Will Goldman's 'Which Lie Did I Tell?'

[CRASH]

It is in "The Big Deal" that discusses Goldman's work on LAST ACTION HERO.

[Gaijin Samurai]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote>Quote:<hr> He, like Robert Towne, script doctor many works and don't often seek credit.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->

it's not theirs to seek. you don't get credit for script doctoring. credit is only given to a writer who makes more than significant changes to the script, and it then goes up to the wga arbitration panel to decide.

[BlueParrot]

Gaijin,

Good point. I phrased it poorly. What I meant to say is that they probably scriptdoctored many many projects.

[E J Pennypacker]

Just from a formatting point of view, can anyone believe how bad 'The Big A' was?

Like all the stuff about his characters (like it could be filmed?) descriptions, which at times was cringe worthy.

I wonder if this script was a prelude to Spy Kids?

I just though his Big A should have gone along the lines of that film, not down the daytime movie-of-the-week court room drama route.

EJ

[wordhurler]

"Just from a formatting point of view, can anyone believe how bad 'The Big A' was?

Like all the stuff about his characters (like it could be filmed?) descriptions, which at times was cringe worthy."

I don't recall any of the professionals who critiqued the script telling Goldman "your formatting is wrong because the character descriptions include elements that can't be filmed." That's just Goldman's style, and that style has been very, very good to him.

(Formatting aside, I did think 'The Big A' was pretty bad. But of course that was the point; even Hollywood Bigshot William Goldman's first drafts are cruddy.)

[E J Pennypacker]

Samuel L Jackson voice: Please, allow me to retort...



I should have written something along the lines of, "Wow, all that stuff he included in character description, like any of it could be filmed!".

Yeah, Word, it is humble and pleasing (in a sadistic type of way) to see that a big name can write a big pile of ....

Hold on, maybe he did it deliberately to make us all think that if he can write bad, then it's okay for us to write the same way!

Hey, I feel cheated!

EJ

[wordhurler]

Naw, Goldman's point was not that you can succeed even if you write badly. Bad writing is bad writing, and it never succeeds.

His point was that even bigshots like himself write badly in first draft. His point was that your first draft is never good enough, regardless of who your are or what experience you may have. The lesson to take away is a very old one: Great scripts are not written; they're rewritten.

[BlueParrot]

And bad scripts are rewritten...by Goldman at a rate of $300K a week.

I wish I could say that I'm making this up but that's his rate.