The Jurassic Park Book - by Matthew Melia (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The definitive 1990s blockbuster, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park met with almost universal critical and popular acclaim, broke new ground with its CGI recreation of dinosaurs, and started one of the most profitable of all movie franchises. To mark the film's 30th anniversary, this exciting illustrated collection of new essays interrogates the Jurassic Park phenomenon from a diverse range of critical, historical, and theoretical angles. The primary focus is on Jurassic Park itself but there is also discussion of the franchise and its numerous spin-offs. As well as leading international scholars of film studies and history, contributors include experts in special effects, science on screen, fan studies, and palaeontology. Comprehensive, up to date, and accessible, The Jurassic Park Book appeals not only to students and scholars of Hollywood and contemporary culture, but also to the global audience of fans of the greatest of all dinosaur movies"--

Book Synopsis

The definitive 1990s blockbuster, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park met with almost universal critical and popular acclaim, broke new ground with its CGI recreation of dinosaurs, and started one of the most profitable of all movie franchises. To mark the film's 30th anniversary, this exciting illustrated collection of new essays interrogates the Jurassic Park phenomenon from a diverse range of critical, historical, and theoretical angles. The primary focus is on Jurassic Park itself but there is also discussion of the franchise and its numerous spin-offs.

As well as leading international scholars of film studies and history, contributors include experts in special effects, science on screen, fan studies, and palaeontology. Comprehensive, up to date, and accessible, The Jurassic Park Book appeals not only to students and scholars of Hollywood and contemporary culture, but also to the global audience of fans of the greatest of all dinosaur movies.

Review Quotes

"Editor Matthew Melia and 16 enterprising colleagues dig deep into Steven Spielberg's pivotal masterpiece and reveal everything you want to know about Jurassic Park and the universe it established. Contributors of this work answer questions you never thought to ask about the movie's production, marketing, box-office success, franchising, fandom, ecopolitics, merchandising, and afterlives, as well as the representation of men, Jews, scientists, and dinosaurs. Required reading for every T-Rex, velociraptor, and their hosts of descendants and distant relatives." --Thomas Leitch, Kirkpatrick Chair of Writing, University of Delaware, USA

"The Jurassic Park Book is a timely, necessary collection for students and scholars about the enduring power of popular entertainment and its limitless capacity to imagine new worlds while critically and commercially shaping our own. From franchise expansion to ecohorror nightmare, Jurassic Park harnesses the scholarly vitality of blockbuster entertainment to spectacular effect; its legacy proves again that Steven Spielberg is the master storyteller of this age. Through insightful, original, and rigorous readings lensed through several interdisciplinary frameworks, including fan and marketing studies, 1990s masculine anxieties, ILM's radical advancement in creating digital lost worlds, and the franchise's adaptation to and beyond the screen, Matt Melia's superb collection joyously unveils the film's rich scholarly depth and why it still matters in blockbuster entertainment today." --Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies and American Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

About the Author

Matthew Melia is a senior lecturer in film, television, and English literature at Kingston University, London, UK. He is editor of The Films of Ken Russell (2021), a contributor to The Bloomsbury Companion to Stanley Kubrick (2021), and co-editor of The Jaws Book (Bloomsbury, 2020).