Williamsburg Regional Library

True indie, life and death in filmmaking, Don Coscarelli

eng

Includes filmography (pages 341-342)

autobiography

illustrationsplates

no index present

non fiction

True indie

filmographies

1016943046

Don Coscarelli

life and death in filmmaking

"From Don Coscarelli, the celebrated filmmaker behind many cherished cult classics, comes a memoir that's both a revealing autobiography and an indie film crash course. Best known for his horror/sci-fi/fantasy films including Phantasm, The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-tep and John Dies at the End, now he's taking you on a white-knuckle ride through the rough-and-tumble world of indie film. Join Coscarelli as he sells his first feature film to Universal Pictures and gets his own office on the studio lot while still in his teens. Travel with him as he chaperones three out-of-control child actors as they barnstorm Japan, almost drowns actress Catherine Keener in her first film role, and transforms a novella about Elvis Presley battling a four-thousand-year-old Egyptian mummy into a beloved cult classic film. Witness the incredible cast of characters he meets along the way, from heavy metal god Ronnie James Dio to first-time filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. Learn how breaking bread with genre icons Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter and Guillermo Del Toro leads to a major cable series. And watch as he and zombie king George A. Romero together take over an unprepared national network television show with their tales of blood and horror. This memoir fits an entire film school education into a single book. It's loaded with behind-the-scenes stories: Coscarelli setting his face on fire during the making of Phantasm, hearing Bruce Campbell's most important question before agreeing to star in Bubba Ho-tep, and crafting a horror thriller into a franchise phenomenon spanning four decades. Find out how Coscarelli managed to retain creative and financial control of his artistic works in an industry ruled by power-hungry predators, and all without going insane or bankrupt. True Indie will prove indispensable for fans of Coscarelli's movies, aspiring filmmakers, and anyone who loves a story of an underdog who prevails while not betraying what he believes in."--Dust jacket

Prologue: So you want to be an indie filmmaker? -- Bike safety week -- Saltpeter and sugar -- The YMCA is where it's at! -- Lessons from the Zoetrope Film Book -- And you shall be a man -- A feature film before we're twenty? -- Hey, I can do it better than that! -- "A bunch of this" -- My true college years -- The wisdom of ignorance -- The Saturday night massacre -- A kind critic -- An office on the Universal lot -- Filming on and off the Universal lot -- The great Fred Myrow (with an appearance by Jim Morrison) -- Finding America -- End of a partnership -- Bombs away -- Evicted! -- Making another indie--Kenny & Company -- Casting the kids -- Camp Kenny -- The Jim-Mobile -- A turn to horror -- Balls to the wall -- Mopar Mania -- Big in Japan! -- Phantasm's first screening -- Phantasm's lonely journey -- Barnstorming America with the Tall Man -- Taming the Beastmaster -- Welcome to the jungle -- Why I never sit in a director's chair -- Beastmaster unchained -- The last Charlie's angel -- The day I quit The Beastmaster -- Ferret kisses tiger -- Requiem for The Beastmaster -- Dodging a Silver Bullet -- The last in line -- A good omen -- The South Bay film pack -- The actor's quest -- Drowning in the Kern River -- A fifty-thousand-dollar gamble -- Cold in July -- Funding another Phantasm -- Not casting Brad Pitt -- Phantasm II: War stories -- Hey Joe -- Screening rooms -- Lord of the Dead -- A student to remember -- Phantasm 1999 -- A couple of web-slingers -- Journey into Oblivion -- Everything I ever needed to know in life, I learned from pro wrestling -- Unraveling a mummy -- One crank call -- Mummy business -- Heartbreak Ho-tep -- It's now or never (self-distributing Bubba Ho-tep) -- The masters of horror -- The late great Bubba Nosferatu -- "Incident on and off a mountain road" -- Starting a fifth and finishing a sixth Phantasm -- Phantasm Ravager -- Zombies and robots -- Don Coscarelli's five-minute film school -- Sundance memories -- Finishing Phantasm -- A bad robot this way comes -- A tall man -- The shape of things to come -- Hollywood Forever cemetery -- Epilogue -- Music up (roll end credits) -- Don Coscarelli filmography

adult