DeVon Franklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Wait and prominent Hollywood producer, reveals that secular and spiritual success are not opposites. To have one, you need the other. Are you tired of living a life paralyzed by fear? Are you anxious to break free of the “beware mentality” that has kept generations of well-meaning people living beneath the fullness of their calling? You’re unfulfilled because you’ve been convinced that you would lose your faith if you pursued the secular ambitions God has put in your heart. However, until you pursue those ambitions you will miss out on the fullness of God and the success you were created to have. For too long there’s been a line drawn between the spiritual and the secular, and we have been conditioned to believe that if we cross this line in either direction, we will have gone too far. It’s time to break down this barrier so you are free to go further than any believer has gone before. The Success Commandments combines spiritual teachings with secular strategies to help you achieve unprecedented success and live the life you were destined to live.

Biblical Epics: Sacred Narrative in the Hollywood Cinema is a major survey and analysis of the relationship between religion and film, and traces the development of this genre in Hollywood. The book examines the impact of religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender on this complex genre, within the context of American history. Together, Bruce Francis Babington and Peter William Evans raise questions of narrative spectacle, Jewish-Christian relations, authorship, star meanings, the representation of Christ, and sexual desire. The authors theorize the Biblical epic in its three main forms: the Old Testament epic; the Christ film; and the Roman-Christian epic. Films analyzed include David and Bathsheba, The Last Temptation of Christ, The King of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Demetrius and the Gladiators, Samson and Delilah, and Ben Hur.

Cultural historian Thomas Doherty tells the story of Joseph I. Breen, a media-savvy Victorian Irishman, who controlled Hollywood's Production Code Administration from 1934 to 1954. Breen's role in this Hollywood office was to censor American motion pictures.

A look at the wide-ranging work of the Golden Age genius who made The Ten Commandments and other blockbusters—and helped found the American film industry. Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood is a detailed and definitive chronicle of the director’s screen work that changed the course of film history—and a fascinating look at how movies were actually made in Hollywood’s Golden Age. Drawing extensively on DeMille’s personal archives and other primary sources, Robert S. Birchard offers a revealing portrait of DeMille the filmmaker that goes behind studio gates and beyond DeMille’s legendary persona. In his forty-five-year career DeMille’s box-office record was unsurpassed, and his swaggering style established the public image for movie directors. He had a profound impact on the way movies tell stories, and brought greater attention to the elements of decor, lighting, and cinematography. Best remembered today for screen spectacles such as The Ten Commandments and Samson and Delilah, DeMille also created Westerns, realistic “chamber dramas,” and a series of daring and highly influential social comedies—while setting the standard for Hollywood filmmakers and demanding absolute devotion to his creative vision from his writers, artists, actors, and technicians. “Far and away the best film book published so far this year.” —National Board of Review

Examines the role of American filmmakers in the ideological struggle against communism