What Just Happened?: Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line [Paperback]

Art Linson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2003

Art Linson's riotous journey through the making of five major motion pictures.

Whether he's trying to persuade an executive that Gwyneth Paltrow has enough chin to carry the lead in a movie, forcing an enraged Alec Baldwin to shave off his mountain-man beard, or sitting through an excruciating reading of a David Mamet script as Bob de Niro toys with the notion of heading up the cast, Art Linson gives us a brutally honest, funny, and comprehensive tour through the horrors of Hollywood, from script to screen.

In What Just Happened? we get to explore, at close range, finicky directors, clueless executives, shameless marketers, famous actors, battered screenwriters, and hapless producers crossing paths in such calamitous ways that it's a miracle these films get made at all. Linson is the ideal guide through this heavily land-mined, high-stakes industry, pausing for a moment here or there to explain some aspect or pitfall of the business, to wax nostalgic about film days past, or to serve up a compelling inside Hollywood tale of woe. Whether you love the movies or not, you won't be able to resist the stories behind them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Art Linson’s dark gem of a book is a wickedly funny and sardonic insider’s look at life in the belly of the beast. It is the best user’s manual to Hollywood I know.” —Peter Biskind, author of Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film

“Art Linson puts a film freak exactly where he or she wants to be: in the Fox screening room during the studio brass’s horrified first look at Fight Club. . . . Linson gives readers a glimpse into a bizarre world where ‘It’s good’ is the absolute worst thing you can say about a movie.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Art Linson sings of Hollywood in a low, guttural, animal wail, alternately hysterical, biting, humiliating, and wise.” —Sean Penn

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

"Art Linson puts a film freak exactly where he or she wants to be: in the Fox screening room during the studio brass' horrified first look at Fight Club...Linson gives readers a glimpse into a bizarro world where 'It's good' is the absolute worst thing you can say about a movie."-Entertainment Weekly Editor's Choice (Grade: A-)
"A breezy anatomy of ritual humiliation, Hollywood-style...Linson takes not quite potshots, but humorous nibbles at Hollywood's culture of self-importance."-L.A. Times
"It's a hoot...Linson observes all with a keen, critical eye."-The Philadelphia Inquirer
"A fun read. The tone-raw, wounded, sarcastic-is lively, and the story is seasoned with anecdotes about the stupid or bizarre behavior of suits and stars." -People Weekly "[A] juicy tell-all memoir."-US Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (May 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582342881
• ISBN-13: 978-1582342887
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,267,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The short version of how movies are made, October 14, 2002

By 

R. Spell "raspell" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line (Hardcover)

I like books on Hollywood biz and this one fits the bill by a real pro, Art Linson. Anyone involved with classics like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Fight Club and Heat knows his way around the business and how it has changed in the last 30 years. Linson throws one kink in the normal Hollywood tell-all. He introduces a fictitious former studio head that has lunches with Linson generating a lively dialog of the business by to former players.

While I enjoyed this book, I have one major complaint. There are only four Hollywood stories in the book. It's like Linson has found his hit and can issue many sequels so he does so little at a time. The book is only 180 pages and is a very fast read. Also, the stories are not in great depth. For example, he describes the movie The Edge with Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins. He does a good job describing how these two are selected and the great respect he has for both actors. But the story line quickly ends as Baldwin shows up overweight and with a long beard. Linson has to deliver the bad news that he must change his appearance. End of story. Let's move on to the next.

While this story is anticlimactic after a flirtation with Robert Deniro in the movie, I like Linson's writing style for the subjects. It's short, uncomplicated and humorous. Other stories covered include Pushing Tin, Great Expectations and The Fight Club. All interesting stories but all written about very briefly.

Irrespective, I still recommend this book if you enjoy reading Hollywood stories. Linson had a great career and I'm sure there is another book coming in the future.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Classy gossip and some insights, May 9, 2005

By 

Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line (Hardcover)

Sex sells, goes the old maxim, but if the sales of gossip magazines featuring the likes of the late Princess Diana, the present Drew Barrymore et al, then gossip may well be up there with sex as a matter of titilation (no pun intended) for the masses, of which I am one. THe fact is David Mamet is a great writer, Robert De Niro a great actor and the author, Art Linson, is no slouch in the producing arena. So if any of these are of interest to you, this book is a very well written - snappy dialogue, witty observations on the status of restaurant seating, and well constructed vignettes - as well as providing yet another insider's view on the shark aquarium known as Hollywood.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Bitter Pamphlet, November 2, 2002

By 

schapmock (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line (Hardcover)

What Just Happened consists of behind the scenes tales of the making of The Edge, Great Expectations, Pushing Tin, and Fight Club from film producer Art Linson.

The stories are pretty great. Bitter and specific to a degree not usually found in Hollywood books not written by Julia Phillips, these have the nasty ring of truth, and are very funny.

The only problem with this book is that it barely qualifies as one. There's barely enough text here to fill an ambitious pamphlet. Surely there was more to be written about the making of the wildly controversial Fight Club (like how it managed to get made in the first place) than just describing how the finished product power-freaked the Fox marketing department.

Also padding out the length is a bizarre framing story wherein Linson is telling these tales to a memorably creepy ex-studio head. Pitch black as these segments are, they feel both repetitive and vaguely untrue, a bit of theatricality whipped up to hammer home Linson's bitter points. The book doesn't need them, but I guess they added a few more pages.