Editing William Goldman (section)

===''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid''===
Goldman returned to novels, writing ''[[The Thing of It Is...]]'' (1967). He taught at [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and wished to write something, but he could not come up with an idea for a novel. Instead, he wrote ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]'', his first original screenplay, which he had been researching for eight years. He sold it for $400,000, the highest price ever paid for an original screenplay at that time.<ref name="queenan">{{Cite news |last=Queenan |first=Joe |date=April 25, 2009 |title=Newman, Hoffman, Redford and me |page=6 |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/25/william-goldman-screenwriter-interview |access-date=February 22, 2011}}</ref> The movie was released in 1969, a critical and commercial success that earned Goldman an [[Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay]]. The money enabled Goldman to take some time off and research the nonfiction ''[[The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway]]'' (1969).<ref name="ign">{{Cite web |date=February 18, 2003 |title=Featured Filmmaker: William Goldman |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/02/18/featured-filmmaker-william-goldman |access-date=June 11, 2011 |website=Movies |publisher=IGN}}</ref>

Goldman adapted Steven Linakis's novel ''In the Spring the War Ended'' into a screenplay, but it was not filmed. Neither were scripts of ''The Thing of It Is'', which came close to being made several times in the early '70s, and ''[[Papillon (book)|Papillon]]'', on which he worked for six months and three drafts; the book was filmed, but little of Goldman's work was used.<ref>Brady p 120</ref> He returned to novels with ''[[Father's Day (novel)|Father's Day]]'' (1971), a sequel to ''The Thing of It Is…''. He also wrote the screenplay for ''[[The Hot Rock (film)|The Hot Rock]]'' (1972).