Which Lie Did I Tell? by William Goldman Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: William Goldman
at the end of The Princess Bride whereRobin Wright—and yes she is that beautiful—jumped out of a castle window, and Andre was to catch her at the bottom.
The shot was set up for Robin to be lifted just above camera range and then dropped into Andre’s arms. Maybe a foot. Maybe two. But not much and Robin was never that heavy.
The first take, she was dropped and he caught her—and gasped, suddenly white like paper, and almost fell to his knees. His back was bad. And getting worse, and soon there would be surgery.
Andre once said to Billy Crystal, “We do not live long, the big and the small.”
Alas.
----
McKee
Can you learn how to write movies?
No easy answer, but I would say if you have zero facility for the form, no. If you have some, writing courses can sure help a lot. At the very least, you will not write something like this, which I recently had to wade through. (Names changed to protect the innocent.)
OPEN UP ON A HALL IN A CASTLE. Medieval times. Footsteps are heard.
KING
Where are my troops?
PRIME MINISTER
Mounting up, sire.
CRIES ARE HEARD FROM SOMEWHERE.
PRIME MINISTER
(to a guard)
See what that was.
THE GUARD DEPARTS.
KING
I did not like that sound.
I think I made it to the top of page four before surrendering. When I pick up something like that, I feel sadness. Someone spent months on it. Someone has dreams of how the manuscript will change his life.
Personally, I must have had considerable facility for the form. I never saw a screenplay until I was thirty-three, and when I did, wrote one that got me fired ( Charly ). But my second screenplay, Harper, was a hit and is still shown today. Butch came two screenplays later.
Facility, hell—I could make a case—I don’t want to but I could—that it’s been downhill all the way since then.
The main thing to remember is this: you have to try to know. You have to grind one out and have it read before you can chance a guess. You may know you can’t write poetry or novels, but this is so different, you have to give it a shot if you even think it’s what you want to do with your life.
And an awful lot of you are taking that shot. The number of writing applications to one of the nation’s topfilm schools, NYU, for example, has close to tripled in the last decade.
You may not have the time for that kind of thing. Or the amazing amounts of money required. There are still an awful lot of people teaching courses in screenwriting. I hope they’re all terrific, but the one I audited is the most famous: Story Structure byRobert McKee.
He’s a tireless speaker, knowledgeable and passionate—it’s three full days over a single weekend and no one feels cheated when he’s done. He started doing just Saturday mornings at a small school in California, but as interest in screenwriting has risen, so has he, and he is now all over the world. No matter what continent you live on, if you look outside and see a group of writers and movie nuts gathering, probably Robert McKee is in town.
I don’t know if he can teach screenwriting, or if anyone can. But I do know this: after listening to him, I wish he’d been around when I started writing CUT TO for a living.
----
Misery
[1990]
----
Misery came about like this.
I got a call from Rob Reiner saying he was interested in this book by Stephen King and would I read it. He became interested when Andy Scheinman, Reiner’s producer, read it on a plane and wondered who owned the movie rights. The book had been in print for a while, was a number-one best-selling novel, standard for King.
They found out it hadn’t been sold—not for any lack of offers but because King wouldn’t sell it. He had disliked most of the movies made from his work and didn’t want this one, perhaps his favorite, Hollywooded up. Reiner called him and they talked. Now, one of the movies made from his fiction that King did like was Stand By Me, which Reiner directed. The conversation ended with King saying sure, he would sell
The shot was set up for Robin to be lifted just above camera range and then dropped into Andre’s arms. Maybe a foot. Maybe two. But not much and Robin was never that heavy.
The first take, she was dropped and he caught her—and gasped, suddenly white like paper, and almost fell to his knees. His back was bad. And getting worse, and soon there would be surgery.
Andre once said to Billy Crystal, “We do not live long, the big and the small.”
Alas.
----
McKee
Can you learn how to write movies?
No easy answer, but I would say if you have zero facility for the form, no. If you have some, writing courses can sure help a lot. At the very least, you will not write something like this, which I recently had to wade through. (Names changed to protect the innocent.)
OPEN UP ON A HALL IN A CASTLE. Medieval times. Footsteps are heard.
KING
Where are my troops?
PRIME MINISTER
Mounting up, sire.
CRIES ARE HEARD FROM SOMEWHERE.
PRIME MINISTER
(to a guard)
See what that was.
THE GUARD DEPARTS.
KING
I did not like that sound.
I think I made it to the top of page four before surrendering. When I pick up something like that, I feel sadness. Someone spent months on it. Someone has dreams of how the manuscript will change his life.
Personally, I must have had considerable facility for the form. I never saw a screenplay until I was thirty-three, and when I did, wrote one that got me fired ( Charly ). But my second screenplay, Harper, was a hit and is still shown today. Butch came two screenplays later.
Facility, hell—I could make a case—I don’t want to but I could—that it’s been downhill all the way since then.
The main thing to remember is this: you have to try to know. You have to grind one out and have it read before you can chance a guess. You may know you can’t write poetry or novels, but this is so different, you have to give it a shot if you even think it’s what you want to do with your life.
And an awful lot of you are taking that shot. The number of writing applications to one of the nation’s topfilm schools, NYU, for example, has close to tripled in the last decade.
You may not have the time for that kind of thing. Or the amazing amounts of money required. There are still an awful lot of people teaching courses in screenwriting. I hope they’re all terrific, but the one I audited is the most famous: Story Structure byRobert McKee.
He’s a tireless speaker, knowledgeable and passionate—it’s three full days over a single weekend and no one feels cheated when he’s done. He started doing just Saturday mornings at a small school in California, but as interest in screenwriting has risen, so has he, and he is now all over the world. No matter what continent you live on, if you look outside and see a group of writers and movie nuts gathering, probably Robert McKee is in town.
I don’t know if he can teach screenwriting, or if anyone can. But I do know this: after listening to him, I wish he’d been around when I started writing CUT TO for a living.
----
Misery
[1990]
----
Misery came about like this.
I got a call from Rob Reiner saying he was interested in this book by Stephen King and would I read it. He became interested when Andy Scheinman, Reiner’s producer, read it on a plane and wondered who owned the movie rights. The book had been in print for a while, was a number-one best-selling novel, standard for King.
They found out it hadn’t been sold—not for any lack of offers but because King wouldn’t sell it. He had disliked most of the movies made from his work and didn’t want this one, perhaps his favorite, Hollywooded up. Reiner called him and they talked. Now, one of the movies made from his fiction that King did like was Stand By Me, which Reiner directed. The conversation ended with King saying sure, he would sell
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