The Kid Stays in the Picture

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The Kid Stays in the Picture
Directed by	Nanette Burstein Brett Morgen
Produced by	Robert Evans
Written by	Nanette Burstein Brett Morgen
Narrated by	Robert Evans
Distributed by	Focus Features USA Pictures
Release date(s)	2002
Running time	93 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Kid Stays in the Picture is the name of a 1994 autobiography by film producer Robert Evans.

It is also the name of a 2002 motion picture adaptation of the same book directed by Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen and released by Focus Features and USA Pictures.

The book chronicles Evans' rise from childhood to radio star to film star to production chief of Paramount Pictures to independent producer, his marriage to Ali MacGraw and his downfall including his 1980 Cocaine bust and implication in the murder of Roy Radin, aka "The Cotton Club Murder" and his banishment from Paramount Pictures, and his return to the studio in the early 1990s.

A revised edition of the book, published in 1995, adds several chapters of new material, including material on his projects after his return to Paramount Pictures.

The film version, released in 2002, utilizes Evans' narration interspersed with film footage from films such as The Sun Also Rises, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, and The Godfather, along with interviews and photographs from Evans' life, to tell the story from his discovery by Norma Shearer for Man of a Thousand Faces, to his return to Paramount Pictures.

Evans makes a significant point to often mock Austrian-born Charles Bluhdorn the self-made millionaire who built conglomerate Gulf and Western and purchased Paramount just prior to hiring Evans.

Many elements from the book, according to the commentary by directors Burstein and Morgen on the DVD, such as Evans' childhood and his other marriages (the film focuses only on his marriage to Ali MacGraw) were dropped because they felt that it did not move the story along.

The title comes from a line attributed to studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, who was defending Evans after some of the actors involved in The Sun Also Rises had recommended he be removed from the cast.

Comedian Patton Oswalt mentions the book during regular comedy bits. He also mimics Evans' voice for a closing routine, referencing Diane Keaton, Brian Dennehy, Angie Dickenson and Loretta Swit, among others.