Spring is here and that means the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Every year, amidst the plethora of young adult panels, poetry readings, fiction talks, signings and children’s events, a few movie-related book panels sneak in. And this year I get to hang out with my fellow authors in the Green Room, ahead of my 3:30 pm Sunday panel on Hollywood Past and Present, followed by a signing for my book “The $11 Billion Year: From Sundance to the Oscars, an Inside Look at the Changing Hollywood System.” (The full schedule is here.)
Joining me on the panel moderated by Richard Raynor are Steven J. Ross (“Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics”) and Mark Harris, who once edited me at Entertainment Weekly and wrote Pictures at a Revolution, the most-excellent book about the five Oscar Best-Picture contenders of 1968, as well as the new book about Hollywood directors covering World War II, “Five Came Back.”
Also on the LA Times Fest of Books docket are conversations with “Divergent” writer Veronica Roth and “The Fault Lies in Our Stars” writer John Green–both movies star Shailene Woodley. More events listed below.
Saturday screenings at the School for Cinematic Arts: Broccoli Theater:
11:30 a.m.
Tim Burton’s Oscar-nominated animated “Frankenweenie” (Screening 1151)
2:00 p.m.
Rian Johnson’s “Looper” (Screening 1152)
Ronald Tutor Campus Center
11:00 a.m.
Reza Aslan & Lawrence Wright in Conversation with Davan Maharaj (Conversation 1061)
1 p.m.
B.J. Novak, Author of ONE MORE THING, in Conversation with Kenneth Turan (Conversation 1062)
Hancock Foundation
11:00 a.m. Biography: The Artist’s Life (Conversation 1011)
Robert Hilburn
Deborah Solomon
Sam Wasson
Moderator: Tom Nolan
Bovard Auditorum
12:30 p.m.
John Green, Author of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, in Conversation with David L. Ulin (Conversation 1052)
Sunday:
Children’s Stage presented by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
11:55 a.m.
“Cesar Chavez” Director Diego Luna, Reading CÉSAR CHÁVEZ Y LA MÁQUINA DEL TIEMPO by Juan Carlos Quezadas
Screenings at the School for Cinematic Arts: Broccoli Theater
11:30 a.m.
“Labor Day” (Paramount Pictures) (Screening 2151)
Q & A to follow with author Joyce Maynard, interviewed by John Horn
2:30 p.m.
Oscar-winning documentary “Twenty Feet From Stardom” (Screening 2152)
Andrus Gerontology Center
11:00 a.m.
Nonfiction: The Artist As Influencer (Conversation 2031)
Beverly Walker
William Todd Schultz
Ben Tarnoff
Moderator: Scott Timberg
Bovard Auditorium
11:00 a.m.
Veronica Roth, Author of THE DIVERGENT TRILOGY, in Conversation with Leigh Bardugo (Conversation 2051)
1:00 p.m.
Daniel Handler, Author of Lemony Snicket’s FILE UNDER: 13 SUSPICIOUS INCIDENTS, in Conversation with Ransom Riggs (Conversation 2052)
Hancock Foundation
11:00 a.m.
A. Scott Berg, Biographer of Katharine Hepburn and Samuel Goldwyn and WILSON, in Conversation
with Richard Reeves (Conversation 2011)
12:30 p.m.
Biography: Hollywood Legends (Conversation 2012)
Scott Eyman
Karina Longworth
Richard Schickel
Moderator: Elizabeth Taylor
3:30 p.m.
Hollywood: Past & Present (Conversation 2014)
Mark Harris
Steven J. Ross
Anne Thompson
Moderator: Richard Rayner
Hoffman Hall, Presented by USC
3:00 p.m.
Sitcoms, Dramas and Blockbusters: Creating for the Screen (Conversation 2024)
Gene Del Vecchio
Pamela Douglas
David Isaacs
Michael E. Napoliello
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