You would be very hard
pushed to name a writer who has
had as big an impact on cinema
as William Goldman. From his
record-breaking deal for the Butch
Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
screenplay through to his Nineties
renaissance nailing adaptations of
Stephen King and John Grisham
via the sheer unbridled joy of
The Princess Bride, Goldman was
a writer who seemed to be the
perfect combination of technician
and artist, someone who couldconstruct a flawless machine and
give it a soul.
Perhaps the best illustration
of this is that he was one of
Hollywood’s most in-demand
script doctors while being
profoundly unromantic about the
movie system. He summed up the
eternal hunt for a film that works
with ‘nobody knows anything’
and preferred to think of himself
as a novelist.
Indeed, three of his best-
loved films were adapted fromYou’ll often find people
complaining about ‘safe’ films
but no one ever felt totally safe
watching a Nicolas Roeg film.
The filmmaker had a
remarkable eye for dazzling
visuals, making his start as a
cinematographer on movies like
The Masque Of The Red Death
and Fahrenheit 451. His 1970
directorial debut Performance
(co-directed with Donald
Cammell) was a gloriously
disorienting and challenging
psychological trip that confused
and enraged the studio.
It was the first film in an
incredible run that included
Walkabout (1971), Don’t Look
Now (1973) and The Man Who
Fell To Earth (1976). The latter
was subsequently recently given
a beautiful restoration, allowing
a new generation to discover the
uncanny combination of wonder
and despair as David Bowie’s
spaceman is gradually ground© 1975 Dutch National Archives
Petr Novák, WikipediaWILLIAM GOLDMAN
1931-
NICOLAS ROEG
1928-
One of Hollywood’s most important writers has
passed awayRemembering the director of Don’t Look Now
and The Man Who Fell To EarthWORDS jONATHAN HATFuLLWORDS jONATHAN HATFuLLhis own novels: The Princess
Bride, Marathon Man and Magic.
Goldman often cited the former
as his personal favourite and it’s
easy to see why. The combination
of wit, heart and adventure
continues to enchant and inspire
audiences more than 25 years
later and it contains some of
his most sparkling dialogue (we
could fill the rest of this article
simply with quotes from The
Princess Bride, but we’ll settle for:
“My name is Inigo Montoya. Youkilled my father. Prepare to die.”).
Although there were the
occasional misfires, there can
be no doubting Goldman’s place
in cinema history. He was a
key figure in what is arguably
American filmmaking’s most
vibrant and exciting era and
continued to show his mastery
of the screenwriting form over
the decades in a stunning range
of genres and scales. One of the
artform’s most influential figures
has been lost.down by television and mankind’s
avaricious nature.
Of course, Don’t Look Now
remains one of horror cinema’s
true masterpieces. No matter
how many times you’ve seen it
you can’t help but get sucked
into those cold, foggy Venice
streets and be horrified by
what’s waiting for Donald
Sutherland’s grieving parent at
the end of them.
For many, their first encounter
with Roeg’s work may have been
his splendidly horrid adaptation
of Roald Dahl’s The Witches
and, given his fame for dealing
with adult subject matter, he had
a remarkable knack for telling
stories that really get under
children’s skin.
While his cinematic output
dwindled in later years, his
influence on cinema only grows
more pronounced. We should all
pay another visit to the strange
worlds he conjured.“a writer who seemed to be
the perfect combination of
technician and artist”w w w.sci fi n ow.co.u k |^013HOt NeWS
William Goldman/Nicolas Roeg