Overview

Renowned producer, director, and B movie showman Charles Band takes readers on a wild romp through Hollywood's decidedly un-Oscar-worthy underbelly, where mayhem and zombies reign supreme, and cheap thrills and entertainment are king This book is a blast. It made me want to stay up all night and watch terrible movies. --Peter Sagal One of the most entertaining film bios ever. --Larry Karaszewski Reads like a Tarantino film written by Hunter S. Thompson. --Booklist Zombies, aliens, a little skin, lots of gore--and even more laughs--the cinematic universe of Charles Band is legendary. From the toilet-invading creatures of Ghoulies to the time-travelling bounty hunter in Trancers to the pandemic-crashed Corona Zombies, Band has spent four decades giving B-movie lovers exactly what they love. In Confessions of a Puppetmaster, this congenial master of Grindhouse cinema tells his own story, uncut. Born into a family of artists, Band spent much of his childhood in Rome where his father worked in the film industry. Early visits to movie sets sealed young Charlie's fate. By his twenties he had plunged into moviemaking himself and found his calling in exploitation movies--quick, low-budget efforts that exploit the zeitgeist and feed people's desire for clever, low-brow entertainment. His films crossed genres, from vampire flicks to sci fi to erotic musical adaptations of fairy tales. As he came into his own as a director, he was the first to give starring roles to household names like Demi Moore, Helen Hunt, and Bill Maher. Off set, Band's life has been equally epic. Returning to his beloved Italy, he bought both Dino De Laurentiis's movie studio and a medieval castle. After Romania's oppressive communist regime fell, he circumvented the U.S. State Department to shoot films in Dracula's homeland. He made--and then lost--a moviemaking fortune. A visionary, Band was also at the vanguard of the transition to home video and streaming, making and distributing direct-to-video movies long before the major studios caught on. In this revealing tell-all, Band details the dizzying heights and catastrophic depths of his four decades in showbiz. A candid and engaging glimpse at Hollywood's wild side, Confessions of a Puppetmaster is as entertaining as the movies that made this consummate schlockmeister famous.

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Charlie is the ultimate Hollywood indie hustler...responsible for some of the wildest and most entertaining films in history. Thank God we have a guy like Charlie to keep the indie horror flame burning! -- John Logan, screenwriter, Gladiator, Skyfall, The Aviator, Hugo

"Charlie is the ultimate Hollywood indie hustler...responsible for some of the wildest and most entertaining films in history. Thank God we have a guy like Charlie to keep the indie horror flame burning! -- ""John Logan, screenwriter, Gladiator, Skyfall, The Aviator, Hugo"""

Author Information

Adam Felber is an Emmy-nominated and WGA Award-winning writer and performer whose credits include Real Time with Bill Maher, and the children's programs Wishbone and Arthur. He lives in Los Angeles. A student of neuroscience and speech pathology, Sean Patrick Hopkins has translated his understanding of human behavior and vocal performance into a career in storytelling. His classical training and versatility with dialects has helped to create distinct and varied characters across many genres. In addition to narrating over 100 audiobooks, he has been seen and heard on film, television, video games, and stages in New York City and across the country. When not in the booth, you can find him buried in genealogy research, out exploring our National Parks, and raising an amazing daughter alongside his wife, fellow narrator Patricia Santomasso.

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