A Look at the Works

Writers Who Worked on the Hammett Screenplay

“To have fifteen writers on a script and then shoot it and decide you’ve made a mistake — it shows a certain lack of foresight.”
— Ross Thomas (Spring 1986, The Armchair Detective)

By almost all accounts, the writing of the screenplay of the Wim Wenders’ film, Hammett (finally released in 1983 by Orion Pictures/Warner Brothers) —not to mention the whole making of it — was a mess.

Based on Joe Gores‘ 1975 novel featuring Dashiell Hammett, it went through a series of rewrites, reshoots, production problems, temper tantrums, financial worries and conflicting stories. Writers and actors came, writers and actors went, some acknowledged, some only rumored, and some may have never been there.

Supposedly, Wenders went through some thirty screenplays before he settled on the one credited to crime novelist Ross Thomas and Dennis O’Flaherty. But the rumors are that executive producer Francis Ford Coppala found Wender’s submitted footage unsatisfactory, and scrapped most of it. The result was that only about thirty percent of Wenders’ footage was actually used in the final film, while the remainder rest was completely reshot by Coppola, after several more extensive rewrites. A key role played by Brian Keith was cut, and re-shot with Peter Boyle in the role, for example.

Or maybe not. Accounts vary.

Thomas, who actually was credited with co-writing the screenplay, was called in (or was he called back?) to rewrite the script (after filming had begun). In an interview in the Spring 1986 issue of The Armchair Detective, conducted by Raymond Obstfeld,  Thomas said, “…to have fifteen writers on a script and then shoot it and decide you’ve made a mistake — it shows a certain lack of foresight.”

Ya think?

Still, there’s no doubt it was a troubled production — everyone at least agrees on that. Gores himself, according to Thomas in the same TAD interview, “wrote about five screenplays of his own, and finally threw up his hands in despair.”

“And they brought in some more writers who wrote some more scripts, and nothing happened to them either. So they brought in another writer or two, and then they shot it. And then they junked it.”

Wenders maintained that there were only four writers involved in the film, but Ross places the tally at fifteen, which has always intrigued me.

Who were they? I can understand screenwriters not rushing forward to claim credit for work that was rejected, but still…

So far, I’ve tracked down seven or maybe eight, and am still beating the bushes for the rest. Was Thomas exaggerating? Pissed off? Joking? Or were there actually more writers involved than first suspected?

Anybody out there with any more info, please don’t be shy.

Still, mess or not, I kinda enjoyed the film. It’s no masterpiece, and some of it makes no sense, but I liked Forrest as Hammett, the sets were good, and the noirish mood was captured with quite a bit of style.

But what do I know?

Among the alleged culprits who may (or may not) have contributed to the screenplay:

OFFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGED

• Joe Gores (original story and five drafts)
• Wim Wenders (director; collaborated on Gores’ final three drafts)
• Thomas Pope (did two drafts, ultimately credited with the adaptation)
• Dennis O’Flaherty (called in to write the screenplay, credited with co-writing the screenplay)
• Ross Thomas (brought in after O’Flaherty, credited with co-writing the screenplay)

OTHER SUSPECTS

• Francis Ford Coppola (rumoured, but he was the executive producer)
• Sam Fuller (cobbled together a fifteen minute “filmstrip,” based on Thomas’ script, which impressed Coppola enough not to scrap the entire project)
• Brian Garfield (not confirmed)

FILMS

• HAMMETT | Buy this video | Buy this DVD | Watch it now!
  (1983, Orion Pictures/Warner Brothers)
  95 minutes
  Based on the novel by Joe Gores
  Adaptation by Thomas Pope
  Screenplay by Ross Thomas and Dennis O’Flaherty
  Directed by Wim Wenders
  Executive Producer: Francis Ford Coppola
  A Zoetrope Studios Production
  Starring Frederick Forrest as DASHIELL HAMMETT
  Also starring Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner, Elisha Cook, Jr., Roy Kinnear, Lydia Lei, R.G. Armstrong, Richard Bradford, Michael Chow, David Patrick Kelly, Sylvia Sidney, Jack Nance, Elmer L. Kline, Royal Dano
  Cameos by Ross Thomas, Samuel Fuller

FOR MORE INFO

• “‘Vee Vere Young Then’: The Filming of Hammett, An Interview with Joe Gores and Ross Thomas by Brian Garfield” (Spring 1984, The Armchair Detective)
• “An Interview with Ross Thomas” (Spring 1986, The Armchair Detective)
  Ross Thomas spoke about his role in Hammett in this interview.
• Rest in Pieces
  The Fictionalized Lives of Private Eye Writers

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.