Book Review: George Lucas’s Blockbusting edited by Alex Ben Block and Lucy Autrey Wilson

Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Venganza Media, Inc.

Tv & Film, Film History, Tv & Film:film Reviews, Film Reviews, Film Interviews

4.5 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2010

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Including an interview with book editor and entertainment journalist Alex Ben Block! Books & Nachos is now part of Now Playing Podcast. Before our book reviews were branded as Now Playing Podcast Book Reviews, they were released under a separate show called Books & Nachos. That podcast focused on book discussions, most of which tied directly into films we were covering on Now Playing. We’ve now merged those episodes into the main Now Playing Podcast feed for easier access and a complete archive. But these older episodes still have the original Books & Nachos intro and credits on those older recordings. George Lucas's Blockbusting may sound like a book chronicling George Lucas's rise to box office dominance, first through his Star Wars films, and then through Indiana Jones and the other movies he's been a part of; however, this book is actually a cultural and financial look at movies through history, including what Lucas and the editors deemed the 300 "Blockbuster" movies from 1913 through 2005. On this Now Playing Podcast Book Review, Arnie interviews Alex Ben Block to discuss how the included films were selected, and then reviews this book to see if it deserves a place on your bookshelf! {Book Reviews}

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Books and Nachos, a podcast for those of us who find excitement in the pages of a good book.
0:12.5	Fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels, and more.
0:15.5	We are here to help you find something great to read.
0:29.8	Did you know that Nick Nolte almost played Superman before director of Richard Donner brought in Christopher Reeve?
0:31.2	Or that 20th Century Fox told exhibitors that if they wanted the hotly anticipated film
0:35.3	the other side of midnight, they would have to show the far less anticipated movie Star Wars?
0:42.1	How about that Paramount, feeling the script was vulgar, agreed to distribute Psycho only if Alfred Hitchcock financed it personally?
0:49.4	These bits of movie trivia and countless more, I learned from reading George Lucas's blockbusting, the new book
0:55.2	from George Lucas Books, edited by noted entertainment journalist Alex Ben Block and Lucy
1:00.3	Arthur Wilson, the director of publishing for Lucasfilm. Thank you for downloading books
1:04.6	and nachos. I'm Arnie, co-host of the movie review podcast Now Playing, which you can find
1:09.3	at Now Playing Podcast.com, and also co-host of Star Wars Action News, which you can find at Now Playingpodcast.com, and also
1:11.9	co-host of Star Wars Action News, which you can find at SW ActionNews.com. And today, we're
1:17.0	going to be talking about George Lucas's blockbusting, and also I'll be interviewing Alex
1:21.4	Ben Block later in the show. I first became aware of George Lucas's blockbusting last year,
1:26.7	and an acquaintance of mine was one of the writers on the project.
1:29.4	But it wasn't until George Lucas himself promoted the book on The Daily Show with John Stewart that I got a complete understanding of what the book contained, and my interest was piqued.
1:37.7	With a title like George Lucas's blockbusting, you might expect this to be yet another look at George Lucas and his influence on movies with focus on the Star Wars saga.
1:45.5	However, this book is not about George Lucas's movies, but rather what Lucas and the editors
1:50.1	deemed the 300 most influential and popular movies made in the history of film from the
1:55.0	innovation of cinema at the beginning of the 20th century through 2005.
1:59.5	This book is divided into sections based on decade and begins with a brief description of the
	...

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