The future was now Madmen, mavericks, and the epic sci-fi summer of 1982

T he new book by Nashawaty (Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story, 2018) focuses on the summer of 1982, when eight sf and fantasy films competed for box-office bucks in a battle that would shape the future of the film industry. These movies were E.T.: The Extraterrestrial; Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan; The Thing; Tron; Conan the Barbarian; Blade Runner; Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior; and Poltergeist. Nashawaty chronicles the history and reception of each movie, with particular emphasis on what the filmmakers and the studios had at stake (for some, the success of their f ilm was make-or-break). The book is full of fascinating nuggets (for example, that John Carpenter used to write a monthly magazine column about pro wrestling), and its writing is lively and entertaining (he writes that the stunts in Mad Max 2 were so dangerous that there was an "ambulance that constantly sat idling on the set . . . waiting to ferry fresh meat to the hospital." The book is an absolute must-read for fans of films and books about films, drawing on interviews with such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Tobe Hooper, William Shatner, John Carpenter, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Blade Runner, E.T., and other early 1980s blockbusters heralded a new era for Hollywood sci-fi, according to this entertaining history. Film critic Nashawaty (Caddyshack) explains how in the aftermath of Star Wars's 1977 box office success, studios began throwing money at sci-fi and fantasy fare they had previously deemed "corny kids' stuff," ushering in a new era of big-budget genre flicks that kicked off in earnest with 1982's stacked summer schedule. Detailing this sea change through accounts of how eight films released that summer were made, Nashawaty recounts how Steven Spielberg initially wanted a darker tone for E.T. (an early draft featured an evil companion of E.T.'s "who could kill animals with one touch of his long, bony finger") before taking the film in a more heartwarming direction. Elsewhere, Nashawaty discusses how Ridley Scott took on Blade Runner to distract himself from his brother's death, and how John Carpenter struggled to shoot The Thing near the Canada-Alaska border because the subzero temperatures shattered camera lenses. Nashawaty's writing has a propulsive rhythm (he suggests that George Miller wanted The Road Warrior to be "one big vehicular orgy choreographed as skillfully as a Busby Berkeley musical hopped up on cheap trucker speed") and the behind-the-scenes stories will make readers feel like they've stepped on set. This is a blast. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary. (July)

A fast-paced, opinionated portrait of a magical stretch in the summer of 1982, when theaters welcomed a slate of now-iconic sci-fi and fantasy films. Former Entertainment Weekly critic Nashawaty, author of books about Roger Corman and the cult classic Caddyshack, writes of a time when "geek would go lucratively chic." The summer of 1982 saw the release of such memorable films as Blade Runner, Tron, Conan the Barbarian, The Road Warrior, and The Thing, none born easily. Their story begins with the arrival of George Lucas' Star Wars in 1977, which, in the summer of 1982, would cede its box-office-champ crown to Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. In the five years in between, studios scrambled to get a piece of the sci-fi pie while executives watched in dismay as budgets swelled and schedules slipped. Throughout this consistently entertaining narrative, Nashawaty merrily dispenses dish. For example, he explores how postproduction is where good films can morph into classics, "that is, if everyone is on the same page." He quickly adds that Ridley Scott's Blade Runner was a canonical instance where everyone was very much not on the same page: Scott promised Harrison Ford, for instance, that his voiceover narration would be removed, which didn't happen, since without it, a baffling storyline would become even more baffling. Ford reciprocated by delivering that voiceover in a monotone that sounded "like a hostage being held at gunpoint." Two highlights in a story full of them are Nashawaty's accounts of Arnold Schwarzenegger's grim determination to emerge from the Conan franchise a bona fide film star, as indeed he did, and the near meltdown of the revived Star Trek franchise as critics "carved The Motion Picture like the holiday turkey it was." An exemplary film history that will appeal to sci-fi buffs and students of the film biz. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.