I'm Just The Writer
Writers are often are greatly surprised or disappointed by how
their work is changed when it is adapted for the big screen.
When Irwin Shaw's World War II novel The Young Lions was shot in
Paris in 1958, the Nazi character was played by Marlon Brando.
Ever the method actor, Brando provoked an uproar by strutting
around town in his SS uniform, even going into restaurants to
dine. The thirty three year old star was unsure if the Parisians
ripping his clothes were doing it out of adulation or disdain.
Like most actors Brando wanted to be loved and he took his
concern to Shaw that the Nazi be made sympathetic. "You just
don't understand the character", Brando told the amazed writer.
"It's my character," replied Shaw. "Not anymore", replied the
actor.
Some writers grow resigned to their voices being lost. George S.
Kaufman wrote the screenplay for the Marx Brother's comedy
Animal Crackers in 1930. He attended rehearsals and realized
that nothing Groucho, Chico and Harpo were doing resembled his
original draft. He watched as the director Victor Heerman was
driven to distraction by the brothers showing up late, placing
bets on horses, playing the stock market and never sticking to
the script. Heeman literally threatened to imprison them in
cages till they behaved. Kaufman took it in stride falling
asleep through much of the tomfoolery. At one point the writer
woke up with a start and shouted," Oh my God! I thought I heard
one of my lines."
A few years ago comedy playwright Neil Simon announced he was
moving from Los Angeles to New York. In Los Angeles he was
isolated in his car all the time and he felt it is was hurting
his writing. Better to be in New York where you walked
everywhere and met people. His departure may have been hastened
by writing and showing up to the set of The Marrying Man (1991).
He got to witness Kim Basinger holding up the production with
tardiness, temper tantrums and her much publicized love affair
with co-star Alec Baldwin. Simon was humiliated when she held up
her copy of the script and stated for all to hear," Whoever
wrote this knows nothing about comedy!" The Odd Couple writer
was too insulted to help fix the plot problems and the picture
bombed.
Some writers are amazed to see their words turn into movie
reality. When Margaret Mitchell (1900 -1949) was a young girl in
Atlanta, various relatives took her on tours of Confederate
battle sites, describing the Civil War so vividly that she
imagined she was part of it. It took her ten years to write the
text for Gone With The Wind which she scribbled on yellow legal
pads, shoving them under her couch when friends would come over
to visit her. The best-seller was turned into a movie in 1939
and Mitchell showed up in Hollywood for the fiming of Scarlett
O'Hara (Vivian Leigh) nursing wounded soldiers at the Atlanta
railway station. The author was overwhelmed by the sheer
vastness of the scene. "My God", she told producer David O.
Selznick. "If we would have had this many soldiers we would have
won the war."
Some writers have strong ideas about who should play their
characters. Novelist Tom Clancy was initially unhappy with the
fifty year old Harrison Ford cast as the thirty something CIA
agent Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992) and Clear And Present
Danger (1994). He also berated the actor for suggesting plot
changes to his stories. Ford angrily retorted that writers who
sell their work to the big screen have to expect it to be
changed, otherwise don't sell it. After the two films did great
at the box office, Clancy hinted that he would be willing to
bury the hatchet to get Ford to star in the next Jack Ryan
installment, The Sum Of All Fears (eventually made with Ben
Affleck in 2002). Ford demurred by saying," Maybe when I'm
sixty."
Sometimes stars are better off just following the writer's
instincts. Lou Holtz Jr. was disappointed that Jim Carrey
brought in a team of writers to change his lighthearted script
The Cable Guy (1996) into a dark tale about stalking. Despite
Carrey winning the MTV award for best villain, the movie was
panned by critics, led to several executives being fired at Sony
pictures and became known in Hollywood as "The Straight To Cable
Guy".