CALL FOR CHAPTERS

ReFocus: The Films of Tony Scott

Edited by Ben McCann

Edinburgh University Press

Series Editors: Gary D. Rhodes, Frances Smith, Robert Singer, and Alicia Kozma

British director Tony Scott (1944-2012) was and remains a highly influential figure in Hollywood cinema. His work, spanning from the early 1980s to the early 2010s, includes highly commercial action films such as Top Gun (1986), Crimson Tide (1995) and Man on Fire (2004), each combining Scott’s signature visual excess, bold editing style and propulsive approach to narrative and plot. After an early career in advertising, Scott became a master of fast-paced, emotionally charged genre filmmaking, developing a frenetic, hyper-saturated aesthetic that shaped the beats and rhythms of Hollywood action cinema for over two decades. Described by critic Manohla Dargis as “one of the pop futurists of the contemporary blockbuster,” Scott helped redefine what it meant to make mainstream action films with bona fide movie stars, and his legacy endures in the way today’s filmmakers approach chases, explosions, suspense and storytelling.

Scott’s sixteen films, from The Hunger (1983) to Unstoppable (2010), with a collective worldwide gross of over $2 billion, were wildly entertaining. His background in commercials and music videos allowed the ‘high concept’ to merge with a range of thematic fixations – digital surveillance, the anti-hero, revenge and paranoia, and masculinity in peril. The Fan (1996) and Domino (2005) offered subversive takes on stardom, masculinity and gender, while Enemy of the State (1998) and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) retooled 1970s pulpy paranoia and crime for a post-MTV Generation. He directed scripts by Shane Black and Quentin Tarantino – The Last Boy Scout (1991) and True Romance (1993) remain two of Hollywood’s most accomplished blends of action, humour and violence.  For some, Scott’s work was slick and bombastic; for others, this ‘vulgar auteur’ provided a glorious shot in the arm to the Hollywood blockbuster. In Scott’s own words – “I think my films are more rock ’n’ roll.”

This proposed ReFocus edited collection will consider papers on the films of Tony Scott. Some of the themes that authors can think of are:

·      Scott’s early work (short films, advertising and commercials, music videos)

·      Scott as executive producer (Numb3rs; The Good Wife) + Scott Free Productions

·      Male bonding and betrayal in Scott’s work

·      Scott and the revenge film

• Scott’s relationship to other British directors (Alan Parker; Adrian Lyne; Ridley Scott)

• Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer

• Scott and his writers (Shane Black; Quentin Tarantino; Robert Towne)

• Humor in Scott’s films

• Tony Scott as (vulgar) auteur

• Scott and stuntwork/special effects/VFX

• Scott and the critics

• Reception of Scott’s work (esp. abroad)

• Stardom in Scott’s work (Tom Cruise; Denzel Washington; Brad Pitt; Kiera Knightley; Catherine Deneuve, etc.)

• Scott’s visual style (color, editing, cinematography)

• Scott’s legacy (in terms of contemporary Hollywood action cinema)

• Your suggested topic

If you have any questions regarding the topics, please feel free to discuss with the editor. The suggested themes are not exhaustive.

Submissions

Please send expressions of interests and abstracts of up to 500 words (accompanied by a 100-word bio) to Benjamin.mccann@adelaide.edu.au by 31 July 2025.

We will aim to announce successful proposals by 30 September 2025.

Accepted contributors are expected to submit their full chapters of (approximately) 6000-7000 words including endnotes (referenced in Chicago style) by 31 January 2026.