Being There and the Evolution of a Screenplay - by Aaron Hunter (Paperback)

About the Book

"Provides an insightful look at the drafting of one of Hollywood history's greatest scripts, Being There, including three drafts of the screenplay, as well as explanatory commentary on the different versions, facsimile pages of script notations, and previously unpublished material from the Hal Ashby archives relating to the script and the final film"--

Book Synopsis

Being There and the Evolution of a Screenplay provides an insightful look at the drafting of one of Hollywood history's greatest scripts. Being There (1979) is generally considered the final film in Hal Ashby's triumphant 1970s career, which included the likes of Harold and Maude (1971) and Shampoo (1975). The film also showcases Peter Sellers's last great performance. In 2005, the Writers Guild of America included Being There on its list of 101 Best Scripts.

Being There and the Evolution of a Screenplay features three versions of the script: an early draft by Jerzy Kosinski, based on his 1970 novel; a second by long-time Ashby collaborator and Oscar-winner Robert C. Jones, which makes substantial changes to Kosinki's; and a final draft written by Jones with Ashby's assistance, which makes further structural and narrative changes. Additionally, the book features facsimile pages from one of Kosinski's copy of the scripts that include handwritten notes, providing readers with valuable insight into the redrafting process. For each version, Ashby scholar Aaron Hunter adds perceptive analysis of the script's development, the relationships of the writers who worked on it, and key studio and production details.

This is both a presentation of the script of Being There, and a record of the process of crafting that script - a text that will be of interest to film fans and scholars as well as writers and teachers of screenwriting. Evolution of a Screenplay is the first book of its kind to so amply demonstrate the creative development of a Hollywood script.

Review Quotes

"In this bold and ambitious work, Hunter demonstrates with great clarity the collaborative nature of the screenwriting process through an examination of one of the most celebrated screenplays of the 20th Century, Being There. Meticulously dissecting its scenes, analyzing its dialogue and showing how and why they evolved through the contribution of key creative agents over the course of several years, Being There and the Evolution of a Screenplay provides the reader with a rare opportunity to understand the creative process at the heart of Hollywood cinema. A must-read for screenwriting students!" --Yannis Tzioumakis, co-editor of The Hollywood Renaissance (2018)

About the Author

Aaron Hunter lectures in the department of film at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His publications include Authoring Hal Ashby: The Myth of the New Hollywood Auteur (Bloomsbury, 2016) and Polly Platt: Hollywood Production Design and Creative Authorship (2022). His collection Women and New Hollywood: Gender, Creative Labor, and 1970s American Cinema, co-edited with Martha Shearer, will be published in 2022.