True Indie
Life and Death in Filmmaking
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- 10,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
Dive into the wild world of indie filmmaking with celebrated director Don Coscarelli's revealing and entertaining memoir, True Indie.
Best known for his iconic horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films like Phantasm, The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-tep, and John Dies at the End, Coscarelli takes you on a thrilling journey through the ups and downs of independent cinema. From selling his first feature to Universal Pictures as a teenager to navigating Hollywood's cutthroat landscape, Coscarelli's experiences are both enlightening and harrowing.
Encounter a colorful cast of characters, including heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio, first-time filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, and horror icons Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, and George A. Romero. Discover the behind-the-scenes stories that shaped Coscarelli's career, like setting his face on fire during the making of Phantasm and transforming a short story about Elvis battling a mummy into a beloved cult classic.
True Indie is a must-read for fans of Coscarelli's work, aspiring filmmakers, and anyone who loves an underdog story. Packed with insider insights and hard-earned wisdom, this memoir offers a comprehensive film school education in a single book, revealing how Coscarelli maintained creative control in an industry dominated by power-hungry predators – all without losing his sanity or going bankrupt.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This autobiography from filmmaker Coscarelli, director of such cult classics as The Beastmaster and Bubba Ho-Tep, reflects its author perfectly: it's an engaging, eager-to-please piece of work. Most of the book is dedicated to production histories of Coscarelli's films, shown here as family affairs; his dad provided financing for his 1976 debut, Story of a Teenager, and his mom pulled triple duty on Phantasm, his 1979 breakout hit, by cooking for the cast, sewing costumes, and doing makeup. Coscarelli proves a natural storyteller on the page as well as the screen, and it's evident that the stories he shares have been told and retold over many years. He takes special delight in describing, at length, the creation of "the ball," a chrome sphere that menaces the heroes of Phantasm and its four sequels, as well as the finer points of the 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda driven throughout the series. The book loses a little steam near the end, with less attention paid to the final Phantasm film, though, in fairness, Coscarelli ceded its direction to other hands. His conversational prose style is straightforward and unadorned, but it readily communicates the director's signature trait his enthusiasm, which is as charming as it is infectious.
