..and here are the next three in the series (the Lethal Weapon cover was shown before, but has now changed).
I now know the designer: it's Spacesick (possibly not his real name), who was responsible for (and probably hired on the strength of) his very clever 'I Can Read Movies' series of films-as-book-covers (see the full set here).
10 comments:
I'm always glad to see serious criticism focused on films that highbrow critics would never touch, but it's hard to imagine The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training being entirely deserving of such analysis. As long as they're doing John Carpenter, where's a book about The Thing?
As a sidenote, anyone who's not familiar with Outlaw Vern, should be. His books include Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal and Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer!: Writings on Bruce Willis, Badass Cinema and Other Important Topics.
Anyway, I love the Heathers cover. Looking forward to more from this guy. He pulls off the neat trick of being both retro and original, which is probably even harder than it sounds.
Craig, you're spot-on. I would love to read a book like this about The Thing! I have to admit I'd never even heard of the Bad News Bears or the film in question. But I will immediately seek out Outlaw Vern.
Just go to outlawvern.com. I'm just a reader of the site, and haven't bought either of the books. I particularly recommend "Nothing Lasts Forever: The Birth of Die Hard" (http://tinyurl.com/45xesgj) and his review of Transformers (http://tinyurl.com/3vt6bpd), but you'll find his greatness all over the site.
The concept of these Deep Focus books intrigues me, but they've yet to cover a film of which I count myself a fan. (I admire many of them, but not enough to read a book-length criticism.) Where's the Highlander book? Or the 1954 Godzilla? And it would be nice to see one focusing on more than one film. I recently read about a book called England's Secret Weapon, which is devoted specifically to the World War II-era Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone, and I want to see more books like that. How about films based on the writing of Dashiell Hammett? Films based on the Tom Ripley novels? Adaptations of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend? Adaptations of The War of the Worlds? Adaptations of Dracula? (Not all Dracula films, just adaptations of the novel.) Lovecraft on film?
Too bad I have no writing talent, or I'd be writing these myself. God knows I have the knowledge and research.
(In response to Craig's second comment, which has weirdly yet to appear here) Pocket Essentials did some books like that (on topics like Roger Corman, Spaghetti Westerns, George Romero, Carry On Films, etc) including one of films based on the books of Graham Greene, or writen by Greene, which I always wanted to read but which I never found a copy of.
Weird. I thought my last comment was lost forever. Blogspot works in mysterious ways. Let's see if this one shows up.
I remember reading a Pocket Essentials book years ago, and if I remember correctly, it was very light reading, more like a primer for newcomers than a detailed critique. There are also the Rough Guide books which seem to be out of print, which I think were similar to the Pocket Essentials.
I would think that writing books on Corman, spaghetti westerns, Romero, or Greene would be as problematic as writing books on Sherlock Holmes or James Bond, for the same reason: there are so many films in each of those categories that a single book can't offer much more than an overview. Someone could certainly write a killer book focusing specifically on Romero's Living Dead films, and maybe a second volume devoted to his non-zombie films.
To edit one of my previous ideas, I would write a book not just on Carpenter's The Thing, but everything Thing-related: John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?", The Thing from Another World, Carpenter's The Thing, the upcoming prequel movie, and the video game and comic books.
They're worthy successors to the 1960s Pelican covers.
There is a BFI Modern Classics essay on Carpenter's The Thing. It's overpriced given the short length of the essay (a perennial complaint for the series as a whole, which doesn't stop me buying them), but is quite good.
Jonathan, I do like those BFIs I've been able to afford. Sean French's book on the first two Terminator films is a favourite.
Those are truly spiffy covers. Too bad the only one I'd want to read I've already read (They Live). Really weird choices of movies they're doing.
I know! I wouldn't mind reading 'Heathers' (loved 'They Live', and am dreading the remake), but The Bad News Bears?!? What???
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