- Hardcover: 560 pages
- Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd (25 Mar 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1845133242
- ISBN-13: 978-1845133245
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.6 x 5.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 503,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"'The movies: they tear you away from your home, draw you into a pigsty of people, make you do stuff that disgusts you, rip out all your ambition of inventiveness, reduce you to a hack - and what do you get for it? A fortune.' Screenwiter Samuel Hoffenberg 'Will you accept three hundred per week to work for Paramount Pictures? All expenses paid. The three hundred is peanuts. Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around.' Telegram from Herman Mankiewicz (who wrote Citizen Kane) to Ben Hecht (who wrote The Front Page) 'They're destroying my script. They're wrecking my beautiful story' Paddy Chayefsky on the filming of Altered States 'Naa, you know, what he did was cross out a lot of stuff that I wrote, and he told me to do this and that, and we usually fought about it, and sometimes he really f**ked things up.' Robert Towne, on being asked if Warren Beatty, who got the first credit, had written any of the script for Shampoo"
Daily Express, 28th March 2008
'a thrilling account of a somewhat elusive profession'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was a disappointing book. I like books about screenwriters and Hollywood - fiction or non-fiction, but this book trots neatly through a sketchy history of Hollywood writers over the decades, but doesn't have much passion or direction. It had all the excitement of a graduate thesis, but without the weight or analysis.
In 'What Happens Next?' Marc Norman is rather disparaging about Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby stories - about a failed screen writer. But whereas Fitzgerald was writing about a hack (and in a way both stylish and entertaining), Mr Norman simply writes like one.
In 'What Happens Next?' Marc Norman is rather disparaging about Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby stories - about a failed screen writer. But whereas Fitzgerald was writing about a hack (and in a way both stylish and entertaining), Mr Norman simply writes like one.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
By no means an all-encompassing account - how could one book cover the history of thousands of screenplays written every year for Hollywood? - 'What Happens Next' nevertheless offers an entertaining account of the little-documented aspect of Hollywood's history.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Read This Now
14 Nov 2007
Format:Hardcover
This book is phenomenal. Not only is it well-written and comprehensive, but it fills a horrendous gap in the legacy of screenwriting and its impact on movies.
Other than Ian Hamilton's terrific work on the early years of screenwriting, this book immediately becomes the cornerstone, the bedrock of the genre -- and for very good reason. It's not just a book about the writers themselves, but how the art and craft of screenwriting have evolved in the context of film. What we get is an alternate point of view that has for too long been neglected in entry-level cinema history.
Starting from Edison, Edwin Porter and D.W. Griffith, we travel the well-trodden (but freshly invigorated) path through the studio system and on into modern movie-making -- with the twist that the writer has not been brushed aside. In fact, we immediately see how crucial key scribes have contributed to the development of the art.
It's a cliche in Hollywood that the writer is abused and overlooked (ask a striking member of the WGA if you don't believe me). But other than a work stoppage, nothing can rectify the place of the writer in the public's awareness more than a historical overview with the screenwriter placed in his or her rightful place -- at the center of the creative process itself.
This is not a scree or a polemic, but a finely written, highly entertaining look at Hollywood. I find myself referring to it all the time. In fact, I've recreated my entire Netflix queue around areas of my movie history that could use some screenings. And I've become a big fan of Anita Loos! (You too will discover that at least 50% of the early screenwriters were women, with Anita being its first breakout star.)
Like a great film, this book immerses you in a world and rivets you to your chair. If you are a writer or a curious film buff, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. It will reward you with many great nights of delight and discovery -- a claim not enough movies themselves can make these days.
Other than Ian Hamilton's terrific work on the early years of screenwriting, this book immediately becomes the cornerstone, the bedrock of the genre -- and for very good reason. It's not just a book about the writers themselves, but how the art and craft of screenwriting have evolved in the context of film. What we get is an alternate point of view that has for too long been neglected in entry-level cinema history.
Starting from Edison, Edwin Porter and D.W. Griffith, we travel the well-trodden (but freshly invigorated) path through the studio system and on into modern movie-making -- with the twist that the writer has not been brushed aside. In fact, we immediately see how crucial key scribes have contributed to the development of the art.
It's a cliche in Hollywood that the writer is abused and overlooked (ask a striking member of the WGA if you don't believe me). But other than a work stoppage, nothing can rectify the place of the writer in the public's awareness more than a historical overview with the screenwriter placed in his or her rightful place -- at the center of the creative process itself.
This is not a scree or a polemic, but a finely written, highly entertaining look at Hollywood. I find myself referring to it all the time. In fact, I've recreated my entire Netflix queue around areas of my movie history that could use some screenings. And I've become a big fan of Anita Loos! (You too will discover that at least 50% of the early screenwriters were women, with Anita being its first breakout star.)
Like a great film, this book immerses you in a world and rivets you to your chair. If you are a writer or a curious film buff, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. It will reward you with many great nights of delight and discovery -- a claim not enough movies themselves can make these days.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Lights, Camera, History, Gossip!
11 Feb 2008
Format:Hardcover
Academy award winner Marc Norman's "What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting" is as entertaining as a good movie. It can be studied as serious movie history--his description of the forces that moved the early movie industry from the East coast to the West is as good as any I've ever read--or perused as titillating, yet intelligent gossip. The men and women who wrote the words and stories so frequently disparaged and often disregarded by directors, producers, and heads of studios come alive in "What Happens Next" through anecdote, letters, and reminiscences.
From William Faulkner to Anita Loos (the highest paid screenwriter of her day), from Quentin Tarantino to Charlie Kaufman, this book is a delight for any movie fan or writer, or anyone who's ever enjoyed a juicy bit of scandalous gossip.
From William Faulkner to Anita Loos (the highest paid screenwriter of her day), from Quentin Tarantino to Charlie Kaufman, this book is a delight for any movie fan or writer, or anyone who's ever enjoyed a juicy bit of scandalous gossip.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Thorough and Interesting
30 Dec 2007
Format:Hardcover
This exhaustively researched book starts at the very beginning then steps through each of the decades since D. W. Griffith's famous movie, all in a very entertaining manner.
Not satisfied simply with recounting the history of screenwriting and screenwriters in all their various guises, the author serves up cogent analysis about the business of movie making then comes to the conclusion that whatever else comes down the pike, in whatever form and whatever else screenwriters are called, there will always be a place for the content generator, or composer as he would prefer.
Excellent reading and enjoyable.
Not satisfied simply with recounting the history of screenwriting and screenwriters in all their various guises, the author serves up cogent analysis about the business of movie making then comes to the conclusion that whatever else comes down the pike, in whatever form and whatever else screenwriters are called, there will always be a place for the content generator, or composer as he would prefer.
Excellent reading and enjoyable.
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