From The Sopranos to streaming: the scandalous behind-the-screens story of the TV revolution by the author of the cult film classic Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.

The revolution has been televized. From The Sopranos to Stranger Things, the shows we watch - and the ways we watch them - have been transformed over the past fifty years. Out of the bland wasteland of 'play-it-safe' broadcasting came astonishing stories of sex, violence, and corruption shown first on cable, and then by way of streaming. Today, the power of viewers to select what they want and when they want it is greater than ever before. In short, we are living in a new golden age of television, but golden ages don't last forever. Revolutions have a habit of eating their own, and the era of 'peak TV' may have an unhappy ending.

Pandora's Box is a major new account of the small screen from cultural critic Peter Biskind. Through exclusive, candid and colourful interviews with writers, showrunners, directors and actors, Biskind brings us face to face with the people whose creations we encounter every day on our sofas, and reveals the dynamic interplay of art, commerce and technology. We follow executives down the corridors of power and see how their money and guile cultivate, then crush creativity; we witness the making - and unmaking - of TVs biggest hits. There has never been a more exciting time in entertainment history, and Peter Biskind, the ideal insider guide, captures it all.

BASED ON LONG-LOST RECORDINGS, A SET OF RIVETING AND REVEALING CONVERSATIONS WITH AMERICA'S GREAT CULTURAL PROVOCATEUR
There have long been rumors of a lost cache of tapes containing private conversations between Orson Welles and his friend the director Henry Jaglom, recorded over regular lunches in the years before Welles died. The tapes, gathering dust in a garage, did indeed exist, and this book reveals for the first time what they contain.

Here is Welles as he has never been seen before: talking intimately, disclosing personal secrets, reflecting on the highs and lows of his astonishing career, the people he knew--FDR, Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Laurence Olivier, David Selznick, Rita Hayworth, and more--and the many disappointments of his last years. This is the great director unplugged, free to be irreverent and worse--sexist, homophobic, racist, or none of the above-- because he was nothing if not a fabulator and provocateur. Ranging from politics to literature to the shortcomings of his friends and the many films he was still eager to launch, Welles is at once cynical and romantic, sentimental and raunchy, but never boring and always wickedly funny.

Edited by Peter Biskind, America's foremost film historian, "My Lunches with Orson" reveals one of the giants of the twentieth century, a man struggling with reversals, bitter and angry, desperate for one last triumph, but crackling with wit and a restless intelligence. This is as close as we will get to the real Welles--if such a creature ever existed.

A critical analysis of the rise of independent filmmakers examines the growth of Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival, the rise to power of the Weinstein brothers and their company Miramax, and the successful careers of Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, and other independent filmmakers whose work has transformed Hollywood and the film indust

In the late 1980s a generation of filmmakers began to flower outside the Hollywood studio system and in the following decade, the independent film movement bloomed. Dozens of lesser-known filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino began walking away with coveted prizes at Cannes and eventually the Academy Awards. Many of these directors were discovered at Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival and then scooped up by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, whose company Miramax laid waste to the competition. In Down and Dirty Pictures, Peter Biskind tells the incredible story of these filmmakers, the growth of Sundance into the premier showcase of independent film, and the meteoric rise of the controversial Weinstein brothers who left a trail of carnage in their wake yet created an Oscar factory that is the envy of the studios.

Peter Biskind's extraordinary book tells the story of creativity and excess in Hollywood. From the making of Easy Riders in 1969 to the release of Ragnig Bull in 1980 — when Coppola, Bogdanovich, Scorsese, Lucas, Hopper, Altman and Spielberg were at the height of their powers — Beverly Hills tossed and turned under a blanket of cocaine. All the biggest names spill their frankest stories, about sex, drugs and money, and, most venomously, about each other.

'If there is a better book about the inside of the film industry, I'd like to see it' —Nick Lezard, Sunday Times

A Sunday Times (London), Best Book of 2018 "A thoughtful, entertaining, and occasionally profound critical study of the texts that entertain, move and, sometimes, shape us." --The Spectator (London) "A bold, witty, and brilliantly argued analysis of the role pop culture has played in the rise of American extremism." --Ruth Reichl "You'll never look at your favorite movies and TV shows the same way again. And you shouldn't." --Steven Soderbergh A bestselling cultural journalist shows how pop culture prepared Americans to embrace extreme politics Almost everything has been invoked to account for Trump's victory and the rise of the alt-right, from job loss to racism to demography--everything, that is, except popular culture. In The Sky Is Falling bestselling cultural journalist Peter Biskind dives headlong into two decades of popular culture--from superhero franchises such as the Dark Knight, X-Men, and the Avengers and series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones to thrillers like Homeland and 24--and emerges to argue that these shows are saturated with the values that are currently animating our extreme politics. Where once centrist institutions and their agents--cops and docs, soldiers and scientists, as well as educators, politicians, and experts of every stripe--were glorified by mainstream Hollywood, the heroes of today's movies and TV, whether far right or far left, have overthrown this quaint ideological consensus. Many of our shows dramatize extreme circumstances--an apocalypse of one sort or another--that require extreme behavior to deal with, behavior such as revenge, torture, lying, and even the vigilante violence traditionally discouraged in mainstream entertainment. In this bold, provocative, and witty investigation, Biskind shows how extreme culture now calls the shots. It has become, in effect, the new mainstream.

When the low-budget biker movie Easy Rider shocked Hollywood with its success in 1969, a new Hollywood era was born. This was an age when talented young filmmakers such as Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg, along with a new breed of actors, including De Niro, Pacino, and Nicholson, became the powerful figures who would make such modern classics as The Godfather, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, and Jaws. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the '70s -- an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (both onscreen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme. Based on hundreds of interviews with the directors themselves, producers, stars, agents, writers, studio executives, spouses, and ex-spouses, this is the full, candid story of Hollywood's last golden age.

MARTIN SCORSESE ON DRUGS: "I did a lot of drugs because I wanted to do a lot, I wanted to push all the way to the very very end, and see if I could die."

DENNIS HOPPER ON EASY RIDER: "The cocaine problem in the United States is really because of me. There was no cocaine before Easy Rider on the street. After Easy Rider, it was everywhere."

GEORGE LUCAS ON STAR WARS: "Popcorn pictures have always ruled. Why do people go see them? Why is the public so stupid? That's not my fault."

In this compulsively readable and constantly surprising book, Peter Biskind, the author of the film classics "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls "and "Down and Dirty Pictures, "writes the most intimate, revealing, and balanced biography ever of Hollywood legend Warren Beatty.
Famously a playboy--he has been linked to costars Natalie Wood, Julie Christie, Diane Keaton, and Madonna, among others--Beatty has also been one of the most ambitious and successful stars in Hollywood. Several Beatty films have passed the test of time, from "Bonnie and Clyde "to "Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds "(for which he won the best director Oscar), "Bugsy, "and "Bulworth." Few filmgoers realize that along with Orson Welles, Beatty is the only person ever nominated for four Academy Awards for a single film--and unlike Welles, Beatty did it twice, with "Heaven Can Wait "and "Reds."
Biskind shows how Beatty used star power, commercial success, savvy, and charm to bend Hollywood moguls to his will, establishing an unprecedented level of independence while still working within the studio system. Arguably one of the most successful and creative figures in Hollywood over the last few decades, Beatty exercised unique control over his films, often hiring screenwriters out of his own pocket (and frequently collaborating with them), producing, directing, and acting, becoming an auteur before anyone in Hollywood knew what the word meant. In this fascinating biography, the ultimate Hollywood Star comes to life--complete with excesses and achievements--as never before.

'You'll never look at your favourite movies and TV shows the same way again. And you shouldn't' Steven Soderbergh 'Insanely readable' Slavoj Zizek 'Your book was ... like a bag of pot, with me saying, 'I'm not gonna smoke.' But I was insatiable' Quentin Tarantino on Easy Riders, Raging Bulls In The Sky is Falling! bestselling cultural critic Peter Biskind takes us on a dizzying ride across two decades of pop culture to show how the TV and movies we love - from Game of Thrones and 24 to Homeland and Iron Man - have taught us to love political extremism. Welcome to a darkly pessimistic, apocalyptic world where winter has come, the dead are walking, and ultra violence, revenge and torture are all in a day's work. Welcome to the new normal.