A list of my research books with cool tidbits before I retire them. (It’s my attempt to move on from toiling away on Act 1).
Or checkout the ‘Hollywood Heist’ backlot.
Image: HBO, Jerry Seinfeld
In 1998 Jerry Seinfeld filmed an HBO special called, "I'm Telling You For the Last Time." He claimed he was retiring his jokes from the Seinfeld years. I wore that CD out.
Today I'm retiring my research. It's an attempt to stop working on Act 1 and move onto editing the rest of the book. So, these are the titles I've collected and incorporated since finishing the manuscript in Jan-2020.
“I’m telling you for the last time.” – Jerry Seinfeld
"Books are made of books."
-origins unknown
'Amazon Unbound' by Brad Stone
Stone also wrote The Everything Store (2013), the book that helped me get a job at Amazon.
“…By competing to pay top dollar to license various films and shows, they had enriched the Hollywood studios and other entertainment industry incumbents but ended up with cash-draining services that were difficult to distinguish from each other.
If they wanted to attract viewers with truly unique video offerings, it made much more sense to try to create hit TV shows and films themselves.” - P140, Ch6 Bombing Hollywood
'Invent & Wander' by Jeff Bezos
This book is a compilation of Bezos’ annual shareholder letters. This forms the basis for any of his dialogue that will be found in Hollywood Heist.
"Our public policy team, with the help of many allies, worked patiently for four years on this, at one point loading a test plane with 150 active Kindles" - Jeff’s 2013 Letter (p.108)
'Working Backwards' by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
So, this book came out February 9, 2021 and is co-written by one of the VP’s who actually led the development of Amazon Studios in real life. Talk about ridiculously great timing for my novel writing. Here’s a description of a co-worker who I really wish I could meet.
"Somehow he managed to stain his perpetually untucked shirt (before untucking was cool) with coffee or ketchup every day. His shoes were always untied, his glasses held together with tape. His desk was an OSHA violation of half-consumed coffee cups, food, and stacks of stained papers. Josh was a creative and brilliant guy who had majored in sound as art medium at Brown and also had an MBA from Wharton. Not only did he understand the inner workings of Hollywood, he had also taught himself to write code as a hobby. So he understood business, tech, and content." - Ch. 9 Prime Video (p.237)
'Blockbusters' by Anita Elberse
This was probably the most important book as it explained how the economics of big entertainment actually works. In my first draft I had guessed and gotten it exactly wrong. It would have been very embarrassing.
“The product is the same price to the consumer, regardless of the cost of manufacturing it—whether its production budget is $15 million or $150 million. So it may be counter intuitive to spend more money…But in the end, it is all about getting people to come to the theater.” -Prologue (pp.1-2):
Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright & Bradley Hope
This book was a recommendation from my good buddy and college roommate, Karl (shoutout, whatsup Karl) since he knew I was toiling away on a heist. The billion dollar whale was an actual Malaysian dude who scammed BILLIONS from his country’s sovereign wealth fund and siphoned it off to buy yachts, time with Paris Hilton, and eventually Hollywood films. Great insights into how illegal money moves around the world. Overall, AWESOME.
From the Blurb:
“In 2009, a mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Over a decade, Low, with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund--right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street.”
'The Confidence Game' by Maria Konnikova
I didn’t read very much of this book. I used it to get some insight into the psychology of how people actually fall for scams. Get this—people believe what they want to hear!
“We trust our feelings more than anything anyone can tell us to the contrary…and activating those preferences is what the play is all about.” -Ch. 3 The Play (p.95):
‘Hope for Film’ by Ted Hope
Speaking of perfect books, this one is equally fortuitous. For five years (2015-2020) Ted Hope occupied the exact position as the hero in my novel: co-head of movies for Amazon Studios. This gave some insight as to what a film exec might actually be thinking.
“When you enter the room to pitch a project, you want to be recognized as an individual who can win people’s hearts and minds. If that is not something you are capable of, you need someone on your team who is.” - Ch. 11 Scale (p. 274):
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And that's a wrap for this week my peeps.
I think I feel it working already...Act 1 already feels like a distant memory. Onwards and upwards...to Act II!
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com
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