Do you need a degree to be a screenwriter?

Nobody Knows Nothing

Screenwriter/novelist William Goldman pictured wrote, "nobody knows anything" in his bestseller, Adventures in the Screenwriting Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting, Hollywood jolted, agreed and repeats those words as rites of passage for any fledging screenwriter.

Adventures in the Screenwriting Trade was written in 1982 and is clearly a dated book. In spite of its dated material, it's worth the read for anyone who is considering a career in film whether it be as a screenwriter, producer or director. Goldman is the wise mentor in his book on how to deal with dealing with Hollywood.


Goldman places you in his shoes and walks you on a journey -- an adventure where you observe, learn and realize the hard work it honestly takes to succeed in Hollywood. Be it on the set of MARATHON MAN with Lawrence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman or catching an unforgettable and poignant moment between famous, then divorced, Hollywood couple Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood -- their scene ingeniously written as a screenplay.


Goldman defines who is whom in Hollywood, and the instrumental role they play in getting a film made or not made. Something you most likely will not learn in a classroom. What their roles are when a film is made.


He even talks of the legends such as Joseph Mankiewiz, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Sydney Pollack, Robert Reford, Paul Newman and Norman Jewison.


He talks of the difficulties in writing and rewriting notable movies, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN, GRAND HOTEL remake (never happened) and THE RIGHT STUFF. Losing deals and the sheer timing of getting the jobs back. Which offers the question: "Luck and Timing is that learned in a classroom?"'


Goldman includes his popular script, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, with a five-chapter dissertation on weaknesses and strengths in the screenplay. Any screenwriter would learn multitudes just reading these chapters.


Nevertheless, there is more. Three chapters dedicated to adaptations in which Goldman uses one of his short stories as a model with critiques from major Hollywood players -- all the better for writers.


Goldman resonates with such fine words as, "And in movies, the screenwriter is the odd man out.

But there is a trade-off. That beginning lap we run, regardless of what happens later -- that lap is ours. We have the privilege, if you will, of the initial vision. We're the ones who first get to make the movie..."


Final note: I sensed a bit of cynicism but who can't help but detect such cynicism if you had walked in his shoes.
Note: Goldman is not a director or an actor and unknown by those outside the business; yet those working within the industry certainly do.