FINAL CUT: ART, MONEY AND EGO IN THE MAKING OF HEAVEN'S GATE

The author of this book is the late Steven Bach who was a production executive with United Artists in the mid to late 70's. This excellent book tells the decline of the studio and it's eventual selling to MGM after Heaven's Gate caused the studio to lose 44 million dollars and lose face with stockholders.
What makes this so interesting is that, first off, by todays standards 44 million is nothing and secondly, I was there and employed by UA and saw the entire thing unravel first hand.
Over the years director Michael Cimino has called the book "a work of fiction" but it is 100 % true. The movie brought about the end of a great era in filmmaking and it also destroyed Cimino's career and to date he has never really recovered.
I met a lot of interesting people working on this film and could tell you stories that would make your hair stand on end, but that is for a later time. I made good acting friends and some of the people I met are now gone, and when I see their names in the book it saddens me, but all in all it taught me that you never want to work with a lot of money to make a movie, it only leads to corruption and greed, hence the problem with many, many of todays movies.
This is a great read and I highly recommend it.