City of Blows

"A travelogue of purgatory. Brutal, but minutely rendered..." --Guillermo del Toro

It's early 2020, and legendary producer Jacob Rosenthal is eager to make his next film, Coal, adapted from the bestselling novel by the celebrated writer Rex Patterson. The project--which takes on the controversial topic of race in America--is Jacob's envisioned magnum opus, and likely his swan song. He selects David Levit to direct, a major opportunity for the classically trained actor/director whose own films, while garnering critical acclaim, have not resulted in box office success. But the announcement of David's hiring doesn't sit well with a producer from David's past, Brad Shlansky, who channels the last remaining vestiges of his creativity into a revenge plot that could very well scupper the making of Coal, and ruin the lives of its producer and director in the process.

A sprawling, character-driven depiction of the modern film industry, City of Blows reaches back decades to the formative experiences of each of the novel's central figures to explore what first motivated them to become involved in the quixotic and often venal world of movie-making. Driven by their diverse backgrounds, each must navigate the same huckstering circus that puts films on screen.

About the Author
Tim Blake Nelson is an actor, filmmaker and playwright. He has appeared in over eighty feature films, working with directors that include the Coen brothers, Steven Spielberg, Terrence Malick, Ang Lee, Guillermo Del Toro, Tommy Lee Jones, Steven Soderbergh, and Nora Ephron. He has directed five films, four of which he wrote, all of which were released theatrically in the United States and internationally, garnering myriad awards. He has written and published three plays, each produced off Broadway in New York, most recently Socrates, which enjoyed a sold-out run through three extensions at the Public Theater in the spring of 2019. City of Blows is his first novel.