The Film Book

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This one also sounds like a fascinating read/watch: A journalist stumbles upon old letters between two star-crossed lovers, and becomes obsessed with finding out what happened between the pair. Felicity Jones, Shailene Woodley, and (Mr. Taylor Swift himself) Joe Alwyn star in what will likely be a passionate romantic drama, with plenty of period-appropriate fashion to ogle as well. If you're dying to know how it ends, here's the novel. Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino would appear a combustible mix on paper – either the latter’s adaptation of the former’s Rum Punch would be nothing short of brilliant; or, it would stink. Thankfully, it was the first version. Tarantino amended a few details – the name obviously, and the protagonist’s ethnicity, but, for an iconoclast he remained remarkably faithful to Leonard’s book. It pays handsome and stylish dividends. Staying faithful to Irvine Welsh’s intense and graphic book wouldn’t have served the interests of film. So it’s to Danny Boyle’s credit that he brings alive Welsh’s ragtag collection of misfit dreamers, ferocious drunks and comedic chancers in an Edinburgh blighted by heroin addiction. It sounds remarkable now, but Welsh had made fiction cool again when he penned this, ahem, addictive book: Boyle, assisted by Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Kelly McDonald and co, did the same for film. They came as close with the 2017 sequel to recapturing lightning in a bottle as anyone ever manages. Spielberg’s 1974 Jaws shoot was one of the most notoriously difficult productions up to that time, which is why this first person account by Carl Gottlieb (who co-wrote the screenplay, and co-starred as Mayor Vaughn’s right-hand man) is so valuable. It’s also fast and funny — Gottlieb’s roots were in improv comedy — and captures the tribulations and irritations of location shooting as few other volumes have. What differentiates some film books is the enviable access they’d had to the right people. That’s certainly the case with Helen de Winter’s comprehensive What I Really Want To Do Is Produce. In it, she tries to get to the bottom of what film producing is about, and how to break into it. And in doing so, she talks to the likes of Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, Lawrence Bender, and Lord Of The Rings producer Bob Shaye.

Film Book, New Edition: A Complete Guide to the World of The Film Book, New Edition: A Complete Guide to the World of

Less a great book perhaps, more a really, really interesting one. For what sets Rubins’ story of taking his idea to the movies apart is he charts the before, middle and after of its development. All from the writers’ perspective. On top of that, you get the original script for Groundhog Day that Rubins wrote, which is notably different, before it went through the system.

Sharing DNA with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Robbert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, Neil Ferron’s ferocious seaside tale is a darkly comedic body horror short that’s full of old-school cinematic techniques including miniatures, creature makeup, poor man's process shots, and practical stunts and effects. Read our interview with Ferron here. The bookis a fictionalized telling of the Sutton Hoo dig, a critically important excavation of Anglo-Saxon artifacts. The film looks like it's a pretty faithful tellingof the real-life participants involved, and we might see it make the rounds in upcoming awards circuits. If archaeology is your thing, the book is terrific.

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Solid gold satirist Armando Iannucci took a slightly unconventional approach to his 2019 adaptation of David Copperfield. Colourblind casting sees Dev Patel lead, an inspired choice. There’s a lot of joy in this film version too, even as several of the book’s characters fall into destitution. Breezy, bright and colourful, The Personal History of David Copperfield is worth streaming The Reincarnationist Papers centers around a secret society that can recall their past lives, and the young man who discovers them. This upcoming film by director Antoine Fuqua reimagines the premise as a man (Wahlberg) begins to realize he's hallucinating his past lives. Both sound equally compelling, TBH. The real gift of Julie Salamon’s superb telling of the making of the movie The Bonfire Of The Vanities is that she has you absolutely rooting for it. Accepting that the movie was a notorious early 90s Hollywood bomb (eclipsed in Bruce Willis’ career soon after when the knives came out for Hudson Hawk), Salamon is a patient, diligent observer. She charts how one of the most compelling books of its time was chewed up by the Hollywood system, with director Brian De Palma desperately trying to shape a worthwhile picture at the end of it all. Harris is one of the most insightful film writers working today (few think pieces get at the inherent trouble with movies today like his brilliant Esquire essay “The Day the Movies Died”). His first book examines the birth of the “New Hollywood” movement in a rather ingenious fashion: by simultaneously profiling the five films nominated for the Oscar as 1967’s Best Picture. Two were rabble-rousing films from young and inventive directors ( The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde), two were “social change” pictures from the old guard ( Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In The Heat of the Night), and one was a big, bloated musical extravaganza that exemplified all that was wrong with studio production ( Dr. Doolittle). In his cinematic “intercutting” of their five stories, he paints a full and riveting picture of modern movies’ turning point.Palace Pictures was, at one stage, the biggest force in UK cinema. At a point where the British film industry was in the doldrums, Palace – in the ’80s and ’90s – managed to get films such as The Company Of Wolvesand The Crying Gamethrough the system. The co-founder of Orion Pictures, and one-time head of TriStar, Mike Medavoy has had his fingers in an awful lot of film pies. Films greenlighted on his watch include The Terminator, The Silence Of The Lambs, Cliffhanger, and Sleepless In Seattle. When shown on television in 1979, the adaptation of John le Carré’s much-admired Cold War spy thriller ran to 315 minutes over seven episodes. How to squeeze that into a feature film? Well, Tomas Alfredson did it with aplomb. Gary Oldman is an inspired choice as the understated, stoic and anti-Bond George Smiley: the supporting cast – including Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt and Benedict Cumberbatch – just add extra excellence. Le Carré must have been happy with the result because he makes a cameo appearance. When her 1997 short story was filmed by Ang Lee, author Anne Proulx proclaimed: “I may be the first writer in America to have a piece of writing make its way to the screen whole and entire.” Moreover, the end product is an exceptional piece of cinema: a love story, which happens to be between two men but speaks to the doomed romantic in everyone. And let's be honest: never let it be said that the people in the film industry aren’t a rum bunch. Rather than think of their own films to bring to the silver screen (does anybody still call it that?), they just let authors pen their finely crafted words and stories and then turn those into motion pictures (does anybody still call it that?). Like we said, a rum bunch.

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This 2020 version of Emma plays up the humour and bite of the source material, adhering a little less closely than some Austen-ites might like for a better on-screen effect. But much of the same spirit, and those period costumes, remains. It’s a film with real rhythm. Those up for an even looser take on Emma should not miss 1995’s Clueless, a near-perfect film, if not one quite closely tied to the book enough to make this list. A wonderfully-researched tale of Hollywood horror, that, of course, is also true. The Battle Of Brazilis the story of how Terry Gilliam and Universal Pictures came to butt heads over the director’s richly acclaimed 1985 movie, Brazil. Truth be told, I am not the best shooter. But when I work with a DP I find this book very useful at upholding my end of the conversation. This is where you can learn the lingo and shots you can try on your own.Penned by Robert Hofler, this biography charts the rise of producer Allan Carr, whose name adorns most infamously both Grease and the Village People movie musical, Can’t Stop The Music. Oh, and Grease 2. The late Dawn Steel was one of the first women to ever run a Hollywood movie studio, heading up Columbia Pictures in the late 1980s, before setting up Steel Pictures and making films such as Cool Runnings. About half way through movie stunt legend Vic Armstrong’s memoir, I found myself wondering if it’d been a better book were it a biography rather than an autobiography. Yet I still enjoyed it, and Armstrong offers an angle on the movies that’s not often discussed.

Film Books That Are Well Worth Your Time | Den of Geek 63 Film Books That Are Well Worth Your Time | Den of Geek

I don’t get to see many shorts unless executive friends send them around. These two came to me as recs from friends and did not disappoint. I’m excited to see what these filmmakers do in the future. The film writing of Richard E Grant is something to be cherished, not least because he published his outstanding movie diaries – With Nails– whilst very much at his most in-demand. The ambitious plan by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to set up the first major Hollywood movie studio since United Artists enjoyed some success. Still, over 20 years on, DreamWorks is a different beast to the one it once was. Nicole LaPorte and Stephen Hoye’s chatty history goes through the creation of the studio, and how it stumbled through its early days before hitting success with the likes of Gladiatorand American Beauty. W hether you’re new to filmmaking, or you’ve studied it for years, you may find that your cinematic knowledge has plateaued. So, now you seek some great filmmaking books to push your skills to the next level.The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn’t Know You Need to Know About Making an Independent Film by Reed Martin Hawks’s superb version of Raymond Chandler’s novel works for many reasons. Yes, the partnership of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall as Philip Marlowe and Vivian Rutledge is inspired, but it’s the manner in which all involved maintain the enigmatic core of Chandler’s book that really delights. Film noir at its finest and one of the best film adaptations ever. Spooky season is coming to an end, but we can celebrate its final day with some fantastic short films. From truly terrifying to body horror and everything in between, short films allow filmmakers to experiment with visuals and stories that are odd, horrifying, and sometimes very funny with an audience who appreciates what the filmmakers are doing. Remade in 2010 with Sam Riley playing the dazzling antihero Pinkie, Greene’s book is constantly ripe for cinematic interpretation. It’s the 1947 version, though, that stands the test of time. Richard Attenborough sparkles as the psychopathic gangster, while the criminal underbelly of interwar Brighton is also brought chillingly to life. As with many memoirs on this list, Huston’s latest book, Watch Me, talks around the movies as much as about them. Yet there are real gems in here, not least her working with her father, John Huston, on his last film.