Hollywood's inner workings - the pitch meetings, the profligate sums, the egos, idiocy and swag - have been the stuff of film biz satire for eons. To say that there's a level of narcissism involved is to belabor the obvious. Movies about raging narcissists by raging narcissists - at its best, it's self-flagellation for laughs. At worst, comic preening.
Not to mention the nutball Brit (Michael Wincott) directing Ben's movie, Fiercely, starring Sean Penn. It's an arty actioner with a horrific final scene that sends test audiences hissing angrily into the night. The director refuses to change the ending, the studio head (Catherine Keener) insists, and the deadline for Fiercely's Cannes premiere looms. What's an overextended producer in search of a hit to do?