We Make a Movie

Launched to Stephen Follows's 15,000 film industry subscribers and to Miriam Elia's collectors. Press release and review copies to film and arts press, podcast interviews, and copies to film schools.

A Dung Beetle reading book for grown-ups. John has a good idea for a movie. He follows his dream all the way to Hollywood and back, meeting many important people, who each take a small piece of him. A bleak, very funny satire of the film industry, hand-painted by Miriam Elia and written with film industry analyst Stephen Follows.
Children are taught that if they work hard and believe in themselves, they can achieve anything. Dung Beetle has checked, and this is simply not true.

We Make a Movie is the newest book in Miriam Elia's Dung Beetle reading scheme, the mock reading books for adults that began with We Go to the Gallery. This time the subject is the film industry.

John is talented and has a good idea for a movie. He follows his dream all the way to Hollywood and back, meeting many important people along the way: the development expert who loves his script and wants everything changed, the executive producer, the head of diversity, a cast with ten million followers, the critics, and the sales agent at Cannes who loved the film but has not seen it.

Made in the style of a 1960s children's reading book, each page pairs a deadpan sentence with one of Elia's hand-painted pictures, plus three new words, such as "Ripe for exploitation", "Squash original voices" and "Straight to streaming", that say what is really going on.

Written with film industry analyst Stephen Follows, it is funny, bleak and uncomfortably accurate. For anyone who works in film, wants to, or has ever wondered where the money went. Not suitable for children.