Synopses & Reviews
The starkly disparate film worlds of New York and Hollywood collide in this utterly uncensored and eye-opening memoir by Killer Films founder Christine Vachon. By any measure, Vachon is the most successful female producer in the business, a maverick visionary who has proven time and again that, when it comes to merging artistic vision and box-office success, creative integrity need not be checked at the door. Untitled chronicles Vachon's two decades in the filmmaking trenches, from her early years producing such controversial, prize-winning films as Todd Haynes's Poison and Larry Clark's Kids through such recent triumphs as One-Hour Photo and Robert Altman's The Company. Intelligent, funny, and charmingly self-deprecating, Vachon is a refreshingly frank wordsmith, more than willing to weigh in on the myriad ways in which money and creativity conflict as a film makes its way from the page to the big screen. The author recounts her own inspiring journey through hard-knocks in early days to Academy Award-winning recognition (Boys Don't Cry, Far from Heaven), and she offers powerful reflections on how her gender and sexuality have factored in her climb to the top of the male-dominated movie industry. Full of fascinating (and sometimes deliciously appalling) anecdotes about many to today's brightest stars and high-powered media moguls, Untitled provides an unprecedented look at the birth, rise, and enduring success of the independent film movement.
Review
"The parents of every film student should save the money they're spending sending their kids to school and just buy them a copy of this book."
-- Scott Rudin, producer
Review
"Glamorously adventurous but sometimes scarily truthful, Christine Vachon's funny, insightful new book about producing independent movies reads like a thriller. Boy, can she kick ass to get a movie made."
-- John Waters
Review
"It's all here -- the agony and the ecstasy, the bad and the beautiful -- depicted with honesty, wit, and hard-won knowledge."
-- Jack Lechner, author of Can't Take My Eyes Off of You
Review
"Christine Vachon doesn't pull any punches, and her candor about filmmaking is truly refreshing.
A Killer Life is a must-read for aspiring filmmakers and seasoned veterans alike."
-- Gale Anne Hurd, producer of the Terminator series
Synopsis
Here is an account of a filmmaker who looks straight into the eye of the Hollywood blockbuster storm and dares not to blink.In A Killer Life, Christine Vachon follows up her independent producing handbook, Shooting to Kill, with a behind-the-scenes memoir of the battle between creativity and commerce -- and a renegade's rise to being one of the most powerful female producers in independent film today.
A Killer Life traces the early years Vachon spent producing such controversial and critically acclaimed movies as Poison, Happiness, and Kids, films that paved the way for Academy Award-winning triumphs like Boys Don't Cry. She recounts the birth and rise of independent film and the evolution of her company, Killer Films, revealing the stories behind star castings and firings and films that never got made; how sexuality factors into the films she produces; and how the often lethal combination of finance and creativity affects what we see on the big screen.
Intelligent and tough as nails, but endearingly self-effacing, Vachon's account of her filmmaking experiences, and the successes and failures that have made Killer Films one of the few truly independent film companies in New York, is a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking read for filmmakers and fans alike.