Killer Instinct: How Two Young Producers Took on Hollywood and Made the Most Controversial Film of the Decade

by Jane Hamsher

Fresh out of film school, aspiring producer Jane Hamsher and her partner Don Murphy stumbled onto a screenplay by a geeky filmmaker-wannabe named Quentin Tarantino. For $10,000, Jane and Don optioned Natural Born Killers and set off on a two-year roller coaster ride no classroom could have prepared them for. With an outrageous cast of real-life characters including Oliver Stone, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Juliette Lewis--along with a slew of film-crew leeches and behind-the-scenes studio pitbulls-- Killer Instinct rivals the most mesmerizing, gut-wrenching movie scenes. A wild joyride like no other, Hamsher's tale provides a fresh, insider's perspective on stardom and the real balance of power in Hollywood.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Memoir, Media Tie In

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are great books about How-We-Made-This-Movie, like Chain Saw Confidential by Leatherface (!- really!) and The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero (all about The Room)
But this book is not one of those. Instead it’s a nails-on-the-blackboard what-crazy-days-they-were memoir by one of the producers of the horrible Oliver Stone movie Natural Born Killers.

Hasty note : you can write a funny fascinating book about a terrible movie : The Devil’s Candy by Julie Salamon about how The Bonfire of the Vanities became such a disaster is one. I hoped Jane Hamsher’s memoir would be more of the same but noooo.

It starts off pretty interesting even though it’s very clear from page one that Jane thinks she’s a scream and the reader may beg to differ. It begins with pre-fame Quentin Tarantino writing various scripts and sending them around and getting nowhere until Reservoir Dogs lit everyone up, at which point the said everyone remembered they had a dogeared mess of a QT script in their slush pile and dragged it out with ecstatic cries. NBK was one such. These two young hip gunslinging wannabe producers managed to wrench the NBK script out of the hands of the even more lowly guy who had the until-then-worthless option on it and then this golden egg was THEIRS, ha haaa.

Then the process is that you try to locate a competent director and some money to make the thing happen. Seemingly quite randomly Oliver Stone read the script and decided it would be his next big thing.

The great beast that is Oliver Stone then had these two minnow producers following him around on location scouting trips and running up corridors suggesting different models of cars that Mickey and Mallory should drive

Jane to Oliver : Mickey would want something wedge-shaped and angry. Probably a Mopar, a late Sixties or early Seventies E-body. A ‘Cuda or a Challenger with headers and glass packs and a full race cam that he installed himself.

Yes, this is how she talks. Or it's how she would like us to think it was how she talked.

At one point she tries to answer that perennial question what do film producers actually do? And the answer is in this case, not a lot, because as soon as the great Stone decided “I Will Do This Picture” his whole crew moved in and Jane & her partner were left thrashing around trying to justify their existence.

In the first half of this book, which is all I could stand to read, Jane libels the original wannabe producer Rand Vossler then libels Quentin Tarantino himself. The blurb calls this a “no-holds-barred account” and I would have to agree. I am very surprised it got published at all. I see from IMDB that her career as a producer appears to have lasted a generous six years.

[August · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. What a roller coaster.

This is one of the most entertaining non-fiction books I've ever read. Jane is such a spunk, and a Seattle spunk at that, so I couldn't help identifying with her. She's snotty, snarky, and brilliant, and doesn't even let Don fuckin' Murphy get in the way. I enjoyed the rollicking adventure in Hollywood, but I also learned a ton about dealing with difficult people. Funny where you pick this stuff up, right?

And what an eye-opener to my husband's past and current mindset! Apparently he and his best friend/creative partner read this at age 13-14 and it has colored their worlds ever since.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the drama of celebrity and a fast-paced workplace read.

[bries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still one of the best books about the making of a film from an outsider's perspective I've read. Outsider and insider; novice producer Hamsher and her partner were thrust into the big league when Oliver Stone attached himself to a Tarantino script they had optioned, a script that would eventually go onto to become the notorious 'Natural Born Killers'. What's great about this book is Hamsher's totally unpretentious, sardonic and sometimes dumbfounded point of view as she navigates the insane Hollywood machine for the first time, made all the more insane by her hilarious accounts of Oliver Stone's notoriously unhinged and borderline personality. The result is a gripping retelling of a spur of the moment adventure into hell and back again.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertainingly told. I'm glad to be missing from one of the funniest stories...cause of the misdemeanors involved...but being the only sober member of the unsaid event, ( I can still hear Jane shouting, "Don! Get the car!"), I will recount it in this review sometime. So forgive me if I would question the accuracy of Killer Instinct. Jane was even more one of the Good Guys in life at that time than her on-the-set memoir would make it seem. Her 'crafty' side is played up here for the entertainment value, lost to the likes of me. I like to remember her other kind of craftiness, though- knitting, and needlework. Yep.

[Dwayne Ackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the producer of Natural Born Killers who bought the original Tarantino script help shepherd it through development when in became "An Oliver Stone Picture". A good book depicting the relentless chaos that came with making the film (and spilled over into the film itself) and the difficulty of seeing your dream changed into something that's a lot different that what you thought it would be...

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ripping good tale of the making of one of the stinkiest stinkers in the history of stinkerdom, the egregious Natural Born Killers. A fount of iconoclastic pleasure.

[S. Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The key to a really great "Behind-The-Scenes" book is an impartial perspective, and that is one area this book falls short. Unfortunately, it isn't the only area.

Jane Hamsher can possibly be forgiven for not taking a step back and telling the facts without a personal slant to them; after all, she isn't a journalist, and this isn't really a straight forward making-of book (as the title says, its about the producers). What I can't bring myself to overlook is how badly one-sided and self-serving the book actually is. To believe this book's accounts to the fullest, you would have to go along with the idea that Hamsher was the not only the sole reason this movie ever got made, but that it would have been a complete disaster if it wasn't for her. I really would have a problem with that idea if she wasn't the one who kept underlining it as fact. According to Hamsher, she was the lone sane voice among a crowd of stupid men. She was responsible for the artistic choices that made the film great, and all of the decisions that made them happen. Of course, everybody else was wrong, so each choice she made was an uphill battle. NOt only does she paint Oliver Stone as completely inept and Quentin Tarantino as a childish illiterate hack, but she even manages to cast an unfavorable picture of her co=producer as a juvenile man-child in need of constant supervision.

Ultimately, Hamsher spends half of the time painting the ultimate feminist picture on how it took a woman to do a man's job. No doubt in some cases that was true, but according to her the weight of all responsibility was resting on her shoulders. She takes great pleasure in repeatedly pointing out that she has to dress her own production partner, and shows contempt for the men that were afraid to let her on the set where convicted murderers and rapists were running around loose "pretending" to riot. She also spends a great deal of time obsessing on Oliver Stones questionable attitude towards women, and successfully transfers those insecurities to most of the crew as well. Whenever someone disagrees with her, they are either stupid or afraid of a woman in power.

Between the holier-than-thou attitude and hear-me-roar male bashing, there was some great info on the shooting of the film, but not nearly enough, and what little info there is must be taken with a grain of salt when you realize that it's all appears orchestrated to make her look good. If you want to hear a producer pat herself on the back - at the expense of everybody else involved in the film - over and over again than this is the book for you. If you want the real story on the making of Natural Born Killers, you might want to look elsewhere, like The Devil's Candy or Losing the Light.

[James King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Hamsher was a film school grad, looking to make it as a producer.

Her partner, the equally inexperienced Don Murphy, stumbled across a hyperactive, unknown film nerd named Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino sells them a screenplay he has written called 'Natural Born Killers'; a year later, Tarantino has written and directed 'Reservoir Dogs', and has become the toast of indy cinema. Hamsher and Murphy have lucked onto a hot script.

How they go about turning it into a feature film - one of the wildest and most controversial ever produced by a major studio - is the subject of this BTS look at Hollywood. And if you are interested in this topic, the book is a snarky treat; the fevered egos, the backstabbing, the outrageous demands and all night parties. Then add Oliver Stone, a chaotic whirlwind determined to do things his own way. Hamsher, an attractive young woman, also gets a taste of the sexist treatment Hollywood has become infamous for.

Short, fast and energetic, and a lot of fun alongside its more serious themes.

[Erik Bateson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining and fun read about one of the most controversial films ever made. It's filled with interesting trivia I was unaware of (apparently, Quentin Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator on an episode of The Golden Girls, and the residual checks allowed him to make Reservoir Dogs). I also was unaware that Oliver Stone is not much of a music person, and Hamsher deserves a lot of credit for much of the film’s soundtrack (the use of L7, Leonard Cohen, and Cowboy Junkies is brilliant). Also, Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino both seem like a pain in the ass to work with.

[Rathan Krueger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great view of many, many aspects of Hollywood with "Natural Born Killers" as the through-line.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was assigned this book in my media production class. Finished it in 2 days because I couldn't put it down. I still read it once a year. One of my favorites.

[James Flynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sought out this book because I’m absolutely obsessed with the film. I recently read the novelisation, and I thought I’d read this to get a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes.

This book is written very well, and I was instantly impressed with the author’s prose. It’s witty, and comes across as intelligent. An occasional typo pops up here and there, but not many.

The whole entire fiasco of making the film is documented in this book, and it’s crammed full of info. These two producers went through it all to get NBK made, they really did. Hollywood red tape, law suits, bad press, health scares...you name it, they went through it. It was eye opening to see how much politics is involved in making a film; especially one of this nature.

Quentin Tarantino gets a lot of negative mentions in this. I was already aware that he wasn’t a fan of the film, but I didn’t know that he and the producers were actually full on enemies. If you like a bit of Hollywood gossip, get a copy. It’s old news now, but still interesting.

There are some good photos included, too, which is a nice touch.

By the end of the book, I kind of got the impression that these two producers have a bit of a spiteful side, what with their various revenge tactics and what not, but I still give this publication a positive review.

Read it if you like NBK.

[Tamburino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gli avrei dato volentieri 4 stelle perché questo tipo di non-fiction in genere mi interessa molto, ma non riesco a soprassedere sul fatto che la quasi totalità delle vicende interessanti narrate nel libro siano puro gossip, nonché disseminazione di dettagli sulla vita privata di gente molto nota sul quale la professionalità richiederebbe maggiore discrezione. Il tono autoassolutorio e da drama queen mi ha infastidito allo stesso modo: a leggere Jane Hamsher sembra che lei avesse sempre ragione e che nessuno volesse darle retta (ipotesi per carità plausibile, ma forse sconfessata dalla sua seguente - trascurabile - carriera di producer). I ricorrenti giudizi personali, soprattutto (ma non solo) su Tarantino, non sono inoltre cifra di una non-fiction ben fatta. Rimane comunque un libro godibile e scorrevole.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd first heard about this book years ago when I learned it made Quentin Tarantino so angry that he assaulted Don Murphy, the author's producing partner, and always had an interest in reading it. I finally got around to it recently. It was thoroughly enjoyable. There are times when I feel like the author is taking unnecessary shots at people (e.g. when she introduces us to Tarantino by talking about how out of shape he looks) and it's also hard to believe that she is absolutely right in every one of the many conflicts she finds herself embroiled in, as she would have us believe. As for Tarantino, he does come off as a smug, selfish egotist, which...yeah, kinda tracks. The person I felt the most for was his former manager, Cathryn James, who went above and beyond to help him when he was a nobody, even paying his rent for him at times, only to be dropped as soon as he became a big star. (Learning in another book, Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System how, after Tarantino fired her through a third party, he called for a favor some time later, right after she'd lost her home in an earthquake, was maddening.) One of the benefits of reading a book like this so long after its publication is that one has the ability to look up how things later turned out for people involved, Unfortunately for Ms. James, she later died of cancer, a struggle made tougher by a lack of health insurance. I also learned that one of the reasons the author's aforementioned producing partner gave for severing their business relationship was her alleged mistreatment of Ms. James.

Reading this book, you'll be introduced to a colorful cast of characters, from wildman directors to kleptomaniacs, and from delusional hangers-on to a punk rock star briefly caught up in the maelstrom simply because a producer liked her music. There are far too many wild, ridiculous moments sprinkled throughout this book to recount here, but one I'd especially like to mention was when Don Murphy, angry over a slight, pretended to be Tarantino's friend and producer Lawrence Bender and faxed L.A. Weekly with a screed about how he (i.e. Bender) was the real talent and deserved credit for Tarantino's success. The purpose was to embarrass Bender, but a private investigator traced the fax back to Murphy thanks to a gob of white-out stuck on the fax machine that left a mark which could be matched up to other faxes sent from the same machine.

[Alan Hoffman]

Good book about producing. Tarantino gave them trouble at times, like wasting money by trying to get an incompetent friend to direct Natural Born Killers.



David Carradine, in his Kill Bill Diary, says he loved working with Tarantino and has nothing but praise, so I guess it depends on who you listen to.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool, very interesting book. Hamsher did a great job retelling the fascinating behind-the-scenes story of NBK. Also gives a great insight into a unique time - the rise of Tarantino and the new indie cinema (Sundance, Miramax, etc.), and isn't afraid to be brutally honest.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure Jane Hamsher will never work in Hollywood again. This is the most scandalous tell-all I've ever read about the making of a movie. The phone # Tarantino left in his sleazy note to the author unfortunately doesn't connect.

[Lucie · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting & easy read, though its narrator is a bit unreliable...

[Igor Stanojević]

of all the assholes in this book, its author comes off as the largest one.

[Martín Yernazian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A phenomenal insight into making one of the most controversial Hollywood films. Jane Hamsher takes you on a rollercoaster ride that is an absolute must for every filmmaker out there.