The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God!

by Joe Eszterhas

Book Overview

Mike Ovitz told him his Wilshire Blvd. "foot soldiers" would hunt him down. He's antagonized almost everyone at the top in Tinseltown. And now, Joe Eszterhas tells everything he knows -- in brief, quotable bursts -- about the business, the history of Hollywood, and how to write screenplays that make millions. Idiosyncratic, gruff and as shaggy as Eszterhas himself, The Devil's Guide to Hollywood makes a character/leitmotif of Eszterhas' fellow Hungarian...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031235987X
• ISBN13: 9780312359874
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 397 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

great cynical book.

This is a very cynical but easy to read and relate to book. In a round about way it explains why most movies aren't very good and why the great ones are so exceptional. Sometimes, it's a little hard to bear the writers whining about how hard it is for him to write a few pages (especially considering some of his movies), but all it in all it's a great book for anyone who's not only interested in screenwriting but also movies in general.

This book is about making money

Part writing guide, part memoir and part Hollywood trivia book, "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood" is one of the funniest and most enjoyable books that I've read in a long time. Whether you are a fan of Joe Eszterhas's work or not (Eszterhas is the writer who gave the world such movies as "Jagged Edge", "Basic Instinct" and "Showgirls"), it is still fascinating to learn the behind the scenes details of these films and just what Eszterhas thinks of all of the people involved in these movies and in the Hollywood scene in general (after reading this book, you will lose any respect you might have ever had for Robert McKee, Michael Douglas and William Goldman). This is the sort of book that you will find yourself reading aloud to anyone who happens to be within hearing range. Eszterhas is an even bigger character than any that he has ever created. He has an incredible ego and doesn't seem to care about the consequences of what he has to say. At the start of this book he announces that "this book is about making money" and then goes on to explain the rather unorthodox methods he employed in order to become one of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters. Some of these methods are probably best not repeated (for example, taking a hunting knife to a meeting and stabbing it into the boardroom table-top), but his central message of not letting people walk all over you is sound and this book does contain good advice for anyone looking for a career in Hollywood or in any other industry, for that matter.

Good Screenwriting Culture

Esty is both funny, truthful and straightforward and sometimes insane in his assessment of the Hollywood movie-making machine. This book is a book for everyone, but especially for aspiring screenwriters and screenwriter wannabees. Joe Eszterhas is real "no BS Eszterhas"; perhaps he wants to set a standard for screenwirters, based on what he quotes Ron Shelton (Bull Durham) as saying, "writers aren't tough enough". But this book should be an eye-opener for those interested in a career in screenwriting. The book is full of antidotes, written recommendations from BIG brother Joe. On top of (pardon the pun) the S-E-X, the Hollywood dealings, the facades, the double-talk, the fights, the phoniness, the "who was who" and "who is who", now, in Hollywood, the premise is clearly expressed in his rants, and more often than not, his coolness. It's no wander why many producers and directors feared Esty, or were intimidated by him. The point is, it doesn't matter how much special effects there is, how much violence, how much sex, how much action, in a movie, it all begins with the writer. The screenwriter sees the movie first. Imagine getting paid to daydream a story and put it on paper. Without the writer, there is no story; there is no movie. One can eliminate actors and a whole film crew, use computer generated images, but one still has to have STORY. What I sometimes ponder is why didn't anyone make any famours paitners change their paintings? Why didn't anyone make a famous scientist, or inventor, or musician change their theories, or music? Why didn't anyone make a famous novelist change chapters in his, or her novel? If not, then why would anyone want to make a screenwriter change his, or her screenplay? Yes, filmmaking is collaboration, but it isn't a collaborations of the writing process. The writer does that on his/her own. It's not until the writer is finished that others want to throw in their two-cents worth and chop up the writer's story. The writer owns that part, and it shoould be up to the writer, if the change(s) will make his/her story better. It's a good read...SACRED COWS is too. Thank you!

Joe Eszterhas is a berserker.

For those of you who don't know (I didn't), Joe Eszterhas is the screenwriter who wrote the motion picture Basic Instinct, among many others. Eszterhas also set the Hollywood record for what he got paid writing a screenplay, which was in the millions, and once got paid a few milllion dollars for a four page outline (literally). This is not your typical bland screenwriting how-to book. In fact, the title of this book is appropriate, as Joe Eszterhas is a berserker out-of-control renegade in every sense of the word. As opposed to other screenwriting books that spend chapter after chapter talking about character development, Eszterhas starts out by telling you this book is about making money (period). Then he dives into such "interesting" topics as sleeping with Sharon Stone, the day he smashed a table in a film studio's office, his rampant alcoholism, and how much he hates most of Hollywood. Eszterhas compares screenwriting to going to war, and takes aim at the most prolific screenwriting "teacher", Robert McKee on numerous occasions throughout the book. I could go on and on, but this book is definitely off-the-meter in terms of Chaos Factor. In fact, I am sure that he gave his legal counsel a heart attack ... or seven. If you want an interesting book that breaks all the rules, check out The Devil's Guide to Hollywood, by Joe Eszterhas. I finished it last night, and I am still laughing. Lee Rudnicki [...]

THE REAL LIFE

This book is great. Page by page. If you're a writer (or want to try), you have to read Joe Eszterhas' book. Hollywood memories, Hollywood tips, Hollywood lies... Very, very fun!