MY NEW BOOK—FROM A NEW PUBLISHER

Exclusive October 5, 2025

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There’s a new publisher in town, and he’s cast a wide net: not only is he commissioning new manuscripts from a field of seasoned writers and directors; he’s also finding unpublished material by filmmakers ranging from Alexander Mackendrick to Abbas Kiarostami. Paul Cronin is the mastermind behind The Sticking Place (Google it to find its Shakespearian origin) and he is utilizing the latest wrinkle in publishing to make it a reality: print on demand. No warehouse, no inventory, just books awaiting customers.

My old friend Nat Segaloff was working on a project for The Sticking Place when Paul when approached me for ideas. Nat suggested a book-length conversation about my life and career, and the result is Every Movie is a Miracle, officially available today, October 1. Paul is even offering a deep discount (more than Amazon!) on both the softcover and hardcover edition at https://stickingplacebooks.com/every-movie-is-a-miracle/

Since space was not an issue, we decided to include some of my writing that first appeared online and a couple of interviews that I cherish—like my candid talk with Robert Young and his wife Betty. If you’ve never read it you may be startled by some of his stories about being a worker-bee at MGM in the 1930s and 40s. I also included some memorial tributes—they aren’t really obituaries—to people I cared about, from Roy Rogers and Dale Evans to David Lynch.

The core of the book is a long conversation between Nat and me, about how I got started, working at Entertainment Tonight, crafting the Walt Disney Treasures DVDs, teaching for 27 years at USC, et al. I like to talk, and this book is proof of that. We decided to call it a Colloquy, which sounds more impressive than “interview” and reflects the fact that it is a two-way dialogue. I dug out a lot of snapshots to illustrate the text and they look remarkably good in their b&w reproduction.

I hope you like Every Movie is a Miracle. I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.

Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin is one of the world’s most respected film critics and historians. He is best known for his widely-used reference work Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide and its companion volume Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide, now in its third edition, as well as his thirty-year run on television’s Entertainment Tonight. He teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and appears regularly on Reelz Channel and Turner Classic Movies. His books include The 151 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, The Great Movie Comedians, The Disney Films, The Art of the Cinematographer, Movie Comedy Teams, The Great American Broadcast, and Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, is a voting member of the National Film Registry, and was appointed by the Librarian of Congress to sit on the Board of Directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation. He hosted and co-produced the popular Walt Disney Treasures DVD series and has appeared on innumerable television programs and documentaries. He has been the recipient of awards from the American Society of Cinematographers, the Telluride Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and San Diego’s Comic-Con International. Perhaps the pinnacle of his career was his appearance in a now-classic episode of South Park. (Or was it Carmela consulting his Movie Guide on an episode of The Sopranos?) He holds court at leonardmaltin.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook; you can also listen to him on his weekly podcast: Maltin on Movies. — [Artwork by Drew Friedman]