Moonlight and Magnolias. Ron Hutchinson

‘There’s your first problem. No Civil War movie ever made a dime. Or ever will.’ Hollywood, 1939: semi-independent mogul David O. Selznick has just shut down production on the most eagerly anticipated movie in history – his megabudget version of Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling novel Gone With The Wind – scrapping the original script and sacking the director in the process. Determined to produce a rewrite in five days, he engages the reluctant services of ace script doctor Ben Hecht – possibly the only person in America who has not read the novel – and the movie’s new director Victor Fleming, poached straight from the set of The Wizard of Oz , where he had been squabbling with the Munchkins and coming to blows with Judy Garland. His reputation on the line, Selznick locks himself in his office with his two collaborators, with nothing but a stockpile of peanuts and bananas to sustain them, and a marathon creative session begins…