A Dozen Bing, Bang Boffo Books about “The Business”

Bambi vs. Godzilla

On the Nature, Purpose and Practice of the Movie Business

By David Mamet

From the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and playwright: an exhilaratingly subversive inside look at Hollywood from a filmmaker who’s always played by his own rules.

The Big Picture

Money and Power in Hollywood

By Edward Jay Epstein

In this unprecedented, all-encompassing, and thoroughly entertaining account of the movie business, acclaimed writer Edward Jay Epstein reveals the real magic behind moviemaking: how the studios make their money.

Breakfast with Sharks

A Screenwriter’s Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood

By Michael Lent

This is not a book about the craft of screenwriting. This is a book about the business of managing your screenwriting career, from advice on choosing an agent to tips on juggling three deal-making breakfasts a day. Prescriptive and useful, Breakfast with Sharks is a real guide to navigating the murky waters of the Hollywood system.

Hello, He Lied

& Other Tales from the Hollywood Trenches

By Lynda Obst

The producer of smash hits such as “Sleepless in Seattle” and takes us inside high-pressure meetings with David Geffen, onto the set of “Sleepless in Seattle”, and into the heated negotiations for “The Hot Zone” and reveals what she’s learned in more than twenty years in the business: how to swim with the sharks — and not get eaten.

The Mailroom

Hollywood History from the Bottom Up

By David Rensin

It’s like a plot from a Hollywood potboiler: start out in the mailroom, end up a mogul. But for many, it happens to be true. Some of the biggest names in entertainment — including David Geffen, Barry Diller, and Michael Ovitz — started their dazzling careers in the lowly mailroom. Based on more than two hundred interviews, David Rensin unfolds the never-before-told history of an American institution — in the voices of the people who lived it.

Making Movies

By Sydney Lumet

From the acclaimed director of such classics as “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Network” and “The Verdict” comes a book that is both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture.

Movies and Money

By David Puttnam

The acclaimed producer of “Chariots of Fire” and “The Killing Fields”, and former Columbia Pictures chief David Puttnam has written a fascinating behind-the-scenes history of the movie business and of the unique and frequently unholy alliance between commerce and art that underpins it.

My Movie Business

By John Irving

John Irving’s candid account of the long and winding road to the big screen of The Cider House Rules.

When Hollywood Had a King

The Reign of Lew Wasserman, Who Leveraged Talent into Power and Influence

By Connie Bruck

The sweeping story of MCA and its brilliant leader, Lew Wasserman, a man who transformed the entertainment industry. Wasserman ushered in the Hollywood we know today. He is the link between the old-school moguls with their ironclad studio contracts and the new industry defined by multimedia conglomerates, power agents, multimillionaire actors, and profit sharing.

Which Lie Did I Tell?

By William Goldman

William Goldman, one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood, tells all he knows. Devastatingly eye-opening and endlessly entertaining, Which Lie Did I Tell? is indispensable reading for anyone even slightly intrigued by the process of how a movie gets made.

The Whole Equation

A History of Hollywood

By David Thomson

With the same style and insight he brought to his previous studies of American cinema, acclaimed critic David Thomson masterfully evokes the history of America’s love affair with the movies and the tangled history of Hollywood in The Whole Equation.