Quick Review: Tales from the Script

I'm afraid I don't have a lot to say about Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman's documentary Tales from the Script. I certainly enjoyed it, and would recommend everybody watch it, particularly if you're thinking about writing films. That's exactly what the documentary is: a collection of writers (some who also direct) discussing their experiences of working in Hollywood.

Some of the notables involved in sharing their stories are William Goldman (All the President's Men, Marathon Man, The Princess Bride), John Carpenter (Halloween, The Eyes of Laura Mars, Escape from New York), Shane Black (Monster Squad, Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), John August (Big Fish, The Nines), Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard, 48 Hours), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist), Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, State of Play), David Hayter (X2, Watchmen), Guinevere Turner (American Psycho, Go Fish), David S. Ward (The Sting, Sleepless in Seattle), Larry Cohen (It's Alive, The Stuff), and Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters).

Interesting tidbits:

- Guinevere Turner turned in a first draft of Bloodrayne to Uwe Boll, who immediately went into production with the script.

- Frank Darabont was an uncredited writer on Saving Private Ryan. For some reason, he does not mention co-writing A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors.

- Larry Cohen wrote 2002's Phone Booth, starring Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland, directed by Joel Schumacher. I had no idea. Plus, the script was originally purchased by 20th Century Fox to start Nicolas Cage.

- Antwone Fisher wrote twenty drafts of his life story before the script was ready to go into production.

- There's a sequel to The Sting, which David S. Ward regrets mentioning in the documentary.

- Peter Hyams sought and received the go-ahead from Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick before making 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

- William Goldman is as entertaining telling stories on camera as Robert Evans, but not as full of himself, which makes his semi-snarky anecdotes funnier and less self-serving.

- Shane Black and Zak Penn both feel responsible for Last Action Hero, although Goldman does not mention the film during Tales from the Script (all three worked on the screenplay at various points).

I wish I had a ton of insightful information to add about the documentary, but it covers the bases pretty well: breaking in, rewrites, working with actors, directors, producers, other writers, horror stories, and creative processes. It's a rather insightful and pretty well put together film (the clips they use to punctuate segments to tend to freeze awkwardly, making me wonder more than once if something was awry with my player), but it's certainly worth looking into.