In honor of the striking screenwriters, I wanted to write a list of my favorites, either contemporary or all-time. But I decided that it would be more respectful to not exclude any of them. Even the bad writers need recognition right now. I've tried writing screenplays, and I salute anyone who has had one produced, whether brilliant or not. Even if it weren't difficult to actually write a script, it's certainly tough to deal with the b.s. of Hollywood and the sad truth that your vision will likely not make it to the screen as devised. So, instead of concentrating on real writers, I figured I'd look at screenwriter characters, specifically those portraying the hardships of the job.

"Joe Gillis" from Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder).

I imagine there's nothing scarier for a struggling screenwriter than the thought of ending up like poor Joe Gillis (William Holden). The opening shot of Wilder's classic shows the character floating face down in a swimming pool, and immediately he's labeled "an unsuccessful screenwriter." This sets up a hopelessness for the character, and for writers in general, as the film then flashes back to one of the greatest stories of Hollywood cynicism ever made. Gillis not only represents the difficulty of making it as a screenwriter, he also shares some juicy lines about how writers aren't recognized enough by the public ("Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along."); about drastic alterations to his scripts ("The last one I wrote was about Okies in the dust bowl. You'd never know because when it reached the screen, the whole thing played on a torpedo boat.") and about the desperation that turns good writers into seemingly hack writers (replying to talk of his once promising talent, he says, "That was last year. This year I'm trying to make a living."). There were screenwriter characters before him, and plenty after, but Gillis will forever be the quintessential example.

• Robert Altman (1925-2006) - Read my post on the great director of M*A*S*H and The Player.
• John Blackburn (1913/14-2006) - Songwriter ("Moonlight in Vermont") and author who wrote the novel of Nothing But the Night. He died November 15.
• Orin Borsten (1912-2006) - Screenwriter of Angel Baby who also worked as a publicist for Porky's, Texas Across the River, The War Wagon and Topaz. He died of natural causes November 18, in Studio City, California.
• James Bostwick (1916-2006) - Film producer for General Motors. He died November 22, in Royal Oak, Michigan.
• Dave Cockrum (1943-2006) - Comic book artist who co-created the characters Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler, who appear in the X-Men films. He died of complications from diabetes on November 26.
• Betty Comden (1915-2006) - Oscar-nominated writer and lyricist of musicals, including Singin' in the Rain, On the Town, The Band Wagon It's Always Fair Weather and Auntie Mame, with partner Adolph Green. She also appeared in the film Slaves of New York. She passed away, from heart failure, November 23, in New York City. Check out Jette's tribute to Comden in her Vintage Image of the Day column.
• William Diehl (1924-2006) - Author who wrote the novels that were adapted into Sharky's Machine and Primal Fear. He also appeared in Sharky's Machine and Baby of the Family. He died of an aortal aneurysm November 24, in Atlanta.
• Colin Forbes (1923-2006) - Author whose same-titled novel was adapted into Avalance Express. He died of a heart attack August 23, in London.
• Phyllis Fraser (1911-2006) - Actress who appeared in Little Men, Winds of the Wasteland and Lucky Devils. She died of complications from a fall on November 24, in New York City.

We lost a giant this week when we lost Robert Altman, who was surely one of the greatest of all American film directors. In choosing seven representative works, I'm going to skip over M*A*S*H (1970) and Nashville (1975), given that everyone knows them. They're both fine films, but I've just never really been drawn to them. (I've also opted, painfully, to leave out the well-known classics The Player and Gosford Park.) Rather, I like his maverick works, the ones that people seemed to ignore or misunderstand. That's how I see Altman, anyhow -- always punching away at the envelope.

1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
This revisionist Western is unquestionably Altman's masterpiece. Warren Beatty plays an entrepreneur in the Old West who tries to organize and build a brothel, but finds he can't do it without the help of a whorehouse madam (Julie Christie). It sounds like a silly, modern-day romantic comedy about the clashing of two opposing personalities, but Altman does it correctly, getting to the root of these psychologically flawed characters and using the chilly, grungy atmosphere as part of the plan. The climactic shootout is the textbook definitions of "anti-climactic," with Beatty's character stumbling around in the snow.

When Robert Altman died Monday night he left behind a good deal of pre-production work on what was to be his next film, a fictionalized remake of the 1997 documentary Hands on a Hard Body. Scheduled to begin shooting next year, the new film has a screenplay, co-written by Stephen Harrigan, and a distributor, Picturehouse, but now is without a director.

Those familiar with the story presented in Hands on a Hard Body -- twenty-four contestants try to win a new truck in a contest that has each attempting to be the last to remain holding onto said vehicle -- should be in agreement that it would have been perfectly dramatized by Altman. And possibly by nobody else. Picturehouse head Bob Berney is now debating whether to go ahead with the production with a new director at the helm or to let the project die with the late, great filmmaker, knowing that it just won't be as good without him.

The first idea that comes to mind for the substitution option is to have Paul Thomas Anderson take over. He is nearing completion on his latest, the oil-tycoon-family drama, There Will Be Blood, so he may be able to fit this into his schedule, and also he recently worked alongside Altman on A Prairie Home Companion, so he is likely the most qualified to continue the project relatively close to Altman's vision. A second choice, and less appealing one, would be to have Richard Linklater have a shot, since he seems to have no new film in the works, he has done a fair job of handling the multiple-character, multiple-storyline style, he just adapted a non-fiction book as a fictional narrative, and he should feel at home working with the Texas-set film. A final idea would be to have S.R. Bindler, who directed the original doc and has since moved into shooting fiction films, redo his own film.

As much as you ladies out there would love this post to talk about how Robert Altman has one helluva sexy body for a man in his 80s, I simply cannot and will not go there. (Seriously, even I have limits.) However, I will talk about a new film in which he plans to direct. Yes, even though Paul Thomas Anderson reportedly sat alongside Altman on the set of A Prairie Home Companion just in case the old man were to, um, die -- the dude is still eager to continue working. How's that for dedication!

Altman is close to signing another deal with Picturehouse (the distributor behind Companion) for a film inspired by S.R. Bindler's 1997 documentary Hands on a Hard Body. The doc revolved around an endurance test in Texas where a group of people competed for a brand new Nissan Hardbody truck. Apparently, the last person left with their hand on the truck got to drive home in the bad boy. (It's okay, you're not the only one who thinks this is an odd project for Altman to take on.) The legendary director has already started talking to folks like Billy Bob Thornton and Hilary Swank with hopes they'll star in the pic, which Altman compares to the 1969 Sydney Pollack flick They Shoot Horses, Don't They. Altman is partnering with writer Stephen Harrigan on the script and hopes to begin production as early as January.