Naked Screenwriting
Twenty-two Oscar-Winning Screenwriters Bare Their Secrets to Writing
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- $57.99
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- $57.99
Publisher Description
Award-winning screenwriters reveal their Hollywood secrets in crafting brilliant stories and methodology through interviews with world-renowned UCLA screenwriting professor Lew Hunter.
Naked Screenwriting includes interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Wilder, Oliver Stone, Bruce Joel Rubin, William Goldman, Julius Epstein, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Alfred Uhry, Tom Schulman, Ted Tally, Ruth Prawer Jabvola, Eric Roth, Jean-Claude Carriere, Frank Pierson, David Ward, Horton Foote, Ron Bass, Alan Ball, Callie Khouri, Robert Benton, Irving Ravetch, and Harriet Frank Junior.
Never before has a book covered Oscar-winning writers so thoroughly, shedding insight and wisdom into the art of screenwriting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hunter (Screenwriting 434) collects interviews with 22 prize-winning screenwriters in this top-notch volume spanning his career as a UCLA professor, revealing each artist "bar their art, soul, craft, and secrets." The notable screenwriters range across generations: Casablanca writer Julius Epstein explains his "step outline process" in which he writes one sentence describing each scene, and Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot) discusses whether a director must also be a writer ("Absolutely not," he concludes). The interviews feature plenty of helpful tips, among them The Godfather's Francis Ford Coppola's recommendation to carry a notebook to jot down character sketches, while Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Howard's End) explains her choice to write in longhand so she can include drawings. Hunter writes with a playful flair in his introduction: "for the rest of this book, motion-picture yourself at UCLA at my 434 master screenwriting class." This style carries to his interviews, which offer trivia (that Jean-Luc Godard was interested in directing Bonnie and Clyde), though some of it may be lost on those less familiar with the history of cinema, as little context is provided. Nevertheless, the volume offers unique access to a wide array of talent. It's a treasure trove for Hollywood historians and aspiring screenwriters alike.
