TV & Film 2000

File Updated: 14/12/00

New TV & Film Titles 2000

John Ashbrook The Coen Brothers Pbk published March 2000 by Pocket Essentials at Ł2.99 ISBN: 1-903047-03-X

Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide
Their eccentric vision is borne of a unique relationship: Joel Coen directs, Ethan produces, they both write. Although their films share many themes and, indeed, many actors, their subjects range from the hard noir of Blood Simple via the sophisticated fantasy of The Hudsucker Proxy to the frostbitten comedy-of-errors of Fargo.
Intelligent, experimental, frightening, funny and always delightfully surprising, their films mark a constant high-point in the cinema of the Eighties and Nineties. As well as winning critical acclaim all over the world, their films have led the way for the renaissance in American independent moviemaking and inspired directors like Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting), and the Wachowski Brothers (Bound, The Matrix).
What's in this book? As well as the introductory essay The Curious Charm Of The Brothers Coen, each of their films is discussed in detail, including the enigmatic Miller's Crossing, the perplexing Barton Fink and the madcap The Big Lebowski and there is a handy multi-media reference guide. John Ashbrook edited The Crime Time Filmbook, and his writings have appeared in Film Review, Penthouse, Crime Time and Matrix. Ellen Cheshire is a theatre and TV publicist who has written for Crime Time, Classic Television and Movie Memories.

Titles by John Ashbrook at Amazon.co.uk

John Ashbrook Terry Gilliam Pbk published July 2000 by Pocket Essentials at Ł2.99 ISBN: 1 903047 14 5

Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide
It has been three decades since Terry Gilliam first began unleashing his imagination at us. From relatively humble beginnings as the 'silent' partner in Monty Python, he has gone on to be one of the most influential visionaries working in mainstream motion pictures. Uniquely among Hollywood directors, he has managed to make big-budget movies, with the biggest stars, whilst never quite losing his reputation as a dangerous maverick. By turns hilarious and terrifying, his fantasies constantly challenge you to keep up with one of the most fertile imaginations working in motion pictures today.
What's in this book? The Pocket Essential Terry Gilliam guides us through all of Gilliam's feature films, from his rarely-seen debut Jabberwocky right through to his riotous rendition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Along the way there are studies of Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King and Twelve Monkeys. John Ashbrook edited The Crime Time Filmbook, his work has appeared in Film Review, Penthouse, Crime Time and Matrix and he is co-author of the Pocket Essential Coen Brothers.
'Except for your insistence on my overwhelming Oedipal complex - which I still deny despite my wife looking like my mother - I think it's a great and smart read. I learned an awful lot about my films.' Terry Gilliam

Titles by John Ashbrook at Amazon.co.uk

Raymond Benson Doubleshot Published May 2000 by Hodder & Stoughton at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0-340-751681
See Review by Bernard Knight - Author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series set in Medieval Devon
The New James Bond Adventure
Meeting your double means certain death.
Is this bizarre warning the catalyst for a series of unsettling events that could push James Bond close to the edge of ... madness?
The intricately organized criminal conspiracy called the Union has vowed its revenge on the man who thwarted its last coup. Now, the Union's mysterious leader sets out to destroy James Bond's reputation and sanity by luring the agent into a dangerous alliance of deceit and treason with a Spanish militant intent on reclaiming Gibraltar.
Officially on medical leave as a result of a head injury sustained on his last adventure, 007 ignores M's orders and pursues clues that he believes might lead him to the Union's inner circle. His search takes him from the seedy underbelly of London's Soho to the souks of Tangier; from a terrorist training camp in Morocco to a bullring in Spain; and from the clutches of a murderous Spanish beauty to a volatile summit conference on the Rock of Gibraltar.
Each step brings 007 closer to the truth about the Union's elaborate, audacious plot to destroy both SIS and its best agent: James Bond.
Raymond Benson's gripping new James Bond adventure is one of the strangest - and most terrifying - the agent has ever endured.
'Welcome back, Mr Bond. we've been waiting for you ... Benson has gone back to Bondian basics in a fast-moving world of bedrooms, firm breasts, betting and bruises.' Independent On Sunday
'Spectacular chases, gory killings and a spot of sado-masochism ... addicts of the genre will love it.' The Times

About The Author
Raymond Benson is the author of High Time To Kill, The Facts Of Death, Zero Minus Ten and the novelisation of the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. His first book, The James Bond Bedside Companion, was shortlisted for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Biographical/CriticaI Work. A director of the Ian Fleming Foundation, he lives and works in the Chicago area.

Titles by Raymond Benson at Amazon.co.uk

Raymond Benson Doubleshot Pbk published August 2000 by Coronet at Ł6.99 ISBN: 0-340-75169-X

See Review by Bernard Knight - Author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series set in Medieval Devon
The New James Bond Adventure
Meeting your double means certain death.
Is this bizarre warning the catalyst for a series of unsettling events that could push James Bond close to the edge of ... madness?
The intricately organized criminal conspiracy called the Union has vowed its revenge on the man who thwarted its last coup. Now, the Union's mysterious leader sets out to destroy James Bond's reputation and sanity by luring the agent into a dangerous alliance of deceit and treason with a Spanish militant intent on reclaiming Gibraltar.
Officially on medical leave as a result of a head injury sustained on his last adventure, 007 ignores M's orders and pursues clues that he believes might lead him to the Union's inner circle. His search takes him from the seedy underbelly of London's Soho to the souks of Tangier; from a terrorist training camp in Morocco to a bullring in Spain; and from the clutches of a murderous Spanish beauty to a volatile summit conference on the Rock of Gibraltar.
Each step brings 007 closer to the truth about the Union's elaborate, audacious plot to destroy both SIS and its best agent: James Bond.
Raymond Benson's gripping new James Bond adventure is one of the strangest - and most terrifying - the agent has ever endured.
'Welcome back, Mr Bond. we've been waiting for you ... Benson has gone back to Bondian basics in a fast-moving world of bedrooms, firm breasts, betting and bruises.' Independent On Sunday
'Spectacular chases, gory killings and a spot of sado-masochism ... addicts of the genre will love it.' The Times
About The Author
Raymond Benson is the author of High Time To Kill, The Facts Of Death, Zero Minus Ten and the novelisation of the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. His first book, The James Bond Bedside Companion, was shortlisted for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Biographical/CriticaI Work. A director of the Ian Fleming Foundation, he lives and works in the Chicago area.

Titles by Raymond Benson at Amazon.co.uk

Paul Duncan Film Noir Pbk published June 2000 by Pocket Essentials at Ł2.99 ISBN: 1-903047-08-0

Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide.
The laconic private eye ... the corrupt cop ... the heist that goes wrong... the Femme Fatale with the rich husband and dim lover - all are trademark characters of the movement known as film noir, that allusive mixture of stark lighting and even starker emotions. Noir explored the dark side of portwar society - gangsters, hoodlums, prostitutes and killers and showed how it corrupted the good and the beautiful. Many of these films are now touchstones of what we regard as 'classic' Hollywood - The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Big Sleep (1946), Double lndemnity (1944) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
The Pocket Essential Film Noir charts the progression of the noir style as a vehicle for film-makers who wanted to record the darkness at the heart of American society as it emerged from World War to the Cold War.
What's in this book? As well as an introductory overview of the origins of film noir, this Pocket Essential discusses all the classics from the heyday of the movement and includes a handy reference section for readers who want to know more. Paul Duncan edited The Third Degree: Crime Writers in Conversation, and has written Pocket Essentials on Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and Noir Fiction.
Packed with facts, opinionated and crammed with information, Pocket Essentials are the perfect companions to film and pop culture.

Titles by Paul Duncan at Amazon.co.uk

Martin Fitzgerald Woody Allen Pbk published March 2000 by Pocket Essentials at Ł2.99 ISBN: 1-903047-05-6

Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide
Woody Allen: Neurotic. Jewish. Funny. Inept. Loser. A man with problems. Or so you would think from the characters he plays in his movies. But hold on. Allen has written and directed almost 30 movies in an equal number of years. He may be a funny man, but he is also one of the most serious American film-makers of his generation.
Starting life as a humourist, Allen graduated from TV sketch writer to stand-up comic to screenwriter and then director with Take The Money And Run. The slapstick comedies Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex and Sleeper followed. Next were romantic comedies and the brilliant Annie Hall, Manhattan and A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. The more sombre Interiors and September show the influence of Bergman and Chekov. There are family dramas like Hannah and Her Sisters and Allen's fascination with the theatrical history of New York shines through in Radio Days, Broadway Danny Rose, Bullets Over Broadway and his most recent, Celebrity.
What's in this book? As well as an introductory essay Dicing With Death, each of Allen's films is reviewed and analysed plus there is a handy multi-media reference guide. Martin Fitzgerald edited The Third Degree: Crime Writers in Conversation and has written Pocket Essentials on Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles.

Titles by Martin Fitzgerald at Amazon.co.uk

Martin Fitzgerald Orson Welles Pbk published March 2000 by Pocket Essentials at Ł2.99 ISBN: 1-903047-04-8

Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide
Who was Welles? A fat guy with a deep voice who drank a lot of Sherry? An unreliable film-maker who always went over time and over budget? One of the most innovative storytellers of the century? He was all of this and more. Welles shocked Broadway with his all-black voodoo version of Macbeth, challenged the US government with his production of The Cradle Will Rock, terrified America with his spoof radio broadcast of The War Of The Worlds, and then at the tender age of 26, directed what many people consider the greatest American film ever made: Citizen Kane. The popular myth is that it was all downhill from there, that Welles became a fallen genius yet, despite overwhelming odds, he went on to make great film noirs like The Lady from Shanghai and Touch Of Evil. He translated Shakespeare's work into films with heart and soul - Othello, Chimes At Midnight and Macbeth. And he refused to take the bite out of modern literature, giving voice to bitterness, regret and desperation in The Magnificent Ambersons and The Trial. Far from being down and out, Welles became one of the first cutting-edge independent film-makers.
What's in this book? As well as the introductory essay Labyrinth Without A Centre, each of Welles' films is analysed and there is a handy multi-media reference guide. Martin Fitzgerald has written Pocket Essentials on Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and Woody Allen.

Titles by Martin Fitzgerald at Amazon.co.uk

Michelle Le Blanc David Lynch Pbk published March 2000 by Pocket Essentials at Ł2.99 ISBN: 1-903047-06-4

With Colin Odell
Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide
A boy walks through a field and finds an ear on the ground, so he puts it in a paper bag and brings it to the police. At dinner, the tiny chicken screams as a man starts cutting it. In a room with walls that are red curtains, a small man speaks backwards. This is the world of David Lynch, the man with the reputation of being Hollywood's weirdest director. When Lynch's first film Eraserhead hit the art-house circuit, people either loved or loathed it. The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart followed. We were entranced by his TV series Twin Peaks, a worldwide cult hit. Following Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Lost Highway Lynch made a triumphant return with The Straight Story, the story of one man and his lawnmower travelling across country. David Lynch may not be to everyone's taste, but his films are always fascinating to watch - he creates strange and disturbing experiences that are unlike anything else in modern cinema.
What's in this book? As well as an introductory essay In Dreams, He talks To You, each of his films is reviewed and analysed and there is a handy multi-media reference guide. Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell have edited Matrix and are contributors to Vector.

Titles by Michelle Le Blanc at Amazon.co.uk

James Mallory Merlin: The End of Magic Pbk published April 2000 by Voyager at Ł6.99 ISBN: 0-00-651291-7

The conclusion to the Merlin trilogy
Britain, after years of bloody war and dark influence from the pervasive magic of Mab, powerful queen of the Old Ways, is finally, with the help of the Wizard Merlin, peacefully united under the rule of King Arthur Pendragon and his beautiful wife Guinevere. But Arthur, paying for a monstrous sin in his past, vows to set out on a quest for the Holy Grail, and Merlin must seek out a champion to hold Britain while the king is gone. When Sir Lancelot defeats all of Arthur’s knights at the Easter tourney, Merlin knows he has found Arthur’s replacement. But Mab, scheming to topple Arthur out of her hatred for Merlin, causes Lancelot and Guinevere to fall passionately in love, and attempts a desperate final bid to resurrect the Old Ways and destroy Merlin in the process forever.
Based on the major television mini-series Merlin from Hallmark Entertainment. Staring Sam Neill, Helena Bonham Carter, John Gielgud.

Titles by James Mallory at Amazon.co.uk