Advertisement

When it comes to watching, Angelenos are focused on writing

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Netflix’s local feature shows what people in your city are watching more than in any other city, and right now, ‘Tales from the Script’ tops the Los Angeles list.

Released in 2009, ‘Tales from the Script’ is a documentary that features working screenwriters talking about what it takes to be a screenwriter -- sure, there’s some craft, but the real attraction may be the Hollywod horror stories.

Advertisement

Screenwriters who appear in the film include Paul Shrader, author of ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Raging Bull’; director John Carpenter, who scripted ‘Halloween’; Shane Black, who had a success with ‘Lethal Weapon’ and less with ‘The Last Boyscout’; Guinevere Turner, who co-wrote ‘The Notorious Bettie Page’ and ‘American Psycho’ with director Mary Harron (and a start from Bret Easton Ellis) and has horror stories from ‘BloodRayne’; Frank Darabont, who adapted ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ from the Stephen King short story; and William Goldman, the author of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ ‘The Stepford Wives,’ ‘Marathon Man,’ ‘All the President’s Men,’ ‘Heat,’ ‘Chaplin’ and ‘The Princess Bride.’

For people who want more Goldman -- who says, in the film, ‘you’ll get pissed on and rejected,’ -- he’s also the author of ‘Adventures in the Screen Trade,’ one of the seminal works of Hollywood tale-telling.

There’s even a book version of the film -- ‘Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories’ -- co-edited by the documentary’s director, Peter Hanson, and its writer, Paul Robert Herman.

So you could read the words of the screenwriters -- but are you going to when everyone else is watching?

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Advertisement