Have you ever wondered what a Hollywood movie producer actually does? In A Pound of Flesh, producer Art Linson takes us behind closed doors on a rare backstage tour through Hollywood. With amusing stories that recount his challenging experiences with a legion of players whose roster includes David Mamet, Robert De Niro, Jeff Katzenberg, Brian De Palma, Sean Penn, Ned Tanen, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, and Sean Connery, Unson sheds klieg lights on the mystery behind the moviemaking process. From acquiring scripts to hiring a writer, packaging the talent, and facing the horror of opening night, you'll glimpse the sweat on the brows of some of Tinseltown's hottest players as they sidestep minefields at the box office, grin through embarrassing defeats, and occasionally bow to the magic of success. A Pound of Flesh is the first guide by a true insider to exactly how movies get made in Hollywood. Linson maps the entire course, beginning with that initial spark of an idea that propels the producer into action, through unpredictable and often chaotic meetings with writers, agents, and movie executives, and even on to the fearsome task of confronting preview audiences and the critics. He chronicles his own disasters and successes, charting the bloody process by which a film is finally, and at times painfully, realized on the screen. We are brought into executive suites, made privy to cellular phone conversations, and escorted onto the sets of multimillion-dollar productions to see what it takes to get a movie made, as well as to learn why other projects, despite the vast effort and money behind them, can ultimately end up gathering dust on some studio's forgotten shelf, or in pieces on the cuttingroom floor. A Pound of Flesh is an engaging, informative, and oftentimes hilarious account of one man's odyssey to compete in America's cruelest, most glamorous industry. This is a book for film students, movie lovers, and anyone interested in the backstage drama of Hollywood.