Rebels On The Backlot

Another book I just finished was Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman. I found this book on the remainder tables at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago. It examines the careers of six of the "new" directors in Hollywood: Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson.

It was a fascinating read, detailing the problems each director faced as they moved from the independent film world and started to make movies for the Hollywood corporations. It delved somewhat into their past and how some of them have fashioned a history for themselves that doesn't quite fit with the truth. All six of these directors are responsible for some of the better movies made in the last decade. (Though there is another long post about the importance of the writer in movies and how it's somehow the director's vision that makes the movie. Remember there would be no movie without the written word first.)

I'll get down off my soapbox and gives these directors their due. They take the script and turn it into their own.