Mike Medavoy – författare

Name any one of the most highly regarded films of the last four decades and chances are that it's got producer Mike Medavoy's prints somewhere on it: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Amadeus; The Silence of the Lambs; Apocalypse Now; Philadelphia; Rocky, the list is endless. Born in Shanghai and raised in Chile, Medavoy has taken the hard road to the highest echelons of Hollywood power, rising from the mailroom, never losing sight of his convictions, and staying true to the art of making movies. YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR NEXT ONE explores in detail what Medavoy calls 'a terrifying business for the faint of heart.' He traces how the making and marketing of movies has changed now that the Hollywood studios have become divisions of large corporations. Recalling his many successes (and claiming just as many failures), Medavoy takes the reader into the eye of Hollywood's biggest storms: the madness on the set of Apocalypse Now; the political fallout of Mississippi Burning and The People vs. Larry Flynt; and the Woody Allen scandal that rocked Husbands and Wives, plus close encounters with colleagues like Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Dustin Hoffman, and Steven Spielberg. It's a look at the last forty years in a business that is everybody's second business.

This dazzling little book explores the role of US media in foreign policy, not only at the present moment, but with an eye to the future. Written by a veteran Hollywood film executive and an internationally known columnist in foreign affairsExplains how American movies, TV shows, and pop music provide the images of America to the rest of the world, and the rest of the world to AmericansIncludes discussions of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed Danish daily newspapers, Tibetan monks censored out of Chinese TV news reports only to show up on You Tube, and the Vatican's assault on the Da Vinci Code movieArgues that Hollywood is a key player in the 'deep coalition' required to support a 'smart power' foreign policy and build a global cultural infrastructure that will make the world safe for interdependence

“An under-read and engaging show-biz memoir.” –The New Yorker"If I had a talent for anything, it was a talent for knowing who was talented." Mike Medavoy is a Hollywood rarity: a studio executive who, though never far from controversy, has remained well loved and respected through four decades of moviemaking. What further sets him apart is his role in bringing to the screen some of the most acclaimed Oscar-winning films of our time: Apocalypse Now, One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest, Amadeus, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Sleepless in Seattle are just some of the projects he green-lighted at United Artists, Orion, TriStar, his own Phoenix Pictures. "The ultimate lose-lose situation for a studio executive: to wind up with a commercial bomb and a bad movie." Of course, there are the box office disasters, and the films, as Medavoy says, "for which I should be shot." They, too, have a place in his fascinating memoir -- a pull-no-punches account of financial and political maneuvering, and of working with the industry''s brightest star power, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Meg Ryan, and countless others. "Putting together the elements of a film is a succession of best guesses." Medavoy speaks out on how movie studio buyouts have stymied the creative process and brought an end to the "hands-off" golden age of filmmaking. An eyewitness to Hollywood history in the making, he gives a powerful and poignant view of the past and future of a world he knows intimately.

This dazzling little book explores the role of US media in foreign policy, not only at the present moment, but with an eye to the future. Written by a veteran Hollywood film executive and an internationally known columnist in foreign affairs Explains how American movies, TV shows, and pop music provide the images of America to the rest of the world, and the rest of the world to Americans Includes discussions of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed Danish daily newspapers, Tibetan monks censored out of Chinese TV news reports only to show up on You Tube, and the Vatican''s assault on the Da Vinci Code movie Argues that Hollywood is a key player in the ''deep coalition'' required to support a ''smart power'' foreign policy and build a global cultural infrastructure that will make the world safe for interdependence