Movie History

It’s been nearly twenty years since Ron Burgundy burst into movie fans’ lives, reminding San Diego to “stay classy” while lampooning a time gone by—although maybe not as far gone as we might think? In Kind of a Big Deal, comedy historian Saul Austerlitz tells the history of how Anchorman was developed, written, and cast, and how it launched the careers of future superstars like Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd, also setting the stage for a whole decade of comedy to come and influencing films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, Superbad, and so many more.

We'll Always Have Casablanca is celebrated film historian Noah Isenberg's rich account of this most beloved movie's origins. Through extensive research and interviews with filmmakers, film critics, family members of the cast and crew, and diehard fans, Isenberg reveals the myths and realities behind Casablanca's production, exploring the transformation of the unproduced stage play into the classic screenplay, the controversial casting decisions, and the effect of the war's progress on the movie's reception.

Soon to be a major motion picture, the action-filled adventures of the fascinating people in one of the most thrilling chapters of American history: the late 19th century transition from the Wild West to the Age of Technology. Gangsters, Serial Killers, Con Men, Sultry Women, a Tycoon, and a Mad Genius in the riotous Wild West that was San Francisco after the Gold Rush. These are the people who made our world what it is today. There’s the narrator of our story, Eadweard Muybridge, the eccentric and mysterious photographer who conquers staggering obstacles to produce the first motion ...

Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited first work of fiction - at once hilarious, delicious and brutal - is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award-winning film.

Today, more than 70 years after it premiered, Sunset Boulevard remains the finest ever movie made about the pathology of fame: those who lose it, those who abuse it, and those who never attain it at all. By exploring the history of Sunset Boulevard in time for the movie’s 75th anniversary, from its inception to its making to its present-day legacy, Ready for My Closeup breathes life into a beloved masterpiece of American cinema.

In his first memoir, Ander Monson guides listeners through a scene-by-scene exploration of the 1987 film Predator, which he has watched 146 times. Some fighters might not have time to bleed, but Monson has the patience to consider their adventure, one frame at a time. He turns his obsession into a lens through which he poignantly examines his own life, formed by mainstream white male American culture.

The Secret History of Twin Peaks enlarges the world of the original series, placing the unexplained phenomena that unfolded there into a vastly layered, wide-ranging history, beginning with the journals of Lewis and Clark and ending with the shocking events that closed the finale. The perfect way to get in the mood for the upcoming Showtime series.

Based on exclusive interviews with the surviving cast and crew, friends and families of the stars, and other Hollywood insiders, Killin' Generals is a riveting must-listen for film buffs, military fans, and anyone who loves a down-and-dirty adventure tale. Detailed, insightful, and gossipy, Epstein's homage spotlights the movie's endless barrage of cinematic gold.

Your Worshipfulness is the story of how a teenage Carrie Fisher created Star Wars's greatest character, Princess Leia. Leia began as little more than a damsel in distress, albeit one with cinema's most iconic hairstyle. Over three films, Carrie made her a complicated character, beloved the world over. Then Darth Vader died, the Ewoks danced, the credits rolled, and that was that. Carrie now had the rest of her life to live, stuck in Leia's shadow.

The story of two outsiders and obsessives whose collision prompted an evangelistic alliance on the furthest frontiers of underground music. Steve Davis first met Kavus Torabi - guitarist with Gong, Guapo, Cardiacs and Knifeworld - in the mid-2000s at a gig by French underground rock legends Magma. Over the next few years, this unlikely duo's shared affinity for visionary psychedelic music would become the foundation of not only a firm friendship, but also the most infectiously inclusive broadcasting style since the much-mourned death of John Peel.

Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy is the first collection to bring a sustained scholarly perspective to the iconic filmmaker and his legacy beyond the Star Wars films. Edited by Richard Ravalli, this volume analyzes Lucas's overall contribution and importance to the film industry, diving deep into his use and development of modern special effects technologies, the history of his Skywalker Ranch production facilities, and more.

History’s most unlikely friendship - this is the astonishing story of Queen Victoria and her dearest companion, the young Indian Munshi Abdul Karim. In the twilight years of her reign, after the devastating deaths of her two great loves - Prince Albert and John Brown - Queen Victoria meets tall and handsome Abdul Karim, a humble servant from Agra waiting tables at her Golden Jubilee. The two form an unlikely bond and within a year Abdul becomes a powerful figure at court, the Queen’s teacher, her counsel on Urdu and Indian affairs, and a friend close to her heart.

When Brian DePalma's operatically violent and profane Scarface debuted in 1983, the film drew almost as much fire as the relentless gunfire in the film itself. The movie was a remake of 1932's Scarface—revamped for a new era of drugs, sex, and graphic violence. Attacked as both a celebration of cocaine-fueled excess and a condemnation of it, the film's reputation only grew as the years went by. But the real story of its success started nearly a century ago—when Hollywood first fell in love with the American gangster....

"The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions", said the existentialist thinker Albert Camus. And no less a philosopher than Woody Allen has wondered: "How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?" The essays in Movies and the Meaning of Life look at popular and cult movies, examining their assumptions and insights on meaning-of-life questions....

The Towering Inferno (1974) was the crowning achievement of über-producer Irwin Allen, the self-proclaimed “Master of disaster.” Crafted from two best-selling books and with a budget-busting cast headed by two mega-stars, it took two studios to bring it to the screen. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Towering Inferno, biographer-historian Nat Segaloff (who was a member of the film’s special publicity unit) writes about the production, its innovative marketing campaign, and the goings-on before, during, and after its box office success.

For hundreds of years, the Targaryens sat the Iron Throne of Westeros while their dragons ruled the skies. The story of the only family of dragonlords to survive Valyria’s Doom is a tale of twisty politics, alliances and betrayals, and acts both noble and craven. The Rise of the Dragon chronicles the creation and rise of Targaryen power in Westeros, covering the history first told in George R. R. Martin’s epic Fire and Blood, from Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros through to the infamous Dance of the Dragons.

An examination of African American imagery and participation in American movies includes a timeline of important African American events in film history and discusses the achievements of noted celebrities.

Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel winds through the nascent days of cinema in Paris and Fort Lee, New Jersey - America’s first movie town - and on the battlefields of Belgium during World War I. A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one man’s doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.

As any actor, producer, director, or screenwriter can attest, working in the movie business isn't easy. After Jack Nicholson filmed his first screen test for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, studio mogul Louis B. Mayer politely told him afterwards: "I don't know what we can use you for, but if we ever do need you, we'll need you real bad.” In the late 1960s, Paul, John, George, and Ringo–better known as The Beatles–were set to star in a movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, until Tolkien objected over the loudness of their music.

The movies were flying blind in 1980. “New Hollywood” was over and the era of auteur-driven, personal films that had defined moviemaking since the late ‘60s came to a symbolic end with Heaven’s Gate (1980), replaced by a new world of multiplex blockbusters supported by massive marketing campaigns. But beyond the high-school comedies and hardbody action films came a new wave of cinematic excitement—an era defined by Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Purple Rain, When Harry Met Sally, E.T., and Top Gun, each of which are now classics for a new generation of nostalgic movie lovers.