Book: Kinda Hot by Ben Slater

 Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore reveals, for the first time, the extraordinary story behind the making of Saint Jack (1979), the only American film to be entirely shot on location in Singapore. Filmed in secret, it was subsequently banned by the authorities. 

Adapting Paul Theroux’s celebrated novel about pimps and prostitutes in the Lion City, a local, amateur cast and crew worked right alongside brilliant film-making talents gathered from all over the world. 

The director was Peter Bogdanovich, one-time Hollywood golden-boy whose career was in decline. The star was Ben Gazzara, a charismatic method actor. They immersed themselves into the world of brothels in the name of ‘research’.