Joe Eszterhas has forgotten more about writing for the movies than most self-declared experts on the subject have ever learnt. In this dazzling, funny and serious guide, he gives the low-down on what every Hollywood screenwriter should know from day one. Eszterhas has walked away with some of the biggest writing cheques in Hollywood history and written some of its biggest hits. He's a walking compendium on how the system we keep hearing about really works. Not since William Goldman's "Adventures in the Screen Trade" has a master of the art of story-telling on film been so candid, so engaging, and so downright helpful. This is required reading for anyone who's ever thought of writing for the screen, and for anyone who wants the inside story on the organised insanity of the movie business.