[mattzito]

My recommendation would be to read the book, then read the book "The Devil's Candy", which is about the making of the film, and then see the movie.

The Devil's Candy is about how a writer was given full, uncensored access to the production from inception to release, because everyone thought it was going to be a puff piece of a book about how great everyone was. But in reality, the author got to see how a combination of creative egos and studio mismanagement (plus bad casting, a compromised script, I mean, EVERYTHING) created one of the biggest hollywood flops to that point. It's such a good read.

[drblast]

Second "The Devil's Candy," even if you're not interested in Bonfire of the Vanities at all.

I haven't read the book or seen the movie (yet) but The Devil's Candy was an incredible look into how badly things can go in Hollywood. You can probably generalize it to any large project where multiple competing interests all have a stake.

[xsmasher]

"The Devil's Candy" changed my attitude from "Why do they make bad movies?" to "It's a miracle that anything screenable get made at all."