Book description
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Those words, spoken by an unhinged anchorman named Howard Beale, "the mad prophet of the airwaves," took America by storm in 1976, when Network became a sensation. With a superb cast (including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch,…
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Why read it?
1 author picked Mad as Hell as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Years ago, on a film festival panel, I opined that no American screenwriter had ever enjoyed total autonomy without also becoming a director or producer. Then another panelist proved me wrong by invoking Paddy Chayefsky. I think about that exchange whenever I revisit Itzkoff’s rigorous book about Network, Chayefsky’s scathing satire of television. Why? Because Chayefsky lived the screenwriter’s dream of determining exactly how his story reached audiences.
The empowering example conveyed by Itzkoff is the potential every screenwriter has to capture their cultural moment, and I particularly appreciate Itzkoff’s effort to render a holistic view of Network…
From Peter's list on getting scripts onscreen.
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German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
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