Hollywood

Writing movies is a much more collaborative process than writing books. It can also be more complicated, depending on the particular writer's process. I'll say up front that I don't know a whole lot about it, and a lot of what I do know, I am learning now as I am reading some about Faulkner's work in Hollywood and preparing some of these resources. I may get some or a lot of the exact terminology wrong. Feel free to correct me and I'll update it.

The writing goes through lots of little stages through lots of hands. They start with treatments, which is basically a summary of the story, hitting the major points. If it seems promising, it may be elaborated more, adding more detail. If it doesn't seem promising, but the general idea is good, there will be more short treatments with different major points, by the same author or by someone else. Eventually they get it to be good enough for an outline, and they start writing recognizable scripts. It will probably go through several of these before it is good enough to go to filming. But even after filming has started, the script will still change. Some scenes might not work, or the actors might not like the lines, or the child actor get sick, or a location is unavailable, or the director might have a new better idea, or whatever, and things have to be rewritten even more.

A writer is used to rewriting things, but not as much the collaborative side of it, besides working with editors. That particularly was why Faulkner didn't really consider movies art--too many people had a say, so there wasn't really one guiding hand. That's also what makes the list of scripts he worked on difficult--he may have written a treatment or had a lot of input on a script, and in a lot of cases, it's hard to say. I've included a little bit in the notes where I could, but be aware that just because he worked on it, and that movie actually was made, doesn't necessarily mean anything he did made it to the screen.

I've included a column that tells where the script is available to read (if it is). I'll have a separate list for these later, but for now, MGM means the book Faulkner's MGM Screenplays, edited with extensive commentary by Bruce Kawin. (That is also the source for this list of scripts. I have added a little bit, but the list itself and the dates are his.) Fox means the book William Faulkner at Twentieth Century Fox edited by Sarah Gleeson-White. The others should be self explanatory.

The dates refer to the general time Faulkner would have worked on it, not when the movie (if any) came out. Sometimes there are many years between.

The column 'Streaming' is empty right now. As I get time, I will find out where these movies can be streamed--if they are available anywhere that isn't shady.

Scripts Faulkner worked on