Hooray For Hollywood
I was once hired by a major producer to write a gritty New York detective story. This was just after "Fort Apache, The Bronx" had become a big hit. Sometime after the first draft was finished and we were working on revisions, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was released and turned into an even bigger hit. So the producer ordered me to turn our hard-hitting drama in a comic book style comedy. Needless to say, it never got made. Later it was turned back into a drama, but by then a new writer had been brought in.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:25 AM
6 Comments:
John C, where did you find such innocents? Love this one. Fell on floor laughing, now really will buy mattress for floor. Now, tell me, you wanted to be a script writer in Hollywood because............???
Not fair John...but I guess no-one ever promises fair do they? I'm a great believer in natural justice though and every dog having his day...the best is yet to come!
Hilarious John!Reminds of the old joke about the bent and twisted old man who swept up after the elephants> A couple took pity on him and offered him a job. "I could never leave show business!"
Back in the 70s, Peter Ustinov was sitting beside a Hollywood swimming pool listening to the other guests lamenting the dreadful state of the film business. One of the guests remarked that the only pictures making any money were black exploitation movies; another added that vampire films for teenagers seemed to doing decent business. Amused by the tone of the conversation, Sir Peter chimed in: "Seems to me what Hollywood needs now is a vampire film for Afro-Americans." He ended his story by saying that a few weeks later some producer announced the making of "Blacula," a film that went on to make a considerable amount of $$$$$$$s.
Thanks everyone for the contributions. Great tale, prof. It put me in mind of the story about the legendary erstwhile British producer, Sir Lew Grade (called "Low Grade" by some). A friend ran into him in an elevator and asked him what he was working on. "I have several pictures going," he replied, "some good, some lousy. All great."
I hope I'm not wandering too far OT here, but as we are trading Hooray for Hollywood stories, here's one about the legendary Harry Cohn, tyranical chief of Columbia Pictures. King Cohn had a tradition: any writer in his studio could pitch a story to him providing scribe could tell the tale in one sentence. The story goes that Robert Rossen walked into Cohn's office, smiled at his boss and said only "Golden Boy with bulls." Cohn said "We'll make it." The film, of course, was "The Brave Bulls" of 1951.
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