Walter Hill style

[SundownInRetreat]

Do any other pros write in that really succinct Walter Hill style?

[Cioccolato]

Re: Walter Hill style

Sorry to "necropost" (is that as much of a sin here as it seems to be on other sites? I'm hoping not).

Had to answer though, because Hill is one of my very favorite screenwriters, so I look for people with a similar style. I think Richard Wenk has a similarly expedient style.

Also, I must say I read No Country For Old Men (the script) again the other night, and this time was blown away by the elegant understatement of the style. It was a revelation, actually. "Succinct" would be putting it very mildly. "Gorgeously sparse" would be more fitting. Check it out. And read 16 Blocks by Wenk.

Edit: This is a bit off topic with regard to Hill, but, another observation I'd like to make is that upon getting more familiar with Cormac McCarthy's (novel) writing style over the last couple of days and then reading the NCFOM script, I am now led to wonder whether the Coen brothers' adaptation of the novel did not actually simply transplant, to a major degree (trimmed a bit of course), whole chunks of McCarthy's prose from the novel into the script, because it has exactly the same kind of dry yet visually vivid feel.

Someone else posted here recently recommending that everybody read the excerpt of McCarthy's screenplay for The Counselor that is online right now, and I would reiterate that because, while written in a non-standard format (no real slugs, long paragraphs with no breaks, etc.), it is again really vivid, sparse, zero-bullsh|t, visually realistic stuff that is highly inspiring to those of us who love tersely cut action and danger descriptions.

[IGetsBuckets]

Re: Walter Hill style

Andrew Stanton used the same style to write WALL-E.

He mistakenly credits Dan O'Bannon for inspiring him with the ALIEN script, but it was actually Walter Hill's draft.

The only thing I did that was a little unconventional, is the manner in which I formatted the script. I was very inspired by Dan O'Bannon's script for Alien. His description paragraphs were not your typical paragraphs, they were actually small phrases that were all left justified, almost like a haiku, and they created this rhythm of just being in the moment of quiet and visual. And you found yourself reading the descriptions much more than you normally do a script because of that form, instead of just skipping to the dialogue. It really kind of paced you as a reader and gave you the much more visceral feel of what it will be like to watch that movie. So I used that for Wall-E -- it really helped.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/int...ndrew-stanton/