What Happens Next - A History of American Screenwriting

Zusatztext “Fascinating.” — Los Angeles Times “A remarkable synthesis . . . the best! by far.” —Scott Eyman! New York Observer “A history of American film in which the camera pans away from its presumptive stars and searches out the ink-stained wretches huddled over typewriters.” — San Francisco Chronicle “Irreplaceable . . . Without question! the best treatment of the subject since Richard Corliss’s Talking Pictures in 1974.” — Buffalo News “Excellent . . . A book that deserves to become a classic of the genre.” — The Times (London) “Marc Norman is not only a wonderful and talented screenwriter in his own right! but he has done a great job of laying out screenwriting’s evolution in this excellent! comprehensive history. A must read for anyone who wants to know this important piece of the puzzle of Hollywood.” —Mike Medavoy “A stunningly entertaining way to tell the history of Hollywood. But what’s amazing about this wonderful book is not just that it’s relentlessly insightful! constantly surprising and beautifully written–what’s amazing is that no one has done this before. This is one terrific book.” —Phil Robinson! author (screenplay) of Field of Dreams “Marc Norman's What Happens Next is not only a fine book! it's a necessary book! brilliantly narrating the turbulent saga of 100 years of American screenwriting with energy! style! and an insider's sympathetic understanding of the always uneasy marriage between a primarily visual medium and the people who use words as its architecture.” —Scott Eyman! author! Lion of Hollywood "Marc Norman has created a comprehensive narrative of what is essentially a secret history. Entertaining! surprising and endlessly fascinating! he throws a bright light into a corner of our film heritage that has been habitually! even criminally! ignored." —Lawrence Kasdan! co-screenwriter and director of The Big Chill "At last! Hollywood History from a screenwriting perspective— a compelling! enlightening! and important work." —Dave Trottier! author The Screenwriter's Bible Informationen zum Autor Marc Norman Klappentext "Fascinating.” —Los Angeles Times A brilliant, wildly entertaining history of Hollywood from the screenwriters' perspective In this truly fresh take on the movies, veteran Oscar-winning screenwriter Marc Norman gives us the first comprehensive history of the men and women who penned some of the greatest movies of all time. Impeccably researched, erudite, and filled with unforgettable stories of the stars and scribes, amateurs and auteurs, directors, producers, and legendary moguls, What Happens Next is a unique and engrossing narrative of the quintessential art form of our time.1 It’s July 1914, and here’s D. W. Griffith, striding across the Hollywood Hills. Not the south slope, the one that looks down on the suburb of dusty avenues, pepper trees, and the nondescript cantonments of the first movie studios; this is the north slope, the one that faces the wild, mostly unpopulated San Fernando Valley, with the wispy Los Angeles River trickling at its foot and only some emanation in the air to suggest that Warner Bros.—today, the Burbank Studios—will spread and dominate the far bank within a few years. The slope, a few square miles of it, belongs to Uncle Carl Laemmle of Universal Studios—Griffith has leased it for a month. In its weedy meadows, surrounded by chaparral and live oak, he is filming a movie about the American Civil War with thousands of men, hundreds of horses, and everything he has learned or discovered in seven obsessive years of moviemaking, an average of one one-reeler, meaning fifteen minutes or so of finished and titled film, a week. The name on the call sheets is The Clansman, but the movie will be renamed The Birth of a Nation sometime afte...

Product details

• Authors: Marc Norman
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2008
• EAN: 9780307393883
• ISBN: 978-0-307-39388-3
• No. of pages: 576
• Dimensions: 131 mm x 202 mm x 31 mm
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Photography, film, video, TV