{"product_id":"monster-living-off-the-big-screen-9780375750243","title":"Monster: Living Off the Big Screen","description":"In Hollywood, screenwriters are a curse to be borne, and beating up on them is an industry blood sport. But in this ferociously funny and accurate account of life on the Hollywood food chain, it's a screenwriter who gets the last murderous laugh. That may be because the writer is John Gregory Dunne, who has written screenplays, along with novels and non-fiction, for thirty years. In 1988 Dunne and his wife, Joan Didion, were asked to write a screenplay about the dark and complicated life of the late TV anchorwoman Jessica Savitch. Eight years and twenty-seven drafts later, this script was made into the fairy tale \"Up Close and Personal\" starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Detailing the meetings, rewrites, fights, firings, and distractions attendant to the making of a single picture, \u003cb\u003eMonster\u003c\/b\u003e illuminates the process with sagacity and raucous wit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Gregory Dunne\u003c\/b\u003e wrote six novels--\u003ci\u003eVegas; True Confessions; Dutch Shea, Jr.; The Red White and Blue;\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003ePlayland; \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Nothing Lost\u003c\/i\u003e--and seven works of nonfiction, among which are the memoir-like \u003ci\u003eHarp \u003c\/i\u003eand two books that look at Hollywood, \u003ci\u003eThe Studio \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMonster. \u003c\/i\u003eBorn in West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1932, he graduated from Princeton in 1954. He collaborated with his wife, the writer Joan Didion, on many screenplays, including \u003ci\u003ePanic in Needle Park\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTrue Confessions\u003c\/i\u003e. John Gregory Dunne died in December 2003.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51181762052370,"sku":"9780375750243","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1d86251d-353f-4475-8333-3298a65279fa.jpg?v=1744402165","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/monster-living-off-the-big-screen-9780375750243","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}