The Player: A Novel

Griffin Mill #1

by Michael Tolkin

The “shrewd, entertainingly dark Hollywood novel” that inspired the award-winning Robert Altman film (The New York Times Book Review).   Hollywood insider Michael Tolkin perfectly skewers the movie-making business through the mind of Griffin Mill, senior vice president of production at a major Hollywood studio. Ruthlessly ambitious, Mill is driven to control the levers of America’s dream-making machinery. He listens to writers pitch him stories all day, sitting in judgment of their fantasies, their lives. But now one writer whose pitch he responded to so glibly is sending him mortally threatening postcards.   Squeezed between the threat to his life and the threat to his job, Mill’s deliberate and horrifying response spins him into a nightmare. Then he meets the sad and beautiful June Mercator and his obsession for her threatens to destroy them both.   “One of the most wounding and satirical of all Hollywood exposes.” —Los Angeles Times   “In its wry, acerbic description of life behind the studio gates Tolkin’s book recalls F. Scott Fitzgerald . . . and the vengeful comedy of Nathaniel West’s The Day of the Locust.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

Genres: Fiction, Film, Thriller, Media Tie In, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Literary Fiction

235 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2018

About the author

Michael Tolkin is an American filmmaker and novelist. He has written numerous screenplays, including The Player (1992), which he adapted from his 1988 book by the same name, and for which he received the 1993 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. A follow-up book, Return of the Player, was published in 2006.

Tolkin was born in New York City, New York, the son of Edith, a studio executive, and the late comedy writer Mel Tolkin. Tolkin lives in Los Angeles with his wife Wendy Mogel (parenting expert and author of bestseller The Blessing of a Skinned Knee).

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

C’ERA UNA VOLTA A… HOLLYWOOD


Griffin Mill/Tim Robbins e Oscar.

L’attività di scrittore è probabilmente la meno rilevante tra quelle di Michael Tolkin: che è prima di tutto impegnato nel mondo dello spettacolo, cinema e televisione, in veste predominante di sceneggiatore, dopo di regista, e poi siccome un credito da EP non si nega a nessuno, è anche un produttore esecutivo.
Quindi, a prescindere dalla bontà di questo suo romanzo, il fatto che sia arrivato sullo schermo, firmando da solo la sceneggiatura, e nientepopodimenoché con la prestigiosa regia di Robert Altman, è risultato più che soddisfacente, notevole.
Non per niente, la mia sensazione leggendola è che sia una buona, forse ottima base per il divertente film del grande Bob Altman: senza il quale il romanzo fa qualche passo indietro.



Altman dall’alto del suo prestigio, è riuscito a impreziosire il film di camei così numerosi da aver collezionato il record del film dove appare il maggior numero di attori e attrici che hanno vinto l’Oscar della storia del cinema: Cher, James Coburn, Louise Fletcher, Whoopi Goldberg, Joel Grey, Anjelica Huston, Jack Lemmon, Marlee Matlin, Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Rod Steiger. Siamo a dodici. Che diventano tredici se si aggiunge Sydney Pollack, normalmente più che attore, regista e produttore.
Poi ci sono altre quindici apparizioni che non hanno vinto, ma semplicemente ottenuto la candidatura all’Oscar: Karen Black, Dean Stockwell, Michael Tolkin, Gary Busey, Peter Falk, Teri Garr, Jeff Goldblum, Elliott Gould, Sally Kirkland, Buck Henry, Sally Kellerman, Burt Reynolds, Nick Nolte, Richard E. Grant and Lily Tomlin.
Direi che già questo è motivo sufficiente per godersi il film.
In fondo, la serie francese 10% - Chiama il mio agente non la guardiamo forse per il gusto di vedere le star recitare se stesse?



D’altra parte un film che comincia con un piano sequenza in movimento di otto minuti così sapientemente orchestrato è subito sulla buona strada, Orson/Quinlan conferma e approva.

Il protagonista (il titolo del film è “Il giocatore”, ma per il film in italiano diventa “I protagonisti”!) pitcha (propone in forma sintetica, riassume) la trama di un film che vorrebbe produrre dal titolo provvisorio Habeas Corpus, e Michael Tolkin ha raccontato di avere ricevuto la telefonata di una società di produzione che gli voleva per davvero opzionare i diritti di quel film nel film che esiste solo a parole sullo schermo.


Il regista Robert Altman con il suo protagonista, Tim Robbins.

Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins nel film) è un produttore esecutivo nella Hollywood che conta. Il suo sogno è arrivare al comando dello ‘studio’ (grande società di produzione), la sua vita è il business cinematografico. comincia a ricevere cartoline anonime dal tono rabbioso: “Hai detto che mi avresti fatto sapere che ne pensi e io sto ancora aspettando di sapere…” Griffin tiene per sé la faccenda, più che le implicite minacce fisiche, lo spaventa che i suoi boss vengano a sapere che è in difetto sul lavoro, non legge ed esamina abbastanza proposte. Comincia a far telefonate a caso prendendo i nomi dalla sua agenda, cercando di individuare chi potrebbe essere l’anonimo scrittore deluso e arrabbiato. E anche gli incontri casuali che fa al ristorante gli forniscono spunto per sospetti.


Greta Scacchi, altra interprete principale del film.

Quando crede di aver individuato l’anonimo scrivente, passa all’azione. Ma si tratta della vittima sbagliata, perché le cartoline minacciose continuano ad arrivare.
Arriva anche la polizia e Griffin sfoggia il suo talento da bugiardo costruito alla perfezione in anni da produttore esecutivo.
La satira dello show business hollywoodiano è feroce e divertente, condita con sapienza dall’elemento suspense e thriller.

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wait a minute, Michael Tolkin! Am I reading a novel published as part of the 1980s Vintage Contemporaries series or a movie script in the form of a novel? Since this is a story of Griffin Mill, a bigtime studio power player within the Hollywood movie industry, it is hard to tell. I sense the best way to write a review is to let the glitz and glamour sparkle and do a top 10 Tinseltown countdown: Here goes:

10. The set. This is Hollywood with serious name dropping going down, Clint Eastwood, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eddie Murphy, Harrison Ford, and two stars, Robin Williams and Neil Diamond actually make cameo appearances. Everyone in the movie industry continually sees the big stars starring in their to-be-made blockbuster movies. At one point Griffin imagines Michael Douglas playing the leading role as Griffin Mill in the Hollywood-like drama Griffin is living through.

9. The menace. A unknown writer sends Griffin a series of postcards letting him know he didn’t appreciate how Griffin said he would be back to him and didn’t, so much so Griffin reads the writer’s words on one of these postcards: “I am going to kill you.” Just what the novel needs, since, according to Raymond Carver, when it comes to a story “a little menace is good for the circulation.”

8. The murder. Griffin is bigtime and he knows it. He can’t let a piddly little writer get away with such a threat. He has to strike out. Griffin looks up the number of one of the writers he didn’t get back to, an unknown writer by the name of Daivd Kahane. Could David be the postcard sender? Could be. That evening Griffin seeks David out, speaks with him, has dinner with him and afterwards, behind a movie theater next to David’s car, isolated and most likely unseen, strangles him. (Not a spoiler since the murder happens right in the beginning).

7. Life imitating the movies. As in Griffin’s reflections eating lunch at a Hollywood restaurant: “One of the woman at the bar watched him squirt a lemon wedge over the cocktail sauce. He tried not to let her know he could feel her stare, and eating the shrimp became a performance; he was now pretending to be Griffin Mill eating in the Polo Lounge. He wanted to stay in this mode forever, always at a short distance from himself, where he could admire the craftsmanship of his being, every gesture, every word, each shift of energy a calculation.” How many of you reading this have envisioned your life as a Hollywood movie? A powerful psychic magnet, most especially for Hollywood movie types like Griffin Mills. Darn, why does reality have to intrude? Why can’t all of my life be a movie?

6. Luxury rules. Mercedes, limousines, corporate credit cards, posh offices, power tables at key Hollywood restaurants, trips to the beaches of Puerto Vallaria and the ski slopes of Vail– Griffin and all the other Tinseltown players breathe luxury and big money.

5. Language is power. Griffin doesn’t just talk to people, he uses his words as tools for posturing in an unending power game against the likes of rival Larry Levy or Levison, his big shot boss. Even ordering salad rather than steak can give you a one-up in the game if you play your cards right.

4. Lady of his dreams. Not one of the many movie actresses Griffin has gone to bed with but, as it turns out, June Mercator, an ordinary gal working in the advertising department of a bank, a young woman Griffin really connects with and who, just so happens, was the girlfriend of David Kahane, the man he killed.

3. The detective. Darn those nagging police. The world should realize he’s a very busy, very important man. But there’s one detective who just refuses to let Griffin off the hook - meet young, good looking Police Lieutenant Susan Avery. Will Griffin get away with murder? Not if Susan can get a reliable witness who can identify Griffin in a police lineup. The plot thickens.

2. The luck. As Griffin tells the men and women he encounters who want to hit the jackpot, strike it rich in the movie industry, there comes a point when you just have to be lucky. In the right place at the right time. When it comes to the police or his movie career or his romance with June Mercator, will Griffin turn out to be one of the lucky ones? You will have to read for yourself to find out.

1. Novel as Hollywood film. The Player has enough juice and hype I can see Michael Tolkin’s novel being turned into a real blockbuster, directed by, say, Robert Altman and starring a big name like Tim Robbins.

[Clare Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is another book that I had to read for class (the final one of the semester, in fact!), and I actually really enjoyed it! To me it was such an interesting read because of how utterly insane the main character was. The ending, too, was perfect for what the book was trying to say with its satire. I can't wait to watch the movie!

I don't really know why this isn't five stars; I liked everything about the book, but that doesn't mean it was life changing or anything, ya know?

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this about 21 years ago and remembered liking it but it was through the prism of the movie. I recently rewatched the movie and it made me want to go back to the source. As I remembered the two are mostly alike but the book obviously affords a closer look inside Griffin’s mind. Since I’m two decades older, I was more offended by Griffin’s contempt for cinephiles and scared about how I can relate to him in other ways now. Aside from all that, I urge people to seek out this and the movie and don’t be fooled into thinking it’s Entourage. This is a classic and I just hope the sequel is worth a damn.

[Zeineb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Thriller!!! Very anticlimactic in a pleasurable way.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. Different from the film in a good way. Really enjoyed the internal thought processes that Griffin went through. Loved the film and that helped visualise the characters.

[Kim Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of the Robert Altman movie, so when I saw The Player by Michael Tolkin for sale as a thrift store, I snagged it.
I love reading about Hollywood, so this one sucked me in from the beginning and never let go. It was interesting to view the cut throat movie-making business through the eyes of a neurotic Hollywood exec. The book shows you much more of his inner guilt and paranoia than the movie did. Still, this is a rare case where I prefer the movie to the book.

[pseudo babble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why he ourple 🤣

[Connor Sweeney · Rating 3 out of 5]

started slow, but thrilling and dark as it wrapped up

[Mrs. Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is a twofer: Michael Tolkin’s The Player and its eventual sequel Return of the Player, and the rating is of the pair.
The Player started so boringly that I almost quit - it looked like it was about office squabbling and/or money-maneuvering, neither of which gets much traction in my mind. But I’m glad I hung in there, because the book is very funny, albeit somewhat weird. It’s “about” a lot of things, and the one I’m particularly interested in is the question of how it happens that despite having all the money and power in a given domain a person still screws it up and produces a wretched product (see the U S Senate, for example). The Player’s domain is movie-making, and even though I don’t watch them, for some reason I find information about the inner workings of the movie-making machine fascinating. It’s simultaneously funny and horrifying and disgusting to watch as random small events and petty jealousies and above all, the urge to retain power, determine the nature of the output. Of course this applies to all human institutions, from the UN to the local school board, and perhaps it is part of Tolkin’s purpose to it to illustrate that. If so, he’s done a good job.

Return of the Player is a different story, and a less intelligible one. As is often the case with satire, you have to understand its object to appreciate (or even “get”) the joke, and I don’t. It’s less about movie making and more about Jewish people, very rich people and people who live in isolated mansions off Mulholland. Return has some of the original book’s main players; a significant element is a ménage à trois of three of them. There’s detailed sexual behavior between just about every combination of two characters in the book. Once they get their clothes back on many are also fixated on what they believe to be the imminent end of the world (by which I think they mean Beverly Hills and Bel Air). There are, however, some very good lines. For instance, describing a wealthy area’s crumbling schools, he says the residents had abandoned them to “... Persians, Russians, and Asians, hard-working immigrants like most of their own grandparents, whose offense was to remind them of their own immutable vulgarity." And of the main character, musing on how he feels left out of the highest echelons in Hollywood, "He didn’t know much about Judaism, but neither did most of the Jews of Hollywood, and half of them were married to Christians or called themselves Buddhist"

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Player is one of my favorite films and probably one of Robert Altman's best films. I've read the screenplay for college (back in 1994) so was curious to read the book that inspired the film. Interestingly Michael Tolkin wrote both the book and the screenplay and produced the film.

With Tolkin having worked on both versions of The Player it is interesting to see how different the two versions are. While the basic plots are the in that a producer murders a writer and gets away with it, there are some significant changes to the nuances of the story.

Take for instance June. In the book her last name is Mercator, not Gudmundsdottir. She works for a bank but once dreamt of being a painter. In the film she's a mysterious painter and claims to be the dead writer's sister (instead of his lover in the book). She goes from being a rather plain love interest for Mill to being one of the most interesting and mysterious characters in the film.

Reading the book was like reading a rough draft of the film. Plot threads that were introduced but allowed to drop in the book are followed to conclusion in the film. While it was interesting to see the grain of sand that would become a pearl of a film, The Player as a novel falls flat as a parody of the Hollywood film industry. It needs the medium of film to really come alive.

[Jacob Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book…was sick. I think i mean sick like twisted, a super dark view of 1980s (?) hollywood and the egotistical psychopathic nature of our friendly neighborhood VP Griffin Mill. i took tons of notes while i read since this was read with a book club, and i think that’s why i gave it 5 stars.

Somehow just finished back to back books that ended with the word “Saab”? Pretty fascinating coincidence I’d say.

Excited to watch the movie with SigEp book club gang!

All in all, once i got into this storytelling every other paragraph became a meta view of a story being told in a story and a storyteller telling how the story should or could go. Griffin is obsessed with writing his own plot and endings, and treats himself like he’s the star on a major motion film. When the book near its end, you can feel he’s started to let go (a little) of this lack of control, but not quite. What a twisted little story line! Good read 👍🏼

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you who have never seen the movie or read "The Player", this book is a real delight for fans of Hollywood or murder suspense stories. Fortunately, I saw the movie so many years ago that I couldn't remember anything after the first act.

To me, what makes the book work is how Tolkin gets into his protagonist's head and presents his paranoia and justification for committing a heinous crime. What makes Griffin Mill's crime most despicable isn't the act itself, but the aftermath. If there was ever a yuppie who should burn in hell, it's Mill.

By dropping names, the book does a wonderful job keeping up with contemporary Hollywood of the late 80s. (Not in comparison to the film, where director Altman had access to many iconic stars who appear sometimes in very insignificant ways.

[Keirstan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never seen the movie version of Michael Tolkin's 'The Player', but I enjoyed the novel very much. The story follows ambitious Hollywood executive Griffin Mill as he deals with the consequences of his... let's call it "cutthroat" business style. Hollywood and the movie business in this novel is symbolic of the vacuous obsession with money and image, where the only real winners are the executives who stanch creativity to make a buck. While that thought can certainly be applied to today's Hollywood, I think it was probably particularly biting in the '80s, when the book was written. All in all, 'The Player' is worth the read.

[Michael]

A good LA read. About the movie business, and well-known enough I won't summarize. I have to say that this is the sort of culture many people told me to expect here. Cynical, calculating, superficial, etc. My experience in LA has been much different. Hah, a long story. What this DOES directly remind me of is what I saw in the real estate business in New York. For starters, I am thinking that BE Ellis lifted the basics of this character Griffin Mills to make Patrick Bateman from "American Psycho".

[Jason Coleman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers coming to this book after seeing the film version (are there any other kind?) will find a main character, Griffin Mill, who is far more deliberate in his crimes than what Tim Robbins played in the Robert Altman movie. They will also find a stronger interior dimension. Not surprising where most novels-into-films are concerned, perhaps, but I was frankly surprised that Tolkin, mostly a screenwriter by trade, had it in him. Having said that, I think it was in the film version that Tolkin's story found itself. The book is good; the movie is better.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biting Hollywood satire, not quite the tour de force of the author's "Among the Dead". Perhaps my lone complaint is that very bit of querulousness I've scoffed at so many times before, that there are no appealing characters. Tolkien refuses to drum up a bit of sympathy for anyone in the cast, who are all infected with the superficiality and vanity of the business: self-hating sell-out screenwriters, scads of yes-men, and the eponymous producer.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it better than the movie, and it actually made me like the movie a little less for heaping on the irony and self-reference. Ultimately, they're separate entities. But one had to be made by the same people it threw over the coals.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced, somewhat satirical look at Hollywood and power. Don't expect revelations or angelic choruses accompanying some kind of deep epiphany - it's just a solid murder/mystery/satire taking place in an setting crying out for a detailed takedown.

[Bing Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

How movies get made

This is a roundabout picture of how th think about making a picture. Every detail matters. Every nuance must be re-thought and re-edited. It’s enough to drive some people crazy. But only in the movies do you ever find out someone’s real truths.

[Ryan Dell]

Wicked and cutting. Loved the prose - very interior but felt very genuine. I assume the LA and showbiz details are accurate - delivered with enough absolute confidence to fool me. Good thing the book works because if delivered poorly this concept would seem very bitter and vindictive

[Andrew Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

You never knew what he was going to do next, and that was surely interesting to follow. But I will say it was almost too cynical, too dry. Still an interesting read.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nearly perfect Hollywood satire from 1988 about a ruthless Hollywood producer facing death threats from a disgruntled writer, a career crossroads at the studio where he works, a whirlwind affair, and a possible murder charge. The 1992 Robert Altman movie, with a screenplay by Tolkin, is actually more entertaining: cleverer, darker, and funnier. It also has an awesome cast. Can't believe it came out almost 30 years ago.

But the book has something the movie lacks: first person narration. Readers get a more revealing look at how Griffin Mill's sick mind works. It's fascinating. And funny.

The book consists mostly of witty dialogue about movies. If that's not your thing, you'll probably hate the book. But I could read witty dialogue about movies endlessly. Here's my favorite bit:

"Griffin, when was the last time you bought a ticket to see a movie?"
"The Bicycle Thief, last night."
"Okay, why did you go?"
"Because it's a classic and I've never seen it."
"And why didn't you have it screened?"
"I wanted to feel the audience reaction."
"What was the reaction?"
"They loved it."
"Who were they?"
"People who hate the movies we make."
"Did you like it?"
"It's great. Of course."
"No remake potential?"
"We'd have to give it a happy ending."
"What if we set it in space, another planet. The Rocket Thief?"
"A poor planet?"
"There you go."

A poor planet? Hilarious!

[Željko Obrenović · Rating 5 out of 5]

Još otkad se pojavio, Altmanov The Player mi je među dražim filmovima. Sad je napokon došao red i na roman po kojem je rađen. Nije me razočarao. Naprotiv, podjednako je dobar. Obavezna lektira za sve koje zanima Holivud.

[Robert P. Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book about life in Hollywood written by someone who was in the business. The narrator's internal monologues are so well written and so insightful. The plot is so well done and the ending is satisfying. A masterpiece.

[Mac Hubbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

not as cynical and cold blooded as it initially seems. very good dialogue + pacing. there are still a few things I'm not sure about, but overall I think a book about entertainment should be (at minimum) entertaining, so we're all good here

[T. Alan Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The film is better than the book. The film is a neo-noir commentary on the 90s film scene. The book starts almost exactly the same as the film but slowly loses focus and unravels.

[Bruce Grossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! I give it five stars. Intense plot carries along the primary psychological study of the high price of success. Loved the ending, too . . . !

[Taylor Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was an odd experience.

[RK Byers · Rating 4 out of 5]

nothing as sick as this story should be as much fun.