Pursuing Hollywood : Seduction, Obsession, Dread

A former Hollywood screenwriter and producer (Zulu Dawn) recounts his experiences and relates them to communication and cultural theory.

Before coming to the academy, Nathaniel Kohn was a screenwriter and producer in Hollywood, London, and South Africa. He produced the epic film Zulu Dawn (with Burt Lancaster, Peter O''Toole and 6,000 Zulu extras), and was involved in other projects in that wheel-and-deal world. Moving to the communications research world, he struggled to apply theory to his personal experiences, showing how everyday life and the pursuits of Hollywood interact and how communication and cultural theory (mis)inform those exchanges. The book is filled with priceless tales of finding a black market money changer in Johannesburg to pay off his extras during the filming of Zulu Dawn, the on again/off again nature of movie projects, the obsessed women and dreadful men, the egos, and the duplicity. His experimental writing style—descriptive ethnography, imaginary screen dialogue, recounted conversations—makes this a highly readable work.