Hollywood on the brain

Chris Colin brings us the story of Simon Lewis, a successful film producer who lost a "full third of his right hemisphere" after a terrifying car accident. Lewis fell into a deep coma, only to defy the odds against him by emerging from it a month later:

He would move into his parent' house that summer, 1994, but that was just the beginning of a seemingly endless medical journey. No sooner would he recuperate from one grueling surgery than he'd be back for another. The months turned to years. His recovery lasted a decade and a half.

And now? Lewis says he wants to make films again, incorporating some of the new ways he perceives the world (particularly "flat time" and "blind sight," which Colin describes in detail in his book) into his art. "He wanted to make different movies because he had a different brain inside his skull and a different way of experiencing the world," Colin writes. In Lewis' words:

Picture all the memories from your life as a photo album. Then take out all the photos and shuffle them across a table. That's my brain... It can be frustrating, but as far as making interesting connections goes, it certainly opens things up in a new way.

Will his movies be made? Only time will tell. But the story is an amazing one. To read an excerpt of the story in the Atlantic, see The Hollywood Producer Who Survived Catastrophe or buy the ebook (just 1.99) at Amazon.