Screenwriters / Word into Image; No. 101; William Goldman

<v Announcer>The following program is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the <v Announcer>Arts. Additional funds provided by the program fund of the Corporation <v Announcer>for Public Broadcasting. <v Music>[Into music.] <v The Sundance Kid>[Scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid start] Damn it. <v Butch Cassidy>Well, the way I see it, we either fight or give. <v Butch Cassidy>If we give, we go to jail. <v The Sundance Kid>I've been there already. <v Butch Cassidy>If we fight, they see right where we are and starve us out. <v Butch Cassidy>Or go for position, shoot us. <v Butch Cassidy>Might even get a rockslide started and get us that way.

<v Butch Cassidy>What else can I do? <v The Sundance Kid>They could surrender to us, but I wouldn't count on that. They're going for position, all right. <v The Sundance Kid>Better get ready. <v Butch Cassidy>Kid, the next time I say let's go someplace like Bolivia, let's go someplace like <v Butch Cassidy>Bolivia. <v The Sundance Kid>Next time. Ready? <v Butch Cassidy>We'll jump. <v The Sundance Kid>Like hell we will. <v Butch Cassidy>No, it'll be okay. <v Butch Cassidy>If the water's deep enough, we don't get squished to death. <v Butch Cassidy>They'll never follow us. <v The Sundance Kid>How do you know? <v Butch Cassidy>Would you make a jump like that if you didn't have to? <v The Sundance Kid>I have to. And I'm not gona. <v Butch Cassidy>Well, we got to. Otherwise, we're dead. <v Butch Cassidy>They're just going to have to go back down the same way they come. <v Butch Cassidy>Come on. Just one clear shot this. <v The Sundance Kid>Nuh-uh. <v Butch Cassidy>We got to. <v The Sundance Kid>Get away from me. I want to fight them. <v Butch Cassidy>They'll kill us. <v The Sundance Kid>Maybe. <v Butch Cassidy>You want to die? <v The Sundance Kid>Do you? <v Butch Cassidy>Alright. I'll jump first.

<v The Sundance Kid>Nope. <v Butch Cassidy>Then you jump first. <v The Sundance Kid>No I said. <v Butch Cassidy>What's the matter with you? <v The Sundance Kid>I can't swim. <v Butch Cassidy>[laughs] Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you. <v The Sundance Kid>Ohhhh shit! [end scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid] <v William Goldman>There were 2 famous outlaws in American history at the time when they were alive. <v William Goldman>1 of them was Jesse James, and 1 of them was Butch Cassidy, for reasons passing

<v William Goldman>understanding, Hollywood has made 455 vomitus Jesse James movies, <v William Goldman>they never touched Butch Cassidy. Part of the reason I suspect they didn't was because <v William Goldman>Cassidy didn't fit into that framework, because he did go to South America and they <v William Goldman>didn't know what to do with it. I don't know. <v William Goldman>But I knew they were famous here and they got famous there. <v William Goldman>So the first scene is the setting of the theme, the banks are getting heavily <v William Goldman>guarded. Now we have a scene where the Sundance <v William Goldman>Kid is playing cards and this is how directors <v William Goldman>and cinematographers and writers all work together. <v William Goldman>Okay? And everybody else too. <v William Goldman>No one had ever heard of the Sundance Kid if the movie had been called Butch Cassidy <v William Goldman>and Jimmie Ringo, that scene of the card <v William Goldman>playing doesn't have to be there. The fact is, no one had ever heard of <v William Goldman>the Sundance Kid. He was not famous.

<v William Goldman>He was at that time, and probably, he was probably the greatest gunmen that ever lived, <v William Goldman>but nobody ever heard of him. So I had to have a scene that showed, woah, well <v William Goldman>this is some fella. Okay? Now, we also have another problem. <v William Goldman>We've got an unknown actor playing the Sundance Kid because nobody wanted Robert Redford <v William Goldman>in those days. Quote about Bob Redford in those days, studio head, he is just <v William Goldman>another California blond. <v William Goldman>Throw a stick at Malibu, you'll hit 6 of him. <v William Goldman>Okay, that's what a hit can do for you. <v William Goldman>That's why actors kill for a hit. Before that, he was unemployable. <v William Goldman>Now everybody wants him. He's a wonderful actor, he should be wanted. <v William Goldman>Anyway, the point is we got Paul Newman, who's <v William Goldman>this huge star, and we've got this kid, nobody knows who he is, right. <v William Goldman>So a hill is confronted with the problem of he doesn't want the audience thinking <v William Goldman>that in reel 3, Newman's going to say to Redford, go get water, I'm going to handle the <v William Goldman>action and in reel 10 Redford comes back and says here's the water, Paul. <v William Goldman>Right? We got to say, these guys are gonna be with us all the time. <v William Goldman>So I haven't seen where a really tough guy accuses <v William Goldman>this unknown fellow of being a thief when he finds out, and I

<v William Goldman>specifically wrote in the screenplay that the guy who was wearing the card game is a <v William Goldman>hero. <v William Goldman>And when he finds out, when a hero finds out who the Sundance Kid is, he backs down. <v William Goldman>That's how tough the Sundance Kid. All right. Now that's me writing it. <v William Goldman>What George did when he shot it-. <v Off-Screen Voice>[superimposed scene from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid] What's the secret of your success? <v William Goldman>Was it's an 89 second close up of Bob Redford. <v William Goldman>And what George is saying to the audience so bully there, folks, is get this face <v William Goldman>in your heads, folks. He ain't going anywhere. <v William Goldman>I never thought that I would write a screenplay. <v William Goldman>I was- My first novel I wrote in 1956, <v William Goldman>and I'm trying to get the year now, about 10 <v William Goldman>years later, maybe 9 years later, an actor named <v William Goldman>Cliff Robertson came to me with a wonderful short story by Daniel Keyes <v William Goldman>called Flowers for Algernon. <v William Goldman>And he said, I have the short story, would you be interested? <v William Goldman>And I said, I would love to read this story and I read the story.

<v William Goldman>It's a beautiful story. And I said, yes, I would love to do it. <v William Goldman>And I remember, I said to my wife then, my God, how do you write a screenplay? <v William Goldman>I went tearing off down to Times Square in the middle of the night, there was then an all <v William Goldman>night bookstore in Times Square. <v William Goldman>And I found 1 tattered, torn, hard book about screenwriting <v William Goldman>or whatever, and I took it home, and I looked at it and I realized, my God, I cannot <v William Goldman>write in that form because the proper screenplay form, quote quote, proper, is that <v William Goldman>awful, stupid, moronic form where it says capital E- number, shot <v William Goldman>numbers and then capital EXT for exterior Bill's office <v William Goldman>and all that stuff. And why those, why those peculiar things got into screenplays, <v William Goldman>I don't know, because that's really for when a movie shooting that's so that the crew can <v William Goldman>say, ah, we're doing shots 105 to 109 today. <v William Goldman>Anyway, I sort of discarded that and made up a screenplay <v William Goldman>form that I was comfortable with. <v William Goldman>Gave the screenplay to Robertson who immediately fired me, hired <v William Goldman>another screenwriter and went on to win the Academy Award.

<v William Goldman>The movie was Charlie. Not a comment of mine was used, but that's how I got into <v William Goldman>screenwriting. <v William Goldman>. <v William Goldman>A producer came to me who had just seen a <v William Goldman>lovely movie by Richard Brooks called The Professionals. <v William Goldman>And he said, I want to do a very, I will not use the word he said, I won't use it, he <v William Goldman>said I want to do a very masculine movie, a very rugged movie, and I said, read somRoss, <v William Goldman>MacDonald and he said, fine, I will. <v William Goldman>He called and I said, I'll do a screenplay on spec, meaning I didn't get paid for it. <v William Goldman>But being a novelist, that was the way I've always worked. <v William Goldman>I've never gotten paid for a novel until Marathon Man, I mean I never had an advance in <v William Goldman>my life until a couple of years ago because I always wanted the freedom to stop if I <v William Goldman>didn't like the way the book was going. Anyway, the producer <v William Goldman>called me back and said, I read a lot of Ross MacDonald, I think they're terrific. <v William Goldman>Now, I have since found out the producer has not read the alphabet, but he was getting a <v William Goldman>free screenplay. So I went and reread all of Ross MacDonald, and like a fool, instead of <v William Goldman>reading and starting with the first one I started with the most recent and worked <v William Goldman>backwards, and the first one was Moving Target and I did <v William Goldman>it.

<v William Goldman>It was given to- Paul Newman was at that time in agony doing a movie <v William Goldman>called Lady Yell in Europe for which she had to wear like fluffy ?inaudible? <v William Goldman>clothes and stuff like that. It was a period piece. <v William Goldman>He was desperately unhappy. <v William Goldman>He was given Harper. <v William Goldman>He was thrilled, it was a very American piece of material, and he said he'd do it. <v William Goldman>And that was it. When Paul Newman in those days was the big box office star along with <v William Goldman>John Wayne, we're talking middle 60s, and that was it. <v William Goldman>That was the start of it. <v Lew Harper>[start scene from Harper] Mrs. Samson? <v Mrs. Samson>That's right. <v Lew Harper>Lew Harper. <v Lew Harper>Albert Graves telephone said you needed me for something. <v Mrs. Samson>Oh, drink, Mr. Harper? <v Lew Harper>Not before lunch, thanks. <v Mrs. Samson>I thought you were a detective. <v Lew Harper>New type. <v Mrs. Samson>Oh. Albert Graves is one of our lawyers. <v Mrs. Samson>It's on his recommendation I'm hiring you. <v Lew Harper>About time he threw some business my way.

<v Mrs. Samson>Hm? <v Lew Harper>I've known Albert since he was D.A. up here. <v Mrs. Samson>Oh, he said you were good at finding things. <v Mrs. Samson>My husband's, uh, you're sitting on my robe. <v Mrs. Samson>My husband's disappeared. <v Lew Harper>Tried missing persons? <v Mrs. Samson>Well, that might mean publicity, Ralph loathes publicity. <v Mrs. Samson>Besides, he's got an abnormal fear of the police. <v Mrs. Samson>I simply want you to find him and tell me which female he's with. <v Lew Harper>Any particular female? <v Mrs. Samson>I haven't the least notion. <v Mrs. Samson>Ralph need never know about this. <v Mrs. Samson>He'd be sure I was gathering material for divorce proceedings. <v Mrs. Samson>Actually, I have no intention of divorcing him. <v Mrs. Samson>I only intend to outlive him. <v Mrs. Samson>I only want to see him in his grave. <v Mrs. Samson>What a terrible thing to say . <v Lew Harper>People in love will say anything. [end scene from Harper.]. <v William Goldman>The important thing about a screenplay, screenplays are not dialog, screenplays are

<v William Goldman>structure, screenplays are structure. That's all they are. <v William Goldman>They are structure. <v William Goldman>They are basic- certainly dialog is helpful, certainly literate dialog is pleasant, <v William Goldman>certainly funny dialog is fun. <v William Goldman>But the reality is the reason we can't quote many lines of dialog. <v William Goldman>Besides, frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn is because the dialog doesn't <v William Goldman>matter that much. <v William Goldman>Obviously, good dialog is better than inept dialog at any time. <v William Goldman>But for the most part, you have to have the scene that is in its proper <v William Goldman>place in the structure of the piece. <v William Goldman>Let me talk about structure using 2 movies, first I'lltalk about Butch Cassidy and then <v William Goldman>I'll talk about all the president's men. <v William Goldman>Butch Cassidy. Opening scene of Butch Cassidy. <v William Goldman>Paul Newman goes and looks at the bank and it's very fortified. <v William Goldman>And he says, what happened to the old bank. It was beautiful. <v William Goldman>And the cops as people caught robbing that. Newman says that's a small price to pay for <v William Goldman>beauty. Okay, so understand in that what that scene basically you're saying is times are <v William Goldman>getting hard. Okay? Now he's riding back to his place with Sundance Kid, and

<v William Goldman>he says, let's go to Bolivia. <v William Goldman>Now, the audience doesn't know what Bolivia's and he says Bolivia is where there's lots <v William Goldman>of money. And he's laughed at. <v William Goldman>Okay? Now, the reality is what makes Butch <v William Goldman>different and why it was turned down by every studio. <v William Goldman>The first time it was offered was they went to Bolivia. <v William Goldman>Okay, I remember a studio head saying they shouldn't go to Bolivia. <v William Goldman>And I said, but they did. And he said, I don't give a damn what they did. <v William Goldman>All I know is John Wayne don't run away. That's a direct quote. <v William Goldman>And he said, if you have him stand and fight, the super posse will buy it. <v William Goldman>And I said, but I can't do that. That's not what happened, anyway. <v William Goldman>Bolivia is mentioned very early on. Now, we got the jump on the cliff. <v William Goldman>They're about to get killed. A super posse has them trapped. <v William Goldman>What do they talk about? They talk about Bolivia, Butch says next time I <v William Goldman>say, let's go someplace like Bolivia, let's go someplace like Bolivia. <v William Goldman>And the kid says, next time. <v William Goldman>Then they jump off the cliff. Etta says, here are all these big, bad guys who are after <v William Goldman>you. Then there's a scene Butch says we're going to Bolivia because you speak the

<v William Goldman>language. Now, the whole purpose, the whole purpose of that super posse chase, <v William Goldman>which was entirely invented by me, the super posse, never chase them in real life. <v William Goldman>In real life, Cassidy heard who it was. <v William Goldman>I've got to get out of here. But I couldn't do that because I had to justify why he left. <v William Goldman>I had to have the audience want him to leave. <v William Goldman>So now Bolivia's mentioned again, so that when we go to Bolivia, we've set it up from the <v William Goldman>very beginning of the picture. This is the story of 2 men who go to Bolivia. <v William Goldman>Western characters don't do that. <v William Goldman>In All The President's Men, there is great material that we didn't <v William Goldman>use because the decision was made to end the movie halfway through <v William Goldman>the book on Woodward and Bernstein's screw up on what Halderman did and didn't know. <v William Goldman>Now, we couldn't use Judge Sirica, which is super material, which happened after <v William Goldman>that. We couldn't use a fabulous scene where they were talking to a grand jury person <v William Goldman>that was the wrong grand jury. Terrific material. <v William Goldman>But the reality was the structure was picking it up from the break in and going <v William Goldman>through the moment when they made the mistake.

<v William Goldman>It was the notion being that since they had become media darlings <v William Goldman>to end on their mistake, the audience would know that they were right eventually. <v William Goldman>And rather than have them be rooty-tooting and terrific and waving the flag to go out on <v William Goldman>that. So the structure of the piece was simply to go to that point. <v William Goldman>And also that point, the Halderman mistake, was where Woodward and Bernstein essentially <v William Goldman>lost the story and other people caught up with them. <v Bob Woodward>[Start scene from All The President's Men] How's it going? What are you doing?

<v Carl Bernstein>?inaudible? <v Bob Woodward>You what? <v Carl Bernstein>?inaudible? <v Bob Woodward>What's wrong with it? <v Carl Bernstein>Nothing. Nothing, it's good. <v Bob Woodward>Then what are you doing? <v Carl Bernstein>I'm just helping, it's a little fuzzy. <v Bob Woodward>May I have it? <v Carl Bernstein>I don't think you're saying what you mean. <v Bob Woodward>I know exactly what I mean. <v Carl Bernstein>Not here. I can't tell from this whether Hunt works for Colson or Colson works for Hunt. <v Bob Woodward>May I have it please? <v Carl Bernstein>Some of your conclusions-. <v Bob Woodward>May I have it? <v Carl Bernstein>Yes. I'm not looking for a fight. <v Bob Woodward>I'm not looking for a fight either. <v Carl Bernstein>Just aware of the fact that you've only been here 9 months. <v Bob Woodward>What has that got to do with it? <v Carl Bernstein>I've been in the business for some 16. <v Bob Woodward>What are you saying? <v Carl Bernstein>Well, I'm trying to tell you that if you'd read mine and then read yours-. <v Bob Woodward>May I read yours? <v Carl Bernstein>Yes. <v Carl Bernstein>I walked by, gave yours a glance. It didn't look right. <v Carl Bernstein>So I just figured I'd refine it a little. That first paragraph has to have more clarity. <v Carl Bernstein>The reader isn't going to understand if you don't mention Colson's name through the third <v Carl Bernstein>paragraph. <v Carl Bernstein>I think mine's better. But you go ahead and read it, if you think yours is better we'll <v Carl Bernstein>give yours to the desk. I've got Colson's name up front. <v Carl Bernstein>He's White House consultant, nobody know him. <v Bob Woodward>You're right. <v Bob Woodward>Yours is better.

<v Bob Woodward>If you're going to do it, do it right. If you're going to hype it, hype it with the <v Bob Woodward>facts. I don't mind what you did. <v Bob Woodward>I mind the way you did it. [End scene from All The President's Men] <v William Goldman>So ultimately, when I say that screenplay are structure, it's simply making a spine <v William Goldman>and you must protect that spine. <v William Goldman>There can be wonderful scenes. <v William Goldman>And if they're off the spine and you see them in a movie, they will simply die. <v William Goldman>The scenes may be well done, well shot. <v William Goldman>If they're the wrong scene, they will lay there like whales on the beach. <v William Goldman>So what you must do at all costs in a screenplay is you protect your spine. <v William Goldman>Can't say it often enough. You must decide what the spine is and protect it, keep it <v William Goldman>clear, keep it clean. You can ring in invention. <v William Goldman>You can ring in surprise. But you better damn well very clearly connect it to the spine. <v William Goldman>So the audience knows where it is. <v William Goldman>There is the selling version and the shooting version. <v William Goldman>When I am hired to do a movie, as I said, I feel I have completed my

<v William Goldman>job successfully if the movie goes and I have failed if the movie does <v William Goldman>not go. Now, for a movie to go with, studio executive must say <v William Goldman>yes, I want to make my selling <v William Goldman>version of the screenplay as exciting a reading experience <v William Goldman>as I can make it. And I'll throw in anything I can to make it fun, to make it exciting. <v William Goldman>I'll throw in asides to the reader. <v William Goldman>I'll do anything I can do. <v William Goldman>So the guy is gonna say, hey, this could be a good movie. <v William Goldman>Why don't we do this one? <v William Goldman>Now, suddenly, when you're a go project <v William Goldman>and you're actually going to have your friends hear it. <v William Goldman>Then you think, oh my God, I've got to make this- I can't have this in there. <v William Goldman>I can't have that in there. It's trying to make this as taut, as skillful as this or as <v William Goldman>that is let's hope it's wonderful. <v William Goldman>You always try to make a movie wonderful. <v William Goldman>I remember talking with George Hill on Butch Cassidy, what we wanted

<v William Goldman>on Butch Cassidy was 20 years from now that when people talked about Westerns, <v William Goldman>they would talk about Shane, they were talking about The Gunfighter, they would talk <v William Goldman>about Butch Cassidy. I have this whole theory. <v William Goldman>Movies are not good and bad. <v William Goldman>That is for the drooling critics to say. <v William Goldman>Movies either work or don't work when they come out. <v William Goldman>Suddenly, I don't mean this again, phony <v William Goldman>certain pressures you begin thinking, well, I've got to write a book and this thing seems <v William Goldman>to be happening. You begin getting a little you walk along the street and things happen. <v William Goldman>You get very sponge-like somebody will say something. <v William Goldman>I can use that dialog. <v William Goldman>And then all of a sudden, this thing bursts out and I write, as I say, very, <v William Goldman>very quickly. I may not know the specific, what the final shots <v William Goldman>are going to be in my head, but I know the falling narrative line at the end or ascending <v William Goldman>there, the line at the end. Yes, I know that. <v William Goldman>Have to. I know that before I begin. I know- I'm writing, I see the ending, folks. <v William Goldman>I'm going straight- That's my structure. <v William Goldman>There it is, and here I am, and I've got to get there. I've got to get there as fast and <v William Goldman>as clearly as I can.

<v Yelling voices>[start scene from Marathon Man] Put him down, put him down! [end scene from Marathon Man]. <v Speaker>I have on my wall a note back in 1970, I wrote it. <v Speaker>It just- looked a couple words, says Bohrman, to New York, which was a notion then how <v Speaker>do you get a Nazi to New York City?

<v Speaker>And then I thought I had read about a famous doctor in Cleveland <v Speaker>who people come to all over the world, people come to from all over the world because <v Speaker>he's the world's leading heart sleeve operation man. <v Speaker>And I thought maybe Bohrman would come. And then I thought, whoops, what kind of a <v Speaker>villain is that if he's coming for a heart sleeve operation? <v Speaker>He's not very strong. <v Speaker>Then I remember reading in the paper about a guy who was pulling off a crime <v Speaker>in the West Coast who was caught because his brother got in to an accident <v Speaker>on the East Coast and the police had to talk to the family, and suddenly he was caught <v Speaker>because of something. And I thought, then what if you were doing something <v Speaker>and someone your family was something that you didn't know and that became the two <v Speaker>brothers, the Roy Scheider part in the movie and the Dustin Hoffman part. <v Speaker>And then I got the idea, I read about the fortunes of the terrible Nazis, and the <v Speaker>killing of all the Jews and the taking of the money and the diamonds and all the rest of <v Speaker>it. And so, the bad guy who became not Bohrmon but Mengele, <v Speaker>who is still with us in Paraguay.

<v Speaker>Somehow that all got tied up and became that book and then that book became that movie. <v Thomas Levy>[start scene from Marathon Man] Who's there? Who's there? <v Thomas Levy>Who's- I got a gun, <v Thomas Levy>I got a gun. <v Thomas Levy>Fuck! <v Doc Levy>Articulate as always, shrink. <v Doc Levy>You scared the shit out of me. <v Thomas Levy>What time is it? <v Doc Levy>I don't know, must be about midnight. <v Thomas Levy>Why didn't you tell me you were coming? <v Doc Levy>Well, I wanted to test your reflexes. <v Thomas Levy>You're still challenging. <v Doc Levy>As always. <v Thomas Levy>Don't worry about me, what about yourself? <v Doc Levy>Watch it, watch it there buddy. <v Thomas Levy>I'm faster now, waking me up in the middle of the fucking night, you prick. <v Doc Levy>Ouch. <v Thomas Levy>What's a matter? <v Doc Levy>Nothing the matter, I can take you with one hand. <v Thomas Levy>Try it. <v Doc Levy>Here it comes. Pick up. <v Doc Levy>How are you? [end scene from Marathon Man] <v William Goldman>That's basically all that I knew about what was Marathon Man. <v William Goldman>In other words, a brother who didn't know something about a brother and a Nazi

<v William Goldman>coming eventually to New York for a fortune, and then <v William Goldman>that pleased me because I got him to the diamond and there's something nice about having <v William Goldman>the world's most wanted Nazi on a Jewish street on Forty Seven 47th Street, New York. <v William Goldman>That's the scene that never- that scene never missed. <v William Goldman>That scene works like Gangbusters with Olivier in the movie when he's walking along the <v William Goldman>street and somebody says Szell, Szell always works. <v William Goldman>It worked in the book, all- for the time it was written it never. <v William Goldman>There's a very good tension obviously in that scene. <v Woman on the street>[start scene from Marathon Man] I know that man. It can't be. Szell? Szell? Szell? Szell! Szell! My god, stop him! Szell! Stop, Szell! It's Szell! Szell! Der weiße Engel. <v Woman on the street>Der weiße Engel is here! Oh my god, stop him! Stop him! Oh, please help me. He's a beast. He's a murderer. You must stop him, there he goes! Oh, he's getting away! <v Man 1>You hear that lady screaming? <v Man 2>She's crazy, I don't know.

<v Woman on the street> Der weiße Engel, he's here! Stop him! Stop him! You won't stop him? I will stop him! The beast! The beast! Szell! [end scene from Marathon Man] <v William Goldman>There <v William Goldman>is undeniably an adversary relationship between writers and directors <v William Goldman>in movies because most- first of all, everybody, nobody messes with the composer <v William Goldman>because not everybody can write songs. <v William Goldman>Nobody messes with a cinematographer because nobody knows how to light things. <v William Goldman>Even producers know letters and alphabets and directors and everybody

<v William Goldman>likes to fiddle. They, it make, makes them feel creative. <v William Goldman>1 of the reasons there are no happy screenwriters is because you have all those people <v William Goldman>who think they can write better than you can, and many of them can, and many of them <v William Goldman>cannot. And nobody- and things get altered. <v William Goldman>There is this lunatic myth which we will get into that the movie <v William Goldman>is the director's, and that is, that's as bout as much sense as the flat earth society. <v William Goldman>And everybody in the business knows it. <v William Goldman>I'm not saying it's the writers, God knows. I'm saying the movies are a group endeavor, <v William Goldman>everybody in the business knows it. And it's this terrible truth that everybody outside <v William Goldman>the busi- Vincent Canby would rather die than know that. <v William Goldman>He isn't going on and saying, yes, here is the latest work by so-and-so. <v William Goldman>He refers to it as if the guy wrote the God damn thing and they don't. <v William Goldman>I have been involved with too many world class directors who have called me from all <v William Goldman>across the world saying, what do I shoot tomorrow? <v William Goldman>The studios on my tail, what do I shoot? <v William Goldman>People say, how do you know that's gonna be commercial? I don't know what's gonna be

<v William Goldman>commercial. No one knows what's going to be commercial. <v William Goldman>One of the greatest shibboleths that drives me crazy about the goddamn picture business <v William Goldman>is when somebody says, well, I did that cause I knew it was going to be commercial. <v William Goldman>No one has the least idea because you're guessing public taste 3 years <v William Goldman>down the line. Every God damn scary movie this summer made money, <v William Goldman>and I will bet you there will then be a dozen scary movies next summer and they'll all <v William Goldman>stiff. Every disaster movie this year has gone straight down the tubes <v William Goldman>and they were all started when disaster movies were hot. <v William Goldman>You can't guess you have to go on your own. <v William Goldman>There is no- you have to go on your own hunches, you <v William Goldman>know. And I never do a picture because I think it's going to be commercial. <v William Goldman>I've turned down too many pictures. I mean, I turned down Superman, I didn't know how to <v William Goldman>do it. It's not- when I said before that movies are comic strips, I wasn't putting down <v William Goldman>comics, I love comic strips. I collected comic books when I was a kid. <v William Goldman>I turned down Superman, I didn't know how to make it play. <v William Goldman>I turned down Godfather for moral reasons. <v William Goldman>I didn't want to glorify those terrible people. <v William Goldman>But I mean, ultimately, well I mean, there are cert- I mean, you never know what's going

<v William Goldman>to work. If something moves me. <v William Goldman>I hope I can translate into my screenplay, whatever it was that moved me, <v William Goldman>so that the director and the other technicians can then take it and put that emotional <v William Goldman>moment on the screen, and let's hope it works. <v William Goldman>Let's hope it works. Nobody knows= The great thing, I say this again and again and again, <v William Goldman>the basic truth of the movie business is nobody knows anything. <v William Goldman>Nobody knows anything. They say they know, but they don't know. <v William Goldman>They're guessing. It's all a guess. No one knows what will work. <v William Goldman>And that's why it's all a crap shoot. <v Music>[outtro music].