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Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay. Says columnist Liz Smith, "You'll be fascinated.
608 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
666 people are currently reading
10.1k people want to read
About the author
William Goldman
82books2,577followersGoldman grew up in a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University in 1956.His brother was the late James Goldman, author and playwright.
William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays.
In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the , which marked his re-entry into screenwriting.
Goldman won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.
Goldman died in New York City on November 16, 2018, due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. He was eighty-seven years old.
William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays.
In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the , which marked his re-entry into screenwriting.
Goldman won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.
Goldman died in New York City on November 16, 2018, due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. He was eighty-seven years old.
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June 17, 2020
Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting, William Goldman
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.
Abstracts: No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز شانزدهم ماه مارس سال 2004 میلادی
عنوان: روند اقتباس از دیدگاه یک فیلمنامه نویس؛ اثر وی‍ل‍ی‍ام� گ‍ل‍دم‍ن� مت‍رج� ع‍ب‍اس� اک‍ب‍ری� نشر ته‍ران� س‍روش� (ان‍ت‍ش‍ارات� ص‍د� و س‍ی‍م�)� 1377، در 136ص، شابک 9644351797؛ موضوع فیلمنامه� ن‍وی‍س‍ی� س‍ی‍ن‍م� - ص‍ن‍ع‍ت� - ای‍الات� م‍ت‍ح‍ده� هالیوو� (لوس آنجلس، کالیفرنیا)� - سده 20م
کتاب درباره ی روند تبدیل یک «قطعه داستانی»، به یک «فیلمنامه� است؛ متن آغازین کتاب، مربوط به یک قطعه داستانی، درباره ی آرایشگری به نام «داوینچی» است، که با توجه به آن قطعه، نویسنده مباحثی همچون «موضوع داستان»، «نقش زمان و مکان»، «شخصیت‌ه� و نقاط اتکا» ـ که فیلم‌نام� نویس در حین اقتباس با آن مواجه می‌شو� ـ را مطرح میکند، وی سپس متن فیلمنامه� ای را که از داستان «داوینچی» تهیه شده، عرضه کرده، در پایان دیدگاه‌ها� برخی از همکاران نویسنده را، اعم از «طراح صحنه»، «فیلم‌بردار»� «تدوین‌گر»� «آهنگ‌ساز� و «کارگردان» را، در خصوص اعمال تغییرات لازم، برای بهبود فیلم‌نام� گوشزد می‌کن�
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/03/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
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.
Abstracts: No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز شانزدهم ماه مارس سال 2004 میلادی
عنوان: روند اقتباس از دیدگاه یک فیلمنامه نویس؛ اثر وی‍ل‍ی‍ام� گ‍ل‍دم‍ن� مت‍رج� ع‍ب‍اس� اک‍ب‍ری� نشر ته‍ران� س‍روش� (ان‍ت‍ش‍ارات� ص‍د� و س‍ی‍م�)� 1377، در 136ص، شابک 9644351797؛ موضوع فیلمنامه� ن‍وی‍س‍ی� س‍ی‍ن‍م� - ص‍ن‍ع‍ت� - ای‍الات� م‍ت‍ح‍ده� هالیوو� (لوس آنجلس، کالیفرنیا)� - سده 20م
کتاب درباره ی روند تبدیل یک «قطعه داستانی»، به یک «فیلمنامه� است؛ متن آغازین کتاب، مربوط به یک قطعه داستانی، درباره ی آرایشگری به نام «داوینچی» است، که با توجه به آن قطعه، نویسنده مباحثی همچون «موضوع داستان»، «نقش زمان و مکان»، «شخصیت‌ه� و نقاط اتکا» ـ که فیلم‌نام� نویس در حین اقتباس با آن مواجه می‌شو� ـ را مطرح میکند، وی سپس متن فیلمنامه� ای را که از داستان «داوینچی» تهیه شده، عرضه کرده، در پایان دیدگاه‌ها� برخی از همکاران نویسنده را، اعم از «طراح صحنه»، «فیلم‌بردار»� «تدوین‌گر»� «آهنگ‌ساز� و «کارگردان» را، در خصوص اعمال تغییرات لازم، برای بهبود فیلم‌نام� گوشزد می‌کن�
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/03/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
February 4, 2016
dishy, delicious, and—shockingly—very, very useful.
a couple years back i thought i'd move to hollywood and write movies for a living.
i love movies.
i write good.
what could go wrong?
everything. everything could go wrong.
because being a screenwriter is exactly like john august describes—except with a simply staggering amount of asslicking and a dash of despair he's too genteel to mention.
the stories, people... the stories. actors are appalling people—and so are studio execs.
recommended.
a couple years back i thought i'd move to hollywood and write movies for a living.
i love movies.
i write good.
what could go wrong?
everything. everything could go wrong.
because being a screenwriter is exactly like john august describes—except with a simply staggering amount of asslicking and a dash of despair he's too genteel to mention.
the stories, people... the stories. actors are appalling people—and so are studio execs.
recommended.
June 1, 2012
Man, William Goldman makes himself out to be a real asshole. He's so irritating, in fact, that after a two-week break away from Adventures in the Screen Trade I cashed in with over 100 pages left, because I couldn't stand the thought of going back to have him bitch at me like my worst film school instructors used to, bitter that a lack of work forced them into talking about their job instead of doing it.
Goldman launches his first fart rocket within the opening 20 pages, tattling four anecdotes to illustrate that movie stars are bad people. He mentions that, out of courtesy, he's only naming two of the actors in question because some of them have recently died. But then he goes on to redact the identities of the deadies, while going right ahead and smearing the two performers who still have careers left to ruin.
That strange blend of bitterness and false modesty permeates the rest of this farrago of a -- what is it, a memoir? A handbook? A two-inch thick advance check? Whatever it is, it's macramed into a few dozen short sections seemingly based on the order of the manuscript pages after a passing bus blew them across Goldman's parquet floor. Each of those section manages to take a swipe at individuals, groups, or imagined coteries of robed gnomes William perceives of having wronged him, the targeted loogies flying from behind a shield forged of "Oh well, what do I know? I'm just a regular guy who fell into a wacky business full of crazy Hollywood types [that also made me rich and famous and got me a book deal to write all about it, but trust me I'm just like you]."
BIll's such a regular guy that, when he came to LA for his first movie biz meeting, he couldn't stand the thought of being picked up at the airport by a chauffeur-driven car and insisted on riding up in front with driver, because that's what regular guys like him and me and you do. I assume that Goldman, so proud of his New York City heritage, had never been in a cab before. Nor realized that lots of regular guys dream of being in a position where rich people send expensive cars to drive them around. But Will shares that story and others like it throughout the book to casually note what a humble, normal person he is, despite the fact that humble, normal people avoid constantly pointing out how humble they are in their books published by Time Warner.
Anyway, Goldman goes on to cheerfully disparage studio execs, actors, directors, actors, audiences, and also actors. He finds page space to belittle the auteur theory and anyone who subscribes to it, insisting that all movies are a team effort, while still blaming his failed movies on everybody else that worked on them. Billy also loves to explain other people's decisions and character traits he dislikes by ascribing thought processes to them, while managing to ignore the fact that he's making shit up out of boogers and ego. Dustin Hoffman refused a scene in Marathon Man that required his character to keep a flashlight in his nightstand, Goldman insists, because Dustin thought it would make him look weak on screen, and every male movie star, deep down, will never allow himself to look weak on screen. I'm curious as to what Goldman thought of Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance six years later as an almost helpless savant in Rain Man.
Between all the self-aggrandizing and payback that Willy skillfully disguises as friendly banter, he throws in some screenwriting advice. As a screenwriter myself, I can say that some of it's quite good, while some is just objectively crappy. He devotes a section to subtext but doesn't seem to have a clear idea of the difference between subtext and basic cinematic storytelling techniques. He writes a lousy four-page movie opening to demonstrate how to write a lousy movie opening and then, of all the scene's lousy features, pinpoints as lousy the only reasonably acceptable one.
Luckily I doubt many writers ever end up taking much advice from Adventures in the Screen Trade, because the book isn't written for them. Actually, I have no idea who it's written for. I can't imagine that the same readers who want mouthfuls of dirt about starlets having affairs with directors or a prison guard's testimony that his wife would crawl on her knees just for a chance to fuck Robert Redford also want to read a glossary of screenplay slug lines or the entire script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But if you're interested in the movie industry and are willing to weed through 600 pages (and twice as many ellipses), it's sometimes fun to watch the spray of Goldman's vindictive bloodletting. Too bad he leaves you to clean up the mess.
Goldman launches his first fart rocket within the opening 20 pages, tattling four anecdotes to illustrate that movie stars are bad people. He mentions that, out of courtesy, he's only naming two of the actors in question because some of them have recently died. But then he goes on to redact the identities of the deadies, while going right ahead and smearing the two performers who still have careers left to ruin.
That strange blend of bitterness and false modesty permeates the rest of this farrago of a -- what is it, a memoir? A handbook? A two-inch thick advance check? Whatever it is, it's macramed into a few dozen short sections seemingly based on the order of the manuscript pages after a passing bus blew them across Goldman's parquet floor. Each of those section manages to take a swipe at individuals, groups, or imagined coteries of robed gnomes William perceives of having wronged him, the targeted loogies flying from behind a shield forged of "Oh well, what do I know? I'm just a regular guy who fell into a wacky business full of crazy Hollywood types [that also made me rich and famous and got me a book deal to write all about it, but trust me I'm just like you]."
BIll's such a regular guy that, when he came to LA for his first movie biz meeting, he couldn't stand the thought of being picked up at the airport by a chauffeur-driven car and insisted on riding up in front with driver, because that's what regular guys like him and me and you do. I assume that Goldman, so proud of his New York City heritage, had never been in a cab before. Nor realized that lots of regular guys dream of being in a position where rich people send expensive cars to drive them around. But Will shares that story and others like it throughout the book to casually note what a humble, normal person he is, despite the fact that humble, normal people avoid constantly pointing out how humble they are in their books published by Time Warner.
Anyway, Goldman goes on to cheerfully disparage studio execs, actors, directors, actors, audiences, and also actors. He finds page space to belittle the auteur theory and anyone who subscribes to it, insisting that all movies are a team effort, while still blaming his failed movies on everybody else that worked on them. Billy also loves to explain other people's decisions and character traits he dislikes by ascribing thought processes to them, while managing to ignore the fact that he's making shit up out of boogers and ego. Dustin Hoffman refused a scene in Marathon Man that required his character to keep a flashlight in his nightstand, Goldman insists, because Dustin thought it would make him look weak on screen, and every male movie star, deep down, will never allow himself to look weak on screen. I'm curious as to what Goldman thought of Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance six years later as an almost helpless savant in Rain Man.
Between all the self-aggrandizing and payback that Willy skillfully disguises as friendly banter, he throws in some screenwriting advice. As a screenwriter myself, I can say that some of it's quite good, while some is just objectively crappy. He devotes a section to subtext but doesn't seem to have a clear idea of the difference between subtext and basic cinematic storytelling techniques. He writes a lousy four-page movie opening to demonstrate how to write a lousy movie opening and then, of all the scene's lousy features, pinpoints as lousy the only reasonably acceptable one.
Luckily I doubt many writers ever end up taking much advice from Adventures in the Screen Trade, because the book isn't written for them. Actually, I have no idea who it's written for. I can't imagine that the same readers who want mouthfuls of dirt about starlets having affairs with directors or a prison guard's testimony that his wife would crawl on her knees just for a chance to fuck Robert Redford also want to read a glossary of screenplay slug lines or the entire script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But if you're interested in the movie industry and are willing to weed through 600 pages (and twice as many ellipses), it's sometimes fun to watch the spray of Goldman's vindictive bloodletting. Too bad he leaves you to clean up the mess.
July 22, 2008
Nobody Knows Anything.
Goldman could almost have saved us the 400-pages of what is still one of the most insightful books about the movie-industry, and just printed his Law on a single page at the front.
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.
And even now, 25 years later, it still all rings true. Read it, and you too might understand how lucky we are to get the occasional "great" movie. Because it's quite simple:
Nobody Knows Anything.
Goldman could almost have saved us the 400-pages of what is still one of the most insightful books about the movie-industry, and just printed his Law on a single page at the front.
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.
And even now, 25 years later, it still all rings true. Read it, and you too might understand how lucky we are to get the occasional "great" movie. Because it's quite simple:
Nobody Knows Anything.
August 18, 2020
Goldman is one of the best storytellers this country has produced, which may seem a bold claim to some, but it happens to be true. His most famous axiom, that “nobody knows anything� is one of those things that grow truer with time and experience. Goldman was referring to success in the movie business, the idea being that when something worked and was a hit, it just kind of worked and nobody really knew why, though everyone with a hand in the production would claim otherwise.
This collection of anecdotes, advice, and essays is one of the most engaging pieces of writing that I’ve read. Just an old pro relating his experiences and humbly passing on what he knows. There is a great deal of wisdom to be found in this book. I suppose some could find his tone curmudgeonly, but I like to think of it as old school and iconoclastic, he’s going to tell you how he sees things and not kiss anyone's ass along the way.
“Over the years I have met and worked with a dozen prize-winning American directors, and there is not one whose “philosophy� or “worldview� remotely interests me. The total amount of what they have to “say� cannot cover the bottom of even a small teacup.� Ha! The book is filled with that kind of thing. It's not mean, just honest.
Adventures is up there with Mamet’s Three Uses of the Knife and King’s On writing as far as useful books to would-be writers and storytellers.
This collection of anecdotes, advice, and essays is one of the most engaging pieces of writing that I’ve read. Just an old pro relating his experiences and humbly passing on what he knows. There is a great deal of wisdom to be found in this book. I suppose some could find his tone curmudgeonly, but I like to think of it as old school and iconoclastic, he’s going to tell you how he sees things and not kiss anyone's ass along the way.
“Over the years I have met and worked with a dozen prize-winning American directors, and there is not one whose “philosophy� or “worldview� remotely interests me. The total amount of what they have to “say� cannot cover the bottom of even a small teacup.� Ha! The book is filled with that kind of thing. It's not mean, just honest.
Adventures is up there with Mamet’s Three Uses of the Knife and King’s On writing as far as useful books to would-be writers and storytellers.
June 12, 2018
We've been listening to and it got me thinking that I hadn't read this book in many years, though I loved it the first time. So I bought a copy and dipped into it over the course of four or five days. Goldman's insider's approach is still compelling, though I wondered how much of what he says about how Hollywood works is still true 36 years later. It's also interesting to note some of what he failed to predict, from his assumption that E.T. The Extraterrestrial would win the Academy Award for Best Picture (at the time, Gandhi wasn't out) to his casual comments about women in action movies (i.e. that they slow a movie down--he had no concept of women someday starring in action films). However, the inclusion of the screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid makes the book even more valuable, especially since he also analyzes the screenplay and what works and what doesn't. The only thing that would make this book better, in my opinion, is if he'd written it five years later--so he could discuss The Princess Bride.
December 6, 2008
This is perhaps the best book about screenwriting and the film business ever written.
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.
If survival in the Hollywood film industry is possible, then there is no better "survival guide" than this book, because Goldman tells it like it is. He pulls no punches.
According to Goldman, the single most important fact in the movie industry is that "Nobody Knows Anything".
Most of the book's second-half is a primer on how to write a successful screenplay.
What does Goldman feel is the most important lesson to be learned about writing for films?
1. "Screenplays Are Structure"
2. You protect the "spine" of that structure "to the death".
If you want to work (and succeed) in Hollywood, then this is a book that you must carry around with you...like a Bible.
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.
If survival in the Hollywood film industry is possible, then there is no better "survival guide" than this book, because Goldman tells it like it is. He pulls no punches.
According to Goldman, the single most important fact in the movie industry is that "Nobody Knows Anything".
Most of the book's second-half is a primer on how to write a successful screenplay.
What does Goldman feel is the most important lesson to be learned about writing for films?
1. "Screenplays Are Structure"
2. You protect the "spine" of that structure "to the death".
If you want to work (and succeed) in Hollywood, then this is a book that you must carry around with you...like a Bible.
December 2, 2018
The recent sad news of the death of reminded me of an episode of the wonderful Backlisted Podcast about his book . What better way to honour the great man's memory than by reading this book?
As a successful screenwriter and novelist, 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.
is a sparkling memoir and every bit as entertaining as some of the landmark films he helped create (including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and Marathon Man).
A great mix of gossip, advice, and insight, remains a complete delight for cineastes - and a valuable trove of advice for anyone hoping to make a career as a screenwriter.
4/5
As a successful screenwriter and novelist, 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.
is a sparkling memoir and every bit as entertaining as some of the landmark films he helped create (including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and Marathon Man).
A great mix of gossip, advice, and insight, remains a complete delight for cineastes - and a valuable trove of advice for anyone hoping to make a career as a screenwriter.
4/5
March 18, 2013
This is a true insider's look at the screenwriting business (from the writer of All the President's Men, Marathon Man and � interestingly, the novel of Princess Bride) and interesting for anyone who writes or likes movies because - yes, there are fun gossipy asides about Hollywood (Robert Redford had ego!), but it's focus is on what makes a good story and how to write one that sells as a screenplay. They're not always the same thing.
Two big bonuses of this book: Goldman provides his entire screenplay of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and then analyzes what worked and what didn't. He also provides a short story of his that was not optioned by Hollywood. He translates it into a screenplay for this book and explains the choices he has to make along the way: what characters to keep, what scenes to focus on etc�
He then solicits feedback from a suite of movie insiders: a director, editor, cinematographer, etc ... about the resulting work. They give fascinating and practical insights into what they think of this screenplay and what makes a movie work in general, sometimes contradicting one another. Whether you agree with them is another matter.
The only detractor is that the book was written in 1983 and the references to stars include: Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, etc.. and feel dated, even though the insights into writing are not.
Two big bonuses of this book: Goldman provides his entire screenplay of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and then analyzes what worked and what didn't. He also provides a short story of his that was not optioned by Hollywood. He translates it into a screenplay for this book and explains the choices he has to make along the way: what characters to keep, what scenes to focus on etc�
He then solicits feedback from a suite of movie insiders: a director, editor, cinematographer, etc ... about the resulting work. They give fascinating and practical insights into what they think of this screenplay and what makes a movie work in general, sometimes contradicting one another. Whether you agree with them is another matter.
The only detractor is that the book was written in 1983 and the references to stars include: Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, etc.. and feel dated, even though the insights into writing are not.
January 22, 2025
Everyone needs to read this book! Regardless of if you're interested in film or writing, this was an adventure!!!! Highly recommend!
"And this was Newman's forecasting his client's future. But he wasn't cruel, not in his terms. He was simply facing the realities that stars come and go.
Only agents last forever..."
"The primary success available to a screenwriter is financial and that's all well and good for bankers and businessmen, how else would they keep score? But if you are the kind of weird person who has a need to bring something into being and all you do with your life is turn out screenplays, I may covet your band account, but I wouldn't give two bits for your soul."
"There is a Women's Liberation term called shitwork and it means work that when it is well done is unnoticed."
"before you begin, you must have everything clear in your head and you must be comfortable with the story you're trying to tell. Once you start writing, go like hell - but don't fire till you're ready..."
"Look at what you've written. If all that's going on in your scenes is what's going on in your scenes, think about it a long time."
"I don't want to be the man who learns - I want to be the man who knows."
"Give the audience half a dozen moments they can remember, and they'll leave the theatre happy."
"The moral I guess is this: Truth is terrific, reality is even better, but believability is best of all.
Because with out it, truth and reality go right out the window..."
"I think it was Hemingway who advised "Take the money and run." Not without wisdom"
"...and may you ignore the critics when they attack you, and pay no attention to their praise..."
"And this was Newman's forecasting his client's future. But he wasn't cruel, not in his terms. He was simply facing the realities that stars come and go.
Only agents last forever..."
"The primary success available to a screenwriter is financial and that's all well and good for bankers and businessmen, how else would they keep score? But if you are the kind of weird person who has a need to bring something into being and all you do with your life is turn out screenplays, I may covet your band account, but I wouldn't give two bits for your soul."
"There is a Women's Liberation term called shitwork and it means work that when it is well done is unnoticed."
"before you begin, you must have everything clear in your head and you must be comfortable with the story you're trying to tell. Once you start writing, go like hell - but don't fire till you're ready..."
"Look at what you've written. If all that's going on in your scenes is what's going on in your scenes, think about it a long time."
"I don't want to be the man who learns - I want to be the man who knows."
"Give the audience half a dozen moments they can remember, and they'll leave the theatre happy."
"The moral I guess is this: Truth is terrific, reality is even better, but believability is best of all.
Because with out it, truth and reality go right out the window..."
"I think it was Hemingway who advised "Take the money and run." Not without wisdom"
"...and may you ignore the critics when they attack you, and pay no attention to their praise..."
September 7, 2009
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:
"Nobody knows anything.
Again, for emphasis...
Nobody knows anything."
"Nobody knows anything.
Again, for emphasis...
Nobody knows anything."
February 27, 2025
A super fast read if you like movies as much as I do. And besides all the fun behind-the-Scenes (Bits about Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, etc.) this book even had some lessons in writing a screenplay.
William Goldman wrote this book as if he was sitting down with you, and carefully explaining movies in all its parts, n everyday terms.
I loved it. Goldman may know what he is doing since he worked on: A Bridge Too Far, Marathon Man, The Great Waldo Pepper, Harper, The Princess’s Bride, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, and All The Presidents Men and more. He did a lot of work on other films some of which replaced him for, no good reason like The Right Stuff, Charley, etc.
I love William Goldman’s writing and have read: Heat, Marathon Man, Brothers, and Magic. Eager to read The Princess’s Bride, Control, Tinsel, and more.
Now onto “More Adventures In The Screen Trade� (2000) by WG.
William Goldman wrote this book as if he was sitting down with you, and carefully explaining movies in all its parts, n everyday terms.
I loved it. Goldman may know what he is doing since he worked on: A Bridge Too Far, Marathon Man, The Great Waldo Pepper, Harper, The Princess’s Bride, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, and All The Presidents Men and more. He did a lot of work on other films some of which replaced him for, no good reason like The Right Stuff, Charley, etc.
I love William Goldman’s writing and have read: Heat, Marathon Man, Brothers, and Magic. Eager to read The Princess’s Bride, Control, Tinsel, and more.
Now onto “More Adventures In The Screen Trade� (2000) by WG.
December 14, 2012
I don't think I have much to say that hasn't been said repeatedly below but yes, this is an excellent behind-the-scenes look at the craft of screenwriting and yes, it's kind of crazy how well it holds up 30 years after it was written. I live in Los Angeles, in the heart of the filmmaking industry, and it seems all I ever hear about is how that industry is going down the toilet. Well, in this book Goldman also laments how the industry is going down the toilet, how they are making fewer and fewer movies, and so on... It would seem that Hollywood can always find something to worry about on the business side, no matter what era it's in. Perhaps any industry can.
This, for me as a struggling screenwriter, was perhaps the best takeaway from Adventures in the Screen Trade - that the biz is always hard, it's always going to be hard to break into it, and at a certain point you just need to shut up and write. Goldman never says that phrase exactly but his famous phrase, "nobody knows anything," says more than enough: all you can rely on is our own work, so try to make some good work and let the stuff you can't control take care of itself.
And there's a bunch of other good stuff and fun anecdotes as you already know, though those parts actually do feel a bit dated. Sure Butch Cassidy is a classic, but a lot of the films Goldman mentions have been long forgotten. Still he's an engaging storyteller no matter what the topic and he's not too precious about the craft, which is also awfully important to keep in mind for aspiring writers. If there's any profession where some perspective is required on your importance to the engine that pays you, it's screenwriting. Goldman has that perspective.
This, for me as a struggling screenwriter, was perhaps the best takeaway from Adventures in the Screen Trade - that the biz is always hard, it's always going to be hard to break into it, and at a certain point you just need to shut up and write. Goldman never says that phrase exactly but his famous phrase, "nobody knows anything," says more than enough: all you can rely on is our own work, so try to make some good work and let the stuff you can't control take care of itself.
And there's a bunch of other good stuff and fun anecdotes as you already know, though those parts actually do feel a bit dated. Sure Butch Cassidy is a classic, but a lot of the films Goldman mentions have been long forgotten. Still he's an engaging storyteller no matter what the topic and he's not too precious about the craft, which is also awfully important to keep in mind for aspiring writers. If there's any profession where some perspective is required on your importance to the engine that pays you, it's screenwriting. Goldman has that perspective.
January 13, 2022
Quiconque est sérieux à l'idée d'être scénariste se doit de lire cette Bible de Bill Goldman, scénariste de Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Princess Bride, etc.
Parce que c'est (une chance!) foutrement bien écrit, concis et très pratique sans donner de « trucs » enrubannés sensés faire de votre petit scénario de rien du tout un chef-d'œuvre digne de Steinbeck. Juste de la job sale mais passionnée, sans bullshit et plein d'humour.
Parce que c'est (une chance!) foutrement bien écrit, concis et très pratique sans donner de « trucs » enrubannés sensés faire de votre petit scénario de rien du tout un chef-d'œuvre digne de Steinbeck. Juste de la job sale mais passionnée, sans bullshit et plein d'humour.
February 7, 2017
It was an entertaining book, but it didn't know what it wanted to be. A primer on how to hustle as a screenwriter? Amusing anecdotes about the movies he's worked on? A script workshop for tourists and beginners?
Yes all of these. Good, but not great. It could have been split and expanded into two better books, imho.
For fans of Goldman: He's a good writer and an entertaining read.
Yes all of these. Good, but not great. It could have been split and expanded into two better books, imho.
For fans of Goldman: He's a good writer and an entertaining read.
August 13, 2024
4.5! Really great read partially about screenwriting and structure, but largely about the incredible amount of (very collective!) effort that goes into putting a movie together. There's lots that (as I understand) remain true about how "packages" (combos of scripts, actors, etc) form, sell, and break apart, and the general 'relay race' aspects of putting a movie together. I read the first part of this last summer and just recently finished the latter 2/3rds of it and enjoyed immensely. Some of the best insights come from Goldman running through a bunch of his own work (inc'l Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!) and thew hole sequence at the end where he prints a short story, runs through how he thinks about making a screenplay, the screenplay, and notes from a director, cinematographer, production designer, etc afterwards. Perhaps most interesting to me here is a lens into how a lot of these creative decisions are made: Goldman frames this process as much more objective than I think I'd imagine, re "problems" in the script that can be solved in a variety of ways (which way, of course, determined by taste).
Anyways, lots of insight and really fun read, I broke this apart over awhile but tore through the beginning and tore through it again when I picked it up!
Anyways, lots of insight and really fun read, I broke this apart over awhile but tore through the beginning and tore through it again when I picked it up!
September 24, 2022
this is a nonfiction how-to-adapt-a-novel-to-a-screenplay memoir by a well-known screenwriter. (All the President’s� Men, etc). I read it because one of my favorite authors read it when he had to do a screenplay of one of his novels. The author wrote the screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid. He talks a lot about Hollywood and there are some darling little stories about particular stars and directors, then he shows you the actual screenplay for the movie with directions to the actors etc., then he breaks down what is weak and strong about the screenplay. Towards the end he has you read a short story he wrote and then the screen play version. This became my bathroom book. A good read if you plan to write a screenplay but if not I would pass.
December 20, 2024
A love letter to how easy it is to fire and replace labour in the US.
-
Such a speedy read - you can tell it’s been written (and according to him, more importantly, structured) by a screenwriter. Good mix of stories and advice, and the final chapter worked example is great - particularly finishing with an intense criticism of his own work by Hill which puts the rest of the book in perspective.
-
Never seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The only reason I know of it at all is my mum going “phwoarr, that Robert Redford�.
-
Such a speedy read - you can tell it’s been written (and according to him, more importantly, structured) by a screenwriter. Good mix of stories and advice, and the final chapter worked example is great - particularly finishing with an intense criticism of his own work by Hill which puts the rest of the book in perspective.
-
Never seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The only reason I know of it at all is my mum going “phwoarr, that Robert Redford�.
December 13, 2021
If you're interested in learning how to write screenplays then this is all you need.
May 17, 2018
One thing is clear from the beginning - Bill loves the movies. You would have to, I mean really really really have to, just to put yourself through the torture of writing for them, because that's the message that comes out of this again and again - prepare to be shat on. This is a gentle book; world weary, with a big heart. After detailing the vast amount of work it takes to bring a script all the way to the big screen, it's no wonder Goldman gets so angry at the Auteur theory. My only gripe about an otherwise insightful book is that the author is very hard on schlock horror b movies - a staple of my life for as long as I care to remember.
February 28, 2016
Added 7/22/08.
EDIT 4/7/13: VERY interesting and told in an engaging manner. I enjoyed this book.
William Goldman is the Hollywood screenwriter who wrote "The Princess Bride". Screenwriting is not an easy profession because it's filled with all kinds of frustrations and set-backs.
ADDENDUM - 2/27/16:
PS-The title of this book is a PUN on the title: ", a collection of stories by .
PPS-More about William Goldman from WIKI:
====================================
"WILLIAM GOLDMAN (born 1931) is an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist, before turning to writing for film. He has won two Academy Awards for his screenplays, first for the western _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ (1969) and again for _All the President's Men_ (1976), about journalists who broke the Watergate scandal of President Richard Nixon. Both films starred Robert Redford. His other notable works include his thriller novel (first published 1974) and comedy-fantasy novel, (first published 1973), both of which Goldman adapted for film."
Goldman also wrote a series of memoirs about his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood. [The first of these was this book, "ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE".]
ABOVE IS FROM WIKI:
===================================
I also read: Goldman's book: ".
PPPS-Don't confuse this author, WILLIAM GOLDMAN, with the other author named WILLIAM GOLDING, who wrote: (1954).
EDIT 4/7/13: VERY interesting and told in an engaging manner. I enjoyed this book.
William Goldman is the Hollywood screenwriter who wrote "The Princess Bride". Screenwriting is not an easy profession because it's filled with all kinds of frustrations and set-backs.
ADDENDUM - 2/27/16:
PS-The title of this book is a PUN on the title: ", a collection of stories by .
PPS-More about William Goldman from WIKI:
====================================
"WILLIAM GOLDMAN (born 1931) is an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist, before turning to writing for film. He has won two Academy Awards for his screenplays, first for the western _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ (1969) and again for _All the President's Men_ (1976), about journalists who broke the Watergate scandal of President Richard Nixon. Both films starred Robert Redford. His other notable works include his thriller novel (first published 1974) and comedy-fantasy novel, (first published 1973), both of which Goldman adapted for film."
Goldman also wrote a series of memoirs about his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood. [The first of these was this book, "ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE".]
ABOVE IS FROM WIKI:
===================================
I also read: Goldman's book: ".
PPPS-Don't confuse this author, WILLIAM GOLDMAN, with the other author named WILLIAM GOLDING, who wrote: (1954).
May 7, 2014
A glorious tour of the sausage factory with a guy who breeds champion hogs. That's the image that came to mind as I finished this funny, authentic look at the movie business by a celebrated screenwriter (and novelist). Bill Goldman is painfully frank about his struggles, his weaknesses, and the seamy underbelly of the business that has paid his bills for decades. Writing in the wake of the "Heaven's Gate" disaster which shook the confidence of almost everyone in Hollywood (1982), Goldman still manages to end the book on an upbeat and hopeful note. And it turns out he was mostly right about the future.
The last section of the book is a particularly helpful exercise where he takes one of his short stories, wrestles it into a screenplay, and then interviews a cinematographer, a production designer, an editor, a composer and a director about what they would do with his finished product. (The director's critique is withering, and hilarious.) He admits that those interviews were the first time in his career that he had spent more than five minutes alone speaking with any of those film professionals, with the exception of the director.
Writers tend to be a cloistered lot, and blinkered when it comes to the "business" of the movie business. "Adventures in the Screen Trade" is a non-threatening tonic for this ailment.
The last section of the book is a particularly helpful exercise where he takes one of his short stories, wrestles it into a screenplay, and then interviews a cinematographer, a production designer, an editor, a composer and a director about what they would do with his finished product. (The director's critique is withering, and hilarious.) He admits that those interviews were the first time in his career that he had spent more than five minutes alone speaking with any of those film professionals, with the exception of the director.
Writers tend to be a cloistered lot, and blinkered when it comes to the "business" of the movie business. "Adventures in the Screen Trade" is a non-threatening tonic for this ailment.
January 13, 2010
Oh, this was so much fun! I just Wikipedia-ed him and really want to read Which Lie Did I Tell Now, since my only criticism (and it's not a criticism, really) of Adventures in the Screen Trade is that it came out in 1983, when people still thought Burt Reynolds was hot shit. I want to read Goldman's follow-up in hopes that he lets on how much had/hadn't changed in 17 years...and how much fun it was to write The Princess Bride (book and screenplay). Anyway, if you're a fan of Hollywood stories, this is a must.
November 22, 2020
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.
The book has three parts:
Part One: Hollywood Realities—Goldman's scathing take on the stars, studio executives, directors, agents, and producers of Hollywood.
Part Two: Adventures—Goldman's personal adventures in screenwriting.
Part Three: Da Vinci—A screenwriting workshop that takes one of Goldman's early short stories, adapts it into a screen treatment, and then runs it by colleagues on their thoughts on taking the script to production.
By far my favorite part in the book is Part Two. Nothing is more entertaining than reading about Bill Goldman in the trenches, trying his best to ensure that a movie he's working on will actually get finished. More often than not he succeeds, but sometimes insurmountable obstacles make failure a certainty.
Here’s Goldman’s legendary quote about Hollywood:
Goldman alleges that no one in Hollywood knows for certain what’s going to work with audiences. They don’t know when the movie’s starting to shoot, when it's in preview, or when it's finished. A movie’s success is pure guesswork. Unless you’re Joseph E. Levine, who was already $4 million in the black due to advance bookings for A Bridge Too Far before the movie even opened. Levine knew a few things.
Goldman shares many wonderful inside stories, and he settles some old scores. I came away from the book convinced that no one in Hollywood can be trusted, and everyone acts in their self interest, especially famous stars like Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Sure, Goldman has some nice things to say about Paul Newman, Richard Attenborough, and Joseph E. Levine, but generally Hollywood is a nest of vipers.
Not surprisingly, Goldman is not a fan of the auteur theory, a notion promulgated by young French new wave critics (including Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard) in the Fifties asserting that the director is the author of the movie. In the U.S., despite the collaborative nature of movie production, the auteur theory continues to have a powerful influence on movie criticism. Sadly, Goldman believes that the auteur theory was responsible for the collapse of the career of Alfred Hitchcock.
The two movies Goldman is most proud of? The first, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, isn’t surprising. He worked on that script for eight years, and he won his first Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1970. But the second, A Bridge Too Far, is. Goldman writes that Bridge was probably his best experience making movies. I've got it on DVD, so I need to watch it again. I remember it had an all-star cast, and was one of the last epic World War II movies.
When discussing Butch Cassidy, Goldman humbly suggests that he's not that skilled at comedy. I disagree. In all of Goldman's movies, his humor—and his humanity—shines through, even in deadly serious movies such as All the President's Men. BTW, I was saddened to learn in this book that Goldman regrets his involvement with All the President's Men, for which he won his second Academy Award for adapted screenplay in 1977.
In addition to movies for which Goldman earned screen credit, he includes chapters on two movies that were nightmares. One, The Right Stuff, ended up being taken over by another screenwriter/director, which is not uncommon. I'm really fond of Philip Kaufman's script and direction of The Right Stuff, which is faithful to Tom Wolfe's book, so it's probably fortuitous that Goldman was fired, particularly since he had no interest in Chuck Yeager, the most compelling character from Wolfe's book. The other movie, an improbable musical remake of Grand Hotel shot at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, never got made.
Some of Goldman's omissions are curious. Why did he write nothing about No Way to Treat a Lady, a serial killer movie adapted from his own novel, or The Hot Rock, the comic heist movie that Goldman adapted from Donald Westlake’s novel? Both are excellent movies with great stars. (George Segal is in both movies. Hmm.) In 1978, Goldman wrote the screenplay for Magic, which was based on his novel, starred the great Anthony Hopkins, and was directed by Richard Attenborough. It's a creepy, well-acted psychological thriller, so I'm curious why Goldman doesn't even mention it.
Perhaps the best Hollywood story in the book concerns the courtroom drama The Verdict, a movie that Goldman didn’t work on but one that perfectly illustrates the perils of working in Hollywood.
Part Three features a screenplay adaptation of a short story Goldman wrote long ago named Da Vinci, followed by comments by various colleagues on how they would approach production of the short film. It's an interesting tutorial on the craft of screenwriting, but I'm not sure it belongs in this book. I'd rather Goldman dished more about the movies he worked on.
Goldman published a follow-up volume called Which Lie Did I Tell in 2000, which covers his work in the 80s and 90s, including The Princess Bride, Misery, Maverick, Absolute Power, and others.
The book has three parts:
Part One: Hollywood Realities—Goldman's scathing take on the stars, studio executives, directors, agents, and producers of Hollywood.
Part Two: Adventures—Goldman's personal adventures in screenwriting.
Part Three: Da Vinci—A screenwriting workshop that takes one of Goldman's early short stories, adapts it into a screen treatment, and then runs it by colleagues on their thoughts on taking the script to production.
By far my favorite part in the book is Part Two. Nothing is more entertaining than reading about Bill Goldman in the trenches, trying his best to ensure that a movie he's working on will actually get finished. More often than not he succeeds, but sometimes insurmountable obstacles make failure a certainty.
Here’s Goldman’s legendary quote about Hollywood:
NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING.
Goldman alleges that no one in Hollywood knows for certain what’s going to work with audiences. They don’t know when the movie’s starting to shoot, when it's in preview, or when it's finished. A movie’s success is pure guesswork. Unless you’re Joseph E. Levine, who was already $4 million in the black due to advance bookings for A Bridge Too Far before the movie even opened. Levine knew a few things.
Goldman shares many wonderful inside stories, and he settles some old scores. I came away from the book convinced that no one in Hollywood can be trusted, and everyone acts in their self interest, especially famous stars like Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Sure, Goldman has some nice things to say about Paul Newman, Richard Attenborough, and Joseph E. Levine, but generally Hollywood is a nest of vipers.
Not surprisingly, Goldman is not a fan of the auteur theory, a notion promulgated by young French new wave critics (including Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard) in the Fifties asserting that the director is the author of the movie. In the U.S., despite the collaborative nature of movie production, the auteur theory continues to have a powerful influence on movie criticism. Sadly, Goldman believes that the auteur theory was responsible for the collapse of the career of Alfred Hitchcock.
The two movies Goldman is most proud of? The first, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, isn’t surprising. He worked on that script for eight years, and he won his first Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1970. But the second, A Bridge Too Far, is. Goldman writes that Bridge was probably his best experience making movies. I've got it on DVD, so I need to watch it again. I remember it had an all-star cast, and was one of the last epic World War II movies.
When discussing Butch Cassidy, Goldman humbly suggests that he's not that skilled at comedy. I disagree. In all of Goldman's movies, his humor—and his humanity—shines through, even in deadly serious movies such as All the President's Men. BTW, I was saddened to learn in this book that Goldman regrets his involvement with All the President's Men, for which he won his second Academy Award for adapted screenplay in 1977.
In addition to movies for which Goldman earned screen credit, he includes chapters on two movies that were nightmares. One, The Right Stuff, ended up being taken over by another screenwriter/director, which is not uncommon. I'm really fond of Philip Kaufman's script and direction of The Right Stuff, which is faithful to Tom Wolfe's book, so it's probably fortuitous that Goldman was fired, particularly since he had no interest in Chuck Yeager, the most compelling character from Wolfe's book. The other movie, an improbable musical remake of Grand Hotel shot at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, never got made.
Some of Goldman's omissions are curious. Why did he write nothing about No Way to Treat a Lady, a serial killer movie adapted from his own novel, or The Hot Rock, the comic heist movie that Goldman adapted from Donald Westlake’s novel? Both are excellent movies with great stars. (George Segal is in both movies. Hmm.) In 1978, Goldman wrote the screenplay for Magic, which was based on his novel, starred the great Anthony Hopkins, and was directed by Richard Attenborough. It's a creepy, well-acted psychological thriller, so I'm curious why Goldman doesn't even mention it.
Perhaps the best Hollywood story in the book concerns the courtroom drama The Verdict, a movie that Goldman didn’t work on but one that perfectly illustrates the perils of working in Hollywood.
Part Three features a screenplay adaptation of a short story Goldman wrote long ago named Da Vinci, followed by comments by various colleagues on how they would approach production of the short film. It's an interesting tutorial on the craft of screenwriting, but I'm not sure it belongs in this book. I'd rather Goldman dished more about the movies he worked on.
Goldman published a follow-up volume called Which Lie Did I Tell in 2000, which covers his work in the 80s and 90s, including The Princess Bride, Misery, Maverick, Absolute Power, and others.
August 31, 2021
The last section of this book where he goes from a short story to a screenplay and then tears it to shreds, is brilliant. That should be a textbook for writers of all kinds, but especially for people who want to write for films.
February 2, 2023
An insightful look into the creation of great movies and a perceptive look at how stars and studios don't understand the dynamics of good storytelling.
April 8, 2025
You get the feeling, when you read Adventures In The Screen Trade, that the author (and the incredibly successful screenwriter) William Goldman is all about structure.
He has brought clarity and meaning to films such as All The President’s Men, A Bridge Too Far, Marathon Man, and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. In life, he has approached these projects with a well-planned method, and the determination to see them through to completion. And in writing this book about those screenplays he has given us one of the most ordered and understandable books ever written about how screenplays work. He claims structure is everything; well, he proves it here.
It’s a beautifully laid out book that is arranged into three equally enjoyable sections. Section One gives you an overview of each facet of movie-making, starting with the jobs of the key players (How do stars get made, and what do they bring to a project? What is the role of a producer?) and moving through many different elements so that you get a strong sense of how many people have to come together to turn an idea into a film. As with many of the best books about film, you end up wondering how on Earth one ever gets successfully made.
And then onwards to Section Two, where Goldman reminisces about a number of projects he has worked on. Not all have been positive experiences for him (in fact, very few have really worked from his point of view; being a screenwriter seems to mean that your work gets treated with little respect and rarely makes it to the screen intact) but his honesty about when and where things went wrong results in an enlightening read. Goldman has a pared-down-to-the-bone style that cuts through to the heart of any issue. If that means recording his own failings and bad behaviour on occasion, then that is what he does, although others receive the same treatment, of course. If he didn’t manage to make the grade as a screenwriter at times, there were instances where he was let down badly by those around him too.
But my favourite section of the book is the third, where Goldman takes one of his own short stories and turns it into a screenplay so we can see exactly how the process works. He writes down every decision he makes as to what needs to be cut or kept, shown or suggested. Then he gives the screenplay to others in the movie business and asks them for honest feedback.
In terms of providing an insight into the many problems that can affect what looks on the surface to be a simple project, I can think of no book better than Adventures In The Screen Trade. Every profession brings their own feedback to the table, adding issues that you would never have suspected of existing. The costume designer points out that the length of hair of the star will be a key factor, and wigs will have to be specially made. The cinematographer adds insight into key scenes, and the editor reflects on how shots could be framed to strengthen a particular character who will otherwise come across as weak. Then the director (Goldman asks George Roy Hill, director of The Sting and Butch Cassidy to take a look) adds a few well-chosen words and the entire project suddenly looks impossible.
Nobody agrees on how to approach material, that much becomes obvious. But the critiques of the professionals is not, I think, a destructive experience. Instead Goldman stresses how all the feedback can make a project so much stronger, and better than he could ever manage in the first draft of a screenplay. If you ever needed proof that film is a collaborative effort, then reading Section Three of Adventures In The Screen Trade will prove it to you. It’s also invaluable help if you are a writer yourself.
Goldman wrote this book in 1983 and went on afterwards to many more projects (The Princess Bride, Misery, Maverick�). Obviously many things have changed since it was first published. Any form of research needed during the creative process has been made so much easier by the internet, for instance. Special effects are radically different, and technology continues to transform the filmmaking process. But I wonder if some things will always remain the same � such as the fact that it takes a lot of positive energy and honest communication to make a great film.
Alas, that’s not the only element that has remained the same. Although the stars of the 1970s and 1980s were Redford, Newman, Eastwood, Streisand and McQueen, they could all easily be updated in production discussions without changing any other words. Everyone scrabbles to attract big names, in order to guarantee big money. Rewrites, in-fighting, and ballooning budgets are all familiar too. And remakes seemed to be as common in 1983 as they are now; when you have no idea what will succeed, why not bet on what seems to be a sure thing? Fittingly for the man who wrote one of the most popular Westerns of all time, this book gives us the good, the bad, and the ugly of the movie business.
Goldman tells us upfront � “Nobody knows anything�. That certainly hasn’t changed either. Why do some projects work and others fail? He can provide only specific examples, but there are no general rules in Hollywood, no matter how much the producers would like there to be. But rules to screenwriting, and to writing an entertaining book about the business? I’ll go along with Goldman. Structure might not be everything, but it certainly helps.
He has brought clarity and meaning to films such as All The President’s Men, A Bridge Too Far, Marathon Man, and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. In life, he has approached these projects with a well-planned method, and the determination to see them through to completion. And in writing this book about those screenplays he has given us one of the most ordered and understandable books ever written about how screenplays work. He claims structure is everything; well, he proves it here.
It’s a beautifully laid out book that is arranged into three equally enjoyable sections. Section One gives you an overview of each facet of movie-making, starting with the jobs of the key players (How do stars get made, and what do they bring to a project? What is the role of a producer?) and moving through many different elements so that you get a strong sense of how many people have to come together to turn an idea into a film. As with many of the best books about film, you end up wondering how on Earth one ever gets successfully made.
And then onwards to Section Two, where Goldman reminisces about a number of projects he has worked on. Not all have been positive experiences for him (in fact, very few have really worked from his point of view; being a screenwriter seems to mean that your work gets treated with little respect and rarely makes it to the screen intact) but his honesty about when and where things went wrong results in an enlightening read. Goldman has a pared-down-to-the-bone style that cuts through to the heart of any issue. If that means recording his own failings and bad behaviour on occasion, then that is what he does, although others receive the same treatment, of course. If he didn’t manage to make the grade as a screenwriter at times, there were instances where he was let down badly by those around him too.
But my favourite section of the book is the third, where Goldman takes one of his own short stories and turns it into a screenplay so we can see exactly how the process works. He writes down every decision he makes as to what needs to be cut or kept, shown or suggested. Then he gives the screenplay to others in the movie business and asks them for honest feedback.
In terms of providing an insight into the many problems that can affect what looks on the surface to be a simple project, I can think of no book better than Adventures In The Screen Trade. Every profession brings their own feedback to the table, adding issues that you would never have suspected of existing. The costume designer points out that the length of hair of the star will be a key factor, and wigs will have to be specially made. The cinematographer adds insight into key scenes, and the editor reflects on how shots could be framed to strengthen a particular character who will otherwise come across as weak. Then the director (Goldman asks George Roy Hill, director of The Sting and Butch Cassidy to take a look) adds a few well-chosen words and the entire project suddenly looks impossible.
Nobody agrees on how to approach material, that much becomes obvious. But the critiques of the professionals is not, I think, a destructive experience. Instead Goldman stresses how all the feedback can make a project so much stronger, and better than he could ever manage in the first draft of a screenplay. If you ever needed proof that film is a collaborative effort, then reading Section Three of Adventures In The Screen Trade will prove it to you. It’s also invaluable help if you are a writer yourself.
Goldman wrote this book in 1983 and went on afterwards to many more projects (The Princess Bride, Misery, Maverick�). Obviously many things have changed since it was first published. Any form of research needed during the creative process has been made so much easier by the internet, for instance. Special effects are radically different, and technology continues to transform the filmmaking process. But I wonder if some things will always remain the same � such as the fact that it takes a lot of positive energy and honest communication to make a great film.
Alas, that’s not the only element that has remained the same. Although the stars of the 1970s and 1980s were Redford, Newman, Eastwood, Streisand and McQueen, they could all easily be updated in production discussions without changing any other words. Everyone scrabbles to attract big names, in order to guarantee big money. Rewrites, in-fighting, and ballooning budgets are all familiar too. And remakes seemed to be as common in 1983 as they are now; when you have no idea what will succeed, why not bet on what seems to be a sure thing? Fittingly for the man who wrote one of the most popular Westerns of all time, this book gives us the good, the bad, and the ugly of the movie business.
Goldman tells us upfront � “Nobody knows anything�. That certainly hasn’t changed either. Why do some projects work and others fail? He can provide only specific examples, but there are no general rules in Hollywood, no matter how much the producers would like there to be. But rules to screenwriting, and to writing an entertaining book about the business? I’ll go along with Goldman. Structure might not be everything, but it certainly helps.
May 15, 2022
Should we want to know how the sausage is made? We mostly shouldn't, but I nevertheless decided to read William Goldman’s 1983 memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade because it's so often mentioned on the Rewatchables podcast. Thankfully, I came away mostly unscathed because the book is almost as old as I am.
A few notes.
-Goldman does not buy auteur theory and in fact finds it ridiculous to attribute the success of a film to one person when the editor and cinematographer, for example, do so much. It seems to me that auteur theory is more powerful now than in the early 1980s.
-Actors in interviews always present themselves as charming, poised, and self-deprecatingly humorous. It’s an act. They’re actors, acting.
-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.
-No one knows how to make a successful film, so the safe bets will always be to attract stars and make sequels. The safest play for an actor is to play the same or similar roles that they played in the past. In such roles, actors find what the audience wants from them and veering from it is a risk. For a long time, Sylvester Stallone could be Rocky or Rambo, but he succeeded in very few other roles.
It's easy to recommend the first hundred pages of Adventures in the Screen Trade because Goldman's commentary on the industry is easy to apply to films today. The more he focuses on films of the 1970s and 1980s, the less closely I read it. I'm not quite enough of a film buff to really care about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Marathon Man. An aspiring screenwriter would get more out of the final 4/ 5s of the book that I did. I borrowed this one from the library but had to get it on inter-library loan.
A few notes.
-Goldman does not buy auteur theory and in fact finds it ridiculous to attribute the success of a film to one person when the editor and cinematographer, for example, do so much. It seems to me that auteur theory is more powerful now than in the early 1980s.
-Actors in interviews always present themselves as charming, poised, and self-deprecatingly humorous. It’s an act. They’re actors, acting.
-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.
-No one knows how to make a successful film, so the safe bets will always be to attract stars and make sequels. The safest play for an actor is to play the same or similar roles that they played in the past. In such roles, actors find what the audience wants from them and veering from it is a risk. For a long time, Sylvester Stallone could be Rocky or Rambo, but he succeeded in very few other roles.
It's easy to recommend the first hundred pages of Adventures in the Screen Trade because Goldman's commentary on the industry is easy to apply to films today. The more he focuses on films of the 1970s and 1980s, the less closely I read it. I'm not quite enough of a film buff to really care about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Marathon Man. An aspiring screenwriter would get more out of the final 4/ 5s of the book that I did. I borrowed this one from the library but had to get it on inter-library loan.
April 1, 2025
William Goldman was a legendary figure in Hollywood. Oh, his name was never above the title, and his visage never dominated the screen. But he wrote screenplays for some of the most important films in mid-20th-century film. And he was also a damn fine writer of non-fiction, be it about sports, the Broadway theater season, or scriptwriting. The latter is the subject of this, arguably his most famous non-fiction book (his most well-known novel is "The Princess Bride," which became the basis for the film).
"Adventures In the Screen Trade" is Goldman's unvarnished look at life as a writer in Hollywood, forever at the mercy of other creative forces or whatever new regime is installed at any of the many studios. This book appeared in 1983, but I doubt much has changed since then to make Goldman's larger points irrelevant. The star will still demand that he or she look good no matter what, the director will get way more credit when his film is a success and not enough when it's a failure, and the scriptwriter will be forgotten in the rush to heap praise (though critical barbs will land upon the poor soul's head with frequency if the film is a flop).
Goldman, whose credits include "All the President's Men" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," is a charming tour guide through the intricacies of the process involved in getting a film script on the page. And in a thought experiment involving a short story he wrote, he shows us some of the process involved in bouncing the ideas off other creatives, from stage design to directing. And he ends with some optimistic thoughts about the future of Hollywood, some of which have come to pass and some which have not (hey, he never said he's Nostradamus; after all, the most important quote from the book is that "no one knows anything"). "Adventures In the Screen Trade" is a delight from start to finish. And I'm glad that I picked it up this past weekend, during an otherwise fruitless trek of thrift-store shopping for books. It's the only one I found, and it's great.
"Adventures In the Screen Trade" is Goldman's unvarnished look at life as a writer in Hollywood, forever at the mercy of other creative forces or whatever new regime is installed at any of the many studios. This book appeared in 1983, but I doubt much has changed since then to make Goldman's larger points irrelevant. The star will still demand that he or she look good no matter what, the director will get way more credit when his film is a success and not enough when it's a failure, and the scriptwriter will be forgotten in the rush to heap praise (though critical barbs will land upon the poor soul's head with frequency if the film is a flop).
Goldman, whose credits include "All the President's Men" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," is a charming tour guide through the intricacies of the process involved in getting a film script on the page. And in a thought experiment involving a short story he wrote, he shows us some of the process involved in bouncing the ideas off other creatives, from stage design to directing. And he ends with some optimistic thoughts about the future of Hollywood, some of which have come to pass and some which have not (hey, he never said he's Nostradamus; after all, the most important quote from the book is that "no one knows anything"). "Adventures In the Screen Trade" is a delight from start to finish. And I'm glad that I picked it up this past weekend, during an otherwise fruitless trek of thrift-store shopping for books. It's the only one I found, and it's great.
October 11, 2018
A wonderfully humorous, oftentimes sad and elegiac account of show business through the eyes of one of its most renowned screenwriters. From "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to "The Princess Bride," Goldman has had a career most writers could only dream of, with the scars to prove it. Anyone who has ambition to pursue a career in the movie industry (especially writers) should do themselves a favor and pick up this book. If your passion and enthusiasm are unfazed after wading through Goldman's horror stories and cautionary tales, it might just be for you. What impressed me most while reading, beyond Goldman's frank and brutally honest discussion of Hollywood, was how relevant so much if it seems to the business today. Written almost forty years ago, so many of the trials and tribulations Goldman describes, as well as his larger concerns about the where the business is heading, feel like they could have been written yesterday. The business is constricting, studios are making fewer movies, and all anyone cares about anymore is IP and blockbusters. It was true 40 years ago. It's true today. And somehow, realizing that gives me a modicum of hope. "Nobody knows anything," Goldman writes. Damn right. I wish I'd read this book sooner. Highly recommend.
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