In speaking with FANGORIA about the upcoming NYC screening of BURKE AND HARE (see here), celebrated director and wonderful talker John Landis exclusively told us about MONSTERS IN THE MOVIES, an upcoming joint venture between himself and DK Publishing (the folks behind those gorgeous MAKING OF STAR WARS books), and lo and behold, a bunch of his equally legendary friends are along for the ride!

“I’m doing a book for DK Publishing called MONSTERS IN THE MOVIES, which is basically a sort of an overall compendium. It’s going to have thousands of photos,” Landis tells Fango. “Really, it’s a very unusual and fun book. It’s a very entertaining book to open. It’s not about horror films, but it is about monsters in the movies so that means horror films, science fiction films, fantasy films—any film with a monster. DK Publishing is a big British publisher; they do penguin books. They make very beautiful illustrated books. You’ve seen their STAR WARS and James Bond books.

“I’m almost finished,” Landis continues. “It’s mostly chapters and photographs, but I have wonderful…instead of interviews, I would do conversations. I have very unusual conversations with a bunch of my friends who are monster makers, so there’s obviously [AMERICAN WEREWOLF’s] Rick Baker, but there’s also Chris Lee and Ray Harryhausen and David Cronenberg and Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro and Joe Dante, but they’re different because they’re not like an interview. They’re much more conversations where we really discuss monsters. It’s great fun, and it’s something I didn’t realize would be so much work when I took the job, but I’m pleased with it. It’s a fun book. “

Landis, of course, often teams with Dante and del Toro over at Trailers From Hell, which if you’re familiar with, you know that listening to these guys discuss cinema history is a real treat. MONSTERS IN THE MOVIES is available for pre-order at Amazon UK and looks to have a scheduled release date of September 19. Should be great! Watch for Landis’ BURKE AND HARE preview on Fangoria.com later this week.

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