Hans Fallada was a relatively well-known novelist of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, in Germany. At his death in 1947, he left behind several novels and memoirs, in addition to those published in his lifetime.
One contains a long episode about the insanity of film-making, just the same as any Hollywood send-up.
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Published postwar was "Every Man Dies Alone" or "Alone in Berlin," a novel based on the Hampels, a German Resistance couple who were executed (1947). It was made into a film with Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleasan in 2016.
Also published postwar and posthumously was "The Drinker," a roman-da-clef based on his own experiences with being institutionalized in an asylum for alcoholism. (See also the US memoir, The Asylum, 1935, by William Seabrook.)
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Fallada also left behind a memoir of Nazi experiences, 1933-1944, which was hidden during his lifetime. it's called, "A Stranger in My Own Country" - here. Much of it is pretty grim, but there is an amusing episode about his experience with film production that could be lifted straight out of Robert Altman's THE PLAYER or Seth Grogan's THE STUDIO. ("Get out here - there's millions to be made, and your competition is idiots;" Herman Mankiewicz.)
The great actor Emil Jannings, best known for BLUE ANGEL with Marlene Dietrich, approaches Fallada with a script idea for his big comeback. Jannings is portrayed as a colorful nut.
Fallada agrees, but only if he can write in the form of a novel, which he produces in 3 months. Then a series of scriptwriters take over for the shooting script, with comical variations. Then Joseph Goebbels gets directly involved and marks up the script - he apparently wants more Jewish villains.
More rounds of script writing follow, with Fallada now engaged reluctantly and under vague threats. The film is green-lit, paused, authorized again, and then suddenly stopped. Fallada describes it all with the same whimsy that many have used in writing about Hollywood.
Along the way, the novel was published (Iron Gustav) and featured in bookstores, then suddenly withdrawn from shop windows based on some cryptic instruction from the Ministry of Culture.
