Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood

Product Information

I know that when I am writing I have to constantly search for those plot holes and then find ways to plug them and it’s really hard without outside help. PS-The title of this book is a PUN on the title: " Adventures in the Skin Trade, a collection of stories by Dylan Thomas. William Goldman is incredible. Prolifically incredible. In several genres. I read this book on 3-18-97 straight through. I know I did because I wrote this quotation:

Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade

Many years ago I read The Princess Bride novel and loved William Goldman's humorous prose. I've also seen quite a few of the films where he was the key screenwriter (such as Butch Cassidy and Misery). So I had pretty high expectations that I'd enjoy this leisurely stroll through the madness of Hollywood - I wasn't disappointed!

Open Library

After reading this very good look at how movies get made, it is kind of amazing that any truly good movies ever make it to the finish line. The book is written with humour as you would expect from the author of The Princess Bride. It includes the entire screenplay of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, followed by a section with Goldman's opinion of what worked and what didn't. A fascinating read. Time has passed and my memory blurs some of the two books together. The 'Butch Cassidy' parts were from the first book, The Princess Bride novel for 'Adventures' and the screenplay for 'Lie', A Bridge Too Far for 'Screentrade' (I've never seen the movie)... I've already reviewed 'Adventures' so I'll just include the rest of my thoughts for this book. (These are not well known books on gr, I've gathered.) How Goldman came up with the ideas for scripts from real events such as Butch Cassidy, the homosexual maneating lions from The Ghost and the Darkness (Michael Douglas would probably be one of the people pissed off by Goldman's book. Boy, does he ever come across as a douche bag), and set down to adapting them for the screen made me think about other stories based on real events, the choices the authors make, relying or not on just what actually happened, finding what was interesting about it in the first place (the Tsavo lions, for example. That wasn't natural, happens every day lion behavior). Choosing which aspect to focus on a story out of a big picture like with the 'Bridge' screenplay. These are all things that anyone wishing to write a story should take into account. Goldman doesn't write a how-to guide but gives you something you can use. He uses his own experiences as examples, and teaches by the benefit of experience. Goldman is a bona fide raconteur, so his stories are amusing and readable, no matter the interest in finding producers, or the money behind the scenes falling apart. [I gotta wonder when Hollywood is going to run out of inspirational true-to-life sports stories. When they do, Mark Wahlberg's career is over.] 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.

Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View [PDF] [EPUB] Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View

A particular pleasure was the story of how ‘The Princess Bride’ got written and the movie got maid, involving Richard Lester of ‘Three Musketeers’ fame (and deservedly so). Yes all of these. Good, but not great. It could have been split and expanded into two better books, imho. This is really the most badass thing I’ve ever read in a script writing book (and I’ve read a few). Full Book Name: Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood by Goldman, William 2Rev Edition (1996)

Create a new list

In this sequel to screenwriter William Goldman's first memoir, "Adventures In The Screen Trade", basically carrying his memoirs forward to the time period 1980-2000, Goldman captures the appeal and basic readability and charm of volume one. I think it's marginally inferior to its first book, but it's still very good. 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.