Randee Dawn provides an interesting report for Reuters on the relationship of novelists and movies. “So it was, and so it almost always is: Authors write books,” Dawn writes. “Screenwriters write screenplays. And while there are strong exceptions to every rule (Herman Wouk, Larry McMurtry), a savvy author tends to know when to step aside and let the filmmakers take charge — or, in some cases, the sausage makers. For some reason, authors tend to refer to pork products when discussing Hollywood.”
When talking about novelists who became successful screenwriters, Budd Schulberg deserves a mention. He wrote the classic Hollywood novel “What Makes Sammy Run?” as well as the screenplay for “On the Waterfront.” His forgotten novel “The Disenchanted” is about a former Golden Boy novelist of the 1920s who has been reduced, by the late 1930s, to doctoring a college-comedy screenplay called Love On Ice.
Yep, you’re dead-on about Schulberg.
And Richard Price started working in Hollywood (even earning an Oscar nomination) after finding early success with The Wanderers, Blood Brothers, and other novels.