PW's review of the embargoed new Dreamworks expose, The Men Who Would Be King by Nicole LaPorte, calls the work "grandiose but underwhelming," with "vivid, acid-etched portraits" of Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen, and Steven Spielberg. Alas, "LaPorte's Dreamworks is a humdrum place," and "its saga leaves us unmoved." Houghton plans to release the book on May 4.
The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called Dreamworks
NICOLE LAPORTE. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28 (544p) ISBN 978-0-547-13470-3
In this grandiose but underwhelming chronicle, film industry journalist LaPorte works hard to build the 1994-2005 rise and fall of the movie studio Dreamworks SKG into a blockbuster. She draws vivid, acid-etched portraits of the founders-manic micromanager Jeffrey Katzenberg; menacing moneyman David Geffen; resident genius Steven Spielberg, who comes off as selfish and irresponsible under his cuddly exterior-and gives them Freudian complexes and revenge motives. And she traces a tragic story arc: the studio's avowed artistic integrity-prestige productions included American Beauty and Saving Private Ryan-gradually gives way to the cranking out of schlock. Unfortunately, LaPorte's well-researched, savvy but meandering account of deal making, boardroom rivalries, opening-weekend nail-biters, and Oscar campaigning feels like business as usual. There's little besides self-interest at stake in the billionaire protagonists' wranglings (who cares whether Katzenberg settles his lawsuit against Disney for $90 million or $280 million?), and the studio seems like a transient assemblage of jockeying Hollywood players. LaPorte's Dreamworks is a humdrum place with none of the institutional panache or cultural authority of Old Hollywood's dream factories; its saga leaves us unmoved. (May 4)
