Word: puzo
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...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...
...Puzo had a vision of his own. "It was Christmas Eve and I had a severe gall-bladder attack. I had to take a cab to the Veterans Administration Hospital on 23rd Street, got out and fell into the gutter. There I was lying there thinking, here I am, a published writer, and I am dying like a dog. That's when I decided I would be rich and famous...