Quotes on the Writing Craft: 400 Playwrights, Screenwriters, & Directors on Script Work by Richard Toscan

Author:Richard Toscan [Toscan, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-19T22:00:00+00:00

Part Three: Quotes on Craft

‘PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS turned to plays [for films] and will continue to turn to plays because Hollywood is a great gigantic maw looking everywhere for ideas and stories. And they are hard to come by. A play has, in a sense, already been tried out. You've already put that story up on a stage, seen how it works, seen how audiences have reacted. You can't do that with a new movie script. A play puts you a step ahead.' Thomas Rothman

'You can lose the play in the translation [to film]. They are two different mediums and very rarely can material succeed in both.' Frederick Zollo

'Movie makers buy plays because it makes them feel smart. Acquiring a play that has been well received makes them feel incredibly worldly. But the irony is that plays are about words, and here in L.A., they like to make movies about lava flowing down Wilshire Boulevard. A play reveals itself through dialogue. In a movie, the dialogue is likely to be, “O.K., shoot him.”' Anonymous Hollywood Executive

'. . . it is true that language and forward movement in the cinema are jolly hard to reconcile. It's a very, very, difficult thing to do. . . . There is still a place in the cinema for movies that are driven by the human face, and not by explosions and cars and guns and action sequences . . . there's such a thing as action and speed within thought rather than within a ceaseless milkshake of images.' David Hare

'There are a lot of plays that are just about how well you use the English language. [In others] the writing is spectacular, but it feeds into an emotional story. And I think that's the key to a successful transition from play to movie.' Jonathan Weisgal

'I love problems. That's why I like drama; telling a story is recounting a series of problems. That's probably why I love Paris, because of its conflicts. . . . I wanted to show Paris the way it really is, as one lives in it, not the cliché of lovers kissing by the river. The city, with its differences between the young and the old, has become much more multiracial. Modern life creates a kind of ghetto orientation where men stay with men, women with women, and races and ages don't mix easily. What's striking in Paris is that people don't really connect with each other, although there is a sense of community.' Cédrick Klapisch

'I know what it's like sitting on the other side. The most important thing I can tell you is that literary managers are not your enemies. It's just that we are inundated by scripts all the time.' Nathaniel Graham Nesmith

‘One of the best ways to lose a play is to talk about it too much. Talking a play is not writing a play, and what works as chatter never works any other way, I find. So, I'd say “pitching” a play can kill it.' Julie Jensen

'I'm

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