Adventures in the Screen Trade
| Company type | Book |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Founder | William Goldman |
| Products | Non-fiction book on film industry and screenwriting |
Adventures in the Screen Trade is a 1983 publication authored by American writer and screenwriter William Goldman, offering an in-depth look at the film industry in Hollywood. Its title cleverly plays on Dylan Thomas's incomplete work Adventures in the Skin Trade.
Overview
The book is structured into three distinct sections. The first segment, "Hollywood Realities," presents essays covering subjects such as film stars, studio leadership, and screenwriting methods designed specifically for actors in movies.
"Adventures," the second section, details Goldman's involvement with eleven different projects, including Charly, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and All the President's Men. It also discusses projects that were never realized, like a musical adaptation of Grand Hotel.
The final section, titled "Da Vinci," illustrates Goldman's process of transforming his short story "Da Vinci" into a screenplay. This part includes both the original story and its script adaptation, supplemented by interviews with industry figures such as director George Roy Hill, cinematographer Gordon Willis, and composer Dave Grusin.
A later expanded edition incorporates the full script of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid along with Goldman's commentary as "Part Three," which consequently moves "Da Vinci" to become "Part Four."
Background
During the late 1970s, Goldman engaged in comprehensive interviews with John Brady that laid the groundwork for his prior book, The Craft of the Screenwriter (1981). After an editor encountered an excerpt published in Esquire, Goldman was invited to author a book focused on screenwriting. He partnered with Brady and utilized recorded conversations to create Adventures in the Screen Trade.
Reception
The book achieved bestseller status and is widely recognized as a seminal work within the film industry. Producer Art Kleiner described it as one of the three most captivating creative memoirs he had encountered.
See also
- Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade, Goldman's sequel to Adventures in the Screen Trade.
Notes
- Egan, Sean, William Goldman: The Reluctant Storyteller, Bear Manor Media 2014