the Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 in Bloomington, MN

“Hollywood boldly went where it hadn’t gone before and Nashawaty chronicles the journeys.”
—Los Angeles Times
("Books You Need To Read This Summer")
“Written with a fan’s enthusiasm . . . An important inflection point in Hollywood filmmaking.”
—
New York Times
("Nonfiction Books to Read This Summer")
In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another.
E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing
, and
Mad Max: The Road Warrior c
hanged the careers of some of Hollywood's now biggest names—altering the art of movie-making to this day.
In
The Future Was Now
, Chris Nashawaty recounts the riotous genesis of these films, featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood luminaries and gadflies alike: Steven Spielberg, at the height of his powers, conceives
E.T.
as an unlikely family tale, and quietly takes over the troubled production of
Poltergeist
, a horror film he had been nurturing for years. Ridley Scott, fresh off the success of
Alien
, tries his hand at an odd Philip K. Dick story that becomes
Blade Runner
a box office failure turned cult classic. Similar stories arise for films like
Tron, Conan the Barbarian,
and
The Thing.
Taken as a whole, these films show a precarious turning-point in Hollywood history, when baffled film executives finally began to understand the potential of high-concept films with a rabid fanbase, merchandising potential, and endless possible sequels.
Expertly researched, energetically told, and written with an unabashed love for the cinema,
is a chronicle of how the revolution sparked in a galaxy far, far away finally took root and changed Hollywood forever.