{"product_id":"chasing-the-light-how-i-fought-my-way-into-hollywood-the-sunday-times-bestseller-9781913183189","title":"Chasing The Light: How I Fought My Way into","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e \"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eI loved it. An amazing book.\"\u003c\/b\u003e - Louis Theroux \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \"A rip-roaring read. It left me breathless.\" - \u003c\/b\u003eChris Evans, Virgin Radio Breakfast Show \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \"Riveting.\" \u003c\/b\u003e- \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"... a Hollywood movie in itself.\"\u003c\/b\u003e - Spike Lee \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Raw, savagely honest, as dramatic as any of his movies.\"\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"A tremendous book - readable, funny and harrowing.\"\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this powerful and evocative memoir, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter, Oliver Stone, takes us right to the heart of what it's like to make movies on the edge.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eChasing The Light\u003c\/i\u003e he writes about his rarefied New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as \u003ci\u003ePlatoon\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMidnight Express\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eScarface\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Before the international success of \u003ci\u003ePlatoon \u003c\/i\u003ein 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while taking miscellaneous jobs and driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStone, now 73, recounts those formative years with vivid details of the high and low moments: we sit at the table in meetings with Al Pacino over Stone's scripts for \u003ci\u003eScarface\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePlatoon\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBorn on the Fourth of July\u003c\/i\u003e; relive the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, \u003ci\u003eThe Hand \u003c\/i\u003e(starring Michael Caine); experience his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for \u003ci\u003eScarface\u003c\/i\u003e; and see his stormy relationship with \u003ci\u003eThe Deer Hunter\u003c\/i\u003e director Michael Cimino.  We also learn of the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive \u003ci\u003eSalvador;\u003c\/i\u003e and witness tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award-winning film, \u003ci\u003eMidnight Express\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe culmination of the book is the extraordinarily vivid recreation of filming \u003ci\u003ePlatoon\u003c\/i\u003e in the depths of the Philippine jungle with Kevin Dillon, Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp \u003ci\u003eet al\u003c\/i\u003e, pushing himself, the crew and the young cast almost beyond breaking point.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eWritten fearlessly, with intense detail and colour, \u003ci\u003eChasing the Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a true insider's story of Hollywood's years of upheaval in the 1970s and '80s, and Stone brings this period alive as only someone at the centre of the action truly can.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChasing the Light\u003c\/i\u003e shows a man who still runs towards the gunfire.This is, you will gather, a tremendous book - readable, funny and harrowing. It's also full of movie-making gossip, scandal and fun. If you want to know what working with a truly difficult actor is like, read his account of handling James Woods on the set of Salvador. Nevertheless, Stone sticks with Woods because \"he is a genius\". Also if you want to know what it's like to be so intoxicated at a Golden Globes ceremony that your speech is so bad and almost denies you an Oscar, then you need this book... The book is phenomenally well detailed. * The Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eRaw, savagely honest, as dramatic as any of his movies, Oliver Stone's memoir defies all the Hollywood clichés. * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eOliver Stone is a giant provocateur in the Hollywood movie system. His autobiography is a fascinating exposure of Stone's inner life and his powerful, all devouring energy and genius that drove him to become one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Stone rattles cages. He pricks the bubbles of the namby-pambies. He provokes outrage. He stirs up controversy. He has no respect for safe places. Oliver Stone is larger than life. \u003ci\u003eChasing the Light\u003c\/i\u003e says it all. * Sir Anthony Hopkins *\u003cbr\u003eOliver Stone's narrative, his life story about the heartbreaks, the near misses, and finally the triumphs is a Hollywood movie in itself. I thank Oliver for writing \u003ci\u003eChasing the Light\u003c\/i\u003e, especially for my NYU grad film students-or anybody else with artistic dreams of working in this thing called the movie business. Oliver, in honest and sometimes brutal fashion, lays it out-what it took for him to get to where he hoped to be-a successful writer\/director working in Hollywood; the road it took is hard AF. Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. * Spike Lee *\u003cbr\u003eOliver Stone's story is the story of my generation writ large. * Paul Schrader, screenwriter of Taxi Driver *\u003cbr\u003eThe cover of \u003ci\u003eChasing the Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a picture of Stone as a young man, looking at the camera with that strange, haunted expression you find in the faces of shell-shocked US soldiers in Don McCullin's photographs from Vietnam. It tells us he is authentic. His is a soldier's story, not a showbiz autobiography. He has seen the darkness. He has actually been on the front line, with first-hand experience of the nightmarish experiences he later set out to show on screen. This is unlike other contemporary directors who have made war movies over the last 40 years such as Stanley Kubrick, Francis For Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, and Kathryn Bigelow. * The Independent *\u003cbr\u003eOliver Stone can write a helluva memoir, which isn't surprising when you consider he cut his teeth penning screenplays [...] It's a remarkable read; someone should make a movie about it. * EMPIRE magazine *\u003cbr\u003eOliver Stone's early years brim with drama...Stone grabs your attention fast... He writes brilliantly on being young, lost and reckless, and with punchy immediacy on the sensory assault of war. ...desperate and dangerous...giddily exhilarating. ... Sequel, please? * Total Film *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChasing the Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a deep book, illuminated and relentless, prose at its best...What Oliver Stone has written will last, because I have never seen anything like his insights into the way the film industry works... * Werner Herzog *\u003cbr\u003eI cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a rip-roaring read. It left me breathless. * Chris Evans, Virgin Radio Breakfast Show *\u003cbr\u003eNo one writes a Hollywood memoir with such candour as Oliver Stone. * Mail on Sunday *","brand":"Octopus Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51020815302999,"sku":"9781913183189","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781913183189.jpg?v=1750784476","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/chasing-the-light-how-i-fought-my-way-into-hollywood-the-sunday-times-bestseller-9781913183189","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}