The Player (1992) is a film that tells the story of Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), a Hollywood studio executive who believes he is being blackmailed by a screenwriter whose script he once rejected. It was directed by Robert Altman using a screenplay by Michael Tolkin based on his own novel. One of the more notable features of the film is the inclusion of over 60 cameo appearances by major Hollywood actors, producers and directors—all playing themselves—intertwined throughout the story.

The film, loaded with movie references and Hollywood insider jokes, is a critique of the Hollywood movie business, which treats artists poorly and sacrifices quality for commercial success. It might seem surprising that so many big Hollywood names agreed to play themselves in the film, but Altman himself admits that "it is a very mild satire" and it offended no one. DVD commentary on The Player.

Altman had had his troubles with the Hollywood studio system in the '70s after a number of studio films (McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye) lost money or had trouble finding audiences despite the critical praise and cult adulation they received. Altman continued to work outside the studios in the late '70s and throughout the '80s, often doing small-budget projects or filmed plays to keep his hand in. The Player was a comeback to making films in Hollywood, although it was distributed by Fine Line Features rather than a major studio (though FLF in itself was a division of New Line Cinema, Fine Line was reorganized into Picturehouse in 2005). It ushered in a new period of filmmaking for Altman, who continued on to an epic adaptation of Raymond Carver's short stories, Short Cuts (1993). Altman won a number of European best-director awards for The Player (the BAFTA, best director at the Cannes Film Festival) and he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe as best director (the film won the Golden Globe for best "comedy or musical"). Tolkin received an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.

A studio script screener gets on the bad side of a writer by not accepting his script. The writer is sending him threatening postcards. The screener tries to identify the writer in order to pay him off so he'll be left alone, and then in a case of mistaken identity gone awry, he accidentally gives the writer solid ammunition for blackmail. This plot is written on a backdrop of sleazy Hollywood deals and several subplots involving the politics of the industry. Written by Ed Sutton

Griffin Mill is a studio executive who is responsible for accepting or rejecting the pitches for potential feature films. With his career on the line and the impending possibility that he might be replaced by a rival upstart. Griffin now finds his life threatened by an anonymous screenwriter whose pitch he rejected long ago. Drawn into a web of blackmail and murder, Griffin must evade the police investigation that he caused. But he must also watch his back, because in Hollywood, there's always another person to take your place. Written by monkeykingma