Interesting book. Kazanjian isn't one of the famous producers, he's more of a line producer, but he worked during interesting times. There's a lot of quotes from Marcia Lucas and the book is especially insightful on that and makes you wonder why she doesn't do a memoir.
Kanzanjian was one of the DGA trainees alongside Walter Hill which is interesting. He became a top AD and after doing heaps of TV worked for a lot of directors at the end of their careers, such as Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, Robert Wise and Elia Kazan. He also worked for Coppola on Finian's Rainbow and with Peckinpah on The Wild Bunch (this section is terrific).
He was mates with George Lucas and eventually went to Lucasfilm in the late 70s, producing Raiders and Return of the Jedi as well as More American Graffiti (the account of that is fascinating).
Fans of Star Wars and Raiders will find this interesting. Neat trivia like Kazanjian talking Lucas out of considering Jack Smight for directing a film. Bruce Beresford was considered for Jedi.
Kazanjian's credits post Lucasfilm are not that amazing - The Rookie, Demolition Man, a bunch of other films I hadn't heard of.
Still it's good to have a book about a less recognised figure.
No comments:
Post a Comment