Director Biography

The first major biography of one of Old Hollywood’s greatest directors. Sometime partner of the eccentric Howard Hughes, drinking buddy of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, an inveterate gambler and a notorious liar, Howard Hawks was the most modern of the great masters and one of the first directors to declare his independence from the major studios. He played Svengali to Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, and others, but Hawks’s greatest creation may have been himself.

Bestselling author of Capote’s Women Laurence Leamer shares an engrossing account of the enigmatic director Alfred Hitchcock that finally puts the dazzling actresses he cast in his legendary movies at the center of the story. Alfred Hitchcock was fixated—not just on the dark, twisty stories...

Born to immigrant parents and raised in the slums of Toronto during the Depression, Ted Kotcheff learned storytelling on the streets before taking a stagehand job at CBC Television. Discovering his skills with actors and production, Kotcheff went on to direct some of the greatest films of the freewheeling 1970s, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Wake in Fright, and North Dallas Forty.

In Solid Ivory, a carefully crafted mosaic of memories, portraits, and reflections, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Ivory, a partner in the legendary Merchant Ivory Productions and the director of A Room with a View, Howards End, Maurice, and The Remains of the Day, tells stories from his remarkable life and career as one of the most influential directors of his time. At times, he touches on his love affairs, looking back coolly and with unexpected frankness.

An in-depth look at, and written in collaboration with, the man considered to be the most profound, and commercially successful director at work today--a franchise unto himself--whose deeply personal million-dollar blockbuster movies (The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), Dunkirk (2017)...

In The Director Should've Shot You, Foster shares all the colorful stories behind his adaptations of films, TV shows, and video games. He had the honor of working on big-name properties like Star Trek, Terminator, and The Thing. He served as ghost writer for the novelization of the original Star Wars and got to write the sequel—sort of. And in between his work for Hollywood, he managed to become a hugely successful science fiction and fantasy author with series like the Adventures of Pip & Flinx and the Icerigger Trilogy.

“A vital book for understanding the still-unfolding nightmare of nationalism and racism in the 21st century.” –Francisco Cantu, author of The Line Becomes a River Stephen Miller is one of the most influential advisors in the White House. He has crafted Donald Trump’s speeches...

Enter the world of director and producer Don Mischer, who has notched a lifetime of history-making moments with Beyoncé and Baryshnikov, Willie Nelson and Muhammad Ali, Olympic flames, inaugurations, and Prince in the rain.

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most listeners, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown - until now. In this utterly captivating audiobook, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature's elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.

From the celebrated film critic and author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film--an essential work on the preeminent, indispensable movie directors and the ways in which their work has forged, and continues to forge, the landscape of modern film. Directors operate behind the scenes, managing...

Victoria Alonso takes listeners on her journey from Argentina to America to Hollywood and illuminates the ways everyone can live in a heightened state of possibility and use their voice for change. “If it has been done, you can do it. But if it hasn’t been done, you should.” It was these words from Victoria Alonso’s mother that imbued in her the power of possibility. First as a young person in Argentina living through a dictatorship, then as a nineteen-year-old alone in America, saying yes to possibility again and again laid the path for Victoria to become who she is today.

Stanley Kubrick revolutionized Hollywood with movies like Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, and electrified audiences with The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. David Mikics takes listeners on a deep dive into Kubrick's life and work, illustrating his intense commitment to each of his films.

Director, writer, and actor Jay Chandrasekhar tells the hilarious stories behind his films Super Troopers and Super Troopers 2 (out on 4/20/2018!), the history of his comedy group, Broken Lizard, and everything in between. Jay Chandrasekhar has spent the past two decades writing, directing, and...

Few figures in Hollywood's history have been as acclaimed and controversial as director Roman Polanski, whose legendary films would stand out if not for the fact that they're often eclipsed by the turbulent life he's led.

Nora Ephron at the Movies offers an unfiltered look at Ephron as a champion of the rom-com and as a feminist Hollywood trailblazer. It explores her life and work by pairing detailed criticism with exclusive interviews with Ephron’s key collaborators, including Andie MacDowell and Jenn Kaytin Robinson, to add color and nuance to her life and legacy. With her singular voice, Nora Ephron flourished as a dominant force in the entertainment industry, focusing on the idiosyncrasies of romance that were universally relatable.

This is an ideal introduction to the ideas of a man whom many regard as the greatest thinker of our time. Here we encounter the stages in the development of his unique philosophy of consciousness, his key intellectual breakthroughs, his theory of history, and his diagnosis of the political ills of the modern age. The book provides a veritable catalog of the thinkers who created the intellectual foundation of the twentieth century.

Writer, actor, and director Desiree Akhavan shares the stories she was told to shut up about—hilarious, horny, heartbreaking tales of a life in pursuit of art, love, and a better haircut. “Hilariously raw, relatable, and—dare I even say—sexy.”—Jessi Klein When it comes to shame...

Jordan describes his work with Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Bob Hoskins, Tom Cruise and many others, but this is not a conventional story of life in the movies. The book is an eerie meditation on loss, love and creativity, on inspiration and influence, by one of the most unusual artists Ireland has produced.

De danske jøder flygtede over hals og hoved i oktober 1943 og måtte de forlade deres hjem, ejendele, formue, arbejde, virksomheder osv. uden varsel. Bogen følger en række familiers skæbne og fortæller den hidtil ukendte historie om jødernes hjemkomst. Hvad skete der, mens de var væk, og hvordan blev de taget imod, da de vendte hjem i 1945? Af danskerne som medmennesker og af den danske stat. Det er fortællingen om, at Danmark også her var et særtilfælde under Holocaust, men også en rystende historie om svigt og misbrug.

It is my personal memoir of everything I learned while assisting my mentor, Brian De Palma, which prepared me for my own successful career as a director on over 50 movies, including Elvira’s Haunted Hills and the De Palma-esque thriller Acting on Impulse starring Nancy Allen (Carrie, Home Movies, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out). It is also a coming out story of my transition from a 19-year-old closeted teenager raised in the conservative South, to marrying a woman, and then finally becoming an openly-gay adult in New York City.