For more than 40 years, dozens of film directors, writers and producers tried and failed to adapt John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces. Along the way lawsuits were filed, filming locations destroyed, friendships shattered, reputations trashed, production companies bankrupted. Drawing on exclusive interviews, internal documents and private correspondence, this book tells the remarkable story of the non-making of A Confederacy of Dunces as a breathless and absurdist thriller. Celebrity appearances include John Belushi, Steven Soderbergh, Stephen Fry, Robin Williams, Warren Beatty and Harvey Weinstein, among others.

Do you want to pick up a light saber whenever you hear John Williams' Star Wars theme? Do you get the urge to ride into the desert and face down steely-eyed desperados to the refrain of Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Does Hans Zimmer's Pirates of the Caribbean score have you suddenly talking like Jack Sparrow? From the Westerns of the 1960s to 21st century blockbusters, composers for both film and television have faced new challenges and opportunities-evermore elaborate sound design, temp tracks, test audiences and working with companies that invest in film score recordings all have led to creative sparks, as well as frustrations. Drawing on exclusive interviews with more than 40 notable composers, this book gives an in-depth analysis of the industry and reveals the creative process behind the work of such artists as Klaus Badelt, Mychael Danna, Abel Korzeniowski, Walter Murchm, Rachel Portman, Alan Silvestri, Randy Thom and others.