About this item
The birthing of Rosemary's Baby: behind the scenes, 50 years onThis Is No Dream: Making Rosemary's Baby is a definitive, illustrated history of Roman Polanski's great 1968 film, from director and casting choices to the kudos and condemnation it received upon its release. During its making, Polanski fell seriously behind schedule and was almost fired; star Mia Farrow faced an ultimatum -- career or marriage -- from husband Frank Sinatra; and actor John Cassavetes nearly came to blows with his genius director. Photographer Bob Willoughby -- a veteran special set photographer who shot for such movies as Ocean's 11 (1960) , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and The Graduate (1967) -- captured it all, along with other studio photographers.The story begins with author Ira Levin, who was struck with the idea that "a fetus could be an effective horror if the reader knew it was growing into something malignly different from the baby expected.
About the Author
James Munn is a film historian and former editor at Architectural Digest, where he produced the "Hollywood at Home" special issues and edited two of the magazine's large-format books, Hollywood at Home and Private Views. He is also a freelance book editor as well as a contributing writer for various architecture and interior design magazines. He is the author of This Is No Dream: Making Rosemary's Baby and recently edited Autobiography of a Magazine: 1920 - 2010, an illustrated history of Architectural Digest by former editor-in-chief Paige Rense. In addition, he and his friends Salvo Lavis and Dave Leonard have created the World of the Weasel series of children's books, which includes the titles Once Upon a Weasel and Wild Wild Weasel. James grew up in rural Nebraska and currently lives in Hollywood, California.
