Jerry Bruckheimer

Over the course of four decades in Hollywood, legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer has become synonymous with blockbuster filmmaking. Bruckheimer has had a creative eye and a guiding hand in every aspect of a production’s creation from reading the script on every single episode of the CSI television series to casting soon-to-be stars in their breakthrough film roles. Best known for his wildly successful franchises, era-defining epics, and smartly-packaged action adventure flicks “Top Gun,” “Days of Thunder,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Bad Boys,” “The Rock,” “Crimson Tide,” “Con Air,” “Armageddon,” “Gone in Sixty Seconds,” “Black Hawk Down,” the “National Treasure” movies, and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, Bruckheimer has also turned a lens on the historical moments that redefined American history in “Glory Road,” “Remember the Titans,” and “Pearl Harbor,” and challenged the boundaries of mainstream filmmaking through his work on “Flashdance,” “American Gigolo,” and “Veronica Guerin.” Despite being the top producer in the world, Bruckheimer describes himself as a “meat and potatoes guy,” and strives to make films whose stunning visuals, edgy soundtracks, and compelling narratives cut across lines of nationality, class, education, and language to tell accessible stories that keep us entertained and engrossed.

But Bruckheimer’s greatest gift is his ability to assemble teams that make others’ gifts shine. Jerry Bruckheimer: When Lightning Strikes/Four Decades of Filmmaking (December 31, 2013; Disney Editions) celebrates the producer’s collaborations with composers, screenwriters, actors and directors that have launched careers and won acclaim for the established and the unproven alike. He has employed musical luminaries Giorgio Moroder, Hans Zimmer, Trevor Rabin, Aerosmith, Blondie, and Trisha Yearwood. He has worked with top screenwriters Elaine May (“Tootsie”) and Ron Bass (“Rain Main”) on “Dangerous Minds,” Robert Towne (“Chinatown”) on “Days of Thunder,” and with an uncredited Aaron Sorkin (The Newsroom) on The Rock and Enemy of the State. His films have helped propel Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Richard Gere, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Ben Affleck, Denzel Washington, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom and Jake Gyllenhaal to superstardom, and have given directors Michael Bay, Gore Verbinski, Jon Turteltaub, Paul Schrader, Martin Brest, Michael Mann and the late Tony Scott some of their greatest successes. This beautifully-crafted coffee table book features a foreword by Johnny Depp, a career retrospective by author and unit publicist Michael Singer, and a Q&A with the notoriously shy producer’s wife Linda Bruckheimer, plus page after page of high quality stills from the producer’s most beloved feature films, and incredible selections from Bruckheimer’s personal photos from set.

Jerry Bruckheimer also discusses his journey from a lower-middle class upbringing in Detroit to innovative New York ad man to the world’s top producer, his forty years shaping the movie industry, from his work with revisionist westerns to record-breaking blockbuster franchises, how he will be the first producer ever to receive an upcoming American Cinematheque Award, an honor primarily given to superstar actors and some directors, and the Honorary Golden Nymph Award that will be personally presented to him by Monaco’s Prince Albert at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in June 2014.

Jerry Bruckheimer: When Lightning Strikes/Four Decades of Filmmaking takes a look back at a distinguished career in American cinematic history, revisiting the films that defined an era, challenged studio expectations of what the public would pay to see, and transported audiences to other worlds, and other lives.

ABOUT MICHAEL SINGER

Michael Singer is a writer and production unit publicist with more than 35 years of experience in his field. Singer’s previous books include The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; The Answer is Yes: The Art and Making of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; We Make Our Own Destiny: Behind the Scenes of Prince of Persia The Sands of Time; Bring Me That Horizon: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean; The Making of Oliver Stone’s Heaven and Earth; and “making of” books for “Batman Returns,” “Batman Forever,” and “Batman & Robin,” as well as A Cut Above: 50 Film Directors Talk About Their Craft and 13 annual editions of the pre-internet age reference book Michael Singer’s Film Directors: A Complete Guide.