Word: puzo
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...ability for introspection give the book its special quality: a fat, comercial novel with a lean, serious writer signaling wildly to get out. Insiders in Las Vegas and Hollywood may be doing some wild signaling themselves. The novel has an enticing roman à clef flavor even though Puzo dismisses the issue with a typically tough and ready remark: "How dare they think they are part of my creation?" Nevertheless, Pauline Kael will be flattered when she recognizes herself as the highly praised film critic Clara Ford. Certain agents, and some executives at Universal who shortchanged Puzo for his script...
...Puzo won his suit against the studio. Yet film writing is a subject that sends him to the mattresses: "It is the most crooked business that I've ever had any experience with," he says. "You can get a better shake in Vegas than you can get in Hollywood." His advice to novelists heading west to write for film: "Make sure you get a gross, not a net percentage of the profits. If you can't get gross, try and get as much money as you can up front. But the best way is to go in with a mask...
Antagonism between authors and producers is at least as old as Jack Warner's reputed classification of scriptwriters as "schmucks with Underwoods." Puzo has no illusions or false pride about his screen work. "I'm fascinated by the movies simply because it is an enormous machine for making money and no matter how bad they run it, it still makes money. It's the perfect industry to put your nephew in and your idiot cousin, because they'll be geniuses...
...money machine has been exceptionally kind to Puzo. He made about $1 million for his work on Godfather I. For Godfather II he received a $100,000 script fee plus a promise of 10% of the net?which he is yet to see. There is another $1 million, minus legal expenses, for Earthquake, and $350,000 plus 5% of the gross on Superman I and II, the forthcoming spectaculars about The Man of Steel. On top of this, Puzo will earn $250,000 in increments and a gross percentage for his treatment for Godfather III. The paperback millionaire estimates that...
...book was The Dark Arena, published in 1955. Despite its warm critical reception, Puzo remained obscure. Recalls his old friend, Novelist George Mandel (The Wax Boom): "My vision of Mario then? He used to go to his brother's in a taxi to borrow money for his kids' shoes. My vision of Mario still is him leaving a building, putting a cigar in his mouth with one hand and holding up his other for a cab. Same vision, rich or poor...