Award-winning screenwriters reveal their Hollywood secrets in crafting brilliant stories and methodology through interviews with world-renowned UCLA screenwriting professor Lew Hunter. Naked Screenwriting includes interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Wilder, Oliver Stone, Bruce Joel Rubin, William Goldman, Julius Epstein, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Alfred Uhry, Tom Schulman, Ted Tally, Ruth Prawer Jabvola, Eric Roth, Jean-Claude Carriere, Frank Pierson, David Ward, Horton Foote, Ron Bass, Alan Ball, Callie Khouri, Robert Benton, Irving Ravetch, and Harriet Frank Junior. Never before has a book covered Oscar-winning writers so thoroughly, shedding insight and wisdom into the art of screenwriting.
Lew Hunter is an American screenwriter, author and educator and is chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting at the UCLA Department of Film and Television. Over half of the Oscar winning scripts over the past twenty years have been written by students of Hunter. His former students and advocates include such people as Adrienne Parks, Allison Anders, David Koepp, Mike Werb, Sacha Gervasi, Dan Pyne, David Titcher, Diane Saltzberg, Michael Colleary, Don Mancini, Kathy Stumpe, Darren Star, Alexander Payne and Tom Shadyac. Other students include Chuck Loch, Paige Macdonald, Robert Wolfe, Joel Schumacher, Megan Steinbeck, Robert Roy Poole, Lon Diamond, Laurie Hutlzer, Pamela Gray, William Missouri Downs, Robin Russin, Brad Silberling, Greg Widen, and many others. Steven Spielberg has called Hunter "the best screenwriting teacher going".
Hunter collects interviews with 22 prize-winning screenwriters in this top-notch volume spanning his career as a UCLA professor, revealing each artist 'bar[ing] their art, soul, craft, and secrets.' The notable screenwriters range across generations.... The interviews feature plenty of helpful tips, among them The Godfather's Francis Ford Coppola's recommendation to carry a notebook to jot down character sketches, while Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Howard's End) explains her choice to write in longhand so she can include drawings. Hunter writes with a playful flair in his introduction: 'for the rest of this book, motion-picture yourself at UCLA at my 434 master screenwriting class.' .... [The} volume offers unique access to a wide array of talent. It's a treasure trove for Hollywood historians and aspiring screenwriters alike.--Publishers Weekly Novice and professional screenwriters alike can find advice and solace from this marvelous collection of interviews. Lew is a master teacher, and this book extends his work in the classroom to us all.--Alexander Payne, director/writer/producer Lew Hunter, a legendary teacher of screenwriting, has assembled the ultimate masters class. What an extraordinary resource! If you're passionate about movies and the scripts that inspire them, you need to get NAKED.--Ted Tally, Academy Award-winning screenwriter How awesome for the reader to experience what it feels like to be on the inside of this process. A crash course from some of the most decorated writers and producers of our time!--Anna Marie Sinatra, TV and radio personality, author, and speaker, SinatraSolutions.com In sincere hopes that something has been provided within Lew Hunter's collection of interviews Naked Screenwriting that will be useful to our beloved young cinema artists.--Francis Ford Coppola
