# Unexpected screenwriters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920 "2022-03-29T16:58:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/1 "2022-03-29T16:58:28Z")
As a junkie movie credit reader (I was staying through the credits long before there were post-credit and inter-credit scenes), I notice screenwriters. Often I use the information to track down other movies I ythink I might like. But sometimes the screenwriters are surprising, either because they later got famous (often in another context) or the movie (or TV show) is outside their usual milieu, or you just didn’t expect it. **Mario Puzo** – **Superman** and **Superman II** What was the author of The Godfather and other gangster books doing writing a comic book hero? **Erich Segal** – Years before he wrote the book **Love Story** (and the book and screenplay of the sequel), he was co-writer of **Yellow Submarine** , the trippy Beatles animated movie **James Clavell** – I’m still surprised when I see his name on **The Great Escape** , although he’d already written **King Rat** about another WWII POW camp by then. But he also wrote a lot of other screenplays and teleplays, including two episodes of **Man Into Space** and **The Satan Bug** **Roald Dahl** – He wrote the original script for the James Bond film **You Only Live Twice**. Okay, he was a friend of Ian Fleming’s, but does that qualify a childrens’ book author to write adult spy flicks? He wrote a piece for _Playboy_ on how he came to write the screenplay. **William Faulkner** and **Leigh Brackett** – It’s not often a Nobel prize winner for literature and a Golden Age science fiction/fantasy writer team up on a screenplay. They co-wrote **The Big Sleep** (so if you liked _The Big Lebowski_, you have them to thank, partly) Both of them wrote lots of other screenplays, which still amazes me. In particular, Brackett wrote the original screenplay for **The Empire Strikes Back**. One of the few times a Golden Age author wrote part of the lineage of a blockbuster SF./fantasy movie. **Harlan Ellison** – he’s written of of scripts, especially for TV., but generally for science fiction (Star Trek, Outer Limits, Masters of Science Fiction, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) or “cult” TV (Burke’s Law, Man from U.N.C.L.E.). But he also wrote an episode of **The Flying Nun** Really. Of course, he signed it “Cordwainer Bird” > **["The Flying Nun" You Can't Get There from Here (TV Episode 1968) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0580888/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_21)** > > You Can't Get There from Here: Directed by Bruce Kessler. With Sally Field, Marge Redmond, Madeleine Sherwood, Alejandro Rey. Sister Bertrille crash lands on a remote and seemingly deserted island after the wind dies on one of her flights.... Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/2 "2022-03-29T17:21:03Z")
J. Michael Straczynski, who’s best-known for creating and writing science fiction TV (_Babylon 5_, _Sense8_), did a lot of other TV writing/editing/producing in the 1980s, prior to _Babylon 5_. He wrote for several animated kids’ shows (_He-Man_, _She-Ra_, _The Real Ghostbusters_), as well as for prime-time dramas (_Jake and the Fatman_, _Murder She Wrote_). > [@CalMeacham](#): > > In particular, Brackett wrote the original screenplay for **The Empire Strikes Back**. One of the few times a Golden Age author wrote part of the lineage of a blockbuster SF./fantasy movie. IMO, Brackett is a big reason why _The Empire Strikes Back_ is probably the best of the _Star Wars_ films. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/3 "2022-03-29T17:24:12Z")
**Peter Sagal** , host of “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” wrote a screenplay about the Cuban Revolution - it eventually was made, much altered as “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/4 "2022-03-29T17:25:46Z")
Noah Baumbach had a scriptwriting credit on **Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted**. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/5 "2022-03-29T17:30:41Z")
From the same writer as Breaking Bad and X-Files… [![](https://www.tvguide.com/a/img/catalog/provider/1/2/1-961327281.jpg) ](https://www.tvguide.com/a/img/catalog/provider/1/2/1-961327281.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/6 "2022-03-29T17:35:53Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Noah Baumbach had a scriptwriting credit on **Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted**. A little help here. I’m not familiar with Mr. Baumbach. You ought to give a little background Heck, I even explained who Leigh Brackett was. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/7 "2022-03-29T17:40:01Z")
My apologies - he’s the writer/director of **Marriage Story** , **The Squid and the Whale** , and other naturalistic, indie-esque dramedies about grown-up themes. (Not the first writer you’d think of for a zany animated children’s film about talking animals.) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/8 "2022-03-29T17:45:31Z")
Also, speaking of Golden Age sci-fi writers: Ray Bradbury co-wrote the screenplay for the 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville’s _Moby Dick_, which starred Gregory Peck. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/9 "2022-03-29T17:45:38Z")
The answer to all questions is money. **S. J. Perelman** , the humorist, went to Hollywood to write for the Marx Brothers, but won an Oscar for _Around the World in Eighty Days_. Similarly, Marx Brothers writer **Irving Brecher** wrote the drippy nostalgic musical _Meet Me in St. Louis_ and got an Oscar nomination for it. **Gore Vidal** wrote an episode of the tv series _Janet Dean, Registered Nurse_. **F. Scott Fitzgerald** got assigned to many lousy pictures, but his worst fiasco was _Winter Carnival_, based on the real thing at Dartmouth. He and Budd Schulberg were sent there to write the script. His drunken behavior got them both fired. Schulberg later wrote an incredible novel, _The Disenchanted_, about the experience. (Schulberg is probably the lost great writer of the 1940-1950s.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/10 "2022-03-29T19:00:11Z")
Oh, I forgot to mention, Roald Dahl did the screenplay for **Chitty Chitty Bang Bang** , too – another Ian Fleming story. But, heck, I can easily believe him writing that one. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/11 "2022-03-29T19:02:45Z")
While I was looking up _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang_ (and learned, as you did, that it was Dahl), I also learned that Earl Hamner, who became well-known in the 1970s for writing and creating the TV series _The Waltons_, had apparently written an earlier, unproduced screenplay for _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang_, based on Fleming’s book. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/12 "2022-03-29T19:05:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **William Faulkner** and **Leigh Brackett** – It’s not often a Nobel prize winner for literature and a Golden Age science fiction/fantasy writer team up on a screenplay. Well, Ray Bradbury teamed up with John Huston to write the screenplay to [Moby Dick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_(1956_film)). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/13 "2022-03-29T19:07:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Well, Ray Bradbury teamed up with John Huston to write the screenplay to [Moby Dick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_(1956_film)). [Great minds think alike.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/8) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/14 "2022-03-29T19:09:08Z")
George R.R. Martin wrote for that Beauty and the Beast TV show with Linda Hamilton, I think. Tony Gilroy, who wrote Michael Clayton and the Bourne movies…also wrote The Cutting Edge, that movie about the ice skate and the hockey player. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/15 "2022-03-29T19:15:09Z")
It still blows my mind that Sylvester Stallone wrote “Rocky”. (Sylvester Stallone is a notable action movie star.) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/16 "2022-03-29T19:17:02Z")
Film critic Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay for the critically panned **Beyond the Valley of the Dolls**. One of the stars of that film, Michael Blodgett, went on to co-write the screenplay for **Turner and Hooch**. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/17 "2022-03-29T19:21:04Z")
Puppeteer Shari Lewis co-wrote “The Lights of Zetar” episode of Star Trek (original series) with her husband. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/18 "2022-03-29T19:24:47Z")
**Suzanne Collins** , author of the grim, post-apocalyptic dystopia _The Hunger Games_ and its sequels, wrote several episodes of the peaceful, idyllic children’s animated series _Little Bear_. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/19 "2022-03-29T19:27:20Z")
Lars von Trier, best known for gritty experimental dramas, wrote and directed an episode of the “Curb Your Enthusiasm”-esque comedy series _Klovn_. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/20 "2022-03-29T19:28:23Z")
Aldous Huxley, best known for the novel _Brave New World_, wrote the screenplays for the 1940s adaptations of _Pride and Prejudice_ and _Jane Eyre_. Later, Walt Disney commissioned him to adapt _Alice in Wonderland_ as a live-action/animation hybrid, but the script was never produced. Apparently most of it was destroyed in a house fire, but portions of the script still exist. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920.md?page=2)