Chapters 36 through 39 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 36: Getting Street Cred

Jim Brooks dropped by Penny's office on the Fox lot and told her that "Big" was her next movie. He didn't tell her that a lot of directors had already turned it down. She contacted Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner and Dennis Quaid to star in it and they all passed. Sean Penn was too young and Andy Garcia was too Puerto Rican. John Travolta wanted it but he was box office poison at the time. With no lead cast yet, the movie went into production in New York. Penny got Robert De Niro to read it. He liked it. After all his artistic endeavors, he was ready to make a commercial film. Barry Diller didn't want De Niro. He wanted Warren Beatty but he wasn't interested. De Niro found out that the salary they were...