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INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING GOES HOLLYWOOD
Autographed copies - You can buy a signed copy of the hardback book, which is no longer available in stores, from the author directly for $20.00 plus shipping and handling. Send requests to sharon.waxman@gmail.com for details.
New York Times correspondent Sharon Waxman reveals how six 1990s directors turned the movie industry upside down
"Riveting tales of Hollywood hubris . . . a fun read."
- Entertainment Weekly
"Like all good reporting Rebels on the Backlot ultimately opens up its subject for debate and leaves the final verdict to the reader . . . astute . . . Waxman unearths juicy anecdotes that'll keep film fans cackling and turning the pages . . . Film directors' careers are full of second and third acts. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of any of these guys, and I'm grateful we'll have Sharon Waxman on hand to fill us in."
In REBELS ON THE BACKLOT: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System (Harper Perennial; January 1, 2006; $14.95), Sharon Waxman brings the same level of incisive reporting that distinguished her at both the Washington Post and, today, at the New York Times to tell the gripping story of independent filmmaking in the 1990s as it moved into the studio system, challenging the norms of commercial Hollywood and changing the movies we see at the cineplex. Waxman analyzes the careers and signature films of Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell, and Spike Jonze. "With their films, the rebels of the 1990s shattered the status quo, set new boundaries in the art of moviemaking, and managed to bend the risk-adverse studio structure to their will," she writes. "They created a new cinematic language, recast audience expectations, and surprised us_and each other." In the early '90s, a seemingly endless series of corporate mergers had turned Hollywood's major studios into profit factories, churning out sequels, remakes and formulaic star vehicles guaranteed to bolster the bottom line. But under the radar a group of talented newcomers was operating. They were interested in making movies their way, much like their predecessors of the 1970s. But unlike their 1970s counterparts, the young directors of the 1990s weren't film school graduates, but rather self-taught, independent thinkers eager to remake modern cinema in their own image.
In REBELS ON THE BACKLOT, Sharon Waxman gives a rare, 360-degree view of the creative and business sides of film making, tracking the labyrinthine process. Her choices of directors and films offer a fascinating glimpse at the fractious relationship between artistic talent and commercial imperative, the ever present tension in contemporary Hollywood. REBELS ON THE BACKLOT focuses on the following iconic movies:
- Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction: Tarentinoesque has become a codeword for movies with irony-tinged violence and pop culture references.
