WilliamGoldman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Not many people care to admit it, but Hollywood is run by fear. Fear is an emotion generated by things that are not known or understood, and in the movie business, no one ever knows what's going to happen. (William Goldman was right when he said, "Nobody Knows Anything.") All those accountants, producers, publicists, entertainment TV shows, ad campaigns, etc. are all an attempt to get a handle on the unknown, an attempt to control the uncontrollable. Anything can happen. The world's biggest movie star can jump up and down on a couch and suddenly become a weirdo outcast. Or the star of a dismal turkey like Showgirls can turn around and find herself cast in a Woody Allen film. This fear, in essence, is why so many movies are so bad. The more investors and business people try to control their investment, the more they clamp down on it, and the more it gets smothered.

See, movies can live and breathe like an organic life form, but they have to have a chance. If brave producers step back and let the movie come to life in the hands of a genuine artist, they could wind up with something extraordinary like Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men (229 screens), a film that somehow pleased critics both highbrow and middlebrow, won a handful of Oscars and has nearly grossed $75 million. This film has already entered the cultural canon as a classic of cinema. More or less the same can be said of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (224 screens), which, having lost the Oscar for Best Picture, is now in a position of being an underrated underdog. But those are exceptions to the rule. No one is immune to the fear: a few years back the Coen Brothers teamed up with sleazy producer Brian Grazer, of all people, and came up with their first dud, Intolerable Cruelty.

It's Write Stuff time again, and what a crazy time to be a writer! As I'm sure you've heard, on Cinematical and everywhere else, the Writers Guild of America has officially gone on strike. There's not much I can say on the subject that hasn't been better said already-- check out great statements from writers Judd Apatow (Knocked Up), Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Shawn Ryan (The Shield) -- but I am in complete and total support of the strike.

This isn't rich people trying to get richer, as it may seem to a casual observer. Only a handful of writers command the incredible salaries you read about on sites like this one. This strike is about writers wanting only what is fair, now and into the future. Writers get no respect these days. Even a casual film fan can name hundreds of actors and 20 or 30 directors with ease, but how many screenwriters can they name? Plain and simple, without screenwriters those actors have nothing to say. Those directors have nothing to direct. Movies and television would cease to exist, unless The Bachelor 38 is your idea of quality entertainment. These are working people just like anyone else, a Hollywood area code doesn't change that. Their demands are far from outrageous, and it's time to give these talented men and women the respect they deserve. You can find me on the picket lines this week.

Moving on to less stressful matters, let me pop open the old mail bag for three questions from commenter Jim...

Note: This is the premiere entry in a new, weekly Cinematical feature focusing on the art of screenwriting. Welcome!



"That movie sucked! I could write something better than that!"

How many times have you walked out of a film saying those very words? Well, why don't you put your money where your mouth is, Buster Brown? If you can write something better, then by all means -- write! Writing is one of the few professions you can just do. You don't need lots of fancy equipment, you don't need lots of money, you just need a computer (heck, pen and paper will do) and an imagination. It's fun, it's free, and if you're really good at it, you could make a ton of money and get to sit in your underwear while you work. And really, isn't that the American dream?

"But Patrick," you're probably asking. "Where do I start? How do I know what to write about? How will I know if my stuff is good? And who the hell are you, anyway?"

Friends, I'm here to answer all of those questions and much, much more. "The Write Stuff" is a brand new column here at Cinematical devoted to the art of screenwriting. Every other Wednesday, I'll be giving writing advice and tips, answering your questions -- talking shop. On alternate Wednesdays, I'll be interviewing major Hollywood screenwriters about their craft (next Wednesday the interview series kicks off with Adam F. Goldberg, co-writer of the highly anticipated Fanboys, and the upcoming film adaptation of classic cartoon The Jetsons). Ideally, this dual approach will give you two valid perspectives -- one from the writer trying to make it, and one from the writer who's already made it.

Catherine Hardwicke, former production designer and now director of a diverse set of films such as Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown and the recent The Nativity Story, is set to add a pro-environmental project to her already diverse roster of credits. According to Production Weekly, Hardwicke has signed on to direct the feature film adaptation of Edward Abbey's classic anti-establishment novel The Monkey Wrench Gang.

The novel, to be adapted by William Goldman and Christian Forte, concerns George Hayduke, an ex-Green Beret who becomes angry with the way huge corporations are treating the canyons and rivers of his beloved Southwestern desert. So, with the help of a rag-tag, like-minded band of compatriots, including feminist Bonnie Abzug, outcast Mormon Seldom Seen Smith and billboard burner Doc Sarvis, he starts using the tactic of "monkey-wrenching" -- non-violent sabotage that harms machines, not people -- to try and save his precious land from being developed and destroyed.

To be honest, I can't think of too many really good dramatic pro-environmental movies so I think we definitely need one. At the moment, all that comes to mind is the so-so Medicine Man featuring Sean Connery and that really bad Steven Seagal film Fire Down Below -- two films that definitely don't represent the cause very well. Fortunately, with only a few films Catherine Hardwicke has demonstrated her talent and diversity. Plus, William Goldman is, of course, an extremely talented Oscar-winning writer. So, this combo, combined with terrific source material from Edward Abbey, should make for a potent mix.

Many moons ago, genius screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride, Heat, All the President's Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) wrote a movie called Crusade about well, the Crusades. Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to star, Paul Verhoeven was going to direct, and the project advanced far enough to have both a release date and an early promotional campaign. And then, for reasons I can't figure out (if you know anything, please educate us in the comments), the whole thing just vanished.

Now, according to Moviehole, the project is back, possibly still with the participation of governator-but-not-for-long Schwarzenegger, who actually owns the rights. Details are sketchy at this point, but it's unlikely that Verhoeven will be involved, given his concerns about finding funding - especially these days - for a movie about "...the murderous attack of the Christians on the Arabs and the Jews. The Pope instigate[ed] this complete slaughterhouse, which ultimately had only one goal: to destroy as many Arabs as possible." Yeah, you can sorta see how big studios might be just a wee bit leery of that.

More details if we get them.