This book would not have been possible without the cooperation and assistance of so many people who worked so hard with us to bring it to life. First and foremost, our undying appreciation to the hardest-working assistant in showbiz, Peter Holmstrom, who was an ever-reliable resource in helping with transcribing, proofing, and notes on several drafts of the manuscript. And a special thank-you to everyone at 87eleven who gave us unprecedented access to their brain trust and inner workings of their Oz-like wizardry of fight choreography and stunts.
Also, our immense gratitude to Thunder Road (no, not Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” although a thank-you to him, too, for being the Boss) for all their help in completing this volume and especially Gabe Pepe for his persistence in making sure we could always connect with producer Basil Iwanyk wherever he was in the world. We’d also like to thank all our friends at Lionsgate and especially Justin Sardis, assistant to the indefatigable Jason Constantine, whose enthusiasm and support is always infectious and deeply appreciated. In addition, our gratitude to David E. Williams at the American Society of Cinematographers and Steve Pizzello, the editor of American Cinematographer, for their always welcome cooperation as well.
A big shout-out to graphic designer Rob Grom, who designed this book’s cover. Over the years, we’ve looked at a lot of mock-ups for covers; some we liked, and some we had to begrudgingly live with despite our protestations (you can guess which is which), but none have come close to the impactful, elegant simplicity of the stunning design for this book’s cover. Thank you. Also, our gratitude to Omar Chapa for his slick, clean interior design as well.
And of course, a big round of applause to everyone else who took time over the years to be interviewed by us and continued to make themselves available throughout the process of writing and rewriting this book.
We’d also be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the hard work and assistance from St. Martin’s Cassidy Graham, editor Michael Homler’s fantastic partner in crime, as well as the exceptional work of our copy editors, Sara C. Lynn and Chris Ensey, who made us sound relatively coherent as well as well-versed in our Strunk & White’s Elements of Style. Neither of which are remotely true. We couldn’t do it without you.
Finally, our profound gratitude to our erstwhile agent Laurie Fox at the Linda Chester Literary Agency for her cheerleading from start to finish and former Thomas Dunne editor Brendan Deneen, who first took a chance on us over six years ago on our first (and, as it turned out, second) oral history of Star Trek for St. Martin’s. The rest, as they say, is history.