Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
Authors: William Goldman
Tags: United States, General, History, Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Performing Arts, State & Local, Film & Video, cinema, Films, Calif.), Hollywood (Los Angeles, West, Cinema and Television, Motion picture authorship, Motion picture industry, Screenwriting
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getting involved with the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." One of them was heard to say, more than once, "B. J. really hurt himself with this one."
The initial preview of Star.' was such a success that Richard Zanuck cancelled any further previews and sent a wire to his father, Darryl, that said, "We're home. Better than Sound of Music."
The Sound of Music was then the most popular movie in history, and Star! went on to become the Edsel of 20th CenturyFox: No matter how they readvertised it or changed the logo or the title, no one came. And Richard Zanuck has as keen a mind about commercial films as anyone.
They don't know when the movie is starting to shoot either. David Brown, Zanuck's partner, has said, "We didn't know
whether Jaws would work, but we didn't have any doubts aboul The Island. It had to be a smash. Everything worked. The screenplay worked. Every actor we sent it to said yes. I didn't know until a few days after we opened and I was in a bookstore and I ran into Lew Wasserman and said 'How're we doing? and he said, 'David, they don't want to see the picture.' "
They don't want to see the picture-maybe the most chilling phrase in the industry.
Now, if the best people around don't know at sneaks, and they don't know during shooting, you better believe that executives don't know when they're trying to give a thumbs-up or - down; they're trying to predict public taste three years ahead and it's just not possible.
Obviously, I'm asking you to take my word on this anc there's no reason really that you should, because pictures suet as Raiders of the Lost Ark probably come to mind. Which, I grant was an unusual film.
Raiders is the number-four film in history as this is being writ ten. I don't remember any movie that had such power going in It was more or less the brainchild of George Lucas and was direeled by Steven Spielberg, the two unquestioned wunderkin der of show business (Star Wars, Jaws, etc.). Probably you al knew that. But did you know that Raiders of the Lost Ark was of fered to every single studio in town-
Adventures in the Screen Trade 41
-and they all turned it down ? All except Raramount.
Why did Paramount say yes? Because nobody knows any- thing. And why did all the other studios say no? Because no- body knows anything. And why did Universal, the mightiest studio of all, pass on Star Wars, a decision that just may cost them, when all the sequels and spinoffs and toy .money and book money and video-game money are totaled, over a (nilion dollars? Because nobody, nobody-not now, not ever-knows the least goddam thing about what is or isn't going to work at the box office.
One additional anguish executives must cope with is that hot streaks don't last. A recent newspaper article mentioned how the other studios were gloating over what was happening at Columbia. Columbia had been sizzling, but then Annie went wildly over budget. And an expensive action film wouldn't cut together co- herently. And everybody knew that the set of Tootsie was not where you wanted to spend your summer vacation. And they had passed on E. T.
Columbia had had it, developed it for a million dollars, look a survey, and discovered the audience for the movie would be too limited to make it profitable. So they let it go. (Universal picked it up and may make back the billion they didn't earn by dropping Star Wars. )
David Picker, a fine studio executive for many years, once said something to this effect: "If I had said yes to all the projects I turned down, and no to all the ones I took, it would have worked out about the same."
In any case, do not send to know why studio executives have insomnia. It goes with the territory. . ..
WHO ARE STUDIO EXECUTIVES?
Mostly, today, they are agents.
Ex-agents, more accurately. And a lot of people interviewed tor this book feel that that accounts, more than any single thing, for Hollywood's present plight. I'm not at all sure I agree with the conclusion, but I can summarize
The initial preview of Star.' was such a success that Richard Zanuck cancelled any further previews and sent a wire to his father, Darryl, that said, "We're home. Better than Sound of Music."
The Sound of Music was then the most popular movie in history, and Star! went on to become the Edsel of 20th CenturyFox: No matter how they readvertised it or changed the logo or the title, no one came. And Richard Zanuck has as keen a mind about commercial films as anyone.
They don't know when the movie is starting to shoot either. David Brown, Zanuck's partner, has said, "We didn't know
whether Jaws would work, but we didn't have any doubts aboul The Island. It had to be a smash. Everything worked. The screenplay worked. Every actor we sent it to said yes. I didn't know until a few days after we opened and I was in a bookstore and I ran into Lew Wasserman and said 'How're we doing? and he said, 'David, they don't want to see the picture.' "
They don't want to see the picture-maybe the most chilling phrase in the industry.
Now, if the best people around don't know at sneaks, and they don't know during shooting, you better believe that executives don't know when they're trying to give a thumbs-up or - down; they're trying to predict public taste three years ahead and it's just not possible.
Obviously, I'm asking you to take my word on this anc there's no reason really that you should, because pictures suet as Raiders of the Lost Ark probably come to mind. Which, I grant was an unusual film.
Raiders is the number-four film in history as this is being writ ten. I don't remember any movie that had such power going in It was more or less the brainchild of George Lucas and was direeled by Steven Spielberg, the two unquestioned wunderkin der of show business (Star Wars, Jaws, etc.). Probably you al knew that. But did you know that Raiders of the Lost Ark was of fered to every single studio in town-
Adventures in the Screen Trade 41
-and they all turned it down ? All except Raramount.
Why did Paramount say yes? Because nobody knows any- thing. And why did all the other studios say no? Because no- body knows anything. And why did Universal, the mightiest studio of all, pass on Star Wars, a decision that just may cost them, when all the sequels and spinoffs and toy .money and book money and video-game money are totaled, over a (nilion dollars? Because nobody, nobody-not now, not ever-knows the least goddam thing about what is or isn't going to work at the box office.
One additional anguish executives must cope with is that hot streaks don't last. A recent newspaper article mentioned how the other studios were gloating over what was happening at Columbia. Columbia had been sizzling, but then Annie went wildly over budget. And an expensive action film wouldn't cut together co- herently. And everybody knew that the set of Tootsie was not where you wanted to spend your summer vacation. And they had passed on E. T.
Columbia had had it, developed it for a million dollars, look a survey, and discovered the audience for the movie would be too limited to make it profitable. So they let it go. (Universal picked it up and may make back the billion they didn't earn by dropping Star Wars. )
David Picker, a fine studio executive for many years, once said something to this effect: "If I had said yes to all the projects I turned down, and no to all the ones I took, it would have worked out about the same."
In any case, do not send to know why studio executives have insomnia. It goes with the territory. . ..
WHO ARE STUDIO EXECUTIVES?
Mostly, today, they are agents.
Ex-agents, more accurately. And a lot of people interviewed tor this book feel that that accounts, more than any single thing, for Hollywood's present plight. I'm not at all sure I agree with the conclusion, but I can summarize
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