Hollywood Animal

This weekend I was visiting my brother on the Westbank and we went to Borders and Barnes & Noble (I know two book stores in one day, I'm a nerd) and I picked up Hollywood Animal by Joe Eszterhas. It was in the bargin book section and I got it in hard back for $6.98. Nowdays you can barely find a paperback for that price.

Ok, the point of this entry is the book. Eszterhas is a screenwriter for Hollywood. He's probably one of the few screenwriters who most people outside of Hollywood might have actually heard of. Everyone has heard of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Mel Gibson and this list could go on and on. But most people don't know who the screen writers are. Think about it, you might know who directed your favortie movie, but who wrote it?

Eszterhas wrote F.I.S.T., Basic Instinct, Flashdance, Jagged Edge, Telling Lies in America, Showgirls, Sliver, Jade, Music Box, Betrayed and An Alan Smitee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn. Probably a few movies there you might have heard of.

Eszterhas was the highest paid screenwriter working in Hollywood when he was at his prime. More than that he was a star in his own right. People knew who he was.

This is an interesting book, full of lots of inside information about the stars. But it shows a writer fighting to keep his words as they were written. As he tells one director who wants to change his script, "I'm not telling you how to direct, you dont' tell me how to write." He wasn't going to change his words just to make a sale. In a world where the written word doesn't mean much anymore it's nice to know that he believed in what he wrote. I'm not going to debate the merits of his work, some of his scripts I enjoyed a lot, some I've never seen and others are all that great.

Also the story of his Father and how it reflected the movie he wrote but did not realize at the time it was about his Father, Movie Box is interesting reading.

He's not above showing the world his bad side either. He took enough drugs and drink and smokes to almost kill him in the end.

He's living in Ohio now, with his wife and three boys. He doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs. He's become a middle class dad, something that you would never imagine as you read this book he would end up as. He doesn't say if he's writing scripts still or not. His name hasn't been on any movie in a long time, so maybe he's retired.

I have to say I enjoyed the book. It was a quick read, I finished it a few days. If you see a copy I think it's worth picking up and reading.