ALLEN & UNWIN (dist. by IPG)

What do Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett have in common? They star in American movies and they’re all from Australia. These are just a few of the big names featured in Aussiewood: Australia’s Leading Actors and Directors Tell How They Conquered Hollywood (Oct., $16.95 paper) by Michaela Boland and Michael Bodney.

ANDREWS MCMEEL

Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook 2006 (Nov., $22.95 paper) contains all of Ebert’s reviews written from January 2003 through June 2005, as well as all his interviews and essays.

APPLAUSE

John Simon on Theater: Criticism, 1974-2003 (Oct., $32.95), …on Film: Criticism, 1982-2001 (Oct., $29.95) and …on Music: Criticism, 1979-2005 (Oct., $27.95) by John Simon are three omnibus volumes drawing from his pieces written for New York, The Hudson Review, National Review, The New Criterion and other publications. Singing a New Tune: The Rebirth of the Modern Film Musical from Evita to De-Lovelyand Beyond (Oct., $24.95) by John Kenneth Muir includes interviews with directors and screenwriters as well as color and black-and-white photos. That giant ape will soon be back on screen and in King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson (Dec., $18.95 paper) by Ray Morton. Broadway producer Stuart Ostrow offers his memoirs in Present at the Creation, Leaping in the Dark and Going Against the Grain: 1776, Pippin, M. Butterfly, La Béte and Other Broadway Adventures (Jan., $22.95). Mack & Mabel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Kelly are three of the noisy failures examined by Steven Suskin in Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway’s Big Musical Bombs (Jan., $27.95). I Got the Show Right Here: The Amazing, True Story of How an Obscure Brooklyn Horn Player Became the Last Great Broadway Showman (Oct., $16.95 paper) by Cy Feuer with Ken Gross is a reprint, as are The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin (Nov., $29.95 paper), edited by Robert Kimball and Linda Berlin Emmet, and It’s Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, A Personal Biography (Mar., $16.95 paper) by Charlotte Chandler. Howard Kissel revised and updated Words with Music: Creating the Broadway Musical Libretto (Nov., $17.95 paper) by Lehman Engel. Speak the Speech, I Pray You: Monologues from Shakespeare’s First Folio with Modern Text Versions for Comparison, edited by Neil Freeman, is in three January paper volumes at $16.95 each: Vol. I: The Comedies, Vol. II: The Histories and Vol. III: The Tragedies. The latest entries in two long-running series are Theatre World, Vol. 60, 2003-2004 (Jan.; $49.95, paper $24.95), edited by John Willis with Ben Hodges, and Screen World, Vol. 56, 2005 (Jan.; $49.95, paper $24.95), edited by John Willis with Barry Monush. A 2-hour DVD accompanies The 7 Steps to Stardom: How to Become a Working Actor in Movies, TV & Commercials (Mar., $17.95 paper) by Christina Ferra-Gilmore. Who’s Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film and Television’s Award-Winning and Legendary Animators (Apr., $19.95 paper) by Jeff Lenburg chronicles the careers of more than 200 honored men and women. Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (May, $17.95 paper) by John Muir is the first book to assess the Indian-born filmmaker’s work. The Best American Short Plays 2003-2004 (June; $32.95, paper $16.95), edited by Glenn Young, contains 13 one-acts.

From Glenn Young Books: Gielgud, Olivier, Coward and Guinness are among the personages caricatured in Hirschfeld’s British Aisles (Nov., $39.95 paper) by the noted theatrical artist Al Hirschfeld. Also set for November are reprints of Hirschfeld’s The Speakeasies of 1932 ($24.95 paper) and Hirschfeld’s Harlem ($34.95 paper).

BAKER BOOKS

Spirituality is very hip these days, and the evidence is clear in Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film and Culture (Nov., $14.99 paper), edited by Spencer Lewerenz and Barbara Nicolosi. Movie-goers will find explications in Inside Narnia: A Guide to Exploring The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Oct., $12.99 paper) by Devin Brown.

BARRON’S

Unhappy events that have haunted Tinseltown over the decades are recalled by Denise Imwold et al. in Cut! Hollywood Murders, Accidents and Other Tragedies (Nov., $29.99). 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (Oct., $35), edited by Steven Jay Schneider, is an updated second edition of advice to be taken prior to kicking the bucket.

BOWTIE PRESS

Horses from rowdy westerns, from the chariot race in Ben Hur and from elsewhere on the movie lot are corralled in Hollywood Hoofbeats: Trails Blazed Across the Silver Screen (Oct., $39.95) by Petrine Day Mitchum with Audrey Pavia.

BROADWAY BOOKS

The answers to settle many a heated debate will be found between the covers of The Film Snob’s Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Filmological Knowledge (Feb., $11.95 paper) by David Kamp with Lawrence Levi. One hundred essays by the Chicago Sun-Times’s Pulitzer Prize—winning critic are gathered in The Great Movies II (Feb., $16.95) by Roger Ebert.

BULFINCH PRESS

A conversation with Peter Bogdanovich takes wing in The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane! American Films of the 1970s (Nov., $27.95) by Ron Hogan, a history and photographic survey of more than 400 movies and actors from Hollywood’s so-called second Golden Age of filmmaking.

CHICAGO REVIEW PRESS (dist. by IPG)

Starring in more than 1,500 movies, the city by the bay again gains the spotlight with Celluloid San Francisco: The Film Lover’s Guide to Bay Area Movie Locations (Feb., $16.95 paper) by Jim Van Buskirk and Will Shank. Identifying more than 300 films released over the past 80 years, The Animated Movie Guide (Oct., $26.95 paper) by Jerry Beck covers every animated feature film ever shown in the U.S.

DA CAPO PRESS

Are My Blinkers Showing? Adventures in Filmmaking in the New Russia (Oct., $22) by Michael York recounts the hilarious mishaps he encountered while making an action movie in Moscow. The X List (Nov., $17.50 paper), edited by Jami Bernard, serves as the National Society of Film Critics’ guide to the movies that, ahem, turn us on. The Sound of No Hands Clapping (June, $24.95) is Toby Young’s sequel to How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and a look at his attempts at screen- and playwrighting.

EMMIS BOOKS

The stinkeroos starring actors who should have known better are fodder for many of the chuckles found in In the Can: The Greatest Career Missteps, Sophomore Slumps, What-Were-They-Thinking Decisions and Fire-Your-Agent Moves in the History of the Movies (Oct., $14.95 paper) by Lou Harry and Eric Furman. Today in History: Musicals (Mar., $14.95 paper) by Joe Stollenwerk is a day-by-day account of the shows, stars and gossip that have shaped the history of Broadway and Hollywood musicals.

FABER AND FABER

Two-time Tony-winning director Michael Blakemore recalls his Australian boyhood and the path he followed from acting to directing in Arguments with England: A Memoir (Oct., $30). James Mottram focuses on writers and directors who debuted in the 90s with Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood (Feb., $24). Film critic and Fellini confidant Tullio Kezich shines the light on little-known aspects of a cinema master in Federico Fellini: His Life and Work (Mar., $27.50). David Hare, author of such plays as Stuff Happens and Plenty, discusses his career and his philosophy in Obedience, Struggle and Revolt (Jan., $24). Stuff Happens—the play itself based on direct quotes from Rumsfeld, Bush, Powell and others—was published in October ($13 paper). Steve Pond provides a new epilogue to the paper edition of The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards (Jan., $15). Six unknown musicians resort to bribery and blackmail in 1722 in Bach at Leipzig (Oct., $13 paper), a play by Itamar Moses. The screenplay for Cameron Crowe’s latest film is Elizabethtown (Oct., $13 paper). Original interviews with the director of Nashville and many other great films are edited by David Thompson in Altman on Altman (Dec., $16 paper). (That’s Robert Altman, of course.) The Marquis de Sade serves as protagonist in the title drama of Quills and Other Plays (Dec., $16 paper) by Doug Wright. F. Murray Abraham, who won an Oscar for Amadeus, comments on his portrayal of Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Actors on Shakespeare (Dec., $12 paper). Stephen Adly Guirgis explores divine mercy and free will in his play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Jan., $13 paper). Alan Bennett takes a look at the purpose of education today in The History Boys (Apr., $13 paper), a play that the Financial Times called “his finest work in decades.” Two more plays are Red Light Winter (Jan., $TBA) by Adam Rapp and Swallowing Bicycles (May, $TBA) by Neil Labute.The visual style of the James Bond films is examined by Christopher Frayling in Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design (Jan., $25 paper).

HANNACROIX CREEK BOOKS

In the Great Together: One Act Plays (Oct.; $31.95, paper $19.95) by Seth Alan Barkas is a posthumous collection by a young playwright who was killed in a random street mugging when he was 23.

HARMONY

Suzanne Finstad turns her attention from her previous subject, Natalie Wood, to Warren Beatty: A Private Man (Oct., $25.95), a star with strong Baptist roots that are at odds with his sexy image.

HYPERION

With the musical production of Wicked still selling out in New York as well as on stops during its current tour around the country, David Cote unveils what goes into making a smash with Wicked: The Grimmerie, A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical (Oct., $40).

JUSTIN CHARLES (dist. by NBN)

Reelviews 2 (Oct., $21.99) by James Berardinelli is an updated and expanded successor to Reelviews gathering full-length reviews of the best 1,000 films from the ’90s and beyond.

KODANSHA INT’L

Donald Richie has updated his 2001 tome, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to DVDs and Videos (Oct., $22 paper), which now offers readers new information on specific films and an assessment of the industry as a whole.

LIMELIGHT EDITIONS

The warrior woman archetype in movies and on television presents a perennially popular figure, and Dominique Mainon and James Ursini document its vibrant variety in The Modern Amazons: Warrior Women on Screen (Mar., $20 paper), visiting everything from Xena Warrior Princess to such films as Kill Bill and Blade Runner.

NEWMARKET PRESS

The Squid and the Whale: The Shooting Script (Oct., $18.95 paper) by Noah Baumbach is now a movie featuring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney. Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (Nov.; $29.95, paper $19.95), a visual companion book to the animated film, has a foreword by Burton and a text by Mark Salisbury. Another pictorial edition is Memoirs of a Geisha: A Portrait of the Film (Dec., $40), which boasts introductions by director Rob Marshall and novel author Arthur Golden, photos by David James and a text by Peggy Mulloy.

NORTON

Spike Lee: That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It (Oct., $25.95), as told to Kaleem Aftab, is the provocative filmmaker’s chronicle of his movies and the issues they raise. A Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebook, Theaters (Nov., $75) by Craig Morrison illustrates the history of American theaters from the 18th-century opera house to the modern movie multiplex and is packaged with a CD-ROM. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Oct., $14.95 paper) by Stephen Greenblatt is a new reprint.

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Hey, let’s put on a musical! It can be done with Writing Musical Theater (Feb., $24.95) by Steven L. Rosenhaus and Allen Cohen, who cover the entire process of creating a show. Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle, Updated Edition (Dec., $17.95 paper) is by Susan J. Napier. The Japanese cult cinema from the 1950s through the ’70s comes into its own with Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film (Oct., $19.95 paper), an I.B. Tauris book by Chris Desjardins. The man who put India on the map of world cinema is honored in more than 30 color and 450 black and white photographs in Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema (Oct., $85) by Andrew Robinson. An I.B. Tauris book, its photos are by Nemai Ghosh and its drawings by Ray himself. The Apu Trilogy (Mar., $29.95 paper) by Satyajit Ray is a Seagull Book, the first authorized publication of the film scripts in their entirety. A Saqi Book, The Cinema of Abbas Kiarostami (Oct., $24.50 paper) by Alberto Elena explores the work of the influential filmmaker of post-revolutionary Iran. Three November books from I.B. Tauris, each subtitled Turner Classic Movies British Film Guide, are The Red Shoes by Mark Connelly, If… by Paul Sutton and Black Narcissus by Sarah Street. Each is a $14.95 paper edition.

PANTHEON

Colin McGinn suggests what makes the moviegoing experience such a universally compelling form of entertainment in The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact (Dec., $24).

PLAYBILL BOOKS (dist. by Applause)

Actors, stage managers, musicians, electricians, ushers, publicists and more—better than 8,000 individuals—are featured in the debut of The Playbill Broadway Yearbook (Oct., $29.95), edited by Robert Viagas, which has a chapter for each of the 65 Broadway shows that were running at one time or another between June 1, 2004, and May 31, 2005, as well as a section on shows held over from previous seasons.

PLUME

The Mind of the Modern Moviemaker: 20 Conversations with the New Generation of Filmmakers (Feb., $15 paper) by Josh Horowitz includes interviews with Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy), Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Trey Parker (South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut).

QUIRK BOOKS

More than 100 recognizable—but nameless—actors can at last be identified with Hey! It’s That Guy! The Fametracker.com Guide to Character Actors (Nov., $14.95 paper) by Tara Ariano and Adam Sternbergh. Everything from the classics to doing-it-yourself is covered by Seth Grahame-Smith in The Big Book of Porn: A Penetrating Look at the World of Dirty Movies (Jan., $19.95 paper).

ROUGH GUIDES

Expanding still further beyond its well-known travel guides, the publisher launches a new film series with a quartet of October titles: The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies by Bob McCabe, …Gangster Movies by Lloyd Hughes, …Sci-Fi Movies by John Scalzi and …Horror Movies ($14.99 each paper) by Alan Jones.

ST. MARTIN’S PRESS

The late director/choreographer who scored big with Hello, Dolly! and other Broadway bonanzas is the subject of Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical (Oct., $29.95) by John Anthony Gilvey. Survival isn’t a simple matter in the ferocious jungles of sunny California, but producer Edward S. Feldman teams up with Tom Barton to explain how it can be accomplished in Tell Me How You Love the Picture: A Hollywood Life (Dec., $24.95).

ST. MARTIN’S/GRIFFIN

King Kong (Oct., $12.95 paper) by Joe Devito and Brad Strickland chronicles the great ape’s many film appearances, from the classic 1933 original to the Peter Jackson version set to open next month.

ST. MARTIN’S/THOMAS DUNNE

Four decades of filmmaking are recalled by a noted director in This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me: An Autobiography (Oct., $24.95) by Norman Jewison.

SCARECROW PRESS

The man who wrote hundreds of songs for theater, film and television finally gets his due in Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? The Life of Composer Jay Gorney (Oct., $29.95 paper) by Sondra K. Gorney, his widow.

SIMON & SCHUSTER

Anthony Rapp, the man who went from starring in the Pulitzer Prize—winning Broadway production of Rent to the film version opening this month, writes about his many experiences in Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent (Feb., $25). Charlotte Chandler draws heavily upon a movie icon’s own words for The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography (Mar., $26).

STATE UNIV. OF NEW YORK PRESS

Rebel Without a Cause: Approaches to a Maverick Masterwork (Oct.; $81.50, paper $27.95), edited by J. David Slocum, assesses the legacy of this film classic.

THREE RIVERS PRESS

Stephen P. Williams details the perks and the downsides of living like a celebrity in How to Be a Hollywood Star: Your Guide to Living the Fabulous Life (Feb., $9.95 paper). Few actors were able to remain a romantic lead as long as Archie Leach did, but Marc Eliot explains how he did it under a more familiar name in Cary Grant: A Biography (Oct., $14.95 paper). Clark Gable: A Biography (Oct., $14.95 paper) by Warren G. Harris tackles another formidable Hollywood icon. Two more of the screen’s denizens are captured in Hollywood Causes Cancer: The Tom Green Story (Oct., $12.95 paper) by Tom Green with Allen Rucker and Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter’s Eyes (Nov., $14 paper) by Deana Martin with Wendy Holden.

TIME OUT GUIDES

Time Out Film Guide 2006 (Nov., $34.95) is the 14th edition of this ongoing series and contains more than 16,000 reviews of movies of all kinds. Opinion pieces, reviews, photos and lists fill the pages of Time Out 1000 Films to Change Your Life (May, $16.95).

UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Proving that gossip makes the world go round, Samantha Barbas celebrates one of the most famous big mouths with The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons (Oct., $29.95). Tunes for ’Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon (Oct., $24.95) by Daniel Goldmark listens to the strains that accompany Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry and others. Blake Edwards, Larry Cohen and Paul Muzursky are among the subjects in Backstory 4: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1970s and 1980s (Jan., $24.95) by Patrick McGilligan. Venturing into specific niches are 100 Bollywood Films (Dec., $19.95) by Rachel Dwyer and 100 Anime (Dec., $19.95) by Philip Brophy.

UNIV. OF WISCONSIN PRESS

How I Escaped from Gilligan’s Island: And Other Misadventures of a Hollywood Writer-Producer (Oct., $29.95) is William Froug’s account of his 40-year career. Russell Campbell analyzes the cinematic prostitute as a figure shaped by both reactionary thought and feminist challenges to the norm in Marked Women: Prostitution and Prostitutes in the Cinema (Feb.; $65, paper $24.95). In March a series of classic screenplays in the Balio Film Series will be re-released, including Dark Victory, High Sierra and Mildred Pierce ($9.95 each).

UNIV. PRESS OF KENTUCKY

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (Oct., $39.95) by Stephen D. Youngkin is called the first full biography of the actor remembered here in the words of Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, John Huston and more. An Oscar-winning actress receives her first full biography in Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life (May, $35) by Stephen Michael Shearer. The Nazis were portrayed as the ultimate threat to the U.S., and Robert F. McLaughlin and Sally E. Parry explain how with We’ll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema During World War II (Mar., $40). Richard A. Blake takes a bio-critical look at four essential New York directors in Street Smart: TheNew Yorkof Lumet, Allen, Scorsese and Lee (Oct., $35). Such landmark films as The Maltese Falcon and Pulp Fiction figure in The Philosophy of Film Noir (Dec., $35), edited by Mark T. Conard. A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson (Sept., $22 paper) by Michael Troyan is a reprint of the press’s all-time bestselling film title.

WATSON-GUPTILL

Darcie Denkert charts what happens when Broadway musicals make the trip to Hollywood and when movies are reconceived for the New York stage in A Fine Romance (Oct., $45).

WILEY

For those who love dish, few things are more thrilling than artistic disasters, and they will have plenty to relish in Fiasco: A History of Hollywood’s Iconic Flops (Jan., $24.95) by James Robert Parish.

WRITER’S DIGEST BOOKS

Dialogue plucked from such films as Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falconand Sin City is reassembled in It’s a Bitter Little World: The Smartest, Toughest, Nastiest Quotes from Film Noir (Oct., $14.99 paper) by Charles Pappas.