MONSTER: Living off the Big Screen
By: John Gregory Dunne
New York: Random House 1997
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John Gregory Dunne pasted away just a few months. I heard about this book from a friend and was glad I read it. The book documents John and Joan Dunne's arduous journey writing what would ultimately become Up Close & Personal starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pheiffer.
It's yet another in the trenches presentation of what it's like being a Hollywood screenwriter. It's hilarious and authentic. An easy read you could put away in one night. The craziness of the business from a writer's perspective, and we can never have too many of those.
What I enjoyed about it was it's honesty and Dunne's majestic storytelling, even when recalling a story meeting, on a different project than the one documented here, with blockbuster producers Simpson and Bruckheimer.
The book has been criticized as simply being an exercise in self-congratulatory and name-dropping. Sure, there's a lot of that, but as a working screenwriter you're going to meet people.
If you look at Dunne's credits you're not going to be blown away, he only has four or five feature film credits. But he worked on dozens of stories and made hundreds of thousands of dollars. He did accomplish quite a bit.
This isn't a book that's going to teach you anything about screenwriting. But it will give you lots of insider opinion and knowledge on the ways and dealings of the business. For that alone I recommend it.
-Chris
