The Men Who Would Be King by Nicole LaPorte

This book should be required reading for anyone interested in business and/or Hollywood.

The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks is about director Steven Spielberg, billionaire David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg (brains behind The Lion King) and their partnership in creating DreamWorks.

Author Nicole LaPorte gives us the juicy, behind-the-scenes of the creation of a new studio and the workings of how a film is made. This is the kind of gossip that us underlings thrive on.

While the book is hefty, and Nicole uses a lot of words in her re-telling, this book is a great resource for anyone thinking about business or maybe curious about how anal those in Hollywood tend to be.

Basically, Katzenberg was offended by Disney CEO Michael Eisner so he decided to build a studio to compete. (Think Antz vs A Bug's Life; Shark Tales vs Finding Nemo) Geffin always needs an enemy to vilify and spread nasty things about in the press while Spielberg wanted a place to expand his creativity.

None of the main characters gave LaPorte interviews for this book so much of the story is "he-said/she-said".

I love reading about behind-the-movie-scenes and this satisfied my core. No one is immune to LaPorte's revealing words as Russell Crowe, Whitney Houston, Jim Carrey and other big stars have their prima donna tendencies on display.

If you can sit through the hours it will take to chug through this tome, you will end up enjoying the rise and fall of DreamWorks SKG.