- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Metro Books,London (30 Sep 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843580934
- ISBN-13: 978-1843580935
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 742,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This is the gripping true story of the rise and fall of one of the UK's most innovative film companies. HandMade Films was personally set up by George Harrison to make Monty Python's Life and Brian. They went on to make Withnail and I, Nuns on the Run and The Time Bandits amongst many other classics. However it all went sour when Harrison fell out with his financial partner and filed a USD25m lawsuit against him. Robert Sellers has interviewed a host of key players such as Robbie Coltrane and John Cleese for this brilliantly written history of the troubled film company. Packed full of hilarious anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories about stars as diverse as Madonna, the Pythons and Robbie Coltrane, Very Naughty Boys is an essential item in any film-buff's library.
About the Author
Robert Sellers is the bestselling biographer of Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Sean Connery, Tom Cruise and Sting. He is a regular contributor to The Independent and top monthly publications such as Hotdog, Empire and Total Film.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Here are some recent words from the author:,
By A Customer
This review is from: Very Naughty Boys (Paperback)
In April of last year, British journalist and author Robert Sellers published Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, the fascinating and thorough inside story of Handmade Films. Handmade Films is known to Python fans for having been founded by Beatle George Harrison for the sole purpose of financing Monty Python's Life of Brian so that George could watch it. Handmade Films also later went on to produce Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl, Time Bandits, Nuns on the Run, and many other famous British films. To mark the recent release of the paperback version of the book, retitled 'Very Naughty Boys,' Robert Sellers himself agreed to tell the story of how and why he wrote the book... So why did I write a book about HandMade Films? Partly because nobody had done it before. It amazed me that here was arguably Britain's most successful film company of the 1980s, headed by an ex-Beatle in George Harrison and Britain's greatest comedy team in Monty Python, and yet no one had tackled the subject. And what a subject! I'd always been a fan of the Pythons and HandMade's movies, especially the early ones like Life of Brian, Time Bandits, A Private Function and Bullshot, but it was the emergence of a much darker tale that convinced me of the project's worth. I wrote very early on to Bruce Robinson, creator of Withnail and I, asking for an interview, and received a letter stating that he found HandMade to be a disreputable company and wanted nothing more to do with them. He was still probably pissed off that he never got any royalties from Withnail, despite it making millions over the years. So that pricked my interest right away. Then I interviewed Steve Woolley, who co-produced Mona Lisa with HandMade, and for over two hours he ranted and raved about how he disliked Denis O' Brien, Harrison's partner in HandMade and one-time manager of the Pythons. He droned on about how O'Brien messed about with his staff and the talent, interfering with the movies. I realised I'd opened a very bitter can of worms as other people revealed very weird tales concerning O'Brien's dubious business practices and paranoid personality. Of course, it reached a very nasty conclusion when HandMade crashed in flames at the decade's close when it was revealed that O'Brien had been robbing Harrison blind. Luckily the great majority of the actors, writers, directors and producers from all of HandMade's films were only too happy to relive their experiences and share funny and sometimes painful memories. I also spoke with the people who worked at the HandMade office down the years.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Handmade in Britain,
This review is from: Very Naughty Boys (Paperback)
A thoroughly entertaining, gossipy jaunt through the short life and sad death of Britain's most unusual film company.
Sellers manages to convince the reader that Handmade was a unique establishment and concentrates on the two figures at the top. George Harrison is drawn as a saintly, magnaminous but otherworldly character and Denis O'Brien is the evil villain. And what a villain he is: paranoid and petty, profligate and penny-pinching - all the ingredients of a fascinating rogue. Unfortunately, for all the people mentioned in the book, he exists... Complete with some marvellously naughty quotes (especially from Richard Griffiths!) this account pulls no punches and delivers a witty eulogy to a much missed company.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
4.0 out of 5 stars
bo,
By James Adams "bo" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Very Naughty Boys (Paperback)
was a good review of the whole of handmade films and it's players and behind the
scene action. i was really more interested in the monty python films, so this was a bit more than i wanted. so the 4 rating speaks more to what i wanted than what the book delivered |
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Fiction
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Film > History of Film > Britain
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
