Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Biography & Autobiography Entertainment & Performing Arts

Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time

True Stories from a Career in Hollywood

by (author) Barry Sonnenfeld

Publisher
Hachette Books
Initial publish date
Oct 2024
Category
Entertainment & Performing Arts, Rich & Famous, Direction & Production
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780306832277
    Publish Date
    Oct 2024
    List Price
    $39.00

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

One-of-a-kind filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld tells stories only he can tell, from his blockbuster career with iconic actors, studio execs, and producers. His humor and insight provide an inside glimpse into how Hollywood really works, or how it doesn’t.

Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time delivers a cavalcade of sometimes baffling, often enlightening, and always funny stories about Sonnenfeld’s many films and television shows. From battling with studio executives and producers to bad-script-solving on set to coaxing actors into finding the right light and talking faster, Sonnenfeld provides an entertaining master class in how to make commercial art in the face of constant human foible. Over four decades in Hollywood, the mega-franchises include The Addams Family and Men in Black; the critical favorites, Get Shorty and Pushing Daisies; the icons, Will Smith, John Travolta, and Michael Jackson; and the projects that got away, Forrest Gump, Ali, and anything starring Jim Carrey.

The true stories escalate from surreal to outrageous to unbelievable. And then there’s magic hour. But you’ll never see Hollywood the same way again.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Barry Sonnenfeld is a filmmaker and writer who broke into the film industry as the cinematographer on the Coen Brothers' first three films: Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and Miller's Crossing. He also was the director of photography on Throw Mamma from the Train, Big, When Harry Met Sally, and Misery. Sonnenfeld made his directorial debut with The Addams Family in 1991, and has gone on to direct a number of films including Addams Family Values, Get Shorty, and the first three Men in Blacks. His television credits include Pushing Daisies, for which he won an Emmy, Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and most recently Apple TV+'s Schmigadoon! He is the author of Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother. He lives in Canada and New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

"A delightful tour of a storied career."—Booklist

“While the prevailing tone is buoyant and gossipy, Sonnenfeld is quick to acknowledge his missteps—he freely admits that 1999’s Wild Wild West “wasn’t a good movie”—and includes some lurid peeks at the darker side of Hollywood, including a mob-connected actor threatening murder over a casting decision. The result is an illuminating, sometimes hilarious look at how the Tinseltown sausage gets made. Movie buffs will be in heaven."—Publisher's Weekly

“Mr. Sonnenfeld is a delightful raconteur. His grievances may inflame his sciatica, but they’re comedy gold.”—The Wall Street Journal