Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
Mel Brooks in the Cultural Industries
Survival and Prolonged Adaptation
by Alex Symons
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
Which strategies has Mel Brooks used to survive, adapt and thrive in the cultural industries? How has he gained his reputation as a multimedia survivor? Alex Symons takes a unique, artist-focused approach in order to systematically identify the range of Brooks’s adaptation strategies across the Hollywood film, Broadway theatre and American television industries.
By combining a cultural industries approach together with that of adaptation studies, this book also identifies an important new industrial practice employed by Brooks - defined here as ‘prolonged adaptation’. More significantly, Symons also employs this method to explain the so far neglected way that Brooks’s adaptations have contributed towards changing production trends, changes in critical attitudes, and towards the ongoing integration of the cultural industries today.
An essential read for film students and scholars researching adaptation, this refreshing new approach will also be valued by everyone studying the cultural industries.
About the Author:
Dr Alex Symons was awarded his PhD by the Department of Culture, Film and Media at the University of Nottingham. Articles of his research have been published in the Journal of Popular Film and Television, the Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, and in Celebrity Studies.
Press Reviews:
This original study not only provides an informative discussion of Mel Brooks' career but also demonstrates how the engines of contemporary culture are fueled by the continual recycling and adaptation of familiar material.– James Naremore, Indiana University
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
See the complete filmography of Mel Brooks on the website: IMDB ...
> On a related topic:
Mel Brooks—Seriously! (2025)
Essays on the Films, Television Shows and Standup
Dir. Sue Matheson
Subject: Director > Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks FAQ (2018)
All That's Left to Know about the Outrageous Genius of Comedy
by Dale Sherman
Subject: Director > Mel Brooks
Blazing Saddles Meets Young Frankenstein (2024)
The 50th Anniversary of the Year of Mel Brooks
Subject: One Film > Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein
Back
