THE MOVIE BUSINESS was first conceived after producing my own movie in 1998. I started by writing articles (similar to the blog posts of today) answering questions posed repeatedly by Japanese clients. In 2000, I taught a course on the movie business at UCLA Extension, and many of the practical lessons I learned, in addition to the legal work I had done in the business, motivated me to start the manuscript in earnest. When hired to represent the Beijing Olympic Committee in 2002, I started traveling a lot, I decided to use the time to finish the book (rather than watch a lot of movies). In the later part of 2003, I submitted the manuscript to a publisher I had met at Simon & Schuster. To my great astonishment, Simon & Schuster agreed to publish it. It came out in 2005. It is currently being used at a number of educational institutions around the country--most notably New York University Film School and Loyola Law School. I have taught classes with the book as a text at BYU Law School and have lectured from the book at Chapman Law School.
