A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood [Hardcover]

Art Linson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993

A Hollywood producer recounts his challenging experiences in Tinseltown, shedding light on the mystery behind movie making and describing his encounters with the likes of De Niro, De Palma, Sean Penn, and Sean Connery. 25,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Art Linson, producer of such Hollywood films as Car Wash, The Untouchables, Melvin & Howard, and This Boy's Life, among others, has written a chummy and chatty how-to "for that small and perhaps unfortunate group"--aspiring movie producers. Seduced by the glitz, glamour, and cutthroat glee that clung (and clings) to Hollywood producers, young Linson never really "got" what it was they did. In 1961, when he was getting started, a producer's role was as ill-defined as it was just this side of unseemly. Producers, begins Linson in the highly amusing, anecdotal A Pound of Flesh, were "compared to Willy Loman, not Arthur Miller."

Make no mistake: Linson is lecturing to the Hollywood aspirant--not to aspiring auteurs or scrappy independent filmmakers. As such, A Pound of Flesh is a strange breed--more travelogue through Tinseltown than down-to-earth how-to. It's ripe with gossip and "aren't we wonderful?" scenes--the morphing of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas into an updated, drug-drenched version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Walking into Thompson's hotel room for the initial meeting, Linson was confronted with a smoking gun and a four-inch hole in the wall. And that's just the beginning of their "negotiations." (The film actually became Where the Buffalo Roam, starring Bill Murray.)

Where the chatty, chummy Linson primer becomes useful is with behind-the-scenes examples of such "lessons" as pitching the idea; working with writers, directors, and cast members; and understanding budgets and the studio system. Where it goes soft is with such vague and hip promptings as "if you have a head filled with good ideas, an extended list of Hollywood hangouts is more beneficial than a list of agencies and production companies." So introverts beware! To succeed in Hollywood, you still need the chutzpah, the connections, and the dough.

Wild exploits, turns of fate, and serendipities characterize the brazen and breezy teachings of A Pound of Flesh. What is fabulous is Linson's unbridled enthusiasm. Aspirants and movie fans alike will find this highly entertaining book a quick read, hard to put down, and irresistible. But rely on Linson as your sole Virgil through Tinseltown and your dreams of artistic success will surely falter. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

One of Hollywood's more idiosyncratic producers discusses the ins and outs of the movie business in this entertaining primer. While first-time author Linson ostensibly aims to instruct would-be industry players, announcing at the outset that "this is a how-to book" and organizing his text into sections dealing with preproduction, production and release, a profusion of delightful anecdotes soon overwhelms his scheme. Linson counts hits from Car Wash to The Untouchables among his credits, and spins tales of these productions as well as of disastrous ventures. Sections on dealing with writers and with studio executives are enlivened by accounts of working with David Mamet and Jeffrey Katzenberg; Linson also offers behind-the-scenes looks at performers, including Sean Penn, Robert De Niro and an uncooperative killer whale. Movie fans will find much of interest here.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 195 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802115438
• ISBN-13: 978-0802115430
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #894,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Producer's Primer, February 8, 2000

By 

David Wolf (Beijing) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood (Paperback)

In an honest, engaging, and pithy memoir, Art Linson manages to convey not only what a producer is and does in modern Hollywood, but also why that individual is so important both in the creation and final success of the product. If American film stands at the nexus of creativity and enterprise, the producer is the individual who must mediate the inevitable clash between these immutable forces, and Linson openly recalls his successes as well as his failures. It's not always pretty, but it's always good.

In fact,the book's great strength is Linson's success in divorcing himself - or his ego - from his topic, allowing the reader to learn with the author, rather than from him. The entire process of the creation of a film, from pitch to production to premiere, including unpleasant diversions like Turnaround Hell and rites like Test Screenings, is laid before us through Linson's formative years as a producer.

What the reader ends with is an understanding of the filmmaking process that no textbook could convey, and that few insiders would be willing to impart to a tyro.

This is truly a primer on movie production that belongs on the shelf of everyone from development executive to film student to movie-lover.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Informative, May 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood (Paperback)

This book is about 100X better than Lydia Obst's egotisticalpiece. Indeed, Linson is remarkably ego-free - and he's worked with DeNiro, De Palma, Mamet, and others. His tales are entertaining, at times harrowing, and best of all, he describes the process of assembling all the elements to produce a picture. Not a knockout, but a solid, informative piece of work. I'd like to meet Linson one day.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much Better than Lydia Obst book, July 29, 2002

By 

Mike Finn (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood (Paperback)

I have read this book and one by Lydia Obst ("Hello, He Lied"). I preferred the Linson by a mile - Obst is too full of herself (she even disses Linson!). Linson discusses the role of producer and his contribution to films such as "Car Wash" and "The Untouchables". There's a revelatory look at a film he worked on the DIDN'T get made, called "Arrive Alive". Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the process of motion picture production.