Amadeus

n this first book ever written about the making of this classic and beloved film, Ray Morton traces the genesis of Amadeus from the conception of the original idea by Shaffer to the development of the screenplay – which turned the play inside out and made a profound theatrical experience into a dazzling cinematic one. The casting of Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham to play Mozart and Salieri gave two unknowns the roles that every star in the world was desperate to play. Amadeus details the production of the film in then-Communist Czechoslovakia – where the filmmakers were bedeviled by everything from decrepit studios to unpredictable weather to constant surveillance by the Czech secret police – and the creation of the film's glorious music, which features dazzling interpretations of Mozart by Sir Neville Marriner and the legendary Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields orchestra. The book concludes by describing the film's successful release in 1984, which generated wonderful reviews, terrific box office, eight Academy Awards, a best-selling soundtrack that propelled classical music to the top of the pop charts, a 2002 director's cut, and a reputation as one of the greatest and most popular films of all time.