Hollywood Gamers

For years, major film studios have licensed products related to their most popular films; video game spin-offs have become an important part of these licensing practices. Where blockbuster films are concerned, the video game release has become the rule rather than the exception. In Hollywood Gamers, Robert Alan Brookey explores the business conditions and technological developments that have facilitated the convergence of the film and video game industries. Brookey treats video games as rhetorical texts and critically examines several games to determine how specific industrial conditions are manifest in game design. Among the games (and films) discussed are Lord of the Rings, The Godfather, Spider-Man, and Iron Man.

Enjoy this steamy Scottish romance series by award-winning romantic comedy author Evie Alexander! Brace yourself Scotland, Hollywood’s coming… Rory MacGinley wants to propose to his girlfriend, Zoe Maxwell. But what can he offer her when he’s broke, his mother’s out to destroy her, and Kinloch castle is falling down? A Hollywood superstar landing on his doorstep may seem the dream solution, but Brad Bauer’s an absolute nightmare. Brad believes in pixies, past lives, and rewriting history for his movie, Braveheart 2. And when he descends on the tiny village of Kinloch accompanied by crazy celebrities and a mystical holy man, it’s not just the castle that comes under siege. One hot (and bothered) grump in a kilt, one bonkers Hollywood megastar, and a feisty redhead who’s trying to stop them killing each other. When Hollywood meets the Highlands, things will never be the same again… Hollywood Games is a laugh-out-loud, standalone, super-steamy, small town romantic comedy with a guaranteed happily ever and no cheating or cliffhanger – Perfect for fans of Lucy Score, Pippa Grant, Kayley Loring, Tara Sivec, Lauren Landish, Lauren Blakely and Nicole Snow. It can be read as a standalone but is best enjoyed after the award-winning romcom, Highland Games. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Author Josie Juniper loves it! Hollywood Games is the second book in the Kinloch Series, and I adored the first one… utterly charming romcom with everything I love in a heartfelt-and-hilarious romance with just enough angst. Is book two equally delicious? Yes, my darlings. Smoking hot gentle giant with mad bedroom skills? Yep. Utterly winning and quirky FMC who’s so relatable as to make the story that much more immersive? Hell yes. A cast of vivid and delightful supporting characters you grow to love so much that you’re dyyyyyying for them each to have their own book? Oh, indeed. (And MANY OF THEM DO! *squeeeeee!*) Scorching spice? *fans self dramatically* The subplots are massively engaging, handled with Evie Alexander’s deft hand and trademark wit and warmth. The banter is top-shelf. Tension simmers, and the roller coaster ride of emotion is one you’ll want to board again and again. I just love hanging out with these people SO D*MNED MUCH—this book absolutely goes in the “will re-read” category. So many moving parts in this marvelous book, all of it synchronous and page-turning addictive. Download your copy of Hollywood Games today!

The 14 essays in Game on, Hollywood! take on several points of game and film intersection. They look at storylines, aesthetics, mechanics, and production. The book is about adaptation (video game to film, film to video game), but it is even more about narrative. The essays draw attention to the ways and possibilities of telling a story. They consider differences and similarities across modes of storytelling (showing, telling, interacting), explore the consequences of time, place and ideology, and propose critical approaches to the vastness of narrative in the age of multimedia storytelling. The video games and film texts discussed include The Warriors (1979 film; 2005 video game), GoldenEye (1995 film), GoldenEye 007 (1997 and 2011 video games), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2000-2004, television show), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (2003 video game), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003 video game; 2010 film), the Star Wars franchise empire (1977 on), Afro Samurai (2009 video game), and Disney's Epic Mickey (2010 video game).

Complicating perspectives on diversity in video games Gamers have been troublemakers as long as games have existed. As our popular understanding of “gamer” shifts beyond its historical construction as a white, straight, adolescent, cisgender male, the troubles that emerge both confirm and challenge our understanding of identity politics. In Gamer Trouble, Amanda Phillips excavates the turbulent relationships between surface and depth in contemporary gaming culture, taking readers under the hood of the mechanisms of video games in order to understand the ways that difference gets baked into its technological, ludic, ideological, and social systems. By centering the insights of queer and women of color feminisms in readings of online harassment campaigns, industry animation practices, and popular video games like Portal and Mass Effect, Phillips adds essential analytical tools to our conversations about video games. She embraces the trouble that attends disciplinary crossroads, linking the violent hate speech of trolls and the representational practices marginalizing people of color, women, and queers in entertainment media to the dehumanizing logic undergirding computation and the optimization strategies of gameplay. From the microcosmic level of electricity and flicks of a thumb to the grand stages of identity politics and global capitalism, wherever gamers find themselves, gamer trouble follows. As reinvigorated forms of racism, sexism, and homophobia thrive in games and gaming communities, Phillips follows the lead of those who have been making good trouble all along, agitating for a better world.

This is the definitive biography of the most powerful man in Hollywood during the 1930s, '40s and '50s, the man who founded the Hollywood Reporter and the most storied nightspots of the Sunset Strip, introduced Clark Gable and Lana Turner to the world, invented Las Vegas, brought the Mafia to Hollywood, engineered the shakedown of Hollywood studios by Willie Bioff and his mob-run unions, was possibly involved in the murder of Bugsy Siegel, started the Hollywood blacklist, and helped destroy the studio system. Perhaps nobody in Hollywood history has ever ruined so many careers and done so much damage to the industry as Billy Wilkerson. Yet there has never been a solid biography of the man. Billy's son, William R. Wilkerson III, has done tremendous research on his father, interviewing over decades everyone who knew him best, and portrays him beautifully (and damningly) in this book.

Hollywood continues to reign supreme; from award-winning dramas to multimillion-dollar, special-effects-laden blockbusters, Tinseltown produces the films that audiences around the world go to the cinema to see. While the film industry has dramatically changed over the years – stars have come and gone, studios have risen and fallen, new technologies have emerged to challenge directors and entice audiences – Hollywood remains the centre of global media entertainment. The second volume of Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood builds on its predecessor by exploring how the industry has evolved and expanded throughout its history. With new essays that discuss the importance of genre, adaptation, locations and technology in the production of film, this collection explores how Hollywood has looked to create, innovate, borrow and adapt new methods of filmmaking to capture the audience’s imaginations. Touching on classic films such as North by Northwest and Dirty Harry alongside CGI blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight as well as comedies such as When Harry Met Sally and Jerry Maguire, this landmark book charts the changing tastes of cinema-goers and the diverse range of offerings from Hollywood. User-friendly and concise, yet dense and wide-ranging, Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood 2 demonstrates that Hollywood, despite its challenges from independent filmmakers and foreign directors, remains the undisputed king of moviemaking in the twenty-first century.

This is a topical resource that provides a comprehensive look at the most influential women in Hollywood cinema across a wide-range of occupations rarely found together in a single volume. Unlike other anthologies, Hollywood Heroines: The Most Influential Women in Film History is a hybrid of film history and industry information with an exclusive focus on prominent women. This reference work includes more commonly discussed categories of important women in Hollywood film history, such as directors and actresses, and reaches beyond them to encompass women working as cinematographers, casting directors, studio heads, musical composers, and visual and special effects supervisors. The wide range of filmmaking crafts covered in the book provides an acute view of the industry and increases the visibility of and quality of representation for women working in Hollywood. By bringing the experience of these influential women to light, Hollywood Heroines joins a growing movement that endeavors to dismantle harmful, long-standing industry myths that perpetuate the systemic underrepresentation of women and the devaluation of women's stories in the Hollywood film industry.