Confessions of a Puppetmaster

<p><strong><em>Confessions of a Puppetmaster</em> is a fast funny wild ride through some wild times. Plus Charlie compares me to Harrison Ford so I'm all in! --Bill Maher</strong></p><p><strong>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</strong></p><p><strong>This book is a blast. It made me want to stay up all night and watch terrible movies. --Peter Sagal</strong></p><p><strong>One of the most entertaining film bios ever. --Larry Karaszewski</strong></p><p><strong>Reads like a Tarantino film written by Hunter S. Thompson. --<em>Booklist</em></strong></p><p>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 <em>Ghoulies</em> to the time-travelling bounty hunter in <em>Trancers</em> to the pandemic-crashed <em>Corona Zombies</em> Band has spent four decades giving B-movie lovers exactly what they love. In <em>Confessions of a Puppetmaster</em> <strong> </strong>this congenial master of Grindhouse cinema tells his own story uncut.</p><p>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.</p><p>Off set Band's life has been equally epic. Returning to his beloved Italy he bought both Dino De Laurentiis's movie studio <em>and</em> 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.</p><p>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 <em>Confessions of a Puppetmaster</em> is as entertaining as the movies that made this consummate schlockmeister famous.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>