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Misery: The Shooting Script
Screenplay / Drama / Anthology
Unknown Binding
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About the author
William Goldman
89 books2,672 followersGoldman grew up in a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University in 1956.His brother was the late James Goldman, author and playwright.
William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays.
In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the screen, which marked his re-entry into screenwriting.
Goldman won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.
Goldman died in New York City on November 16, 2018, due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. He was eighty-seven years old.
William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays.
In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the screen, which marked his re-entry into screenwriting.
Goldman won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.
Goldman died in New York City on November 16, 2018, due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. He was eighty-seven years old.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 16, 2024
can’t wait to ASM this in Octoberrrr
December 1, 2025
Well a stage play of a book is of course going to rush the plot but this was like a SPEED RUN of misery and Annie didn’t even cut off his feet :(
August 8, 2025
Misery – Shooting Script by William Goldman, winner of two Academy Awards, for Best Writing, Screenplay, for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and All The President’s Men- reviews for these and more than five thousand other movies and books from The Greatest Books of All Time site are posted on my blogs, the one most used is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
9 out of 10
William Goldman has written the screenplay, based on the book by Stephen King, but he is also the author of what seems to me the best book on motion pictures https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... Adventures in The Screen Trade
He has won his first Oscar for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and we get the story behind this in the aforementioned book https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
Misery has won its own Academy Award, and it was Kathy Bates for her memorable leading role of Annie Wilkes, a complex woman, who seems to be a guarding angel in the first place, when she saves Paul Sheldon aka James Caan
James Caan is a formidable thespian, he worked on what is for many the Greatest Film of All Time, The Godfather, with Francis Ford Coppola and other legends, and we get that he, Caan, has a fabulous sense of humor
In Misery, he has the leading role of a writer, who drives his Ford Mustang – I also have a ford, only it is a pickup, a Ranger, nevertheless, I do not drive, I use the bicycle – in winter, and when a snow storm lands, he has an accident
Lucky for him – we think – Annie Wilkes comes to the rescue, using a crow bar, she extracts the author from the wreck, takes him to her home, nearby, and then seeing as she used to be a nurse, she helps him survive the ordeal
With time, we learn some gruesome facts: she actually followed the man, he has been her favorite writer for quite some time, indeed, she has become obsessive, she had worked as a nurse, but she was at the center of a scandal
If the audience – and Paul Sheldon – thinks for a while that this is the savior, well, she soon shows her true colors, she is a maniac and a jailor in this case, since the victim of the accident cannot move, he is a prisoner
Spoiler alert – if it is late, well, I always say that few, if anybody really reads these lines, so most often it is preposterous to say people have reached this far, however, if you did, you may wish to stop here – this gets really tense
The woman is crazy, wants a new book that will be to her taste, she does not agree with the new line the writer is taking, and he tries to escape, but this is difficult, if not impossible, without the use of his legs and being trapped
Annie Wilkes has locked the door, the intrepid, creative author finds a way, when she is in town, but upon her return, she can see that he moved, went out of his ‘jail’ and therefore, she…breaks his legs with a hammer…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
9 out of 10
William Goldman has written the screenplay, based on the book by Stephen King, but he is also the author of what seems to me the best book on motion pictures https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... Adventures in The Screen Trade
He has won his first Oscar for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and we get the story behind this in the aforementioned book https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
Misery has won its own Academy Award, and it was Kathy Bates for her memorable leading role of Annie Wilkes, a complex woman, who seems to be a guarding angel in the first place, when she saves Paul Sheldon aka James Caan
James Caan is a formidable thespian, he worked on what is for many the Greatest Film of All Time, The Godfather, with Francis Ford Coppola and other legends, and we get that he, Caan, has a fabulous sense of humor
In Misery, he has the leading role of a writer, who drives his Ford Mustang – I also have a ford, only it is a pickup, a Ranger, nevertheless, I do not drive, I use the bicycle – in winter, and when a snow storm lands, he has an accident
Lucky for him – we think – Annie Wilkes comes to the rescue, using a crow bar, she extracts the author from the wreck, takes him to her home, nearby, and then seeing as she used to be a nurse, she helps him survive the ordeal
With time, we learn some gruesome facts: she actually followed the man, he has been her favorite writer for quite some time, indeed, she has become obsessive, she had worked as a nurse, but she was at the center of a scandal
If the audience – and Paul Sheldon – thinks for a while that this is the savior, well, she soon shows her true colors, she is a maniac and a jailor in this case, since the victim of the accident cannot move, he is a prisoner
Spoiler alert – if it is late, well, I always say that few, if anybody really reads these lines, so most often it is preposterous to say people have reached this far, however, if you did, you may wish to stop here – this gets really tense
The woman is crazy, wants a new book that will be to her taste, she does not agree with the new line the writer is taking, and he tries to escape, but this is difficult, if not impossible, without the use of his legs and being trapped
Annie Wilkes has locked the door, the intrepid, creative author finds a way, when she is in town, but upon her return, she can see that he moved, went out of his ‘jail’ and therefore, she…breaks his legs with a hammer…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
September 10, 2025
read for THEA220 Survey of Theatrical Design. I thoroughly enjoyed this! writing my review a few hours after finishing and then reading a full play and starting another so my memory is a bit foggy but I really dug the stage directions and usage of character voice therein. I love 4- plays because character work is my jam and here I got to really see what there is to love about duet-style horror where it's man vs man. And I love to reade about writers. And I love to read about pain. 3 stars because I enjoyed the story but wasn't significantly wowed. Dennouement felt very perfect, which I never absolutely love. I think more resonant wordsmithing and deeper character development would have warranted more stars, but I never quite got to caring much about either of the main characters, and I wish the "dumb government" role was more human.
January 13, 2018
unreal
January 26, 2022
well that was wonderfully terrifying
May 9, 2024
Even though it's written for the stage, supposedly, it is very cinematic.
April 24, 2023
This version of Stephen King's novel, Misery, is closer to the movie that people know. There are three characters here, Annie/Paul/Buster the sheriff.
I think this is a better version than the Moore one. It plays better on stage also.
I think this is a better version than the Moore one. It plays better on stage also.
November 27, 2023
Stage play based on Stephen King's novel of the same name.
Wow - good! Terrifying and can be very funny too depends how enacted. To the point where there could be quite a bit of audience interaction throughout!
Wow - good! Terrifying and can be very funny too depends how enacted. To the point where there could be quite a bit of audience interaction throughout!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews