The Stoppard Rewrite
I’m not sure Sleepy Hollow is a great movie. It’s fun, it looks amazing, it has Christophers both Lee and Walken in it. But it’s tonally uneven, caught between gothic horror and blockbuster action, and it disappointed a lot of fans of the original animation.
Sir Tom Stoppard, on the other hand, is unquestionably a great writer. If you don’t believe the Olivier, Tony or Academy Awards - or, y'know, the Queen who knighted him - then read the scripts. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern is as groundbreaking as it is baffling. The Real Thing and The Invention Of Love are beautiful romantic comedies. Arcadia might be the single most breathtaking piece of drama I’ve ever encountered.
And that’s just on stage. If you prefer movies there’s the wild ending of Brazil or the effortless charm of Shakespeare In Love. Those are the movies he’s credited for, anyway.
Which brings me back to Sleepy Hollow. Despite its potential not-greatness, I love it to death. I don’t even like Tim Burton very much and I still love it to death. One reason is because I remember the first time I saw it. It was a high school sleepover and my friends wanted to watch a horror movie. I was terrified of horror movies (still am) but I wasn’t about to tell them that. So I curled up in my sleeping bag and faced the wall and pretended to be asleep. Only after half an hour of peeking through my fingers did I realise… this movie wasn’t scary. It was funny, and mysterious, and it had a cool headless guy with a sword. It was a horror movie and I was watching it. Just like the other brave boys!
The other reason, it turns out, is because the script was anonymously rewritten by Tom Stoppard. Script doctors are one of those fun bits of screenwriting folklore. William Goldman did it on Good Will Hunting. Carrie Fisher did it on pretty much everything. One of the first examples I learned about was Tom Stoppard on Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, which explains why I also love that film so much. Learning about it brought me to Mike Fitzgerald's detailed and fascinating breakdown, which inspired this whole endeavour. He also wrote a more digestible version for Creative Screenwriting magazine. I heartily recommend both.
So, here are two copies of Sleepy Hollow - a third draft by Andrew Kevin Walker (who received solo credit) dated April 1995, and a shooting draft with revisions by Stoppard dated September 1998.
Sir Tom Stoppard, on the other hand, is unquestionably a great writer. If you don’t believe the Olivier, Tony or Academy Awards - or, y'know, the Queen who knighted him - then read the scripts. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern is as groundbreaking as it is baffling. The Real Thing and The Invention Of Love are beautiful romantic comedies. Arcadia might be the single most breathtaking piece of drama I’ve ever encountered.
And that’s just on stage. If you prefer movies there’s the wild ending of Brazil or the effortless charm of Shakespeare In Love. Those are the movies he’s credited for, anyway.
Which brings me back to Sleepy Hollow. Despite its potential not-greatness, I love it to death. I don’t even like Tim Burton very much and I still love it to death. One reason is because I remember the first time I saw it. It was a high school sleepover and my friends wanted to watch a horror movie. I was terrified of horror movies (still am) but I wasn’t about to tell them that. So I curled up in my sleeping bag and faced the wall and pretended to be asleep. Only after half an hour of peeking through my fingers did I realise… this movie wasn’t scary. It was funny, and mysterious, and it had a cool headless guy with a sword. It was a horror movie and I was watching it. Just like the other brave boys!
The other reason, it turns out, is because the script was anonymously rewritten by Tom Stoppard. Script doctors are one of those fun bits of screenwriting folklore. William Goldman did it on Good Will Hunting. Carrie Fisher did it on pretty much everything. One of the first examples I learned about was Tom Stoppard on Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, which explains why I also love that film so much. Learning about it brought me to Mike Fitzgerald's detailed and fascinating breakdown, which inspired this whole endeavour. He also wrote a more digestible version for Creative Screenwriting magazine. I heartily recommend both.
So, here are two copies of Sleepy Hollow - a third draft by Andrew Kevin Walker (who received solo credit) dated April 1995, and a shooting draft with revisions by Stoppard dated September 1998.
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Disclaimers:
- None of this is intended as a knock against Andrew Kevin Walker. There were undoubtedly many revisions in the three years between these drafts, and even in the shooting script much of his good work remains. Not to mention all the other amazing stuff he’s written (including uncredited jobs of his own on Event Horizon and Fight Club). Walker himself said of Stoppard ‘if you’re going to be rewritten by anyone, it might as well be him’.
- My analysis is less detailed than Mike Fitzgerald’s, which broke down Last Crusade statistically to make some great points about pacing and structure. I’m more focussed on story, and dialogue in particular. I’ve also added notes on what appears in the final film, because not even Stoppard gets everything on screen.
- None of this is intended as a knock against Andrew Kevin Walker. There were undoubtedly many revisions in the three years between these drafts, and even in the shooting script much of his good work remains. Not to mention all the other amazing stuff he’s written (including uncredited jobs of his own on Event Horizon and Fight Club). Walker himself said of Stoppard ‘if you’re going to be rewritten by anyone, it might as well be him’.
- My analysis is less detailed than Mike Fitzgerald’s, which broke down Last Crusade statistically to make some great points about pacing and structure. I’m more focussed on story, and dialogue in particular. I’ve also added notes on what appears in the final film, because not even Stoppard gets everything on screen.
There isn’t really a single lesson here. Just a lot of clever tricks and killer dialogue and interesting insights into what Sleepy Hollow might have been.
I’ve always imagined Stoppard as a sort of transcendent genius who magicks up perfect words on the first try. This exercise hasn’t changed my mind, to be honest. Most days I feel like everyone else is spraying with a hose while I’m struggling to squeeze out a trickle. I think a lot of writers feel that way. But at least going page-by-page, you can see that all Stoppard is really doing is taking what’s there and making it better. Rewrite a line, change a character, move the action somewhere else and see what happens. Whether you’re doctoring someone else’s stuff or revising your own, that’s how this is supposed to work. If it sucks, keep going until it doesn't.
You're not failing. You're writing.
I’ve always imagined Stoppard as a sort of transcendent genius who magicks up perfect words on the first try. This exercise hasn’t changed my mind, to be honest. Most days I feel like everyone else is spraying with a hose while I’m struggling to squeeze out a trickle. I think a lot of writers feel that way. But at least going page-by-page, you can see that all Stoppard is really doing is taking what’s there and making it better. Rewrite a line, change a character, move the action somewhere else and see what happens. Whether you’re doctoring someone else’s stuff or revising your own, that’s how this is supposed to work. If it sucks, keep going until it doesn't.
You're not failing. You're writing.