The 1990s saw a shock wave of dynamic new directing talent that took the Hollywood studio system by storm. At the forefront of that movement were six innovative and daring directors whose films pushed the boundaries of moviemaking and announced to the world that something exciting was happening in Hollywood, even as much of the industry was mired in mediocrity. Sharon Waxman of the New York Times spent the decade covering these young filmmakers, and now in Rebels on the Backlot she tells this fascinating story by weaving together the lives and careers of:

• Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction
• Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
• David Fincher, Fight Club
• Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights and Magnolia
• David 0. Russell, Three Kings
• Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich

With their movies, these directors let the moviemaking establishment know that there was a new vanguard ready to take over from the previous generation, and that they were ready to shatter the accepted constraints of filmmaking to do it. Their films toyed with form and narrative, shocked with their explicit sex and violence, and dizzied audiences with surreal themes and images. In making their films, the rebel directors fought their way through a studio system that by the 1990s had become part of America's larger corporate culture, conglomerates brutally focused on the bottom line and not inclined to take artistic risks.

Waxman, who conducted more than one hundred interviews with actors, producers, executives, and the six directors themselves, has written a provocative and insightful behind-the-scenes account, a glimpse at the clash between the studio culture and the rebel spirit of artists working within it.