High Concept

Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess

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by Charles Fleming

Type

Stories

Subject

Studio > Hollywood

Keywords

Hollywood, 1980s, producer, Don Simpson

Publishing date

1998

Publisher

Doubleday

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 304 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ¾ inches (16 x 24.5 cm)

ISBN-10
ISBN-13

0-385-48694-4
978-0-385-48694-1

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Book Presentation:
What Hit and Run was to Hollywood financial impropriety, and what You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again was to sex, drugs, and self-destruction, High Concept is to the evolution of today's driving business philosophy and simultaneous back-lot grotesqueries of the contemporary entertainment industry.

Using the life and career of producer Don Simpson as a point of departure, High Concept takes readers on a riveting journey inside the Hollywood of the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout the period, Simpson and his partner, Jerry Bruckheimer, were the most successful independent producers in the history of moviemaking, responsible for the hit films Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Bad Boys, and The Rock. Widely credited with the genesis of the "tentpole," or "event," business strategy, which could make a studio's year in a single shot, Simpson had an uncanny ability to boil down a movie into an easily salable product. His films generated billions of dollars at the box office, and today his business philosophy continues to drive the fortunes of the major studios, where $100 million blockbusters are now the norm.

But at the same time that his vision was driving the Hollywood bottom line, Simpson's lifestyle epitomized the pervasive dark side of the industry's power base. Through intensive research and interviews with sources throughout the film community, Charles Fleming chronicles how Simpson made his mark as a young executive at Paramount, gradually gained entry into a small circle of friends, and gratified himself beyond recognition. His legendary consumption knew no bounds. This unrestrained excess killed him and sent a warning cry throughout the industry.

About the Author:
Charles Fleming has reported exclusively on the business of Hollywood for more than ten years--as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Variety, and Newsweek. As a freelance reporter, he has written extensively for Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, and TV Guide. He lives in Los Angeles.

Press Reviews:
"Hollywood didn't want this book to be written, but I'm happy Charles Fleming wrote it. His account is accurate and he is not afraid to tell tough truths. Don Simpson would have liked it."
--Joe Eszterhas

"This is a cautionary tale of moral failure in the midst of astronomical success -- not just the moral failure of poor dead Don Simpson but the moral failure of the industry he worshipped. Charles Fleming knows the Hollywood turf backwards, forwards, and sideways."
--Dominick Dunne

"Fearless reporting filled with gripping detail. Wow!"
--Maureen Orth

See the publisher website: Doubleday