Additionally, he was afraid of censorship by The Breen Office. Wilder feared that they would kill the movie if they knew the full story. Wilder told Paramount that he was adapting a short story that didn’t exist called A Can of Beans so that the studio would leave him alone with no interference. He would help to flesh out and improve the story they had put to paper. In August of that year, they brought in Life magazine writer D.M. However, they were unhappy with the end result. In 1948, Wilder teamed up with his frequent writing partner, producer Charles Brackett to write the script for what would become Sunset Boulevard. Gloria Swanson and Buster Keaton on the set of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950) Screenplay

Consequently, a story begins to take shape. Wilder imagines how they spent their time, decades after their careers had ended. Many of which he knew lived in the mansions on Sunset Boulevard and were now either reclusive, forgotten, or both. Wilder starts to think about all of the old stars from the silent era. Subsequently, the director begins to think back on those bygone days of fandom in Germany, and an idea begins to percolate in his mind. This includes Ninotchka (1939), Double Indemnity(1944), and The Lost Weekend (1945), which earned him two Oscar statues. This interest had included the lifestyles of the silent movie stars that ruled the day.įast-forward over 20 years and Wilder is now a big-time Hollywood director with prestigious credits.

While Wilder was in Berlin in the 1920s, he was interested in American pop culture. Before legendary director Billy Wilder had moved to Los Angeles and began to direct iconic Hollywood movies, he was a big fan of them.

Billy wilder film sunset