Despite a screenplay being the blueprint for a movie, screenplay writers don’t always get the recognition and attention that directors and actors do. Yes, there are some noteworthy screenwriters like Aaron Sorkin and Diablo Cody, who have created a great brand for themselves and are known to the general public. However, most screenwriters aren’t household names and their resumes are usually only known by industry professionals or cinephiles.
Below are 5 Screenwriters You Might Not Have Heard Of, but they’ve made important contributions to the art of screenwriting and to some seminal movies:
Leigh Brackett started off writing detective and sci-fi books, but made a name for herself as a screenwriter via a rewrite of William Faulkner’s adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1946, directed by Howard Hawks). This would lead to later collaborations with Hawks, writing many of his classic westerns, including Rio Bravo (1959). She also returned to her noir roots to adapt Chandler’s The Long Goodbye (1973, directed by Robert Altman).
However, it was Brackett’s sci-fi stories and novels that made the biggest impression on George Lucas. Known as “the Queen of the Space Opera,” Brackett’s work was a major influence on Star Wars, so it was fitting when Lucas hired her to write the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
Legendary writer-director Billy Wilder is one of the greatest Hollywood success stories of all time and you might be aware of his screenwriting partner Charles Brackett: the writing team of “Wilder and Brackett” are arguably one of the most acclaimed partnerships in film history. However, Wilder wrote many of his biggest films with another writing partner: I.A.L. Diamond. The Romanian born writer, grew up as an immigrant in Brooklyn and became a Columbia University graduate (he studied both journalism and engineering).
Always having a love of writing and humor (he was the editor and contributor of several college publications), Diamond decided to give screenwriting a shot. After years of paying his dues as a contract writer for Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros, he began collaborating with Billy Wilder on his film Love in the Afternoon (1957). This would lead to a long-term and prolific partnership, Diamond cowriting such classic Wilder films as Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960). The latter would win Wilder and Diamond Oscars for Best Screenplay and is often cited as one of the greatest films Hollywood has ever produced.
Diamond would remain Wilder’s writing partner until his retirement in the early 1980s.
In the 1940s, Eleanor Perry began her writing career coauthoring suspense novels with her first husband, Leo. G Bayer (one of these books being adapted into the 1945 movie Dangerous Partners). She and Bayer also wrote a series of well-received plays before they divorced.
After years of working as a TV writer, Eleanor married director Frank Perry and this resulted in another creative partnership. With Eleanore writing and Frank directing, the couple tapped into the counterculture zeitgeist with the films David and Lisa (1962), The Swimmer (1968) and Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970).
After divorcing Frank in 1971, Eleanor wrote an autobiographical novel, "Blue Pages", about her marriage and the challenges of being a female screenwriter in Hollywood. An outspoken feminist and trailblazer for women working in the film business, Eleanor Perry made an important mark in the industry.
An Australian UCLA graduate, Colin Higgins was working odd jobs for producer Ed Lewis (chauffeuring him, cleaning his pool) when he slipped the producer his spec script: a dark comedy about a young man who gets romantically involved with an elderly woman. Higgins’ script would end up selling and getting produced by Paramount: Harold and Maude (1971, directed by Hal Ashby). Although the film didn’t do well at the time, today it’s a beloved cult classic.
For years Higgins wrote other scripts without much success until he penned Silver Streak. Twentieth Century Fox bought the spec script for a then-record of $400,000. This deal made Higgins one of the hottest screenwriters in Hollywood and he was about to get even hotter. Released in 1976, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Gene Wilder, Silver Streak was a box-office smash. Higgins followed this success by writing and directing two other hit films: Foul Play (1978) and 9 to 5 (1980).
As both a screenwriter and director, Higgins’ work exhibited a perfect balance of offbeat humor with a high entertainment factor and he helped to shape the tone of movies in the 1970s and 1980s and beyond.
And finally there’s the husband-wife screenwriting team of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. Huyck and Katz met while attending UCLA and also befriended student George Lucas. This friendship would lead to Huyck and Katz cowriting American Graffiti, which Lucas would go on to direct and it’d become a massive hit and his breakthrough in 1973.
With filmmaking aspirations of their own, Huyck and Katz would write and direct the supernatural horror Messiah of Evil (1973) as well as take various screenwriting jobs (some credited, others uncredited). Without doubt, their most notable work as uncredited “script doctors” was when they punched-up the dialogue for George Lucas’s intergalactic blockbuster Star Wars (1977). Huyck and Katz injected much of the film’s humor and they also fleshed-out Princess Leia’s character to be a more modern, “take charge” heroine.
Throughout the 1980s, Huyck and Katz would continue their collaboration with Lucas and — unlike with Star Wars — would once again be credited for their work. They wrote the script for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1983), which displays much of Huyck and Katz’s trademark witty and playful banter. They also wrote and directed the Lucas produced Howard the Duck (1986). Despite the film being a critical and commercial bomb upon release, over the years it has gained a cult following and it’s recognized as one of the first attempts to adapt a Marvel Comics property for the big screen.
Between American Graffiti, Star Wars, Temple of Doom — and yes, even Howard the Duck — the George Lucas story is incomplete without mention of Huyck and Katz. Just like the other four screenwriters discussed, they might not be household names but their writing is forever part of cinema.