At a studio meeting, Mill muses on how much easier it would be for producers if writers, actors, and directors could be eliminated from the process. (This after he has literally eliminated a troublesome screenwriter, killing him in a fit of pique.) Levy goes on to demonstrate how easy it would be to eliminate writers by crafting several high-concept pitches from articles picked at random from the newspaper. In Mill and Levy’s world, where formula is king, the writer really is superfluous.
Robert Altman’s ‘The Player’: What lessons Hollywood has learned from the showbiz satire
