cover image Blade Runners, Deer Hunters, & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies

Blade Runners, Deer Hunters, & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies

Michael Deeley. Pegasus Books, $25 (275pp) ISBN 978-1-60598-038-6

Like buried treasure for cult movie enthusiasts, this memoir from British film producer Deeley is rich with the star-studded backstories and day-to-day drudge work of making major, if unconventional, Hollywood product. Frequently the glue that holds a project together, Deeley's job is, largely, to keep the peace among anxious investors, prima donna talent, and overworked, underpaid crews; in his own words, ""a producer doesn't really make films, he causes them to be made."" Deeley's account of making 1969's The Italian Job (""the ultimate cinematic indulgence for car junkies across the globe"") is as riveting and suspenseful as the film; with the enthusiastic approval of Turin, Italy's own Mafia, a traffic jam scene was filmed in the middle of the city using unwitting citizens, essentially held hostage by blocked-off highway exits. Deeley isn't shy about discussing big-name associates, including Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman and Harrison Ford as actors new to the game. Though this older, wiser Deeley puts his world in wry perspective (""all of us who work on pictures expect the last month to be frantic""), the grizzled movie vet also gives fanboys exactly the kinds of stories they're looking for: ""As Ridley Scott famously said, every movie is like going into battle. But Blade Runner was World War I and II combined.""