John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood by Michael D. Sellers is, for the majority of its length, a very compelling true Hollywood story of what went wrong on the marketing side of the movie John Carter. Some of this I knew about (like changing the title from John Carter of Mars to the bland John Carter) and I remember thinking the trailers were completing missing the history of the property. But the majority was interesting and even if some of it would arguably be speculation (such as the talks of Disney buying Star Wars having a possibly subtle influence on the desire to prop up a seemingly third tier “boy movie”).

Even though I will maintain a four star review, the book takes a seriously flawed turn in the final stages when the author turns from fan of the Burroughs book and otherwise third party narrator to an active participant and fanboy. Having been a blogger who actively promoted the movie (and took failed meetings with Disney execs) turns the final part of the book into an outsiders attempt to be an insider and a total fanboy attempt to argue for a sequel. It wasn’t nearly as interesting and the story kind of limps to an end.

Plus I have to point out a fairly significant number of typos. This book needs an editor something fierce.

But there’s still enough good material here for me to overlook the editing issues and the sudden turn to the personal. It’s a good analysis of a disaster of Hollywood proportions.

Score: 4 out of 5