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SCREENWRITERS
ORSON
WELLES
Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, producer and actor, born in Wisconsin in 1915. Before working in the film industry, Welles was a successful theatre director, working on plays such as a version of Shakespeare's Macbeth, with an entirely African American cast. He also directed the political musical 'The Cradle Will Rock'.
In 1941, he co-wrote, directed and starred in Citizen Kane when he was only 25 years old. After his success in theatre, RKO Pictures signed Welles to develop his own story, pick his own cast and crew and have final cut privilege on the film, which is unusual for an unexperienced film director. The film was released in May 1941, but failed to remake any costs at the box office. Citizen Kane was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, and won the award for Best Original Screenplay. Citizen Kane is regarded as one of the greatest and influential films ever made.
The thing I found interesting about Orson Welles screenplays is that he directs the scripts he writes. The films he writes and directs have compelling and interesting stories that fit into the film noir genre. Another interesting thing about Orson Welles is that his directing style influenced other films in the film noir genre.
CITIZEN
KANE
The style Orson Welles used in Citizen Kane influenced film noir.
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Orson Welles. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles.
IMDb. (n.d.). Orson Welles - IMDb. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000080/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 .
Citizen Kane (1941) Film.
Directed by Orson Welles. USA, Mercury Productions.
WILLIAM
GOLDMAN
William Goldman was an American screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1931. He was well-know for writing films such as All the Presidents Men, Chaplin, The Princess Bride and A Few Good Men. He has won two academy awards for his screenplays for All The Presidents Men in 1976 and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance kid in 1969. He began creative writing whilst he was in college. His main interests were poetry, short stories and novels.
In 1956, he began writing his first novel, The Temple of Gold. It took him less than three weeks to write the novel. The book was published and sold enough in paperback for William Goldman to launch his career. In 1960, he wrote Soldier in the Rain. It sold well and was adapted into a screenplay for the film, released in 1963.
He was rumoured to be the writer of the screenplay for Good Will Hunting. He denied this at a Directors Guild of America meeting, where he said that he only gave advice to the actual writers, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and removed a subplot rom the script . He has was a judge at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.
The thing I found interesting about William Goldman is that his scripts are seen as some of the best scripts written for film. His scripts are also well written and tell interesting stories, like the story of the Watergate Scandal in All the Presidents Men.
A FEW
GOOD MEN
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). William Goldman. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Goldman.
IMDb. (n.d.). William Goldman - IMDb. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001279/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1 .
A Few Good Men (1992) Film.
Directed by Rob Reiner. USA, Castle Rock.
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