Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting

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Bottom line: Goldman knows his way around a screenplay, and this book is his behind-the-scenes look at his experience of the movie-making process. I’ve written this before and please tattoo it behind your eyeballs: we are all at one another’s mercy…” I want to be friends with William Goldman, author of The Princess Bride and this awesome book! He has the most delightfully conversational style. This book gets pretty technical, but I like that. I don't know if a non-writer would enjoy it quite so much, but maybe if he or she just skipped over the advice in grey, it would be just a book full of dirt on a screenwriter's adventures in Hollywood (among other places.) The Brits are so different from us, there are no words; but nowhere is the difference clearer than when it comes to war: we venerate victories, they adore disasters. So the greatest battle for them in World War II was Dunkirk.”

Two big bonuses of this book: Goldman provides his entire screenplay of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and then analyzes what worked and what didn't. He also provides a short story of his that was not optioned by Hollywood. He translates it into a screenplay for this book and explains the choices he has to make along the way: what characters to keep, what scenes to focus on etc… What is wonderful about this example is that it is set up as if there is a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer in how the script should continue, but it’s made very clear is that it could go ANYWAY! What impressed me so much about Earnie (as another commentator called him) and, now, William Goldman, too, is that they're such sweethearts. Such truly kind and caring (about the whole human race) people. Yes, they're funny, but they're not only funny because they like being funny but also because they care, and they're smart enough to know that one of the most effective ways to scare people into being nicer, is to hit them in the funny bone. Abstracts: No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay. I was intrigued by this book, as a novelist with an interest in writing screenplays, and as a huge fan of the movie The Princess Bride (which Goldman wrote). Overall, I thought it was interesting, entertaining at times, informative at times, and a altogether a decent 'insider's view' of 'the biz'.

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This is a true insider's look at the screenwriting business (from the writer of All the President's Men, Marathon Man and – interestingly, the novel of Princess Bride) and interesting for anyone who writes or likes movies because - yes, there are fun gossipy asides about Hollywood (Robert Redford had ego!), but it's focus is on what makes a good story and how to write one that sells as a screenplay. They're not always the same thing. According to Goldman, the single most important fact in the movie industry is that "Nobody Knows Anything". The Mastermind", expanding on the actual 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa painting, partially based on Seymour Reit's book The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa. [ citation needed]

Goldman also wrote a series of memoirs about his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood. [The first of these was this book, "ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE".] The situation was now getting the least bit uncomfortable. “If it’s a woman it’s either Streisand or Julie Andrews.” Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-01-22 12:07:26 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40334723 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifierIt all just seemed forced and he sounded really full of himself. A great example of that is how he's harder on himself than his critics, but he's also a better writer than almost anyone. Ha ha ha...such modesty. As far as the filmmaking process is concerned, stars are essentially worthless -- and absolutely essential.” William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays. In the middle section, Goldman gets a little personal, sharing stories about his life in the biz, working with larger-than-life names like Laurence Olivia, Robert Redford, and Dustin Hoffman. He also digs into why he believes some of his films failed.

Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade is a work of non-fiction first published in 2000 by novelist and screenwriter William Goldman. It is the follow-up to his 1982 book Adventures in the Screen Trade.If you haven't, I highly recommend "Adventures In The Screen Trade" as a book with very similar structure that was honestly better than this one. The breakdown in "Butch Cassidy and Sundance" from that book alone...

And the grand experiment of the last part of the book, where Goldman wrote a new script for the sake of publishing it in this book and having famous screenwriters critique it. The script, "The Big A", about a PI and his relationship with his ex-wife and his kids who want in on the family business, is pretty flat in its writing. And then of course, while you are stewing, he kills it. He writes the scenes that work, that play well and are the most logical next steps in the movie. It may not be Oscar-bait, but it’s a film you’ll like AND YOU WILL KNOW WHY ITS WRITTEN THAT WAY. Dolores Claiborne (1995; consultant), The Chamber (1996) - based on the novel by John Grisham, Extreme Measures (1996; consultant), The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), Good Will Hunting (1997; consultant), Absolute Power (1997), The General's Daughter (1999), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Dreamcatcher (2003), Wild Card (2014) - based on his novel.

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PS-The title of this book is a PUN on the title: " Adventures in the Skin Trade, a collection of stories by Dylan Thomas.