Film director Daniel Shaw and his producer Jack Diamond have made well-received movies, but none of them have made money. If they are to stay in the game, they need to make a commercial picture. In a last-ditch attempt at success, Daniel and his writer concoct a script they hope is sexy and violent enough to attract a mass audience. They call it Crime of Passion. Their quest for financial backing takes them into the bizarre machinations of Hollywood and its tortured executives, whose fear of failure is even greater than their lust for success.
Every film is changed by the people making it. Daniel’s manic passion threatens to derail it, his wife’s infidelity unhinges it, and his insistence on casting a beautiful, unknown actress shifts the project away from the mainstream audiences they had hoped to capture. The shifting relationships of the two men and their wives become enmeshed, and change the movie – and their lives – in a way they could never have imagined.
Crime of Passion is a roller-coaster read for anybody with an interest in the Hollywood film industry. Written by a true Hollywood icon, this book takes the reader through the highs and lows of a cut-throat industry, where money may take precedence over artistic integrity.
