{"product_id":"fiasco-a-history-of-hollywoods-iconic-flops-paperback","title":"Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJames Robert Parish\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Hollywood insider answers, once and for all, the eternal question: \"How in the world did that picture ever get made?\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOne 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 \u003ci\u003eShowgirls.\u003c\/i\u003e While movies such as \u003ci\u003eGigli \u003c\/i\u003eare just plain dumb, a bunker-buster like \u003ci\u003eBattlefield Earth \u003c\/i\u003ecan be absolutely dumbfounding in its big-budget awfulness. In\u003ci\u003e Fiasco, \u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eCleopatra, Paint Your Wagon, Popeye, The Cotton Club, Shanghai Surprise, Ishtar, Waterworld, Town \u0026amp; Country, \u003c\/i\u003e and other unforgettable Hollywood megaflops of the past fifty years. \"\u003ci\u003eFiasco\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\" \u003cb\u003e--Patrick McGilligan, author of \u003ci\u003eAlfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eWatching a terribly overhyped movie go up in flames can be better than watching the fiery car chases in it, and \u003ci\u003eFiasco\u003c\/i\u003e allows film enthusiasts to savor every bad script decision, every poor casting choice, and every astonishing cost overrun behind the greatest big-screen misfires in the annals of post-studio system Hollywood. \u003c\/p\u003eThe history of the American film is rife with major failures and financial disappointments. But true screen disasters as grand and\u003cbr\u003ehistoric as a \u003ci\u003ePopeye, \u003c\/i\u003e an \u003ci\u003eIshtar, \u003c\/i\u003eor a \u003ci\u003eCutthroat Island \u003c\/i\u003eare rare. It took the astounding combined talents of superstars like Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Arthur Penn, Robert Duvall, and Lillian Hellman to make a movie as stupefyingly awful as 1966's \u003ci\u003eThe Chase.\u003c\/i\u003e As Parish explains, it takes a very special combination of forces to create hundred-megaton bombs such as \u003ci\u003eShanghai Surprise, Last Action Hero, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Postman\u003c\/i\u003e--productions with the destructive power to level studios, obliterate careers, and, in some cases, completely trans-form the way business is done within the industry.In\u003ci\u003e Fiasco, \u003c\/i\u003eJames Robert Parish brings us behind the scenes of fifteen of the most sensational failures in modern Hollywood history. Beginning with an account of the \"Mother of All Megaflops,\" the 1963 Taylor\/Burton escapade \u003ci\u003eCleopatra, \u003c\/i\u003e and concluding with the tragicomic story of the 2001 Warren Beatty clinker \u003ci\u003eTown \u0026amp; Country, \u003c\/i\u003e he regales us with accounts of awesome financial might in the service of blind vanity, towering hubris, titanic egos, and monumentally bad business judgment. And he draws upon his encyclopedic knowledge of the business to chronicle the turning points and industry upheavals--some of them engendered by a previous era's film fiascos--that helped sire these \"Iconic Flops.\" How did Robert Evans, in his insatiable ambition to produce a blockbuster on par with \u003ci\u003eThe Godfather, \u003c\/i\u003e allow himself to become embroiled in a financing scheme that resulted in the grisly gangland-style murder of a would-be producer on \u003ci\u003eThe Cotton Club?\u003c\/i\u003e How did bringing married superstars Sean Penn and Madonna into the picture transform what began as a promising, relatively modestly priced project into the galaxy-class money pit, \u003ci\u003eShanghai Surprise? \u003c\/i\u003eWhy did industry moguls allow Kevin Costner's outrageous ego to run disastrously amok twice in two years, first on \u003ci\u003eWaterworld\u003c\/i\u003e and then \u003ci\u003eThe Postman?\u003c\/i\u003e What role did Scientology play in the making of the ill-starred \u003ci\u003eBattlefield Earth?\u003c\/i\u003e With his trademark wit and Hollywood insider's nose for the deep dish, Parish provides answers to these and other questions. And in the process, he helps answer the question on the lips of generations of movie buffs: \"How in the world did that picture ever get made?\"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJAMES ROBERT PARISH (jamesrobertparish.com) is a former entertainment reporter and publicist and the author of numerous books on Hollywood, including The Hollywood Book of Breakups and It's Good to Be the King.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 368\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.89 x 8.64 x 5.34 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 01, 2007\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42201772032080,"sku":"9780470098295","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/9540\/0016\/files\/NGEzczFNOHRTT1I0WTQwZkZJNUZVdz09.webp?v=1775307081","url":"https:\/\/palm-malen-gift-shop-pmrc.myshopify.com\/products\/fiasco-a-history-of-hollywoods-iconic-flops-paperback","provider":"Palm Malen Gift Shop -PMRC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}