Michael Shea signs THE EXTRA

Books and films have skewered Hollywood's excesses, but none has
ever portrayed one man's crazy vision of the future of big
action/adventure films as The Extra does. As over-the-top as Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles, as savagely dark as Robert Altman's The Player, and more violent than Rollerball,
this is the story of the ultimate,
so-insane-it-could-only-happen-in-Hollywood formula for success, a
brave new way to bring the ultimate in excitement to the silver screen.
Producer Val Margolian has found the motherlode of box-office gold with
his new "live-death" films whose villains are extremely sophisticated,
electronically controlled mechanical monsters. To give these
live-action disaster films greater realism, he employs huge casts of
extras, in addition to the stars. The large number of extras is
important, because very few of them will survive the shoot.

It's all perfectly legal, with training for the extras and long,
detailed contracts indemnifying the film company against liability for
the extras' injury or death. But why would anyone be crazy enough to
risk his or her life to be an extra in such a potentially deadly
situation?

The extras do it because if they survive they'll be paid handsomely,
and they can make even more if they destroy any of the animatronic
monsters trying to stomp, chew, fry, or otherwise kill them. If they
earn enough, they can move out of the Zoo--the vast slum that most of
L.A. has become. They're fighting for a chance at a reasonable life.
But first, they have to survive . . .