Gary W. Goldstein

Gary W. Goldstein is an American author, speaker, consultant and Hollywood film producer, best known for producing Pretty Woman, Under Siege, and The Mothman Prophecies and generating over a billion dollars in worldwide revenue.^[1]

He is the author of Conquering Hollywood: The Screenwriter’s Blueprint For Career Success, a successfully funded Kickstarter project, that serves as a road map for transforming talent as a writer into a successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter.^[2]

Early life

Goldstein was born in Wantagh, New York and grew up in San Francisco, where he attended Lowell High School, a public magnet school. He went on to receive his undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley, followed by a J.D. at Golden Gate University School of Law.

Career

Early career

As an A&R rep for Columbia Records while still an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley, Gary was their youngest music exec at the time.^[3] Also, while an undergrad, Goldstein produced all the music concerts and cabarets for the Berkeley campus, featuring artists such as Joni Mitchell, The Steve Miller Band, Chuck Berry, Phil Ochs and others. In 1981, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Hollywood as a literary manager and film producer.

Mainstream breakthrough

In 1983, after his initial film venture lost $80,000 on its opening weekend, Goldstein met 23-year-old Jonathan, or J.F., Lawton, who was earning a living as a software beta tester and programmer. Goldstein hired Lawton to set-up his Apple MacIntosh computer, which had to be programmed from scratch. For three weeks, Lawton visited Goldstein's Hollywood office and programmed his computer, while Goldstein shared with Lawton the ins and outs of his work as a literary manager. The two slowly became friends and one day, Lawton revealed he was a writer, had dropped out of film school and had already written a half-dozen screenplays, that were all unread. Goldstein requested to read some of Lawton's work, and by the third script, Goldstein recognized Lawton's talent.

Goldstein asked Lawton to write a fresh story that he could use to introduce Lawton's writing talent to producers and studios. Goldstein requested a classic romance with irresistible male and female lead roles, using a one-week clock so the story would take place over a tight time frame, giving the final caveat that the story had to have real power—Goldstein wanted it written from a deeply personal life experience.

Lawton had just ended a significant relationship and lived in a tiny studio in a rough part of Los Angeles, on an alley that looked out on a steady stream of pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, homeless and police. A few weeks later, Lawton turned in a first draft of a new script titled Three Thousand, which would later become Pretty Woman. The film would take several years to reach theaters, morphing from a dark drama with a devastating ending to one of the most successful romantic comedies of all time, becoming the highest grossing live action film for Walt Disney Studios.^[4]

Filmography

Feature films

Books

• Stickability (Napoleon Hill Foundation) - Contributing Author
• The Writer Got Screwed (But Didn’t Have To) (Harper Collins) - Contributing Author
• Conquering Hollywood: The Screenwriter’s Blueprint For Career Success^[2] - Author

Talks

• Gary Goldstein at TEDxLaJolla
• Gary Goldstein at The Great American Pitchfest

References

Further reading

• A conversation with screenwriter Gary W. Goldstein: 'Pretty Woman', The Washington Times
• Thank Al Pacino for Pretty Woman, The Huffington Post
• I am Gary Goldstein, (Producer of 'Pretty Woman', 'The Mothman Prophecies', 'Under Siege') Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything)

External links

• Gary W. Goldstein at the Internet Movie Database
• @GaryWGoldstein on Twitter
• Gary W Goldstein on AboutMe
• Gary W Goldstein on YouTube