Ninjas, Breakdancers, Death Wishes: Announcing THE CANNON FILM GUIDE, a New Book About the Legendary ’80s B-Movie Factory

By Tom Stockman | June 26, 2020

“You fool! You can not stop me! I am the ninja! No one, nothing can stop me!.”

BearManor Media has published The Cannon Film Guide, a Trilogy of Books About the Movies Released By the Legendary 1980s B-Movie Studio, Cannon Films. Order THE CANNON FILM GUIDE HERE

Volume One Available Now: Over 500 Pages Covering the Company’s First Five Years under the Leadership of B-Movie Icons Golan and Globus

From 1980 until 1994, The Cannon Group was responsible for the production of more than 200 films. Quantity, rather than quality, was the key to Cannon’s game: their output included many of the 1980s’ most beloved (and notorious) b-movies. Along the way they dipped their toes into every imaginable genre of movies, made stars out of Chuck Norris and Michael Dudikoff, kicked off the ninja and breakdancing crazes, and kept Charles Bronson working into the twilight of his career. While it’s rare to find a “traditionally” goodfilm bearing the company’s famous logo, it’s even harder to find one that isn’t immensely entertaining from its title screen to the credit roll. 

To be published across three volumes, The Cannon Film Guide will be the first comprehensive examination of the revered b-movie studio’s filmography in book form. 

Now available in both softcover and hardcover editions, The Cannon Film Guide Volume I (1980-1984) explores forty films and franchises produced by The Cannon Group during the company’s first five years under the command of cult film legends Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Through in-depth critical studies and interviews with many people involved in the making of these films, the book tells the stories behind dozens of VHS-era classics. 

Volume One includes a foreword by director Sam Firstenberg (Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, Ninja III: The Domination), interviews with Luigi Cozzi, William Sachs, Catherine Mary Stewart, Diane Franklin, James Bruner, Lisa London, Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers, and more, and nearly 200 VHS covers, rare posters, lobby cards, and pieces of international sales artwork.

The book’s cover art was illustrated by Oisin McGillion Hughes. 

Films covered in Volume One: 
ACTION & ADVENTURE: Death Wish 2, 3, and 4; Missing in Action 1, 2, and 3; Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination, 10 to Midnight, Exterminator 2; Hercules and Hercules II: The Adventures of Hercules; Sahara, Young Warriors (a.k.a. The Graduates of Malibu High), Sword of the Valiant, The Seven Magnificent Gladiators, Treasure of the Four Crowns. MUSICALS & COMEDY: Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo; The Apple, The Last American Virgin, The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, Making the Grade, Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype, Over the Brooklyn Bridge. HORROR & THRILLERS: New Year’s Evil, Schizoid, X-Ray (a.k.a. Hospital Massacre), House of the Long Shadows, The Naked Face. DRAMA & ROMANCE: Bolero, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Wicked Lady, Love Streams, The Secret of Yolanda, Nana, That Championship Season, Body and Soul, Teen Mothers.