Overview Robert Altman takes a scalpel to Hollywood ethics in the 1990s or the lack thereof in his acidic satire The Player, adapted from Michael Tolkin's novel. Tolkin also wrote the screenplay. The film concerns a sleek and smooth Hollywood studio executive who starts receiving death threats from a disgruntled writer because he has committed the ultimate Hollywood sin -- he promised the writer he would call him back and he never did. This is particularly ironic because the studio executive, Griffin Mill Tim Robbins, is ...