Gangster Films

by Jim Smith

Published 6 May 2004
Giving a detailed analysis of over 20 films including 'The Racket', 'Big Sleep', 'Brighton Rock', 'Goodfellas', 'Sexy Beast', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Get Carter' and 'Angels with Dirty Faces', this is an essential guide to gangsters through the ages on the big screen.

George Lucas

by Jim Smith

Published 7 February 2011
This guide to George Lucas includes categories such as casting, alternative versions, recurring themes and concerns and expert witness, information on Lucas's inspiration behind his films, both directing and producing - and accounts of his other lesser-known early films.

Bond Films

by Steve Lavington and Jim Smith

Published 1 January 1999
Eon Productions' "James Bond" film series is the longest-running and most financially successful movie franchise in history. When, at the beginning of the 60s, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R 'Cubby' Broccoli acquired the screen rights to the novels of ageing naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming, even they couldn't have predicted how long their series would run - its hero outliving all three of them, surviving imitators, parodies and even two rival Bond film productions, to emerge into a new century revered as an icon and more popular than ever. From "Dr. No" in 1962 through to "Die Another Day", James Bond's cinematic adventures have covered forty years of film-making and encompassed six lead actors, frequent legal entanglements, dozens of beautiful girls and innumerable changes both in film-making and in the world in which the films were produced and released. Using the format of previous books in the "Virgin Film" series, this indispensable and unofficial guide discusses each movie in turn, examining how each was a product of its own time, and looking at how each was affected by the behind-the-scenes personnel drafted in to help 007 through his many assignments.
Using categories such as Source to Screen, Culture Vulture, Director and Crew and Fashion Victims, it also includes an ongoing total of on-screen deaths, martinis ordered and successful seductions, making it the ultimate guide to the film career of the world's best-loved secret agent.

Tim Burton

by Jim Smith and Clive Matthews

Published 4 July 2002
Tim Burton is considered by many to be one of the most respected and commercially successful American filmmakers working in modern cinema. Across nine full-length feature films in 17 years he has demonstrated versatility without sacrificing the thematic and stylistic unity of his work. From "Batman" and "Sleepy Hollow" to the smaller, more personal "Ed Wood", Burton's work has been defined by a personal stamp that marks him out as one of contemporary cinema's visionaries. This guide examines Burton's directorial career, from his CalArts shorts to "Planet of the Apes", as well as side projects such as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and his animated Internet series "Stainboy". Featuring a range of old and new interviews with key figures, contemporary criticism and a look at Burton's forgotten surfing masterpiece, "Luau", this offers a useful reference guide for both Burton's fans and anyone interested in the creation of unortodox mainstream cinema.