The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks
The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks
For sixty years, since the birth of United Artists, the studio landscape was unchanged.Then came Hollywood’s Circus Maximus—created by director Steven Spielberg, billionaire David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave the world The Lion King—an entertainment empire called DreamWorks. Now Nicole LaPorte,who covered the company for Variety, goes behind the hype to reveal for the first time the delicious truth of what happened. Readers will feel they are part of the creative calamities of moviemaking as LaPorte’s fly-on-the-wall detail shows us Hollywood’s bizarre rules of business.We see the clashes between the often otherworldly Spielberg’s troops and Katzenberg’s warriors, the debacles and disasters, but also the Oscar-winn
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An excellent and concise view of the rise and fall of what seemed the perfect company,
It’s amazed me that Dreamworks hasn’t spawned more books. The only one before was “The Dream Team” which was rather short. But this more than makes up for it as Nicole Laporte does an excellent job on the behind-the-scenes struggles of what seemed the perfect talent merger. She shows how right off the bat, Giffin was above things, only coming in to supply funds when needed while Spielberg’s vision as a filmmaker didn’t translate as well to the business side of things.
It’s Katzenberg who’s the real focus and Laporte does a great job showing the key problem: The man was far more interested in beating out Disney and sticking it to Michael Eisner than really doing his best to make Dreamworks successful. He became obsessed with “out Disneying Disney” in animation, backing flops like “Road to El Dorado” and the brilliant irony is that the one movie he didn’t micromanage would be the company’s biggest hit “Shrek.” Laporte points at 2003′s “Sinbad” as a turning point for the company as Katzenberg never really recovered from the animated movie he’d been championing becoming a total bomb.
While she can be a bit too in-depth (did we really need eight pages on “Mousehunt?”) Laporte does a great job detailing the company’s successes and failures. She moves from how “Gladiator” survived a chaotic production to become a huge hit to how the company poured millions into “Almost Famous” only to see it die at the box office. She nails their problems like Katzenberg producing way too many copies of “Shrek 2″ on DVD among other spending items. And it’s terrific reading her detailing the Dreamworks/Miramax feud that would become war at Oscar time.
The book details more of the final years of the company and how this once-powerhouse became a shell of itself sold to other studios right before the economic crunch. It’s an incredibly detailed book that shines new light on the personalities involved and shows how even the biggest dreamers have a hard time dealing with the reality of Hollwyood. A must-have for any movie-making buff.
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|Jurassic Lark–Don’t Start The Revolution Without Me,
In Hollywood, where ego rules the day and perception is reality–there were (and are) few bigger names than wonderkind director Steven Spielberg, mogul David Geffin, and the polarizing yet savvy Jeffrey Katzenberg. When the three combined forces to form DreamWorks Studios in the nineties, the promise of a modern media revolution (and empire) captivated LaLaLand. However, the idea of a contemporary entertainment utopia never quite developed into a reality. With no real business plan in place and clashing priorities, DreamWorks became the most expensive start-up of all time and one of the most public displays of hype unrealized. Nicole Laporte’s exhaustive chronicle “The Men Who Would Be King” expertly details the folly and foibles in a cautionary tale that absolutely captures the essence of the current film industry. It is THE must read of the year for anyone with a passing interest in the movie business.
The rise and fall of DreamWorks provides incredible highs and devastating lows, so Laporte’s expose is as dramatic and colorful as it is informative. But you might expect that drama with the huge personalities involved! Katzenberg, in particular, is so compelling as a character–he is, alternately, an incredibly savvy businessman and utterly pigheaded. Spielberg, the center of this particular universe, is an undeniable creative genius–but with his limited attention span and free spirit, he never leveraged his power to propel DreamWorks into a successful business model. For every film success (“Saving Private Ryan,” “American Beauty,” “Gladiator,” and “Shrek”), there were many more failures or missed opportunities. A studio compound that never got built (and angered environmentalists to boot), a television division that never took off, an Internet company before its time, a music group that courted more individualistic talent, a unwavering commitment to 2-D animation even with advances in technology, and a gaming sideline that was sold before its biggest moneymaker was released–these are just a few aspects of the DreamWorks empire with more fizzle than sizzle.
“The Men Who Would Be King” is an incredibly entertaining read. It probably helps to have a passing knowledge of the subject matter, but I found it fascinating to get a behind-the-scenes look at things that played out very publicly. Of personal interest, in terms of subject matter, I think Laporte excellently depicts the Oscar campaigning for certain films as modern warfare–which having lived in the periphery of that world, I found to be very true to life. A definite recommendation to cinephiles, the book also has cross-over appeal to the business set (a how-not-to, so to speak). For all its grandiose aspirations, Laporte showcases DreamWorks as a magnificent display of hype over substance and has, in “The Men Who Would Be King,” created a new essential in the library of books about the film industry.
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|Fascinating look inside the dream machine,
For anyone interested in HOllywood, this book is an amazing look inside the insanity of the movie business. And for anyone who isnt interested in Hollywood, its a breathtaking look at hubris on an enormous scale. A trio of moguls who, in tthe style of baby boomers, thought their own specialness would make things different just because it was them..But in the end, there was less to the specialness than met the eye. A must read!
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