UCLA Screenwriting guru, Richard Walter, guides students

Rob Lowe in Bruno Barreto’s “View From the Top.” The movie was written by Eric Wald, a former student of UCLA Professor Richard Walter.

With a reputation as the Godfather of screenwriting, Professor Richard Walter has molded many of Hollywood’s most prolific screenwriters. “Fight Club,” “Spiderman” and “Men in Black” were all written or co-written by his former students.

“The Wall Street Journal says that I am the prime broker for Hollywood’s hottest commodity: new writing talent,” Walter said.

His office is cramped with books and videos, and there are piles of scripts on his desk. Two minutes into the interview the phone is already ringing, and it’s a Hollywood agent on the other end.

“I got a hot script, put on your asbestos gloves it’ll burn your hands,” Walter says with his New York drawl. “I said the writer’s name is Venis, it rhymes with gee I dunno, Phoenix, and it’s spelled the same way v-e-n-i-s.”

As far as college professors go, Walter is an insider to Hollywood networking. However, when asked about the necessity of knowing the right people in Hollywood Walter explains it’s not true.

“There are a lot of myths and hoaxes about Hollywood,” Walter said. “One of them is that it’s all about who you know.”

“It doesn’t matter what your name is or your connections. I know connected people who can’t get arrested in this town,” Walter added. “It only matters if your script is compelling.”

Convincing as that is, it’s a common joke that everyone in Los Angeles has a script they’re trying to pitch. Obviously, not very many would-be-screenwriters can just call up powerful agents.

“Any scriptwriter should be able to put together a smart query letter to an agent,” Walter said. “Just go to wga.org and punch up ‘franchise agency list.’”

Some of Walter’s students have done just that. One of his former students, Gregory Widen, sold “Highlander,” a screenplay he wrote in class, for over a million dollars after finding an agent by writing query letters. This is but one example of many Hollywood movies that start out as assignments in Walter’s classroom.

“‘A View From the Top,’ the new movie out starring Gwyneth Paltrow as a flight attendant, that was written in class,” Walter said.

David Koepp, one of Walter’s former students who wrote the screenplays for “Spiderman,” “Mission Impossible” and “Jurassic Park,” is now widely recognized for being the richest screenwriter in Hollywood.

“It’s obscene how successful our students are,” Walter said.

So what is the magic formula Walter teaches to bring about such success?

“Nothing has changed since the ancient Greek era; people are looking for conflicts and characters worth caring about,” says Walter. “If the scenes don’t push the story forward every inch of the way, then it’s not a good script.”

Walter attended USC’s film school in the late 1960s with George Lucas, and he contributed writing for Lucas’ “American Graffiti.” After USC, he worked for many years as a writer at Universal Studios. Eventually, he came to teach at UCLA after being offered the job at a Hollywood party.

“I’m not a big party guy, I come off as a flipped out old hippie, but I’m really a very middle-class kid,” Walter said. “I’m married to the first person I ever married and have 2.2 children.”

Walter is humble about his success and accomplishments. He explains that selling a first script is hard, but maintaining yourself in the industry is the hardest thing of all.

“Hollywood (screenwriting) is the one place on earth where you (can) start at the top and work your way down,” Walter said.

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"richard walter" "david koepp" 

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