A
A Titanic
Tale
bA Titani
Publishers
Weekly Review
December 13, 2004
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The
Big Picture
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
To
appear in 2003's Terminator 3, Arnold Schwarzenegger
received a fixed fee of $29.25 million, a package of perks
totaling $1.5 million and a guaranteed 20% of gross receipts
from all sources of revenue worldwide. With that, writes
Epstein (Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment
of Truth), no matter the film's box office results, "the
star was assured of making more money than the studio itself."
Such is the "new logic" Epstein explores in this
engrossing book. Gone are the days of studio chiefs dominating
their stars with punitive contracts and controlling product
from script to big screen. Writers now sell their work to
the highest bidder, stars have become one-person corporations
who "rent" their services to individual productions,
and the studios have morphed into what Epstein labels "clearing
houses."
These multinational corporations exist, in Epstein's description,
to collect revenue from an ever-growing variety of sources—home
video, overseas markets and product licensing, to name a
few—and then disburse it to a fortunate minority at
the top of Hollywood's food chain. Epstein explains the
structure, personalities and behind-the-scenes interconnection
of the "sexopoly" (the six huge media companies
that control motion picture entertainment).
In
vivid detail, he describes the current process of how a
film is made, from the initial pitch to last-minute digital
editing. There's a refreshing absence of moral grandstanding
in Epstein's work. With no apparent ax to grind, he simply
and comprehensively presents the industry as it is: the
nuts and bolts, the perks and pitfalls and the staggering
fortunes that some in the business walk away with. This
is the new indispensable text for anyone interested in how
Hollywood works. Photos
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