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The three filmmakers who gave the world The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars never sat for Paul Fischer\u2019s book about them. But hundreds of people in their inner circle did \u2014 and Fischer is bringing those stories to Pasadena.<\/p>\n
Fischer, author of the New York Times bestselling The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg \u2014 and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema, will discuss and sign the book at Vroman\u2019s Bookstore on Monday, April 20, at 7 p.m. The event is free.<\/p>\n
The 480-page book, published in February by Celadon Books, chronicles how Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg met as young unknowns in the late 1960s and spent the next 15 years rivaling and supporting one another while remaking American cinema. Each director kept topping the other at the box office \u2014 Coppola with The Godfather, then Spielberg with Jaws, then Lucas with Star Wars, then Spielberg again with E.T. By the early 1980s, they were the richest and most famous filmmakers in the world.<\/p>\n
Fischer drew on what his publisher describes as hundreds of original interviews with figures in the directors\u2019 orbit \u2014 among them sound editor Walter Murch, filmmaker Paul Schrader, and director Brian De Palma, according to the Boston Globe. He did not speak with Coppola, Lucas, or Spielberg themselves.<\/p>\n
The New Yorker named the book among its Best Books of 2026 So Far. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review. Kirkus Reviews, while praising the book\u2019s account of the business side of Hollywood, noted that readers looking for analysis of filmmaking craft may find less to work with, according to its review. Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh called Fischer\u2019s writing \u201criveting,\u201d according to a blurb published by Macmillan.<\/p>\n
Fischer, who studied film at the University of Southern California, is a UK-based author whose previous books include A Kim Jong-Il Production (2015), shortlisted for the Crime Writers\u2019 Association Non-Fiction Dagger and named one of NPR\u2019s Best Books of the Year, and The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures (2022), a New York Times Editor\u2019s Choice. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Independent, according to his publisher, Macmillan.<\/p>\n
His conversation partner for the evening, Drew McWeeny, is a film critic and screenwriter who co-wrote two episodes of the television series Masters of Horror directed by John Carpenter. McWeeny is the former west coast editor of Ain\u2019t It Cool News and writes about film at his site Formerly Dangerous.<\/p>\n
The event takes place at Vroman\u2019s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Vroman\u2019s, founded in 1894, is the oldest and largest independent bookstore in Southern California and hosts more than 400 free community events annually, according to the store. RSVP<\/a> is available at vromansbookstore.com<\/a>. The hardcover is $32. Vroman\u2019s notes that purchasing the book from the store supports its events programming. For information, call (626) 449-5320.<\/p>\n Fischer\u2019s three subjects all built their early careers on Los Angeles studio lots \u2014 the same lots that still operate less than 20 miles from Vroman\u2019s front door.<\/p>\n