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With forty million copies sold, To Kill a Mockingbird's poignant but clear-eyed examination of human nature has cemented its status as a global classic. Tom Santopietro s book Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters takes a 360-degree look at the Mockingbird phenomenon, both on page and screen.Santopietro traces the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird and the impact of the Pulitzer Prize, and he investigates both the claims that Lee s book is actually racist and the worldwide controversy surrounding the 2015 publication of Go Set a Watchman. Here too, for the first time, is the full behind-the-scenes story regarding the creation of the 1962 film, one that has entered the American consciousness in a way that few other films ever have. From the earliest casting sessions to the Oscars and the Fiftieth Anniversary screening at the White House, Santopietro examines exactly what makes the movie and Gregory Peck's unforgettable performance as Atticus Finch so captivating.As Americans yearn for an end to divisiveness,

On March 2, 1965, The Sound of Music was released in the United States and the love affair between moviegoers and the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was on. Rarely has a film captured the love and imagination of the moviegoing public in the way that The Sound of Music did as it blended history, music, Austrian location filming, heartfelt emotion, and the yodeling of Julie Andrews into a monster hit. Tom Santopietro has written the ultimate Sound of Music fan book with all the details from behind-the-scenes stories of the filming in Austria and Hollywood to new interviews with Johannes von Trapp and others. Santopietro looks back at the real-life story of Maria von Trapp, goes on to chronicle the sensational success of the Broadway musical, and recounts the story of the near cancellation of the film when Cleopatra bankrupted 20th Century Fox. We all know that Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer played Maria and Captain Von Trapp, but who else had been considered? Tom Santopietro knows and will tell all while providing a historian's critical analysis of the careers of director Robert Wise and screenwriter Ernest Lehman, a look at the critical controversy which greeted the movie, the film's relationship to the turbulent 1960s and the super stardom which engulfed Julie Andrews. Tom Santopietro's The Story of The Sound of Music is book for everyone who cherishes this American classic.

Her unforgettable image is seared into the minds of fans everywhere, and her private life continues to inspire headlines and controversy, but Marilyn Monroe is one of the most famous—and misunderstood—women in the world and remains a mystery to most people. Hello, Norma Jeane cuts through the rumors and myths to present the real person behind the queen of movies and pop culture. From her chaotic childhood in Depression-era Los Angeles to her rise in the world of Hollywood and finally her untimely death—Hello, Norma Jeane explores the legendary star’s family history, connection to the movies from childhood, her personal life as an adult, and her interest in continually educating herself. Hello, Norma Jeane is compulsively readable—instead of chronological dates and dry accounts of events, there are chapters about specific aspects of her life and career. What did Marilyn like to eat? What types of books did she read? Was she really plus size? Did she nearly bring down a political empire? And how did she actually die? This book explores everything—and vividly brings to light the truth about the world’s greatest movie star.

This magnificent companion to The Art of Horror looks at the entire history of the horror film, from the silent era right up to the latest releases and trends. This revised edition includes more films, rare images, and in-depth explorations to bring this award-winning book completely up to date, cementing its position as the definitive and essential guide to horror movies. Through a series of informative chapters and fascinating sidebars chronologically charting the evolution of horror movies for more than a century, profusely illustrated throughout with over 600 rare and unique images including posters, lobby cards, advertising, promotional items, tie-in books and magazines, and original artwork inspired by classic movies, this handsomely designed hardcover traces the development of the horror film from its inception and celebrates the actors, filmmakers, and artists who were responsible for scaring the pants off successive generations of moviegoers! Edited by multiple award-winning writer and editor Stephen Jones and boasting a foreword by director and screenwriter John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), this volume brings together fascinating and incisive commentary from some of the genre's most highly respected experts. With eye-popping images from all over the world, The Art of Horror Movies: Revised Edition is the definitive guide for anyone who loves horror films and movie fans of all ages.

This is the definitive tribute to the glamor and character of a beloved icon, including rarely published details, photographs and stories about the lasting impact of Audrey Hepburn's remarkable life.Academy Award-winning actress, fashion icon, ethereal beauty, wife, mother, World War II resistance activist, UNICEF champion— Audrey Hepburn transcended her era and became a global idol whose appeal continues to soar in the twenty-first century.Packed with beautiful photographs of the star at her most captivating and supplemented with incisive fashion commentary from award-winning designer Jeffrey Banks, Audrey Hepburn: A Beautiful Uncertainty is a one-of-a-kind exploration of Audrey’s glamorous image and remarkable life. Always leading with her heart, Hepburn is shown here fully captured in all her complexity: an often self-doubting but brilliant and genuinely kind woman whose style and activism changed the world.Slipping behind the scenes of Hollywood’s Golden Age, author Tom Santopietro details Audrey’s personal and professional life, from her legendary dance partnership with Fred Astaire on the classic Funny Face to her love affairs with Albert Finney and William Holden. Throughout, her life and career are juxtaposed with the lasting legacy of her iconic image and unerring fashion sensibility, as she played muse to the brilliant designer Hubert de Givenchy and inspired women from Jacqueline Onassis to Carly Simon.

From the dawn of silent cinema to today, sci-fi movies have been a constant presence in pop culture, with mad scientists, terrifying monsters (giant and otherwise), UFOs, and invading aliens all bursting out from some of the most brilliantly designed posters ever printed, featuring art that was sometimes lurid, always eye-catching, and often simply beautiful.Acknowledging the iconic, but with plenty of room for the rare and unfamiliar, The Art of Classic Sci-Fi Movies presents a stellar selection of imagery, charting the story of the genre from its origins in foundational works like Voyage to the Moon and Metropolis, through Cold War classics like Invasion of the Body-Snatchers and Godzilla, and on to visionary films such as 2001 and Solaris—as well as less celebrated but nonetheless infamous cultural artifacts like Barbarella and Zardoz, and genuine oddities such as Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders. The most extensive book of its type ever published, it includes ample selections from American movies as well as a range of films from Japan, Italy, Spain, France, Russia, and Eastern Europe.

Long-anticipated remake of The Crow to hit theaters Fall, 2024 from director Rupert Sanders starring Bill Skarsgård "You won't find a more comprehensive, step-by-step account... a cult classic that continues to fascinate... A fitting and emotional tribute to the movie, and its late star, Brandon Lee."—Sean O'Connell, author of Release the Snyder CutThis "behind-the-scenes retrospective proves a haunting read, as Baiss skillfully escorts the reader through tragedy, despair, hope, and modern Hollywood resurrection.”—John Kenneth Muir, author of Horror Films FAQ, creator of Enter the House BetweenIn the thirty years since its release, The Crow has become the ultimate cult movie, with a dedicated worldwide following, three sequels, and a persistent fascination owing to the tragedy that came to define its legacy, in which star Brandon Lee was killed in a strange on-set accident during the last days of filming.In this fully revised and updated edition, author Bridget Baiss tells the full story of The Crow, from the initial adaptation of James O’Barr’s graphic novel, through its production and Lee’s death, to its triumphant release, enduring appeal, and impact on on-set firearms safety. Drawing on unprecedented access to the film’s cast and crew, including new interviews and research conducted since the release of the original edition, this is a fascinating and revealing look at the troubled making of a modern classic.

Celebrate the legacy of Bruce Willis's career in a book the Los Angeles Times calls "a thoughtful guide."On a nondescript Wednesday morning in the waning days of March 2023, one of the biggest movie stars on the planet called it quits. No press conference had been organized, the Hollywood trades received no advance notice, and there was a conspicuous lack of the fanfare that usually accompanies such bombshell announcements. Instead, the news that Bruce Willis was retiring from acting came in a simple statement on his ex-wife Demi Moore’s Instagram page—along with the tragic news that Willis was suffering from aphasia, a cognitive disorder that subsequently worsened to become frontotemporal dementia.It was a sad conclusion to the storied career of a man who had at one point been the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. That career is the subject of Sean O’Connell’s definitive survey of Bruce Willis the actor, the cultural icon, and the man. Here, O’Connell compiles exclusive, original interviews with directors who have worked with Willis, as well as film critics and journalists who have analyzed his career, into a celebratory compendium. It also features the author’s analysis of Willis’s films, his career arc, and the industry that made him a star. And it includes capsule reviews of every Bruce Willis film, making this a complete handbook to a true American original.

To an unusual degree among writers, playwrights’ creations are not simply words on a page. Instead, a well-wrought play is an intricate machine that will be used by directors, actors, designers, and other creators to bring a fully staged, real-time performance into the world. The construction and maintenance of that machine is the playwright’s job, and it requires an array of complex, interconnected skills and techniques.Enter Justin Maxwell and The Playwright’s Toolbox, a stimulating and wide-ranging resource for both beginning and experienced dramatists. It brings together invigorating, provocative, and irreverent exercises contributed by nearly 60 leading English-language playwrights, covering all stages of the writing process. It offers an accessible roadmap for those who have never written a play before, while providing new angles and solutions for seasoned writers struggling with a particular challenge. Covered here is everything fromgenerating ideas and world-building, through dialogue and plotting, to revision and the last steps before releasing a play into the world, making this an endlessly useful guide to building better plays.

WHEN IT FIRST APPEARED ON AMERICAN TELEVISION SETS IN 1993, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was like nothing else on TV. The brainchild of Israeli-American music producer Haim Saban, the show stitched together segments from the Japanese children’s program Super Sentai with newly recorded live-action footage, and its unexpected popularity quickly cemented the Fox Kids Network’s reputation as a pop-culture powerhouse. Garish, heartfelt, utterly strange, and bursting with irrepressible energy, the show was a dramatic departure from the animated fare that dominated kids TV at the time, and came closer than any program before—or since—to being a “live-action cartoon.” Three decades later, the Power Rangers are global icons and a billion-dollar business. In Morphenomenal, journalist and lifelong fan Joshua Moore delivers a deeply researched narrative history of Power Rangers—from its inception to today—and details milestone moments for the brand and show, as well as offering fresh looks at its thriving toy line and an adult fandom that can’t get enough of those “teenagers with attitude.” Drawing on original interviews, new research, and the kinds of insights that only a true devotee can bring, this is a bold and boisterous account of one of the most unusual and beloved franchises in pop-culture history.

A fresh and long-overdue reassessment of James Dean, examining his life and legacy as a queer man.Although he died at a heartbreakingly young age and appeared in only a handful of movies, James Dean revolutionized American manhood. As a celebrity and icon, he melded vulnerability with determination, sensitivity with strength, in a way that offered a bracing and—for some—threatening new vision of masculinity. His massive influence and the fascination he has always inspired are inseparable from his identity as a queer man whose complex sexuality shattered the norms of midcentury American society. (When asked whether he was a homosexual, he reportedly said, “I’m certainly not going through life with one hand tied behind my back.”)Today, even though it is widely accepted that Dean was gay or bisexual, the story of his life and personal character continue to be colored by the prejudices of an earlier era and the work of often unscrupulous biographers and journalists. Drawing on exhaustive new research (including more than four hundred previously secret pages of Dean’s personal and business records), Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean is a revelatory reassessment of the man and his legacy. Free from sensationalism—but unafraid to confront the difficult facts of Dean’s life—it deploys modern insights into sexual diversity to transform our understanding of James Dean’s story, and the stories of boys and men like him.

By near-universal consensus, Stephen Sondheim was the greatest musical theater composer of his generation—celebrated, among other things, for the wit, sophistication, and intricacy of shows from West Side Story to Sunday in the Park with George. But a less well-known avenue for his brilliance was his lifelong fascination with designing and constructing intricate puzzles and games, from treasure hunts to crosswords to parlor and board games.Matching Minds with Sondheim is a journey into this rich but largely unmapped aspect of the composer’s creative life, illuminating how Sondheim’s playful designs delivered moments of clarity and connection for friends, colleagues, and anyone who’s ever been captivated by his genius. This book opens, for the first time, the door into what Sondheim called his “puzzler’s mind,” helping readers to better understand the man, his work, and—if they accept the challenge—themselves. Gaming expert Barry Joseph draws from over eighty years of Sondheim’s activities, including extremely rare and never-publicly-seen puzzles and game designs, scores of original interviews with the celebrity friends who played them, archival deep dives, and illuminating analysis from both puzzle designers and theater professionals from around the world. Packed with illustrations and insights, this book does more than describe Sondheim’s life in puzzles: It allows readers to match minds with the maestro by attempting to solve his puzzles and bring Sondheimian games into their own homes.