Question: Movies about screenwriters?
The topic came up in a discussion the other day: What movies are there where the central character is a screenwriter? This is the list I came up with:
Sunset Blvd.
Barton Fink
The Front
The Muse
Adaptation
There are other movies that involve a writer-director:
The Big Picture
Ed Wood
Any other movies come to mind with a screenwriter in a central role?
UPDATE: Other suggestions pulled from comments:
Delirious (1991): A soap opera writer gets hit on the head and wakes up as a character in his own show.
Stardust Memories (1980): While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker (writer-director) recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.
Paris When It Sizzles (1964): The sprightly young assistant of a Hollywood screenwriter helps him over his writer’s block by acting out his fantasies of possible plots (starring William Holden and Audrey Hepburn — can’t believe I forgot this one).
Not sure about 8 1/2 (1963): A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies. As John (Out of Context) points out: “Not so sure about 8 1/2 because there is a separate writer character. I think of him pretty much as a director, although he clearly is in charge of the story creation aspect.”
Same thing with King Kong (2005): In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with leading lady Ann Darrow.
But I think a special award should go to Mike Scherer who posted In a Lonely Place (1950), a Humphrey Bogart movie that frankly I had never heard of. The premise: A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. But she begins to have doubts…
Here’s a scene where Bogey, the screenwriter, uses his storytelling instincts to try to crack the murder of a woman.
Has anyone seen In a Lonely Place?
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