always recommend Michael Hauge's WRITING SCREENPLAYS THAT SELL. Also - reading a huge stack of screenplays.

My former Universal Pictures colleague Billy Mernit wrote a book called Writing the Romantic Comedy. It's a concise book that's great for beginners, and you can apply its lessons to other genres.

All of the aforementioned books are great resources. Also checkout S32's 'education' for classes as well.

For formatting a screenplay - "Screenwriter's Bible" by Trottier. Structure, I still like "Save the Cat." I would suggest first getting familiar with the 3 act structure, and Syd Field's "Foundations of Screenwriting" seems to still have all the basics. I found "Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting" helpful for a big picture look at everything. I would definitely start by making sure you understand the basics. "Memento" should not be your model for a first screenplay. And I agree that there are some great resources here, also.

Like Richard said, for structuring and understanding basic concepts start w/ Trottier. I personally am a big fan of "Save The Cat" by Blake Snyder. Also, read up on The Hero's Journey -- many different texts discuss. Syd Field helped me with structure as well when all others failed.

I recommend Save The Cat. In a scriptwriting class (introduction) I took, we studied the Snyder Beat Sheet closely. It did help to use it as a blueprint (with flexibility).

Dramatic Story Structure: A Primer for Screenwriters by Edward J. Fink. Very informative, easy to understand, and to the point.

I recommend you carefully read a few scripts of movies you like to start with. Then follow the advice by all these wonderful people above :) It will make it easier for you to understand what all these books are explaining and teaching you since you have a point of reference by reading some scripts. Don´t forget to write! Best way to learn is to do it (write) while learning the theory from different books on screenwriting.

I highly recommend "Writing YOUR story for the BIG Screen" by Shawn Fornari. I studied under him at the Burt Reynolds Institute of Film and Theater in Jupiter, FL for a couple of years and I can honestly say, this is the Bible for me as an aspiring screenwriter. Good, solid, basic and fundamental information you NEED to know, along with great instruction as to HOW.

A great book to cover all the basics of formatting is "The Hollywood Standard" by Christopher Riley.