A spectacular and comprehensive authorized retrospective of Oscar-winning visual effects master Phil Tippett, founder and namesake of iconic Tippett StudioFrom Star Wars to Jurassic Park and RoboCop to Starship Troopers, special effects master Phil Tippett has brought his magic to some of the most iconic films of all time. His unparalleled career in visual effects spans more than 40 years, with two Academy Awards, one BAFTA, and two Emmys. This stunning book celebrates Tippett's career, from early Super 8 explorations through his groundbreaking work with Industrial Light & Magic, DreamWorks, and beyond. While Tippett's first love remains the stop-motion animation that made him a Hollywood legend, he was present at the birth of big-screen digital effects, and his genius has evolved with the times. In 1984 he founded Tippett Studio, which has come to specialize in digital effects.Packed with over a thousand behind-the-scenes photographs, Mad Dreams and Monsters includes never-before-published stories from the master himself and a veritable who's who of visual effects luminaries-a must-have for movie fans, film students, and anyone who's ever been captivated by movie magic.

A triple bill of sci-fi cops. The first film, 'Robocop', is set in the near future and Detroit's soaring crime rate is unsuccessfully policed by a corporation which plans to build a new city, if its workers can go about unmolested. When its new 'enforcement droid' proves unworkable, a murdered cop (Peter Weller) is wired into a computer-controlled titanium body and set to the task at hand. Unimpressed, 'Robocop' seeks vengeance on all sides in this violent but often funny tale. In the second film, 'Robocop 2', a new model, Robocop 2 (Tom Noonan), is built while Robocop 1 still patrols the streets of Detroit. Robocop 2 is given a maniac's 'soul', thereby setting the stage for a showdown between the two computer constables. Finally, in 'Robocop 3' Robocop is befriended by a young girl whose parents have been killed, and after his partner is killed by the head of a private security firm, he joins a group of rebels to fight back against the evil businessmen. There is a notable fight sequence between a plastic-like robot Ninja and the sluggish metal Robocop, which, together with the rebels hiding out in the derelict General Motors Factory, constitutes a thinly veiled critique of the Japanese car industry from the heart of Detroit - the original motor city.

"What if the purpose or function of a parable is not to instruct but to haunt?" So begins Listening to the Parables of Jesus, edited by Edward F. Beutner, who suggests that, from time to time, even scholars scratch their heads in puzzlement over the yin and yang of Jesus' parables. This concise, well-edited book brings together insights from world-renowned scholars into the interpretation of parables. Lane McGaughy's opening essay provides high fidelity earphones that let readers hear the vivid and distinctive nature of the language of parable. Robert Miller offers an original treatment of two parables from the gospels of Matthew and Thomas, parables that he renames, "The Overpriced Pearl" and "The Treasure of Immorality." With his eye for narrative structure, film director Paul Verhoeven identifies fault lines in Matthew's version of the Vineyard Laborers and proposes an alternative version in which the ?first will be first.? In his essay on the Leased Vineyard, Brandon Scott demonstrates how rabbinic parables can illuminate the otherwise shadowy nooks and crannies of a dark parable of violence found in Mark's gospel. The final three essays describe the parables globally as artful language events?as fulcrums, so to speak, upon which our understanding of the world gets overturned and undermined. According to Robert Funk, Jesus? parables are knotholes in the cosmic fence through which we glimpse the world as Jesus saw it. In Listening to the Parables of Jesus, leading scholars of the parables help readers find the knotholes. The rest is up to them.