HITS, FLOPS, AND OTHER ILLUSTIONS

This dishy memoir from the director of Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall, and Glory, creator of television shows Thirtysomething and Once and Again, and executive producer of My So-Called Life, gives a behind-the-scenes look at working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. With writing that is by turns nostalgic and warm, gossipy and aggrieved, but always insightful and full of heart, it adds up to a layered love letter to showbusiness and the people who make it happen.

"I'll be dropping a few names," Ed Zwick confesses in the introduction to his memoir about living and working in Hollywood. "Over the years I have worked with self-proclaimed masters-of-the-universe, unheralded geniuses, hacks, sociopaths, savants, and saints. Mostly, I've found myself surrounded by brilliant, talented, funny-as-fuck artists, cast and crew alike."

Great behind the scenes Hollywood stories, warmly told, are the heart and soul of Zwick's book. No wonder, given that storytelling has been his trade for the past forty-five years, from the time ABC named him showrunner of Family in his mid-twenties. The title of that show would prove fitting, as Zwick would become known on the groundbreaking series Thirtysomething (and all the subsequent projects he'd create and direct) for fostering an environment of deep familiarity amongst the cast and crew. With eighteen Academy Award nominations for the films he directed (four wins) and sixty seven Emmy nominations for the television series and specials he created or ran (twenty two wins), he's given everything he has to the business he loves, has gotten a lot back, and has memories he's now ready to share.

One reason for his success is the special talent he's shown for bringing the best out of the people he works with, most of all, the actors. As "a mere mortal hiding behind the camera watching the drama of gods and goddesses, then wading into a shit storm where I presume to tell everybody what they're doing wrong," he's wrestled with imposter syndrome while trying to discover the small pieces of connective tissue that will help an actor realize their character in full. Among the talents whom Zwick spotted early in their careers and nurtured in this way are Brad Pitt (who guest starred on Thirtysomething before he was cast as the lead in Legends of the Fall), Matt Damon (who was acclaimed for his role in Courage Under Fire before he made Good Will Hunting), Denzel Washington (who won his first Academy Award for Glory), Clare Danes (who rocketed to stardom as a teenager in My So-Called Life), and Jared Leto (ditto). He also worked closely with established stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Craig, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Jennifer Connelly, and so many others. If that wasn't enough, he battled Harvey Weinstein in a lawsuit over Shakespeare in Love (and won.) And in two rare feats, he's worked with the same creative partner, Marshall Herskovits, since they met at the AFI Film Conservatory, and has been married to the writer and producer Liberty Godshall since 1982.

Now, he looks back at it all - mostly with love, sometimes with rue - in a memoir that is also a meditation on working, sprinkled with tips throughout for anyone who has ever imagined writing, directing, or producing for the screen. Readers with an appreciation for the art, craft, and business of making films and television won't want to miss this blockbuster.

Ed Zwick is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning director, writer, and producer of film and television. A graduate of Harvard and the AFI Conservatory, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Liberty Godshall.