Just finished reading Henry Winkler’s excellent memoir/autobiography, “Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond” (2023). Highly recommended.
My one quibble isJust finished reading Henry Winkler’s excellent memoir/autobiography, “Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond” (2023). Highly recommended.
My one quibble is that while he hits the key points and does tell quite a few personal anecdotes, he doesn’t go as much into the making of “Happy Days” and his relationships with his co-stars (aside from Ron Howard) as much as I would have liked. Then, again, I understand that this is his own personal life’s story, not a “Happy Days behind the scenes” book.
I gave the book four out of five stars on GoodReads....more
Last night I finished reading “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film” by John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto (2023, Titan BookLast night I finished reading “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film” by John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto (2023, Titan Books). An excellent behind the scenes book about what many consider to be the best of all of the Star Trek films (and planned to have come out in 2022 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the film’s release in 1982).
There are many books out there already about both the making of the Star Trek films in general and about Star Trek II specifically already. This being a “coffee table” style book, it’s not as text heavy as some of the other books because of all of the wonderful pictures, but it still covers all of the basics in terms of how the film got made. Especially nice are its numerous profiles on not just the more well known figures behind the film (like writer/director Nicholas Meyer and producer Harve Bennett) but also seldom covered people who were just as important to the making of the film like production designers, costume designers, hair and make up supervisors, stunt performers, camera operators, film editors, sound and visual effects artists, etc.
They also give detailed descriptions of all of the script drafts that had been written prior to Nicholas Meyer coming aboard as director. And scenes that were shot and then not included in the final picture, or were reshot (like the initial “fight scene” between Kirk and David).
I also was very happy to see a full page sidebar about the Star Trek II movie novelization written by Vonda N. McIntyre, which was one of the very first Star Trek novels I ever read, launching me into a being a lifelong Star Trek reader (it and the Star Trek comic books from DC Comics that started just after Star Trek II’s release).
“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film” is a good standalone book for more casual fans of the film and of Star Trek in general. I think it’s even better as a compliment to the already existing books on the subject, like Nicholas Meyer’s “The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood” (2009), Edward Gross and Mark Altman’s “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek” (2016), William Shatner’s “Star Trek Movie Memories” (1994), and Leonard Nimoy’s “I Am Spock” (1995).
(I should also point out that there was already another “The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” nonfiction book released in 1982 by Pocket Books as a tie-in to the release of the film, written by Allan Asherman. I’ve had a copy of that book for many years now but have not read it yet.)
Again, I highly recommend this new book by the Tenutos. I gave it five out of five stars on GoodReads.
(Titan Books also released another book, “Star Trek: First Contact: The Making of the Classic Film” (2022) by Joe Fordham in the same size and general format. I highly recommend that book, also.)...more
I last night finished reading Matthew Coniam and Nick Santa Maria’s “The Annotated Abbott and Costello: A Complete Viewer’s Guide to Their 38 Films” (I last night finished reading Matthew Coniam and Nick Santa Maria’s “The Annotated Abbott and Costello: A Complete Viewer’s Guide to Their 38 Films” (2023, McFarland & Co.).
Prior to this book, there was essentially just one “Abbott and Costello must have book” for fans, that being Bob Furmanek and Ron Palumbo’s “Abbott and Costello in Hollywood” (1991, Pedigree Trade) (which I read back in 2017-2018 as I was watching the films for the first time on DVD). Well, there are now *two* “must have” books.
Like Furmanek and Palumbo, Coniam and Santa Maria look at each Abbott and Costello film, from 1940’s “One Night in the Tropics” all the way to 1956’s “Dance With Me, Henry”, plus solo Lou Costello “The Thirty-Foot Bride of Candy Rock” (1959) and the later “The World of Abbott and Costello” (1965) compilation film (released six years after Lou Costello’s death).
They also include an appendix section titles “The Ultimate Abbott and Costello Top Ten”, in which they surveyed thirty-three “Abbott and Costello experts, fans, comedy buffs, film historians, and the authors of previous books about Bud and Lou” as to their personal top ten favorite A&C films, out of which they derived their “ultimate top ten list”. Among those surveyed were Coniam and Santa Maria themselves, Furmanek and Palumbo, Lou Costello’s daugher Chris Costello, filmmakers Joe Dante, John Landis (who also write the Foreword), and Michael Schlesinger, and noted film historian Leonard Maltin.
One thing I really enjoyed about “The Annotated Abbott and Costello” was that the two authors, Coniam and Santa Maria, split the thirty-eight films up, Coniam covering nineteen and Santa Maria the other nineteen. So instead of a single reference book co-written by two writers (like the previous Furmanek and Palumbo book), you get to experience two distinctly different voices as you make your way chronologically through the films.
The two decided on who would write about which films largely simply by personal preference, each choosing the ones they preferred to write about. And the two authors, while united in their love of Abbott and Costello, definitely have differing opinions in some cases (Coniam, for instance, is not as wild about “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” as Santa Maria, and seemingly most other fans, are. Coniam much more prefers the more down to Earth 1940s A&C films with their truer to life situations and abundance of humorous talking routines from A&C’s burlesque shows.)
The other thing I really like about this book is how each of the chapters is laid out. First (roughly half of the chapter) there is an overview of the film (its production background, its cast, a plot summary, etc.) written by Coniam or Santa Maria, along with two or three black and white photos including the official film poster and usually a film still or promotional photo from the production of that film.
Then the second half of the chapter is a break down of the key Abbott and Costello routines and any other notable scenes in that film complete with DVD time stamps so that readers can find them easily. The authors also note where else the same routines can be found, in other Abbott and Costello films and also in what episodes of the comedy team’s two-season “Abbott and Costello Show” television series and their episodes of “The Colgate Comedy Hour” tv series.
(I must add here that I found the information about the “Colgate Comedy Hour” programs especially interesting as I can’t recall Furmanek and Palumbo’s book going into very much detail on those. While their tv series don’t get separate chapters of their own, they definitely are covered at the points in the timeline where they intersect with A&C’s film work, and it is described as work the two comedians evidently enjoyed much more than the films they were making at the time, largely because the “Colgate Comedy Hour” was done before a live audience, and their own syndicated series was something they had complete control over and, again, consisted largely of their tried and true old burlesque routines.)
Finally, each chapter ends with a single paragraph by the other author (the one who didn’t write the bulk of the chapter) giving his personal opinion of that film (so both authors do say at least a bit about every one of the thirty-eight films).
In addition to the thirty-eight, they also include a few “Abbott and Costello adjacent” films, like 1944’s “A Wave, a WAC, and a Marine”, “Mail Call” (also 1944), “10,000 Kids and a Cop” (1948), and “Fireman Save Our Child” (1954). (Some of these are short films produced by Lou Costello’s production company. “Fireman” is a film that had been written and planned for Abbott and Costello to act in but then Lou Costello came down again with rheumatic fever and was sidelined for a year, something which happened several times over the course of those years. The film was shot with Hugh O’Brian and Buddy Hackett instead.)
As in the cases of Lou Costello’s serious health ailments and the impact it had on the two comedians working schedules (longer than usual gaps between films), Coniam and Santa Maria do cover that and other personal events, including a couple times when Budd Abbott and Lou Costello were not getting along with each other, but only as those things impacted upon their films (for instance, one particularly bad spat between them seems to have led to a couple of their films featuring the two actors almost entirely separate from each other, although apparently by the time they were actually shooting those films they had mostly put their animosity behind them). And, of course, certain major events are also covered like the tragic drowning death of Lou Costello’s infant son, Lou Jr. (called “Butch”), an event that understandably had a great impact upon Lou Costello going forward after that (but also bringing Costello and Abbott together again, off screen, in the founding of the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Center in Costello’s hometown of Patterson, New Jersey (which still exists today).
Anyway, yes, I highly recommend “The Annotated Abbott and Costello” by Matthew Coniam and Nick Santa Maria to all Abbott and Costello fans. And also to fans of other classic film comedians like Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, or the Marx Brothers. (Matthew Coniam also wrote “The Annotated Marx Brothers”, which I’m sure is also a great book.) I gave “The Annotated Abbott and Costello” five out of five stars on GoodReads....more
I finished reading Joe Fordham's "Star Trek: First Contact: The Making of the Classic Film" (2022) a few days ago. A very entertaining behind the scenI finished reading Joe Fordham's "Star Trek: First Contact: The Making of the Classic Film" (2022) a few days ago. A very entertaining behind the scenes look at what is (I think) pretty much universally regarded as the best of the four Star Trek films based on the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" tv series cast. (Although, I have to say that referring to it as "the classic film" doesn’t feel quite right to me because, even though this book was intended to be released in 2021 in time for "First Contact's" twenty-fifty anniversary, it still doesn't seem that "First Contact" (1996) is quite old enough yet to be called a "classic film". Then, again, it could just be that it makes *me* feel very OLD to see it put that way.)
The book is divided into chapters based on the development and major elements of the movie: the development of the script, the design of the new Enterprise-E, the casting of the major new characters, designing the Montana of 2061 locations as well as redesigning the Borg for the big screen, etc. Much of the information will already be familiar to the diehard Star Trek fans who read lots of behind the scenes Star Trek books, magazines, websites, etc., but there are still many interesting quotes from the actors, writers, producers, and director Jonathan Frakes to make it still worth while reading for them, and the book is written in such as way as not to overwhelm the casual Star Trek fan.
My one slight complaint is that while there are loads of pictures in this book from the film and also of behind the scenes development art--indeed, there are pictures on pretty much every page--a lot of the pictures from the actual film (and even some of the promotional stills) have a blurry look to them, as if taken from film screenshots or stills that have been enlarged. The reaction is often one of, "that's a great picture, I just wish it was in better focus". And since the pictures often dominate each two page spread, it can overtime detract a bit from what one is reading.
Still, even with that small complaint, I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it for fans of the Star Trek movies, "Next Generation", and "Star Trek: First Contact" in particular. I gave it four out of five stars on GoodReads. (Copy read was checked out from the Tampa/Hillsborough County Public Library which added it to their collection upon my request.)...more
Just finished my first book of 2023, “The Kick-A** Book of Cobra Kai: An Official Behind-the-Scenes Companion Book” by Rachel Bertsche (2022). This isJust finished my first book of 2023, “The Kick-A** Book of Cobra Kai: An Official Behind-the-Scenes Companion Book” by Rachel Bertsche (2022). This is a really fun behind-the-scenes book on the Netflix series with lots of cool photos and interviews with all involved (the showrunners, actors, writers, directors, stunt coordinators, production designers, etc. Traces the genesis of the project from the early love of the original 1980s “Karate Kid” movies by the three men who who go on to create and produce “Cobra Kai”, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, through their convincing Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso) and William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) to step back into their famous roles.
The selling of the series concept to YouTube (who carried the series on their YouTube Red the first two seasons), the casting of the other roles, the shooting the series, the series popularity especially after it moved to Netflix, the biggest fan moments like the returns of various other characters from the original “Karate Kid” movies and how many of the themes of the series transcend the generations, the young teenage characters going through many of the same experiences that Daniel and Johnny’s generation did back in the 80s.
And perhaps the most fun element of “Cobra Kai”, the unexpected development and redemption of quintessential 80s bad boy, Johnny Lawrence (while at the same time keeping him a man firmly stuck in the 80s thinking wise, to often humorous effect).
Daniel LaRusso’s journey from where we last saw him in “The Karate Kid: Part III” to being a family man with a wife, two children, and a successful businessman, seemingly the opposite of the perennially down on his luck Johnny, is also explored, and how the sudden return of Johnny and Cobra Kai dojo (re-opened by Johnny) brings Daniel to the realization that he has become out of touch with his kids and with his own life’s focus (his beloved mentor, Mr. Miyagi, having passed away seven years prior to the start of the series. It makes Daniel decide to resume his karate and to train his daughter and other teens in the Miyagi style of karate.
As I said, a very fun, well written book for fans of “The Karate Kid” films and “Cobra Kai” series (and a great companion to Ralph Macchio’s recently released “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me” memoir book). I gave “The Kick-A** Book of Cobra Kai: An Official Behind-the-Scenes Companion Book” four out of five stars on GoodReads....more
Today I finished reading Ralph Macchio’s recently released memoir, “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me” (2022).
I really enjoyed this book. A relatively Today I finished reading Ralph Macchio’s recently released memoir, “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me” (2022).
I really enjoyed this book. A relatively short book (241 pages), I think this is one of the quickest reads I’ve had in awhile (twelve days of off and reading, alternating with another book I am also still reading, which for me is quick).
Now, first off, this is one of those kinds of books that goes like this: “if you really like X, then you’ll really like this book about X”. In other words, if you are the right age to have grown up with (as I am) or just generally love (even if you are older or younger than that demographic group) the Ralph Macchio-Pat Morita “Karate Kid” movies (1984-1989), then you will probably also really enjoy reading “Waxing On”. Likewise, if you are a fan of the current “Karate Kid” universe sequel series, “Cobra Kai”, you will probably also enjoy it.
If you’re not into either of those, I don’t know. You might still enjoy it for Macchio’s friendly and engaging writing style. And also as another perspective on Hollywood filmmaking of the 1980s and 90s.
The thing I like best about this is that Macchio starts off right with his attending a “sneak preview” screening of the first “Karate Kid” movie (the very first time he saw it; no advance screenings for him) at a local New York movie theater on May 19, 1984 (the official full U.S. release was on June 22). He was very anxious going into seeing the movie with an audience (his only prior big movie he had been in at that point being Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” (1983)).
That experience of the audience’s complete embrace of the film and its characters (especially his young Daniel LaRusso and Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi), became one he would never forget. The audience cheered at moments like when the big payoff of all of those chores Miyagi had been putting Daniel through (“Show me wax on, wax off. Show me sand the floor. Show me paint the fence.” Etc.) And, of course, the big climactic moment in the tournament when the “crane kick” became a universally recognizable thing (one he saw the audience members emulating as the left the theater).
Macchio then moves back to how he got the part (including his recollections of scriptwriter/creator Robert Mark Kamen, director John Avildsen, and producer Jerry Weintraub). Then separate chapters on meeting and working with Pat Morita (Miyagi), Elizabeth (“Lisa”) Shue (“Ali with an I”), and William (“Billy”) Zabka (Johnny Lawrence).
Then a chapter on the famous “crane kick” (and how it was impossible for anyone, even professional martial artists brought in to train Macchio, Morita, Zabka, and the others, to actually *do* the kick as described by Kamen in his screenplay. (Kamen had Daniel kicking up on his plant leg as seen in the film—his other leg, the lifted one, being his injured leg—striking Johnny with the plant leg and then landing back on the same leg. No one could do it. Eventually, they had to “cheat” a bit and have Daniel (Macchio) land briefly on his injured leg and quickly shift back over to the good leg.
There are subsequent chapters about the two Macchio-Morita “Karate Kid” sequels and other work he did during the rest of the 1980s. (Why did he do the much less well regarded “Part III”? Because he had to. They insisted he sign a three-picture deal to do the first one. And it ended up costing him the River Phoenix part in Sidney Lumet’s “Running on Empty” (1988). Although, he does say that while he himself has always had issues with “Karate Kid: Part III”, it did eventually provide them with a wealth of backstory to mine later on in “Cobra Kai”.)
One thing I didn’t know about was that he did a Broadway show with Robert De Niro called “Cuba and His Teddy Bear” in 1986 (the same time that “Karate Kid: Part II” was in theaters).
He talks about getting typecast in the Daniel LaRusso part, and being cast in 1991 in the Joe Pesci comedy, “My Cousin Vinny”. (Words of a studio exec to the filmmakers when they inquired as to Macchio’s availability: “You don’t want him, he’s the Karate Kid”.
He discusses his reactions to learning of both of the “Karate Kid” films that he was not a part of: Pat Morita and Hillary Swank’s “The Next Karate Kid” (1994) and the Will Smith produced, Jaden Smith-Jackie Chan “The Karate Kid” remake (2010).
He goes into how he resisted suggestions and half-baked ideas to return to the Daniel LaRusso part, and then how eventually he began to consider it, especially after a memorable guest appearance on “How I Met Your Mother” (the comedy series in which Neil Patrick Harris’s character insists that Johnny Lawrence is the true hero in the original “Karate Kid” movie and that Daniel LaRusso was the villain who moved to town, stole Johnny’s girl, and beat Johnny with an “illegal” kick in the tournament). Macchio and Zabka would go on to guest star on the series.
He goes into how, after resisting it for so long, the creators of “Cobra Kai” were able to sell him on being part of their “Karate Kid” follow-up series. (He was the last one they approached after every one else had agreed because they had heard that he had always been hesitant.)
He talks about reconnecting with Zabka (who he really wasn’t close with at the time of shooting the first film or for decades after, not until just a few years prior to “Cobra Kai”).
He talks about enjoying working with both the “OG” original actors like Zabka, Martin Kove (Kreece), Elizabeth Shue (in a noteworthy guest-appearance by her), Yugi Okukoto (Chosen, from “Karate Kid: Part II”, and Thomas Ian Griffith (from “Karate Kid: Part III”) again as well as with all of the younger teenage and twenty something actors. How he would find himself now playing a version of the Mr. Miyagi character now to the younger actors, some scenes and situations very similar to the ones Pat Morita played with him back in 1983.
He talks about some things he wishes he could get a “do over” on, the biggest one being turning down being a presenter along with Morita at the 1984 Academy Awards. He said no, but later greatly regretted it because Morita was one of the actors nominated for best supporting actor for his part as Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid”. He realized, sitting and watching it at home with his girlfriend (later to be his wife, who he is still married to today) and his parents that he should have been there in support of Morita.
He later got a chance to make up for it, though, decades later, when he got to introduce Morita at the Asian Excellence Awards in New York City where Morita received a lifetime achievement award in 2006. They had a great time, he says, reconnecting after having not seen each other in a couple years (and not together at a public event in around a decade or more). One year later (almost exactly to the day, Macchio says), Pat Morita passed away.
There is more I could go into, but I shouldn’t spoil everything. Again, I highly recommend “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me” to all fans of “The Karate Kid” films and “Cobra Kai” Netflix streaming television series. I gave it five out of five stars on GoodReads.
Finished reading the massive (512 pages) two-volume hardcover slipcased “The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe” (20Finished reading the massive (512 pages) two-volume hardcover slipcased “The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe” (2021) by Tara Bennett and Paul Terry.
This is a wonderful book for the die-hard Marvel movies fans (although at times perhaps a bit too dense for the non die hards). It takes you year by year from the formation of Marvel Studios through the end of their “Phase 3” slate of films (ending with “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019).
It goes incredibly in depth into the behind the scenes personnel who oversaw the creation of these movies in addition to studio president, Kevin Feige. It goes into just how important it was that their first self produced movie, “Iron Man”(2008), succeed. It takes us through what it took to get “Iron Man” made (a brand new studio and an at that time little known comic book character to the non comic reader).
It takes us through the promotions, including the regular unveilings at San Diego Comic Con. The rapid expansion (other solo characters getting their own films like Thor and Captain America, and the can-we-really-pull-this-off Avengers movie combining multiple headliner superheroes in the same film).
It talks about the producers, the directors, the special effects producers, the editors, the composers, etc. It, by its very nature, doesn’t have the room to go into great detail about the behind the scenes of shooting each and every film but it does spend time on each, discussing the preproduction, shooting, and postproduction phases. And, before long multiple movies are at various stages of production at the same time and shooting in several different continents.
The importance of the casting of the lead characters is a repeated theme, as is getting the script right. And early on it was decided not to treat additional shooting after wrapping principle photography as a case by case basis (as the rest of Hollywood studios traditionally have done) but instead to have it written into the contracts right from the start, giving them the freedom to make necessary story changes at pretty much any stage of production and postproduction.
The book goes into the headaches Feige and his other producers, directors, and scriptwriters had with the Marvel “Creative Committee” back in New York, a group of Marvel executives and editors that had creative control until finally Disney, who the book also details as buying Marvel, put a stop to the Creative Committee soon after “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), which was a major subject of disagreement between the Marvel Studios heads and the Committee. Thereafter, Kevin Feige reported directly instead to Disney, not Marvel.
The book goes into how the partnership between Marvel Studios and Sony over Spider-Man came about, and how (at the end of the book) it almost ended after the release of “Spider-Man: Far From Home”.
“Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014), “Ant-Man” (2015), “Doctor Strange” (2016), “Black Panther” (2018), “Captain Marvel” (2019). They are all reported on. Of especially heavy emphasis are “Black Panther”* (the first Marvel Studios film to win multiple Academy Awards) and the back-to-back “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame”, each massive undertakings due to their very large casts (pretty much every major character and lead actor to have appeared in the various films up to that point), heavy amount of special visual effects, and just the importance these films would have in ending the many key characters’ story arcs. (* Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death occurred after the majority of the book was done so there is an afterword dedicated to him at the end.)
If there is any real weakness of this book it’s one that is pretty common to officially authorized behind-the-scenes books in general: a general skimming over of many of the more contentious or negative moments that inevitably happen. Such as, we get a very brief addressing of the recasting of “Rhodey” from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle but not really enough to know why. Likewise, we find out about the decision to not bring back Edward Norton after “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), casting Mark Ruffalo instead the next time we see the character in “The Avengers” (2012), but the reasons why Norton wasn’t considered to be asked back and the disagreements had while filming “Incredible Hulk” are kept brief (although it is made quite clear that that film did have a much rougher shooting period than “Iron Man”, which was largely shot at the same time, did).
It also feels at the end like there is a bit too much of the affirmation quotes from those involved as to how proud they are of the accomplishments, what it meant to them when they came to the end of the ten year journey, how it’s not the films or the accolades, it’s the people who came together with a common goal, etc, etc.
But those are minor quibbles, really. Again, “The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe” is a must have for all really big fans of the franchise. The oodles of awesome pictures is worth getting the book by themselves. Although, I must admit, this book carries a hefty price: $150 original suggested retail price, although I just checked and right now it can still be bought various places online for around $80 to $85. More casual fans will most likely want to see if their local public library might have a copy (which is how I got my hands on a copy).
I gave this book four out of five stars on GoodReads....more
Finished reading “The Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983 (Episodes IV-VI) (40th Anniversary Edition)” (2020), edited by Paul Duncan and published by TASCHEFinished reading “The Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983 (Episodes IV-VI) (40th Anniversary Edition)” (2020), edited by Paul Duncan and published by TASCHEN tonight. The “40th Anniversary Edition” releases in 2020 were smaller sized (and much less expensive) rereleases of some of TASCHEN’s more popular high-end coffee table books released by them over the course of their first forty years as a publisher.
The “Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983 (Episodes IV-VI) book (the expensive oversized limited edition release) was published in 2018 and had a release price of $200. The 40th Anniversary Edition that I read (borrowed from the public library) reformats the material from a large wider-than-it-is-tall art style book into a more standard taller-than-it-is-wide format, necessitating reformatting the positions of the text and illustrations/photographs on each page from the original version. (It is also a much more affordable edition, with a release price of only $25.) However, I believe that some of the photos and illustrations were saved for only the original edition (not included in the newer edition).
This 40th Anniversary Edition is a nice thick book (512 pages) covering the production of all three of the original Star Wars movies (“Star Wars”, a.k.a. “Star Wars: A New Hope” (1977), “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), and “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” (1983). The majority of the text is from interviews between author/editor Paul Duncan and George Lucas. The rest is interview quotes with the actors (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, etc.) as well as others behind the scenes (directors, producers, writers, etc. There are also production notes interspersed between the interview sections, including details such as which scenes were shot on which days and involved which actors.
The photos on each and every page are amazing. Behind the scenes production shots (including ones of the actors between takes) as well as preproduction sketches and illustrations.
The only thing that is a bit confusing at first is that the text and the pictures don’t go together, the two progressing along at different paces through the production of each movie. I developed a habit of looking at the pictures first and their captions, then back to whatever things Lucas and Duncan were talking about in the text.
The other thing about this smaller 40th Anniversary Edition release is that the gold ink on the front cover rubs off very easily, leaving partial lettering after your fingers have rubbed the gold ink off just from holding the book. I ended up buying a copy of my own, I enjoyed this book so much, but I just might have to wear gloves when handling it.
I highly recommend this book, though, for any fans of the original Star Wars movies. (There is also a second book covering the prequel trilogy, “The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005 (Episodes I-III), but it’s only available in the original 2020 $200 limited edition version still, no lower priced version as of yet.)...more
I just finished reading “Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Inside the Art & Visual Effects” (2020, Titan Books) by Jeff Bond and Gene Kozicki. I highly rI just finished reading “Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Inside the Art & Visual Effects” (2020, Titan Books) by Jeff Bond and Gene Kozicki. I highly recommend this book for both fans of Star Trek (the 1979 film specifically) and also for aficionados of how motion picture visual special effects are made (or, at least, were made on now classic films like this).
This is a very nice “coffee table” type book with the requisite ample supply of nice big photos (conceptual art, photos of technicians creating the Enterprise, V’ger, Klingon battlecruiser, and other shooting models, pictures of the actors on set, etc.).
This is a nice history of the entire project, the art and visual effects needed to bring the first Star Trek movie to theaters (reviving the franchise and setting the visual tone for all Star Trek film and television projects to follow even to today).
Included in this history is the well known events (well known to Star Trek fans, that is) of how one visual effects studio was hired at the start of production (Jack Abel & Associates) only to be fired after not being able to produce any useable visual effects sequences on film after a year of work and after spending millions of dollars of the film’s budget.
“Star Wars” visual effects veterans Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra then had to be brought in the create nearly all of the movie’s visual effects in only six months or so (the studio having an ironclad contract with the major movie theater chains as to when the movie would come out, a date that could not be changed without losing millions of dollars in fees). Trumbull’s and Dykstra’s companies had to work around the clock shifts to get all of the work completed in time and the finished film was “still wet” as they say when delivered for the big premiere in Washington, D.C. on December 6, 1979.
The book begins, however, with how the project initially began life as an earlier film script in 1976 titled “Star Trek: Planet of the Titans” and then a planned hour long weekly television series titled “Star Trek: Phase II”. A lot of conceptual art had been created for both of these projects and actual physical studio models and interior Enterprise sets had been constructed for the television series when that idea was then scrapped in favor of a film again (thanks largely to the success of both “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”).
The level of technical detail is high enough to explain how various scenes were shot and the technical challenges that had to be overcome, but not so much as to be overwhelming to most of us readers who are laymen to the film and television visual effects trade.
Also very interesting is learning about scenes that were originally envisaged differently from what was shot and, even more so, entire sequences that were shot but weren’t used in the film (like an entire chapter about the shooting of the “Memory Wall” sequence that would have seen both Spock *and* Kirk enter into the inner chambers of the V’ger spaceship in their EVA suits and Kirk get attacked by V’ger’s defenses. Shot practically on a stage over the course of several days, the practical effects (Shatner and Nimoy hanging from wires, the “antibodies” that would swarm and cover Shatner, etc, just wasn’t working as originally envisaged. (This was while Abel was still doing the visual effects.) They decided to scrap this and when Trumbull and Dykstra took over they (I can’t remember which) decided to go in an entirely different direction, the one we see in the finished movie of only Spock entering into V’ger and witnessing its psychedelic light show.
The last chapter in the book looks at how director Robert Wise became involved in revisiting “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” for the Director’s Cut DVD release in 2001. Doing so enabled them to go back and redo some of the visual effects sequences for the DVD as they had originally been envisaged (but which they were unable to achieve in 1979 for various reasons, mostly a lack of time due to the film’s preset release date and the rush to get everything done in time).
Again, highly recommended. The authors conducted new interviews with as many of the relevant individuals as possible and quoted (with permission) from Preston Neal Jones’ book, “Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (2014) (another book that I’m still in the process of reading) for interview quotes with those important to the subject who are no longer living.
I checked this book out from the public library (after asking them to buy a copy) but this is one book that I will eventually have to get a copy of my own....more
I finished reading “Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood” (2020) by Ed Asner with Samuel WI finished reading “Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood” (2020) by Ed Asner with Samuel Warren Joseph and Matthew Seymour. It has a Foreword by Paul Rudd, who appeared with Asner in 2012 in the Broadway play, “Grace”.
Ed Asner, who just passed away at the age of 91 on August 29, 2021, will forever be remembered as the blustery television news producer, Lou Grant, from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1970-1977) and the dramatic hour-long spin-off, “Lou Grant” (1977-1982, in which Lou Grant returns to his roots as a newspaper editor). Younger generations will probably recognize his voice as that of Carl Fredricksen on the Disney•Pixar animated movie “Up” (2009), and he also made a very memorable appearance as Santa Clause in the 2003 Will Ferrell Christmas movie, “Elf”.
Asner did much more than those things in his very long career in live theatre, film, and television of course, much of which is at least touched upon in this book.
I enjoyed reading of his early years in Kansas City and his relationship with his family (parents, siblings, uncles, grandfather, etc.). At details what it was like growing up in a Jewish family at that time and his regret that his father died long before he could see his son’s success as an actor.
He discussed how he got into acting (live theater), then into movies and television. He has stories of working with legendary actors like John Wayne, Marlon Brando, and Sidney Poitier, and on two movies with Elvis Presley.
He talks of his many guest appearances and recurring roles on television prior to getting the role of Lou Grant.
He then has separate chapters on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Lou Grant”. These two chapters are way too brief though, in my opinion, and this is the arguably the most memorable role of his career, but they are only eight and five pages long. Then, again, this is a very short book in general, only 143 pages (only the first 94 pages of which are actually the autobiography; the rest of the book are additional interview transcripts between Asner and co-author Samuel Warren Joseph).
Following the chapters on “MTM” and “Lou Grant”, Asner discusses his time as Screen Actors Guild president and his at that time controversial remarks that he made in regards to the civil war going on in El Salvador, remarks that labelled him in the eyes of many as being pro-Communism and that he believed to his dying day as having caused the cancellation of “Lou Grant” while it was still doing decently well in the ratings and a long period in which he was basically blacklisted and could get very little television or film work (the second half of the 1980s, 1990s, and at least early 2000s).
He finally comes out of this fallow period (which was very hard on him emotionally as he loved his craft, acting) with those breakthrough parts in “Elf” and “Up”. He also started getting television guest roles again and also returned to live theater.
As I mentioned, the first 94 pages are the autobiography and the remaining almost fifty pages are additional interview transcripts. As Samuel Warren Joseph accounts in his introduction to those transcripts, his first draft with Asner was formatted as “an oral autobiography” (more interview style, I gather), but that Asner decided he preferred a more standard autobiography format, which co-author Matthew Seymour “reshaped and rewrote” along with Asner, resulting in this version published as this book.
It is a very interesting read, albeit a short one, one which left me wanting more. Perhaps Asner intended to do a follow up book going more into his biggest roles, I don’t know. I do know that he was a very engaging storyteller as demonstrated here in his autobiography and also on his many appearances on radio shows and podcasts over the past few years like Ed Robertson’s “TV Confidential” and Stu Shostak’s “Stu’s Show”.
For fans of his work, like me, he is already sorely missed and I highly recommend “Son of a Junkman”....more
I just finished reading “The Lost Adventures of James Bond: Timothy Dalton’s Third and Fourth Bond Films, James Bond, Jr., & Other Unmade or ForgottenI just finished reading “The Lost Adventures of James Bond: Timothy Dalton’s Third and Fourth Bond Films, James Bond, Jr., & Other Unmade or Forgotten 007 Projects” by Mark Edlitz (published in 2020).
An interesting (unauthorized by the James Bond literary and film license holders) overview of several never made James Bond movies (including several different story treatments for the aforementioned never made third and fourth Timothy Dalton movies some Dalton only ended up making two James Bond movies before stepping down from the role to be replaced by Pierce Brosnan, as well as unmade stories for Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan), the produced but mostly forgotten (and largely maligned) 1991-1992 “James Bond Jr.” children’s animated series and its novelizations/tie-ins, several James Bond comic book series of the 1990s (including the never completed “James Bond: A Silent Armageddon” and the never released “Barracuda Run”), Brazilian Bond comics, an American James Bond theme park ride, a Heineken commercial shot with current James Bond actor Daniel Craig, and other projects.
Fans of the James Bond films as well as of the “literary Bond” (as depicted in Ian Flemings original James Bond novels and in the subsequent continuation novels and comic books) should find this book of interest. Edlitz (who had written another James Bond related book prior to this, “The Many Lives of James Bond: How the Creators of 007 Have Decoded the Superspy” (2019)) is very knowledgeable of the subject and includes numerous interviews with the writers, directors, and, in at least one instance, actor (a voice actor who plays James Bond in a series of BBC produced radio adaptations of the Ian Fleming novels), who worked on these unrealized or mostly forgotten Bond projects.
My one slight quibble is with the format chosen: a very large (height and width) trade paperback format that doesn’t really suit a mostly text book such as this. The width of the book is greater than my eyes could scan each line of text from left to right without having to turn my head, move the book, or keep looking away and back again, which slowed down my reading quite a bit. (This is a book that would actually “read better” as an eBook, I think.)...more
Late last night I finished reading "These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s: Volume 3 (1978-1980)" by Marc Cushman, the lasLate last night I finished reading "These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s: Volume 3 (1978-1980)" by Marc Cushman, the last in Cushman's three-volume series looking at the decade of the 1970s in Star Trek and, in this third volume, focusing entirely on the development, production, reaction, and after effects of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979).
After a so-so volume two in my opinion (due largely to the material in the second book covering a period when nearly everything Roddenberry was working on didn't actually end up getting produced, so it was mostly about various scripts in development which didn't interest me as much), Cushman's standard format of chronologically working through a Star Trek project (in this case "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"), day by day, from speculation in the fan press regarding a new Star Trek project to the deals being struck to the script being written and directors and producers being hired, and on through actors being resigned or cast, production design, sets being built, cameras rolling, post production (special visual effects, sound design, editting, musical score being composed and recorded), and post release box office returns and newspaper reviews from across the country, again makes for a very interesting read, for the most part.
For fans of Star Trek, a lot of this material has already been covered in other books (including the wonderful "Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture: An Oral History of the Legendary Production Documented As It Happened" by Preston Neal Jones, which I'm also reading at the moment.) However, Cushman's writing style and rapid day-by-day pacing kept me from ever getting bored even it is was information that I was already familiar with.
My biggest interest is nearly always in the actual shooting of a television series or movie, so these are the most interesting chapters to me. I do like how Cushman also includes chapters on the peripheral tie-in merchandise that was being released alongside the movie, such as the Pocket Books tie-in novel written by Gene Roddenberry, the Marvel Comics comic book adaptation, and the various magazines and tie-in books such as "The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Chekov's Enterprise: A Memoir of the Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture" by Walter Koenig, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture Official Blueprints" set, etc.
Cushman spends a huge amount of pages recording snippets from newspaper and magazine reviews that saw print immediately after the release of the movie. He even acknowledges how lengthy that chapter is but states he wanted to give as wide a sampling of all of the positive and negative critical reactions to the movie as he could. I did start to find a lot of the reviews to be basically the same thing over and over again, but those not interested can easily skip to the next chapter.
The other thing that kind of was off putting to me was Cushman's tendancy to, like the the previous two volumes of this 1970s trilogy, feel that he needs to keep defending Roddenberry against perceived slights caused him by the powers all around him, including the various studio heads pulling the strings and making the important decisions. If Cushman feels that Roddenberry was slighted he switches to his editorial type voice, rushing to Roddenberry's defense and at times being critical and derisive of others who didn't recognize Roddenberry's creative talents.
A big element of this particular period in Star Trek history, when the motion pictures were beginning after a decade of no new Star Trek material except for the animated series, is the slipping of Roddenberry's authority and ability to control his creation as the copyrights now belonged to Paramount Pictures, who would end up marginalizing Roddenberry from executive producer on the original 1960s television series to just "producer" on the first movie and then to merely a "consultant" starting with "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan". From that point on, the powers creating the movies didn't have to do anything Roddenberry wanted them to anymore, which was something he became quite bitter about (and probably justifiably so). Eventually he would take a more active role again in the development and production of the first season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", but then his failing health would again sideline Roddenberry.
All of this is important and legitimate material to cover during this period in Trek history. However, in this one area Cushman is not the least bit objective. If there is more than one "take" on a conflict, he nearly always supports and sympathizes with Roddenberry's position, which can be a bit off putting.
That said, I still found this third volume to be a very enjoyable read, right up there with his first three "These Are the Voyages: TOS" series where he chronicled the production of all three seasons of the original "Star Trek" television series.
I'm sure there will be more of these books to come. Next up is the 1980s, which would cover the release of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock", "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (the television series). Cushman already goes into the early development of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" in the final chapter in this book, framing it as the "after effect" of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (how Roddenberry ended up being pushed aside for producer Harve Bennett and director Nicholas Meyer and also the big controversy of the leaking of Spock's death in the second movie well before they began shooting the movie).
I highly recommend this (although, again, there are numerous other books on the making of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" that would probably be just as good)....more
I finished reading Marc Cushman’s “These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s Volume 2 (1975-1977)” (which was just released tI finished reading Marc Cushman’s “These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s Volume 2 (1975-1977)” (which was just released this past summer), checked out from the public library. As the title says, this is volume two of a three-volume series covering the works of Roddenberry (and the history of Star Trek) over the course of the 1970s, the ten year period between the cancellation of the original “Star Trek” television series (1966-1969) and the release of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).
Cushman previously released three volumes simply titled “These Are the Voyages”, covering the original television series, season one being covered in volume one, season two in volume two, and season three in volume three.
I really liked the first volume in Cushman’s 1970s trilogy (his original intent had been to cover the 1970s in just two books but then found enough material to make it three) as it covered a lot of Roddenberry’s lesser covered projects such as the making of the film “Pretty Maids All in a Row” and his pilot films for “Genesis II”, “The Questor Tapes”, “Planet Earth”, and “Strange New World”, as well as the development and production of the 1973-1974 “Star Trek: The Animated Series”, plus the sudden surge of Star Trek’s popularity when it went into nationwide syndicated reruns and the start of the Star Trek conventions.
That was all in volume one (1970-1974). This second volume covering 1975-1977 is more Star Trek heavy as it follows Paramount’s waffling back and forth over whether to bring Star Trek back as a movie, a made-for-tv movie, or as another tv series. Roddenberry and the others hired to produce these projects went through multiple story outline approvals and script rewrites, only to keep having that particular project shelved in favor of a different one.
There was Roddenberry’s “The God Thing” movie script that was being developed from spring to summer of 1975, followed by scripts submitted by various other writers at Paramount’s request from August to December 1975. Roddenberry tried again (along with co-writer Jon Povill) in 1976 with a time travel/altered history storyline. Various other movie script false starts followed in rapid succession (including the Allan Scott and Chris Bryant “Planet of the Titans” script).
Interspersed with all of this are chapters on what all was happening with “Trekmania” at the time: the Star Trek conventions, the various Star Trek books and comic books released during this time, the opening of an all Star Trek retail store in New York City called the Galactic Trading Post, parodies of Star Trek like the one on “Saturday Night Live”, and also information about the various stars of the original Star Trek during this period, what film and television work they were getting as well as comments made in interviews at the time regarding if Star Trek would be returning and if they would be part of it if it did.
There are a few non Star Trek projects discussed in this volume, another pilot film of Roddenberry’s titled “Spectre” (this one a horror themed film timed to take advantage of a brief upsurge in interest in horror and the paranormal, ala “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”; the “Spectre” was actually shot starring Robert Culp and Gig Young and aired as a TV movie of the week but did not go to series because Culp turned in down) and the truly odd situation of Roddenberry being hired to write a feature length screenplay (titled “The Nine”) for a “secret organization” named “Lab-9” which claimed to have made contact with extraterrestrials via channelers and astral meditation. Roddenberry also developed another series proposal, “Battleground: Earth”, for 20th Century Fox, which didn’t get made but which much later on (after Roddenberry’s death) was turned into the “Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict” series.
The entire second half of this second volume is centered around “Star Trek: Phase II”, Paramount’s planned revival of Star Trek as a television series which would be the centerpiece of a brand new “Paramount TV Service” (a three-hour block of programming that Paramount would sell to independent television stations, the first hour being the new Star Trek series and the other two hours being original made-for-tv movies).
Now, there have been other books covering “Star Trek: Phase II” (including the excellent “Star Trek: Phase II: The Making of the Lost Series” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (1997)). So, I’m not going to go into much about “Phase II” here. Those already knowledgeable about Star Trek in the 1970s already know that after a year of development, including the purchasing of stories and scripts for up to sixteen episodes, Paramount then changed their minds yet once again, cancelling their plans for the Paramount TV Service and for “Star Trek: Phase II” as a television series in favor of doing “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” instead.
Cushman covers “Phase II” in his typical in depth manner, just as he did in his previous “These Are the Voyages” books. However, I must admit that for the first time I found myself pushing myself through parts of the book. Part of it may be simply because I was already pretty familiar with a lot of the “Phase II” stuff. However, I was not as familiar with the “God Thing”, “Planet of the Titans”, and other scripts, yet I still found that sections a bit hard to get through. I think it’s because there wasn’t much actual film or tv production going on on these chapters (or during this period of Roddenberry’s career), instead mostly pre-production work. I found reading about the various executives at Paramount and the producers and story editors working with Roddenberry (and especially the “Trekmania” chapters) to be of more interest frankly than reading long summaries of various story outlines and screenplay drafts for the aborted Star Trek films and “Phase II” episodes”. What was so interesting to me in the first three “These Are the Voyages” volumes about the original television series, the detailed accounts of all three phases, preproduction, production, and postproduction/reception of each and every episode, are by necessity missing here because very little of Roddenberry’s projects got past the scripts phase (until “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, which will be covered in volume three).
The other thing that I found a bit disconcerting (and even at times outright annoying) was Cushman’s increasing tendency to step in to defend Roddenberry when others had negative comments about him or their experiences working with him, and also at times editorializing regarding *his* opinion of certain screenplay drafts and story outlines. At one point, Cushman says, “Comedy is subjective and this story [a story outline written by Theodore Sturgeon for “Phase II” titled “Cassandra” that Sturgeon apparently never submitted a finished script draft of] was intended to be humorous, so we’ll let you decide whether it works or not”. I may simply be forgetting but I don’t remember Cushman editorializing like this or using “we” like this in the first three “These Are the Voyages” books, or even very much in the 1970s volume one. This seems to me to be a shift in tone with this volume, one I don’t particularly care for as it takes me out of the more objective “this is everything that was happening at the time” mindset to “this is how Marc Cushman feels about it”.
That said, I did still enjoy much of this massive 600 plus page long book and I imagine that anyone who has already read the previous “These Are the Voyages” books will feel likewise. I give this a three out of five stars on GoodReads.
Cushman’s third volume covering 1978-1980 and the making of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” came out either at the same time or immediately after volume two, so it’s already out, too. I’ve requested that my local public library try to order it as well, just as I did for volume two. (The Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library Cooperative is awesome at trying to get books that they don’t already have upon request. That’s how they added most of the “These Are the Voyages” books to their collection, upon my requesting them to, although I did already also have the first three TOS books as ebooks purchased from Amazon.)
I look forward to reading it should they be able to get it in, even though the making of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” is a subject I have already read quite a bit about in other books (including another that I’m in the middle of reading right now, “Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture” by Preston Neal Jones)....more
Just finished reading a few days ago “Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture” by Preston Neal Jones (2014).
This mammoth booJust finished reading a few days ago “Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture” by Preston Neal Jones (2014).
This mammoth book (672 pages in the print edition; I read the eBook version) has to be by far the most in-depth accounting of the making of the first Star Trek film (although there are others that I have also recently read, such as “Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects” by Gene Kozicki (2020) and “These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s Volume 3, 1978-1980” by Marc Cushman (2020), plus quite a bit is also covered in “The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First Twenty-five Years” by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman (2016)).
This is definitely the source for information on the subject recorded most closely to the time of the filming of the movie and its release in December 1979 as Jones did his research and conducted his interviews at that time, intending it to be released as a special double-sized issue of “Cinefantastique” magazine to come out along with (or soon after) the film’s release. It took too long for Jones to complete the project and so it missed coming out then, and also subsequent efforts to still release it as a Star Trek themed special issue of that magazine or as a book of its own didn’t bear fruit (until now).
It is difficult to really rate a book like this as it very well much depends on the audience you are speaking to. For the casual Star Trek fan (or non fan), this is way too much information. It would completely overwhelm them and they would likely not make it very far into the book (especially due to the way it is organized, which I’ll get to in a moment).
However, for the die-hard Star Trek fan, even though much of this information they are probably already at least somewhat familiar with—and, as I already said, has already been written of extensively in other books and also covered in various television documentaries like last year’s “The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek” series on The History Channel)—this is a proverbial gold mine of in-that-moment personal reflections on the creation of the film that in essence restarted the entire Star Trek franchise (leading not only to subsequent Star Trek films but also the spin-off television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, and all the ones that followed).
Not just the obvious “big names”, like Star Trek creator and film producer Gene Roddenberry, director Robert Wise, script writer Harold Livingston, and cast members William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, etc, but also Paramount executives like Jeffrey Katzenberg, musical score composer Jerry Goldsmith, and loads of behind the scenes crew and visual effects and sound effects artists (way more than I can list here, but ones who worked both in conjunction with the film’s initial visual effects company, Robert Abel & Associate; Magicam, Gregory Jein, and Brick Price Movie Miniatures (responsible for the creation of the studio models of all of the starships like the brand new “refit” USS Enterprise, the Klingon ship, the spacedock, orbiting space stations, and elements of V’ger’s appearance), and the ones ultimately hired to take over the huge job of getting the film’s visual effects completed on time after the firing of Abel, Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra (and their respective effects companies).
This is also a great source for those interested in how films were created in the late 1970s, from the earliest stages like getting the film green lit and the script written and approved, through all parts of preproduction, to the actual filming with the director and the actors (including coordinating with on set special effects personnel to get what would later be needed to merge with visual effects elements later on), through the long and oftentimes back breaking post production process (when most of the visual effects are created, the sound effects, the musical score, the sound mixing, and the editing), and, ultimately the rush to get everything done jn time to strike film prints for the premiere date and hundreds more to be shipped to theaters nationwide and worldwide.
And *this* is the continual refrain throughout the book, about how the film’s release date of December 7, 1979, a date contractually agreed upon between Paramount Studios and hundreds of film exhibitors, was ironclad and could *not* be changed/extended to give them more time, regardless of all of the unexpected happenstances (such as the failure of Robert Abel’s company to produce any useable visual effects work after nearly a year of the film’s production schedule and the subsequent hiring of Trumbull and Dykstra with only a few months left).
Much of the effects work done in a very short amount of time ended up turning out amazingly well considering the shortness of time given them and also the level of film visual effects technology at the time. However, there were many elements that the artists wished they could have just a bit more time to perfect or redo but could not due to the deadline.
More importantly, the necessity to get hundreds of visual effects elements all completed right at the end of the film’s production schedule effected other elements such as Jerry Goldsmiths writing the score (because so much of the visual effects were still not completed), and, ultimately, the editing of the film.
The chief complaint about “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” over the years, pretty much from when it first came out all the way to today, has been primarily about its slow pace and overly long visual effects sequences (in particular Kirk’s journey in a shuttlepod out to the new Enterprise near the start of the film and, later, the long journey into and through parts of the massive V’ger).
Even the film’s director, cast, and other creators mostly agree with these criticisms, along with not enough actual clear looks at what V’ger really was supposed to look like, and also the lack of the personal interactions between the characters that made the original television series so enjoyable (aside from a few good Dr. McCoy moments in the film).
However, according to all (including Robert Wise), the incredible time crunch they were under had a lot to do with these problems in the final cut if the film because they had no time to do any test audience screenings or to do a second pass on the cutting (editing) of the film. The first cut was finished literally with no time to spare, just in time to make the film prints for the premiere in Washington, D.C, and to ship out to the theaters across the country.
All things considered, it’s amazing that “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” made its scheduled release date at all (many working on it felt it would be impossible at times) and that it came out as well as it did.
Again, this is a must have book for many Star Trek fans. I give it five out of five stars on GoodReads.
I must, however, say a bit about the book’s overall organization. While it takes you through the course of the film’s production pretty much chronologically (from the decision to make the film instead of a television series and what had already been done for the tv series prior to that through everything I’ve already talked about above), the actual interview remarks from each speaker are broken up and interspersed with each other through out the book.
It can be a bit confusing, going from a remark by the director, then several paragraphs from a visual effects artist talking about moire patterns and matte paintings, to another visual effects artist, back to the director, then *another* visual effects artist, then an actor like DeForest Kelley, and so on. Not only is it difficult to maintain a consistent train of thought but at times one also loses track of just where they are in the overall film production timeline of events.
And the second half of the book (where it gets into the bulk of the film’s post production visual effects work) gets at times *very* technical. I’m as big a geek about this sort of thing as just about anybody and even I had a hard time getting through some parts detailing difficulties they were having with those moire patterns, matte paintings, compositing of different effects like practical effects shot on the actual V’ger stage with the actors with power surge lightning effects needed in the backgrounds, etc. The difficulties caused by the tight deadlines, but also the limitations of the hardware they were using, which at times produced work not compatible with other elements needing to be merged all together in the same shot.
And that whole sequence where Leonard Nimoy/Spock flies on his extravehicular jet pack through the inner workings of V’ger’s “brain”, all of the amazing lights and color patterns and digitized information given various forms, etc. Much of it I had to read through more than once to try to grasp just what they were saying.
It all made for a very *long* read (after awhile I was only reading a few pages each night, which is why it took me six months to read it all. But, while at times a challenge to get through, I loved the overall experience and highly recommend this book. To certain people. Ones who are into Star Trek as heavily as I am. ...more
I once again stayed up way too late another night last night to finish reading whatever present book I’ve been reading, in this case “Roger Moore as JI once again stayed up way too late another night last night to finish reading whatever present book I’ve been reading, in this case “Roger Moore as James Bond: Roger Moore’s Own Account of Filming ‘Live and Let Die’” (1973).
I really enjoyed this book, which is a day by day diary style account by Moore from his first days of shooting the movie to his last, and all of the many things that go into the making of a major motion picture like a James Bond movie and the many people involved in its making.
The first half of the book or more follows Moore’s shooting on location in Louisiana (mostly boat chases through the bayous and scenes in New Orleans) and Jamaica (where, among other scenes, the infamous Kananga crocodile farm scenes were shot). Then, just in time for Christmas, the first unit returned to England to begin several weeks of shooting at Pinewood Studios (for most of the movie’s interior scenes). Finally, for Moore and David Hedison (who plays American CIA agent Felix Leiter), several days of shooting on location in New York City, including scenes in some of the poorest and crime ridden neighborhoods of Harlem.
Moore agreed to record a daily account of all of this at the time so that this book could be released just before the movie as a promotional tie in. He details his encounters with fellow cast mates (like leading lady/“Bond girl” Jane Seymour and Bond villain Yaphet Kotto (“Mr. Big”)), Bond films producer Harry Saltzman, and director Guy Hamilton.
Even more interesting at times are Moore’s accounts of the head craft services person on location, George Crawford’s attempts to keep hundreds of film people fed each day and on schedule (including once even he accidentally *delayed* shooting for several hours when he accidentally took the car with Jane Seymour’s make up in it to go looking for food supplies, and another story of how, reluctantly, he had to turn over the chicken he was preparing for the film unit’s lunches when a refrigerator holding the raw chicken for a scene with the crocodiles got left off over night and the “crocodile bait” chicken went rancid; apparently even crocodiles won’t eat spoiled chicken).
Moore also details the many days that the weather wouldn’t cooperate, as well as his own various duties off screen such as interviews with various press reporters (the most common question being, “How will your James Bond be different from Sean Connery’s?”), still photography sessions, and promotional appearances.
Being a diary taken at the actual time of shooting, this book also goes into much more detail of Moore’s daily interactions with his wife at the time, Louisa Mattioli (which he was married to from 1969 to 1996), his children, and the personal friends and acquaintances he would spend his off hours with than Moore’s much later written memoirs do when he reflects in them back to this period of time filming his first James Bond film.
I highly recommend this book for fans of the James Bond movies and/or of Roger Moore, as well as those who would find it interesting to see just how a big budget, stunts and location shooting heavy movie of the early 1970s was made. (For instance, it wasn’t until his fourteenth day of shooting that Moore got to speak any real lines of dialogue, the two weeks prior to that having been mostly used shooting the boat chase scenes. Also, the headaches of trying to schedule the “royal premiere” date in London which required coordinating it with whichever member of the royal family who would be available to attend, something that American films—and even most British ones, I would suppose—would not have to deal with, but that is simply expected to happen with the release of a new James Bond.)
As I said, highly recommended, if you can find a copy. As this book came out nearly fifty years ago (1973), it is of course by now out of print. I got my copy to read via interlibrary loan with my local public library system (Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library) borrowing a copy for me from Salem State University Library in Salem, Massachusetts. Used copies can probably still be found online of either the first printings or subsequent printings (some under alternate titles like “Roger Moore’s James Bond Diaries” and “The 007 Diaries: Filming Live and Let Die”).
I give this a four stars out of five on GoodReads (and would probably give it four and a half if GoodReads as allowed for half stars in their ratings)....more
![These are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s, vol. 2 [1975-1978] (These Are the Voyages, #5)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1595545665l/54652681._SX50_.jpg)
Loading...
