What do you think?
Rate this book
Dreamcatcher: The Shooting Script
Author Stephen King, scriptwriter William Goldman, and director Lawrence Kasdan describe how they approached the adaptation of King's novel Dreamcatcher into film. The book presents the full shooting script, a summary of the adaptation process, and detailed scene analysis, and includes abundant b&w illustrations and movie stills. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
William Goldman
89 books2,665 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 2, 2023
“I think dreamcatcher is..a classic suspense film that will eventually go on the same shelf with movies like Jaws and Alien.” Who said it me or Stephen King doesn’t matter we both believe it with our full hearts
March 29, 2018
Man, I really miss the Newmarket Press Shooting Script series! What amazing editions! Not only do you get the screenplay in a REAL SCREENPLAY FORMAT (and not some stupid edited for reading crap like J.K. Rowling’s published script for the Fantastic Beasts movie), but you also get all the extras!
The screenplay for «Dreamcatcher» isn’t really a good script. It’s a fun read, and when you think about it being adapted from a 600 page novel, the work Goldman and Kasdan had done is quite remarkable. But it’s not a great screenplay, and the resulting movie isn’t really that good either.
So why 5 stars? Because it’s a perfect edition, and a fantastic way to get educated in screenwriting. The forewords by King and Goldman is worth the price by themselves, but the interviews and essays that go into the filmmaking process and key scenes, elevates this book to earn all five stars to me.
If you’re not interested in screenwriting or filmmaking this one isn’t for you, and you should read the novel instead. Wanna learn about adapting a novel into a screenplay? This is a must-read, for in all its flaws lies great knowledge of what works and what don’t.
The screenplay for «Dreamcatcher» isn’t really a good script. It’s a fun read, and when you think about it being adapted from a 600 page novel, the work Goldman and Kasdan had done is quite remarkable. But it’s not a great screenplay, and the resulting movie isn’t really that good either.
So why 5 stars? Because it’s a perfect edition, and a fantastic way to get educated in screenwriting. The forewords by King and Goldman is worth the price by themselves, but the interviews and essays that go into the filmmaking process and key scenes, elevates this book to earn all five stars to me.
If you’re not interested in screenwriting or filmmaking this one isn’t for you, and you should read the novel instead. Wanna learn about adapting a novel into a screenplay? This is a must-read, for in all its flaws lies great knowledge of what works and what don’t.
November 4, 2022
A fun and fast read with introductions by Stephen King, William Goldman, and Lawrence Kasdan. Also includes lots of other scriptwriting and film production highlights along with the shooting script. Very enjoyable and illuminating.
January 13, 2014
A dreamcatcher is supposed to eradicate nightmares, but this one caught something it can't stop. Stephen King's book, Dreamcatcher, is about a quartet of lifelong friends from Derry, Maine, reunite in a cabin every November for a hunting trip — only this year, everything goes terribly awry. King skillfully sketches each of the main characters: Joe ''Beaver'' Clarendon is a divorced drunk; Pete Moore is a lonely mope who traded in his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut for a career as a car salesman; Henry Devlin is a suicidal, depressed shrink; and Gary ''Jonesy'' Jones is a history professor recovering from having been struck by a car. (It's no shock that King, who wrote Dreamcatcher after his own similar accident, provides searing personal insight into Jonesy's physical and emotional pain.)
This book was quite hard for me to read at first. The book has a lot of profanity, and I mean a lot. Dreamcatcher is also, like almost all Stephen King novels, over 800 pages with some unnecessary parts that are a little boring. There are also a couple very graphic and gruesome parts, and to not spoil anything, I won't give any examples. However, the book as a whole is alright though. The plot is somewhat compelling and interesting. I would recommend this book, but only to a person that likes other Stephen King novels, enjoy a gruesome alien story, and if profanity doesn't bother you.
This book was quite hard for me to read at first. The book has a lot of profanity, and I mean a lot. Dreamcatcher is also, like almost all Stephen King novels, over 800 pages with some unnecessary parts that are a little boring. There are also a couple very graphic and gruesome parts, and to not spoil anything, I won't give any examples. However, the book as a whole is alright though. The plot is somewhat compelling and interesting. I would recommend this book, but only to a person that likes other Stephen King novels, enjoy a gruesome alien story, and if profanity doesn't bother you.
January 13, 2014
Stephen King's book, Dreamcatcher, is about a quartet of lifelong friends from Derry, Maine, reunite in a cabin every November for a hunting trip — only this year, everything goes terribly awry. King skillfully sketches each of the main characters: Joe ''Beaver'' Clarendon is a divorced drunk; Pete Moore is a lonely mope who traded in his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut for a career as a car salesman; Henry Devlin is a suicidal, depressed shrink; and Gary ''Jonesy'' Jones is a history professor recovering from having been struck by a car. (It's no shock that King, who wrote Dreamcatcher after his own similar accident, provides searing personal insight into Jonesy's physical and emotional pain.)
This book was quite hard for me to read at first. The book has a lot of profanity, and I mean a lot. Dreamcatcher is also, like almost all Stephen King novels, over 800 pages with some unnecessary parts that are a little boring. There are also a couple very graphic and gruesome parts, and to not spoil anything, I won't give any examples. However, the book as a whole is alright though. The plot is somewhat compelling and interesting. I would recommend this book, but only to a person that likes other Stephen King novels, enjoy a gruesome alien story, and if profanity doesn't bother you.
Read
January 3, 2014 Dreamcatcher By: Stephen King
Stephen King's book, Dreamcatcher, is a book, where 25 years ago, four life long friends: Beaver, Henry, Jonesy, and Pete, that saved a kid with down syndrome from bullies that would force him to do undesirable things such as stripping the boy and forcing him to eat dog excrement in order to get his clothes back.
Stephen King's book, Dreamcatcher, is a book, where 25 years ago, four life long friends: Beaver, Henry, Jonesy, and Pete, that saved a kid with down syndrome from bullies that would force him to do undesirable things such as stripping the boy and forcing him to eat dog excrement in order to get his clothes back.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews