But what I took away were his stories. Neil Jordan wrote Mona Lisa as a screenplay about a woman needing a man, but Bob Hoskins was such a great actor that his interpretation transformed it into a film about a man needing a woman, and then he won an Oscar. This is a better punchline than that he was nominated for said Oscar, which shows why Walter is so good at his job. John Hodge (Trainspotting) puts two people in a room, makes them work out how they came to be there and whether they want to be in a room together - hey presto, a screenplay. Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) wanted to make an original and interesting film about a seedy journalist investigating the murder of a political researcher. Brad Pitt wanted to make it too, and with the weight of his diamond-studded name, the studio swallowed its reservations about making interesting and original films and agreed to back it. But Brad wanted the journalist to be unerringly fit, gorgeous and brilliant - Robin Hood without the tights. Cue vast alterations in the screenplay.
KM to studio: But this isn't the film I wanted to make! There's no character development if the journalist's a hero from the off.
Studio to KM: You'll make the film as Brad wants it, sunshine, if you want the funding.
A $2million film set later, two weeks before the commencement of shooting, Brad decided he didn't want to do the film after all. And Brad's friend Ed Norton, who was meant to play the politician, walked out too. Fortunately, $2million meant that the studio developed a backbone. Walter formed part of a delegation to Russell Crowe, who was busy vegging in his ranch not really expecting any work in the near future, getting correspondingly unkempt and somewhat squidgy around the edges. Russell said he'd do the film, as long as a) the journalist was made a more complex figure and b) he (Russell) wasn't expected to go to the gym. Consequently our Kevin got the make the film he wanted to make in the first place.
Except that Russell then refused to shoot the final scene with Ben Affleck (who rescued the studio from Ed Norton) because he didn't like Ben Affleck's lines. Russell was kind enough to rewrite the scene, but Kevin didn't appreciate Russell's literary skills. The studio wouldn't let Kevin bring in the writer from Last King of Scotland because he wasn't famous enough and brought in a hugely expensive bigger name instead. And the studio then got the jitters over the ending and insisted on a great big shoot-out as an insurance policy against Brad's departure, even though the villain of the piece had no reason, really, to take a massive pop at Russell and should have just committed suicide as per the original screenplay.
'So,' Walter said, with a wise, avuncular shake of his head, 'the film wasn't as good as it should have been.' A bit like a grandma offering round a cake that's been made by children old enough to have known better than to slam the oven door just as the cake was rising.
