Chuck Griffith, screenwriter for Little Shop of Horrors
"Beverly Gray nails both sides of the complex Corman, the tame and the wild, the cheap and the generous..."
L.A. Weekly
"Gray's sensitive combination of scholarly detachment and firsthand observation have made [Corman] come alive in all his wily brilliance."
Book Description
The original King of the Exploitation Film, Roger Corman has filled his movies with images of blood-sucking vampires, rampaging biker gangs, vigilante strippers, and abducting aliens. During a career that spans fifty years, he has produced more than five hundred films on shoestring budgets, making a profit on nearly every one.
In the process, Corman has become the role model for today’s independent filmmaker, laying the groundwork for the success of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. This guru with a vision has also demonstrated an uncanny eye for talent, being among the first to recognize and employ the abilities of Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, John Sayles, and James Cameron, to name but a few.
In this updated paperback version of 2000’s critically-acclaimed Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking, Beverly Gray takes you behind the cameras and into the heart of Cormanville for a first-hand, insider’s look at the man and the mogul. Interviewing over one hundred of Corman’s friends and associates, Gray provides a compelling look at the private and public lives of this soft-spoken giant of the cinema.
About the author
Beverly Gray was story editor and development executive at Roger Corman’s Concorde-New Horizons Pictures, collaborating on some 170 low-budget films. As an assistant professor of English at the University of Southern California, she taught fiction into film courses. Currently she’s an instructor for UCLA Extension’s screenwriting program as well as a freelance journalist for entertainment industry publications, including the Hollywood Reporter. In 2003, she published Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon . . . and Beyond. She lives in Santa Monica, California.
