Shadows on a Wall

by Ray Connolly

A colorful assortment of characters--from supersexed, arrogant superstars and an army of production staff to an overwhelmed producer and dictatorial director--assembles to create a sweeping, over-budget, disastrous cinematic epic. 75,000 first printing.

540 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Ray Connolly grew up in Lancashire, England. After graduating from the London School of Economics he began a career in journalism, and wrote a weekly interview column for the London Evening Standard, concentrating mainly on popular culture and music. Since then he has written for the Sunday Times, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Observer and the Daily Mail. Many of his interviews with members of the Beatles have been republished in his eBook, The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive.
His first novel, A Girl Who Came To Stay, was published in 1973. Several other novels followed, including Newsdeath, Sunday Morning, Shadows On A Wall and Kill For Love.
Working with producer David Puttnam he wrote the original screenplays for the films That’ll Be the Day and Stardust, and wrote and directed the feature length documentary James Dean: The First American Teenager.
He has also written for television, most notably the series Lytton’s Diary and Perfect Scoundrels, and the TV films Forever Young and Defrosting The Fridge, and worked with Sir George Martin on the documentary trilogy about music The Rhythm of Life.
For BBC radio he wrote Lost Fortnight, about Raymond Chandler in Hollywood, and Unimaginable, which concerned the twenty four hours around the death of John Lennon, whom he was due to see on the day the former Beatle was murdered.
In 2010 he adapted one strand of his novel Love Out Of Season as the radio play God Bless Our Love, while his novella about the Beatles, Sorry, Boys, You Failed The Audition, will be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
In 2011 he published his Christmas short story Let Nothing You Dismay as an eBook on Amazon. Others will soon follow.
Currently working on a screenplay for a movie about Dusty Springfield, he is married and lives in London.

Reviews

[Peter DiCicco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This seems to be out of print, but if you can find it, Ray Connolly's Shadows on a Wall is a terrific tale of the making of an ill-fated movie. It's equal parts tragedy, murder mystery, and satire, and it follows a host of colorful characters on the long journey from making a small, independently produced play into a lavish Hollywood epic. If anything bothered me, it's a "happy" ending intended to give everyone redemption when it could have turned bleakly satirical. But then, the Hollywood ending may be intended satire as well.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely entertaining, this is a great page turner and exploration of the disfunctional movie industry.

[Aniela Lojek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot. I think the plot was written well and I found myself invested in the character's relationships and arcs. I think it could have done without sexualising an underage girl and the objectification of a lot of the other female characters but maybe that's Hollywood for you?

[Aidan Prewett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. A brilliant fictional insight into the world of filmmaking, in all its glorious insanity. Great characters and a plot that kept me guessing. I’ll re-read this one for sure.

[Robert Barone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of characters. interesting take on the movie industry with a murder thrown in

[Rhiannon Selander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty, full of life, fun.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I DNF

[Joshua Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a thoroughly engaging book about the movie industry, circa early 90's but still really relevant today, especially in light of the big budget debacles of this summer (Lone Ranger, especially). Follows the process of a beautiful little play being bought by a Hollywood producer and the massive budget monstrosity that it becomes. Some of the characters, especially the ones we're supposed to hate, are way too one-dimensional, but others are drawn quite nicely, and Connolly does an especially good job keeping a lot of characters distinct and clear --- not an easy task.

Reminded me a bit of the show Episodes on Showtime.... definitely comes from the same DNA.

[Allen Mechen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Thoroughly enjoyed every part of this polarized view of Hollywood. Funny and dark it's a great holiday read

[Steve L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty entertaining book- why are there so few reviews?