# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**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 30, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/61 "2022-03-30T19:04:41Z")
H. G. Wells has 141 credits on IMDb, all from adaptations of his work. But he apparently actually worked on one, with a dialogue credit. [The Man Who Could Work Miracles](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029201/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_125), a light fantasy of the sort not usually attributed to him. ---
**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 30, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/62 "2022-03-30T20:48:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > H. G. Wells has 141 credits on IMDb, all from adaptations of his work. But he apparently actually worked on one, with a dialogue credit. [The Man Who Could Work Miracles](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029201/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_125), a light fantasy of the sort not usually attributed to him. Actually, I think that **The Man Who Could Work Miracles** is the best overall Wells adaptation of all , and for years I attributed this in part to his NOT having anything to do with it. I knew that someone else wrote the screenplay, but this is the first I heard that he added some dialogue. I still think it’s the best because his input wasn’t large,. Wells DID write the screenplay for **Things to Come** , and it’s rather dismal. The movie is visually striking and imaginative, but wells’ hand is pretty heavy in allegory (“Everytown” my foot – why not just come out and call it London? It’s got St. Paul’s right there in the background.) Too many characters “stand for” something, but aren’t really people. He wrote another screenplay – **The King Who Was A King** – but it was never produced. It’s apparently on the internet, and I should read it. But from all accounts it’s as allegorically heavy as **Things to Come** Ironically, wells was right at the forefront of things. He was trying to team up with some inventors who wanted to turn **The Time Machine** into a sort of early Virtual Reality ride – a box with a movie screen in the front that depicted scenes from different historical eras. If they had done it, they probably would’ve scooped Hale’s Tours, which is credited with starting lots of movie careers. > **[Hale's Tours of the World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hale%27s_Tours_of_the_World)** > > Hale's Tours of the World were an attraction at amusement parks and similar venues in the early 20th century. They were specially constructed spaces designed to simulate a railway journey. > George C. Hale was born on October 28, 1849. He was a well travelled and prolific inventor, engineer and Fire Chief of Kansas City, Missouri from 1882 until retiring in 1902. Interested in the use of film, Hale came across William Keefe who had conceived the idea of an imitation railway passenger car on a cir... > [@HG Wells question](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hg-wells-question/82709): > > I’m going to try this in ‘Cafe Society,’ though I suspect it might be just as appropriate for GQ. Regardless… I recall reading some time ago about a plan HG Wells and an entrepreneur hatched to create what would today be called ‘motion simulator rides’ based on Wells Time Machine book. Paying customers would get into the Time Machine simulator and experience the rapid passing of days (flickering lights) and then be treated to famous scenes from history (painted tableaus or dioramas). The ride w… > [@](#): > > As **don’t ask** noted above, it was Robert Paul who collaborated with H.G. Wells on this. According to John Baxter’s **Science Fiction in the Cinema** (1970 – a wretched book, but sometimes a useful reference) Wells and Paul applied for a patent on October 24, 1895 for a device to duplicate the effects Wells had described in his novel **The Time Machine** a year earlier. “The plan might have worked had either man possessed the money to develop it. However, Wells moved on to eminence as a writer and Paul to frustration and obscurity as a pioneer of the cinema.” ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/63 "2022-03-30T22:25:36Z")
[Amanda Peet](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001605/) created and wrote three episodes of _The Chair_ on Netflix. I haven’t really noticed her in anything since _The Whole Nine Yards_\* but she’s worked steadily since then. \*Such an odd expression. I’d like to know the straight dope on its origins. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/64 "2022-03-30T22:32:33Z")
Clifford Odets was famous as a playwright from the mid-thirties (“Waiting for Lefty”; “Golden Boy”). From IMDB: “Clifford Odets’ original script for _Wild in the Country_ (1961) had Elvis Presley’s character committing suicide at the end of the film. This was screened for a preview audience, who were horrified, and the ending was changed. According to Odets friend, Oscar Levant, in _Memoirs of an Amnesiac_, “… only Odets would write a story for Elvis in which he committed suicide. Actually, it was humiliating that Odets had to write that kind of picture at all, but he needed the money. Everything he was against, in the beginning of his career, he wound up doing himself.” William Burroughs got two writing credits on _Taking Tiger Mountain_ (1983), including one for “additional material from _Bladerunner_ by.” He only got one credit when the film was later reedited and released as _Taking Tiger Mountain: Revisited_ (2019). For the story of this film’s convoluted production, see: [Taking Tiger Mountain (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_Tiger_Mountain_(film)) Among Truman Capote’s few screenwriting credits is an obscure and (deservedly?) forgotten 1968 TV remake of _Laura_ starring Lee Radziwill - Jackie Kennedy’s younger sister - in the title role. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/65 "2022-03-30T22:35:29Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > \*Such an odd expression. I’d like to know the straight dope on its origins. > **[What’s the origin of “the whole nine yards”?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341689/what-s-the-origin-of-the-whole-nine-yards)** ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/66 "2022-03-30T22:57:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The interesting thing about the GBS story is his _possibly_ unique status as both a Nobel Prize and Academy Award winner. Bob Dylan has both. He also has a Grammy Al Gore has a Nobel Prize and Grammy, and his documentary won an Oscar, though the producer received the statuette. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/67 "2022-03-30T23:04:56Z")
Sorry, just a little joke. However, Cecil (R.I.P.) never managed to track down the origins of the expression. A better explanation can be found [here](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/whole-nine-yards). ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/68 "2022-03-30T23:39:32Z")
Not unknown now, but the first time I heard that **Carrie Fisher** (_Princess Leia_) was one of the most sought after script doctors in Hollywood, it surprised me. She doctored _Hook, Sister Act, The Wedding Singer_, a couple of the _Star Wars_ movies, and many others. She also wrote the screenplay for the movie of her memoir _Postcards from the Edge_. ---
**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 30, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/69 "2022-03-30T23:59:38Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > Oscar Levant, in _Memoirs of an Amnesiac_ , “ A great book, with one of the best titles of all time, especially because it was true: he had amnesia from his electroshock therapy. ---
**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 31, 2022, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/70 "2022-03-31T00:26:02Z")
Three eighth-grade girls wrote an episode of “Tiny Toon Adventures.” > **[The kid-written episode of ''Tiny Toon Adventures''](https://ew.com/article/1991/02/01/kid-written-episode-tiny-toon-adventures/)** > > The kid-written episode of ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' -- How three teens wrote an episode of the cartoon and worked with Steven Spielberg ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/71 "2022-04-02T23:01:32Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > She also wrote the screenplay for the movie of her memoir _Postcards from the Edge_ . I legitimately dug that movie. It was really funny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920.md?page=3)