On the Passing Of Storyteller William Goldman (and how to sell a screenplay)

We had a post earlier today that was in the queue for the weekend but was bumped up on word of Mr. Goldman's death because of its reference to one of his stories: "The Princess Bride".

Goldman wrote a lot of stuff, novels and teleplays a memoir, short stories, just about every medium short of cuneiform tablets. But it was for his screenplays he was best known and for which he picked up a couple Oscars: Best Original Screenplay for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and Best Adapted Screenplay for "All the Presidents Men".

He also wrote a lot of screenplays, adapted and original, that most movie junkies have heard of:

The Stepford Wives
Marathon Man
A Bridge Too Far
Twins
Misery 
Indecent Proposal 
Last Action Hero

For me though, the eye-opener on just how good the guy was, was the light western Maverick.

A Hollywood friend sent a copy of the screenplay and said if I ever wanted to tell my story all I had to do was learn to write like this and the script itself would be the prospectus for the offering and actually sell the deal:

MAVERICK 

A Western by William Goldman

FADE IN ON:
 EXT. DESOLATE LANDSCAPE - HANGING TREE - DAY

Rocks. Cactus. The occasional tree.
Not a place you'd like to spend your summer vacation.

Now there are sounds: A WHIPPING WIND begins to get LOUDER. And in the distance, but GROWING: THUNDER.

CAMERA STARTS TO MOVE --

SLOWLY, INEXORABLY, ACROSS this dead place --

-- suddenly it STOPS. We are in a Sergio Leone TIGHT CLOSEUP of just a hideous looking man. One eye looks straight ahead. The other wanders.

CAMERA MOVES AGAIN.

The wind is really kicking up --
-- suddenly, another STOP.

Another Leone CLOSEUP.

A second man. This guy makes the first one look handsome. Both his eyes work, which is an improvement. But his neck has been horribly burned as if from a noose.

CAMERA IS MOVING AGAIN.

LOUDER THUNDER. A storm is coming fast.

CAMERA STOPS

We are LOOKING AT the least appetizing of the three. Not that he's scarred, not that all his parts aren't in proper working order -- it's just that he's so damn frightening.
Not to mention huge.

This is THE ANGEL and like the other two, he is seated on a horse. And he is staring intently at something.

FROM The Angel -- we go to...

BRET MAVERICK
for this is who the trio is looking at.

(CONTINUED)

Learn to write like that and the screenplay itself is the sales tool so you don't have to read:

"Harvard Business School on How to Sell Your Screenplay"

We posted that in 2014's "The Tropes You'll Need To Know When Writing Your Dystopian Movie Script" with the comment: "If you score we would appreciate a producer credit and maybe a point or two of participation."

The request still stands.