Monster

Living Off the Big Screen

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by John Gregory Dunne

Type

Stories

Subject

One Film > Up Close & Personal

Keywords

Jon Avnet, John Gregory Dunne, scriptwriting

Publishing date

1997

Publisher

Random House

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 203 pages
6 x 8 ¾ inches (15 x 22 cm)

ISBN-10
ISBN-13

0-679-45579-5
978-0-679-45579-0

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Book Presentation:
In Hollywood, screenwriters are a curse to be borne, and beating up on them is an industry blood sport. But in this ferociously funny and accurate account of life on the Hollywood food chain, it's a screenwriter who gets the last murderous laugh. That may be because the writer is John Gregory Dunne, who has written screenplays, along with novels and non-fiction, for thirty years. In 1988 Dunne and his wife, Joan Didion, were asked to write a screenplay about the dark and complicated life of the late TV anchorwoman Jessica Savitch. Eight years and twenty-seven drafts later, this script was made into the fairy tale "Up Close and Personal" starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Detailing the meetings, rewrites, fights, firings, and distractions attendant to the making of a single picture, Monster illuminates the process with sagacity and raucous wit.

Press Reviews:
Make no mistake. John Gregory Dunne is not one of the crybabies. . . . Monster is an account of just one of the many campaigns in the movie theater of war that have turned him and his writing partner and wife, Joan Didion, into battle-hardened veterans. -- The New York Times Book Review, Larry Gelbart

See the publisher website: Random House

See Up Close & Personal (1996) on IMDB ...