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A review by heathercawte
Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting by William Goldman
5.0
I really loved this book. Although it was written in the early 80s, so much of what he says about the film industry still seems to hold true.
The first section explains how a project is put together, including some horror stories of projects that took a lot of everyone's time, effort and money and still didn't end up getting made.
The middle, main section deals with some of his screenplays - massive hits such as 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and 'A Bridge Too Far' - and explains how each film came into being. This was particularly interesting to me, as I had seen almost all of the films he was talking about.
The final section comprises an unpublished short story by Goldman, his unfilmed screenplay written from that story, and the comments on it by a variety of professionals such as a composer and a director. It was fascinating to see how they each reacted to it differently, and praised or panned different aspects according to their own expertise.
I found this a very fast and enjoyable read.
The first section explains how a project is put together, including some horror stories of projects that took a lot of everyone's time, effort and money and still didn't end up getting made.
The middle, main section deals with some of his screenplays - massive hits such as 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and 'A Bridge Too Far' - and explains how each film came into being. This was particularly interesting to me, as I had seen almost all of the films he was talking about.
The final section comprises an unpublished short story by Goldman, his unfilmed screenplay written from that story, and the comments on it by a variety of professionals such as a composer and a director. It was fascinating to see how they each reacted to it differently, and praised or panned different aspects according to their own expertise.
I found this a very fast and enjoyable read.