Monster: Living Off the Big Screen
First edition | |
| Author | John Gregory Dunne |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | American film industry |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1997 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 203 |
| ISBN | 0679455795 |
Monster: Living Off the Big Screen is a nonfiction book by John Gregory Dunne published in 1997. The book recounts Dunne's experiences as a screenwriter in Hollywood, particularly the process of drafting the screenplay for Up Close & Personal (1996), a movie starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. It details the meetings, writing, rewriting and all the other struggles in the way of creating a sellable screenplay. In the book, Dunne claims that Up Close & Personal started off as a biopic about television journalist Jessica Savitch, only to end up being a Star Is Born-type film, where one character is a "rising star", and the person she/he is in love with becomes a "falling star".