The Circuit

Budd Schulberg never suspected that his famous line from "On the Waterfront" would become so imminently quotable. 

The Oscar-winning screenwriter and novelist is in Berlin promoting his newest boxing book, "Ringside," while his son Benn is pre-selling a film on Schulberg's life at the EFM. "From Hollywood: The Life Story of Budd Schulberg" is a warts-and-all docu that includes Brando's famous "Waterfront" monologue.

"I brought in a young boxer to coach Brando," remembers Schulberg, who proudly wears a Boxing Hall of Fame ring.  "In his last fight the other guy had died the next day so the boxer stopped fighting after that.  I asked him if that hadn't happened how far he could have gone.  The boxer said 'I don't think I could have won the title.  But I could've been a contender.'  He just threw that line out there and it stuck in my mind."

At 93, Schulberg has seen it all, and from many sides.  He grew up as the son of Paramount head B.P. Schulberg. After World War II he was in charge of photographic evidence during the Nuremburg trials. 

He also "named names" in his testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee, a period the docu doesn't shy away from.

"It doesn't bother me," said Schulberg when asked if reliving that time is difficult. "I think writers are used to dwelling in the past and using their lifetime experience in their work."

The docu also includes interviews with Ben Stiller, who has optioned the rights to Schulberg's classic book, "What Makes Sammy Run."  Schulberg turned his youthful observations growing up in Tinseltown into what is still an incendiary commentary on Hollywood.  After the book came out he was banished from town, though he says he never felt comfortable there.

"I knew my future was not in Hollywood, and the way I broke away was to write fiction," said Schulberg.

"He grew up in the belly of the beast," says scribe Jerry Stahl, who's adapting "Sammy" for Stiller.  "Then he took a knife to it."

Schulberg, though, has little faith that a movie will be made considering the number of bridges burned. "I have a feeling there is still resistance to it.  Someone told me Steven Spielberg is not so crazy about it."