Dr., not sure if your and my interests align completely, but one of the Encyclopocalypse I'm really looking forward to reading is the nonfiction
Empire of the 'B's: The Mad Movie World of Charles Band. I don't really care for Band's later Full Moon Pictures as I think they got too self conscious and campy. But there's something charming in many of Empire's schlocky/bad movies.
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With a b-movie career spanning four decades, infamous producer/director Charles Band has been described as everything from 'The new Roger Corman' to 'The PT Barnum of Exploitation', released over 300 films, discovered Hollywood stars such as Demi Moore, Helen Hunt and Viggo Mortensen, and brought to our screens bona fide cult hits such as Tourist Trap, Re-Animator, Trancers, From Beyond and Intruder. With such an inexhaustible output, perhaps it is little surprise that no book has attempted to cover this most prolific of moviemakers, who grew up on his father's film sets; living and breathing horror, fantasy and sci-fi movies since his brief childhood appearance in the sword 'n' sandal epic The Avenger in 1962. No book until now, that is…
In Empire of the 'B's, writers Dave Jay, William S. Wilson & Torsten Dewi attempt to deconstruct the movies and career of Charles Band, spanning the 'golden age' of 1973-1988 via exhaustive movie reviews and exclusive interviews with many of the key players that have passed through Charlie's fun factory, including Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, Robert Ginty, David Schmoeller, Tim Thomerson, Albert Pyun, Jeff Burr and Joe Haldeman, not to mention Charles Band himself.
Empire of the 'B's traces Band's 1970s drive-in beginnings through to his 1980s 'Empire Pictures' heyday as a movie mogul in Italy: an era of freaky fairy-tales, killer dolls, Lovecraft monstrosities and unexpected encounters with John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, Clive Barker, Frank Darabont, and Renny Harlin.
This edition has been revised and expanded by the original authors, featuring additional reviews, interviews and features, making this a tale that no true cult movie fanatic can afford to miss…
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