"Tannen's life story begins to feel like a thriller." -New York Times bestselling author Duane Swierczynski, author of California Bear

"A touching and humorous true-life account..." -Phillip Noyce, director of Rabbit Proof Fence and Clear and Present Danger

"Everyone who loves the movies will love this book." -Ken Wells, author of Swamped and Meely LaBauve

As a highly paid screenwriter, Terrell Tannen lived the classic Hollywood lifestyle: the Porsche, oversized house, dinners, and parties. By most measures, he could be called wildly successful. Yet . . . script after script, written for the bona fide elites of the movie business, floundered for all the usual and unusual Hollywood reasons.

Tell the Story: A Hollywood Odyssey offers a window into what it feels like to constantly flirt with fame. At times resembling a darkly comic film, it's a very American tale, illustrative of the driving forces of hope and ambition in a place-Hollywood-where these desires burn like an inextinguishable neon sign, imploring and taunting at the same time. It also reminds us that, for all our dreams and ambitions, life has a way of writing its own script.

Tell the Story is the story behind the story on screen, how it happens-and more often does not. A story for cinephiles, film enthusiasts, aspiring artists, romantics, wishers, dreamers . . . and all of us who just love an original tale.