Walter Hill (filmmaker) - Early Films

Early Films

Hill read Alexander Jacobs' screenplay for the John Boorman film Point Blank and considered it a "revelation" in terms of style and format. He decided to tailor his own scripts in that manner, as he described it, "extremely spare, almost Haiku style. Both stage directions and dialogue." Hill wrote Hard Times, a rewrite of Alien, The Driver, and The Warriors in this style.

Hill met producer Lawrence Gordon in 1973. He agreed to let Hill direct a film if he wrote a screenplay for him. Hill made a deal to write and direct for scale and in turn got a shot at directing. The result was Hill's 1975 breakthrough film, Hard Times, made on location in New Orleans for just $2.7 million in 38 days. James Coburn played a fast-talking promoter of illegal street fights in 1930s New Orleans and Charles Bronson played the boxer protagonist.

Hill's second film as a director was The Driver starring Ryan O'Neal as a laconic getaway driver for hire and Bruce Dern as a driven cop pursuing him. No character in the film has a name; they are merely The Driver, The Detective, and so forth. Hill originally had wanted to cast McQueen, but he turned down the role because he did not want to do another car film.

In 1979, Hill directed The Warriors - a story of violent street gangs which arguably became his most popular film due to its ongoing cult following. It spawned a spin-off television show that aired in the mid-1980s on ABC called The Renegades, as well as a video game, action figures and talk of a Tony Scott remake.