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I'm Just The Writer
By
Stephen Schochet
orgofhlly@aol.com
COPYRIGHT: ©2004 by Hollywood Stories. All rights reserved
747
words
Writers are often are greatly surprised or disappointed by how
their
work is changed when it is adapted for the big screen. When Irwin
Shaw's World War II novel The Young Lions was shot in Paris in 1958, the
Nazi character was played by Marlon Brando. Ever the method actor,
Brando provoked an uproar by strutting around town in his SS uniform,
even going into restaurants to dine. The thirty three year old star
was unsure if the Parisians ripping his clothes were doing it out
of adulation or disdain. Like most actors Brando wanted to be loved and
he took his concern to Shaw that the Nazi be made sympathetic. "You
just don't understand the character", Brando told the amazed writer. "It's
my character," replied Shaw. "Not anymore", replied the actor.
Some
writers grow resigned to their voices being lost. George S. Kaufman wrote the
screenplay for the Marx Brother's comedy Animal Crackers in 1930. He attended
rehearsals and realized that nothing Groucho, Chico and Harpo were doing
resembled his original draft. He watched as the director Victor Heerman was
driven to distraction by the brothers showing up late, placing bets on
horses, playing the stock market and never sticking to the script. Heeman
literally threatened to imprison them in cages till they behaved. Kaufman
took it in stride falling asleep through much of the tomfoolery. At one point
the writer woke up with a start and shouted," Oh my God! I thought I heard
one of my lines."
A few years ago comedy playwright Neil Simon
announced he was moving from Los Angeles to New York. In Los Angeles he was
isolated in his car all the time and he felt it is was hurting his writing.
Better to be in New York where you walked everywhere and met people. His
departure may have been hastened by writing and showing up to the set of The
Marrying Man (1991). He got to witness Kim Basinger holding up the
production with tardiness, temper tantrums and her much publicized love
affair with co-star Alec Baldwin. Simon was humiliated when she held up her
copy of
the script and stated for all to hear," Whoever wrote this knows
nothing about comedy!" The Odd Couple writer was too insulted to help fix
the plot problems and the picture bombed.
It's can be awesome to see
your words on a page turn into movie reality. When Margaret Mitchell
(1900-1949) was a young girl in Atlanta, various relatives took her on tours
of Confederate battle sites, describing the Civil War so vividly that she
imagined she was part of it. It took her ten years to write the text for Gone
With The Wind which she scribbled on yellow legal pads, shoving them under
her couch when friends would come over to visit her. The best-seller was
turned into a movie in 1939 and Mitchell showed up in Hollywood for the
fiming of Scarlett O'Hara (Vivian Leigh) nursing wounded soldiers at the
Atlanta railway station. The author was overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of
the scene. "My God",
she told producer David O. Selznick. "If we would have
had this many soldiers we would have won the war."
Screenwriters don't
always make great Casting Directors. Novelist Tom Clancy was initially
unhappy with the fifty year old Harrison Ford cast as the thirty something
CIA agent Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992) and Clear And Present Danger
(1994). He also berated the actor for suggesting plot changes to his stories.
Ford angrily retorted that writers who sell their work to the big screen have
to expect it to be changed, otherwise don't sell it. After the two films did
great at the box office, Clancy hinted that he would be willing to bury the
hatchet to get Ford to star in the next Jack Ryan installment, The Sum Of
All Fears (eventually made with Ben Affleck in 2002). Ford demurred
by saying," Maybe when I'm sixty."
Movie Stars often ignore the
writer's instincts at their peril. Lou
Holtz Jr. was disappointed that Jim
Carrey brought in a team of writers to change his lighthearted script The
Cable Guy (1996) into a dark tale about stalking. Despite Carrey winning the
MTV award for best villain, the movie was panned by critics, led to several
executives being fired at Sony pictures and became known in Hollywood as "The
Straight To Cable Guy".
Want to hear more stories? Stephen Schochet is
the author and narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales
Of Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says," these two elaborate
productions are exceptionally entertaining." Hear realaudio samples of these
great, unique gifts at http://www.hollywoodstories.com.
Stephen Schochet orgofhlly@aol.com
author and narrator of
"Fascinating Walt Disney" and "Tales Of Hollywood". 310-876-1400 Hear
RealAudio samples at http://www.hollywoodstories.com
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