Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood

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As a successful screenwriter and novelist, William Goldman was perfectly placed to write one of the definitive insider accounts of Hollywood. If you like cinema then this is a fascinating read. Although written in 1983, with many films he cites from this era, I am sure the process is little changed. I’ve gotten at least 3 movies that I have to see now that I never would have if I hadn’t read this book! Goldman also name-drops like a gossip columnist with revealing details and tidbits about familiar names and the then-current (early 1982) Hollywood climate - Stallone, Redford and Newman feature prominently - and many forgotten or never heard of films have been added to my radar.

Adventures In The Screen Trade by William Goldman - Waterstones

Even when I was six and seven and eight, I was hooked. I suppose I still am, but the stuff I see today often vanishes, while the Alcyon remains. Enter Hollywood's inner sanctums in this gosippy and honest book, named one the top 100 film books of all time by The Hollywood Reporter,by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter and bestselling author of The Primcess Bride. Goldman has a gift for writing amiable anecdotes about Hollywood. They read very conversational and fun to read, and are aided by Goldman's insight into historically significant figures from film and stuff. It's so interesting to see insights into Michael Douglas' skills as a producer, or Clint Eastwood's stiff cool as a director, and numerous other examples. Stars, as opposed to character actors, almost never want to look bad. They know that their time in the sun is temporary and are therefore insecure. That Al Pacino scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is more or less an echo of what Goldman observes here. Has this somewhat changed? It seems to me that some stars now take on character actor roles purposefully while others pursue indie roles to broaden their reach. It’s amazingly raw but also helpful because you’re reading him go through the pain as ‘practice’ for you going through the same pain!Adventures in the Screen Trade is a book about Hollywood written in 1983 by American novelist and screenwriter William Goldman. The title is a parody of Dylan Thomas's Adventures in the Skin Trade. The criticisms of his script certainly appear honest! “I know why he fell in love with her. The same reason all men fall in love with women: she’s beautiful.” But then we'd have missed a glorious roller-coaster ride through Tinseltown stuffed to the gills with anecdotes of such toe-curling detail that you believe every word.

Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman - Google Books Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman - Google Books

During the holiday season of '81-'82, sixteen films were released by the major studios. Of those, only one—On Golden Pond—was a runaway success. And ten of the sixteen each lost more than ten million dollars. One major studio executive told me recently, "Of course the failures are upsetting. But there have always been failures. What's got us so immobilized now is that whatever it is that we're making, we're missing the audience by a wider margin than ever before. We don't know what they want. All we do know is that they don't want what we're giving them." A delightful hodgepodge of Hollywood miscellany from the famed screenwriter William Goldman, who wrote Harper, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, Marathon Man, A Bridge Too Far, and many other great movies. This book was originally published in 1983. Because of my Hollywood work, I have seen films on three continents and in at least twice that many foreign countries. 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. PDF / EPUB File Name: Adventures_in_the_Screen_Trade_A_Personal_View_of_Hollywood_-_William_Goldman.pdf, Adventures_in_the_Screen_Trade_A_Personal_View_of_Hollywood_-_William_Goldman.epubIs the second-rateness of the world right now going to drag us storytellers down? The answer is, I don’t know; but I do know we have to try harder. It’s easier, as the audience dumbs down and expects less, to be satisfied with less than our best work.” Amen. Oscar winner William Goldman, who wrote such classic films as HARPER, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, MARATHON MAN and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN shares his unique, often difficult, experiences working with top directors, producers and stars like Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. In "Part Three: Da Vinci", Goldman shows the reader how he would go about adapting his own short story "Da Vinci" into a screenplay. The full text of "Da Vinci" and the subsequent screenplay that he wrote are included, followed by interviews with key movie industry figures, including director George Roy Hill, cinematographer Gordon Willis, and composer Dave Grusin.