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The Egos Have Landed: Rise and Fall of Palace Pictures
£3.20
This work provides an insight into the rise and fall of Palace Pictures, one of the movie phenomena of the last decade. It is the story of two mavericks, Steve Woolley and Nick Powell, who through a combination of brash marketing tactics and inspired risk-taking, fought to produce and distribute films during a period when the world had written off the British film industry as dead and buried. Containing stories about Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Bob Hoskins, David Bowie, Miranda Richardson, John Hurt, Neil Jordan, Richard Branson and many other celebrities, it gives the inside story on the company whose films include “Absolute Beginners”, “The Company of Wolves”, “Mona Lisa”, “Scandal” and “The Crying Game”.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Arrow Books Ltd, New edition (17 Mar. 1997) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 336 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0749319461 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0749319465 |
by Mark West
This is a sweeping overview/memoir of Palace Pictures, the upstart English production house that shook things up in the 80s and early 90s, taking in the story of its co-chairmen Nik Powell and Stephen Woolley at the same time. Well written, with interviews from just about everyone involved in the Palace story, this runs at a good pace and has a nice mixture of showbusiness nitty gritty (Powell seems to have spent all his time chasing money) and gossip, whilst also painting a vivid picture of a changing film industry. Although it’s nicely detailed, it does appear to completely ignore some Palace films (some get a name-check but that’s all) but that aside, this is a good read and makes you wish that Palace had stayed around for a while longer (especially when you look at the list of their film credits). Highly recommended.
by Shane Hayes
This book provides a riveting insight into the driven personalities of the two visionaries ( Stephen Woolley and Nik Powell) behind Palace Pictures, whose passion and determination to succeed without accessing the risks provided their downfall.
In truth the films Palace produced were often underwhelming and disappointing, and the companies two biggest success -Scandal and The Crying Game have just not aged very well.
Angus Finney details the frustrating, wearying and at times exasperating world of film financing.
The Egos have Landed is compelling reading for anyone interested in British cinema of the 1980s.