What Happens Next
Subtitle: A History of American Screenwriting
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Harmony; Harmony Books
Published: October 23, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 560
ISBN-13: 9780307383396
Subjects: Film Criticism; Screenwriting; Performing Arts; Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Cinema/Film: Book; Film & Video - Screenwriting; Performing Arts / Film / Screenwriting; History; Motion picture authorship; Motion pictures; United States
Description: Screenwriters have always been Hollywood's stepchildren. Yet, popular impressions aside, screenwriters have been central to moviemaking since audiences got past the sheer novelty of seeing pictures that moved at all. Soon they wanted to know: What happens next? Veteran Oscar-winning screenwriter Norman gives us the first comprehensive history of the men and women who have answered that question, from Anita Loos, the highest-paid screenwriter of her day, to Robert Towne, Quentin Tarantino, Charlie Kaufman, and other paradigm-busting talents reimagining movies for the new century. The whole rich story is here: the imposition of the Production Code in the early 1930s and the ingenious attempts to outwit the censors; the dark days of the blacklist that divided the screenwriting community; the rise of the writer-director in the early 1970s; and the scare of 2005 when new technologies seemed to dry up the audience for movies and forced the industry to reinvent itself yet again.--From publisher description.