Writer and critic Chris Nashawaty’s work has appeared in Esquire, Vanity Fair, and Sports Illustrated. He is also the former film critic for Entertainment Weekly. His works as an author include Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and the recently released The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982. The book details the making of classics including Blade Runner, The Thing, and Poltergeist.
Nashawaty tells The Treatment about seeing these films in the theater for the first time as a teenager. He talks about why the time was right for cinematic blockbusters after the so-called “Golden Age” of the ‘70s. And he marvels at how Steven Spielberg managed to conceive of E.T. and Poltergeist during his downtime while making Raiders of the Lost Ark.