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Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and Informative
Review: I found this book in the proverbial discount rack, for 60% off. Those of us who are fascinated by the backrooms of the movie making industry will find that this book does a good job addressing what goes on behind the scenes. Some portions are very interesting, such as Bobby Deniro's preparation for the Untouchables. Others are sorta self-serving and boring. The book should take you and hour or two to zip through.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Better than Lydia Obst book
Review: I have read this book and one by Lydia Obst ("Hello, He Lied"). I preferred the Linson by a mile - Obst is too full of herself (she even disses Linson!). Linson discusses the role of producer and his contribution to films such as "Car Wash" and "The Untouchables". There's a revelatory look at a film he worked on the DIDN'T get made, called "Arrive Alive". Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the process of motion picture production.
Rating:
Summary: Much Better than Lydia Obst book
Review: I have read this book and one by Lydia Obst ("Hello, He Lied"). I preferred the Linson by a mile - Obst is too full of herself (she even disses Linson!). Linson discusses the role of producer and his contribution to films such as "Car Wash" and "The Untouchables". There's a revelatory look at a film he worked on the DIDN'T get made, called "Arrive Alive". Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the process of motion picture production.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun read, but not necessary....
Review: I saw bits and pieces of an interview with Linson on the new FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH DVD and when I found out he had a book out I decided to check it out. He's been involved as a producer with some of my favorite movies (HEAT, THE UNTOUCHABLES, FIGHT CLUB). This was a quick and enjoyable read. You'll learn a little about what a producer does. What I gleaned from the book was that a producer:A) Brings the elements (writer, director, cast) together
B) Pitches the project to the studio and helps secure financing
C) Greases the gears to keep a film production going.
D) Takes a lot of crap from different creative prima donnas
Can you learn these things any other way? Sure, talk to a real Hollywood producer. But if you don't have access to one, pick up Linson's book. There are some really fun anecdotes in here, like dinner with Hunter S. Thompson, talking wardrobe with DeNiro, and wrangling re-writes out of David Mamet. "A Pound of Flesh" will be of interest to aspiring producers and those who enjoy finding out what happnens before and while the cameras roll. Not a necessary read for all, but for those into the film world. Linson's writing style is highly conversational and pleasurable to read.
Rating:
Summary: The Producer's Primer
Review: In an honest, engaging, and pithy memoir, Art Linson manages to convey not only what a producer is and does in modern Hollywood, but also why that individual is so important both in the creation and final success of the product. If American film stands at the nexus of creativity and enterprise, the producer is the individual who must mediate the inevitable clash between these immutable forces, and Linson openly recalls his successes as well as his failures. It's not always pretty, but it's always good. In fact,the book's great strength is Linson's success in divorcing himself - or his ego - from his topic, allowing the reader to learn with the author, rather than from him. The entire process of the creation of a film, from pitch to production to premiere, including unpleasant diversions like Turnaround Hell and rites like Test Screenings, is laid before us through Linson's formative years as a producer. What the reader ends with is an understanding of the filmmaking process that no textbook could convey, and that few insiders would be willing to impart to a tyro. This is truly a primer on movie production that belongs on the shelf of everyone from development executive to film student to movie-lover.
Rating:
Summary: Good book about Hollywood -- fast, funny, unpretentious
Review: Very smart, funny, astute book by a top line Hollywood producer. This is the book I give to people who want to understand what a producer does. Linson produced The Untouchables as well as succesful junk like Car Wash, and unsuccesful junk as well, and he uses his experiance to elucidate rather than to inflate his own importance. An anti-dote to "Hollywood Producer" books by the likes of Linda Obst and Julianna Phillips -- no sex, no drugs, just the business.
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