About this item
Highlights
- A longtime industry insider and acclaimed Hollywood historian goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of 15 of the most spectacular movie megaflops of the past 50 years, such as Cleopatra, The Cotton Club, and Waterworld.
- About the Author: James Robert Parish is a former entertainment reporter and publicist and the author of numerous books on Hollywood.
- 368 Pages
- Performing Arts, Film
Description
About the Book
A longtime industry insider and acclaimed Hollywood historian goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of 15 of the most spectacular movie megaflops of the past 50 years, such as Cleopatra, The Cotton Club, and Waterworld. He recounts, in every gory detail, how enormous hubris, unbridled ambition, artistic hauteur, and bad business sense on the parts of Tinsel Town wheeler-dealers and superstars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Clint Eastwood, and Francis Ford Coppola, conspired to engender some of the worst films ever.Book Synopsis
A longtime industry insider and acclaimed Hollywood historian goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of 15 of the most spectacular movie megaflops of the past 50 years, such as Cleopatra, The Cotton Club, and Waterworld. He recounts, in every gory detail, how enormous hubris, unbridled ambition, artistic hauteur, and bad business sense on the parts of Tinsel Town wheeler-dealers and superstars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Clint Eastwood, and Francis Ford Coppola, conspired to engender some of the worst films ever.From the Back Cover
"A gleefully readable, well-researched study of hubris in Hollywood"--"Publishers Weekly"
A Hollywood insider answers, once and for all, the eternal question: "How in the world did that picture ever get made?"
One thing we movie lovers enjoy almost as much as fireworks on the silver screen is watching a movie go up in flames. And while each season brings its fresh batch of stinkers, it takes years and a rare confluence of forces to give birth to an "Iconic Flop" like Showgirls. While movies such as Gigli are just plain dumb, a bunker-buster like Battlefield Earth can be absolutely dumbfounding in its big-budget awfulness.
In Fiasco, longtime industry insider and acclaimed Hollywood historian James Robert Parish goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of fifteen of the most spectacular megaflops of the past fifty years. No mere financial disappointments these, each of the artistic and financial failures covered was of a magnitude to bankrupt studios, demolish reputations, and, in some cases, totally reconfigure the Hollywood power structure.
With verve and no small measure of edgy wit, Parish dishes up the gossip, the grosses, and the egregious battles connected with these disasters. He recounts, in every gory detail, how enormous hubris, unbridled ambition, artistic hauteur, and bad business sense on the parts of Tinsel Town wheeler-dealers and superstars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Sam Spiegel, Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Evans, Francis Ford Coppola, Madonna, Kevin Costner, and Warren Beatty conspired to engender some of the worst films ever. And he vividly recreates the behind-the-scenes melodramas connected with the making of Cleopatra, Paint Your Wagon, Popeye, The Cotton Club, Shanghai Surprise, Ishtar, Waterworld, Town & Country, and other unforgettable Hollywood megaflops of the past fifty years.
"Fiasco is a know-it-all backstory of infamous film flops, wittily reminding us how often, and in so many ways, Hollywood can screw up the best laid plans."
--Patrick McGilligan, author of "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light"
Review Quotes
* "James Robert Parish identifies them neatly in 'Fiasco'...He gives a high-minded rationale for his project." (Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2006)
"A gleefully readable, well-researched study of hubris in Hollywood" (Publishers Weekly, October 17, 2005)
About the Author
James Robert Parish is a former entertainment reporter and publicist and the author of numerous books on Hollywood. He appears frequently as an expert on network and cable television documentaries like A&E's "Biography" and "E! Television's True Hollywood Stories."