Sammon, Paul M
Entry updated 1 July 2026. Tagged: Author, Editor, Film.
(1949- ) US film-maker and author who wrote features for Fangoria in 1979 and Omni in 1981-1982 before directing the short films Destination Dune (1983), a six-minute promotional feature for Dune (1984) which was shown at sf Conventions and publicity events, and Shooting "Robocop" (1987), a brief documentary on the making of RoboCop (1987). He began to publish fiction with "In Late December, Before the Storm" (Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, January/February 1985), contributed essays to Cemetery Dance magazine 1990-1997, and edited three anthologies including The King Is Dead: Tales of Elvis Postmortem (anth 1994) (see Icons).
Sammon is of greatest genre interest for nonfiction books about sf Cinema, beginning with Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (1996; exp 2007; exp vt Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner: Revised & Updated 2017), whose first two iterations deal only with Blade Runner (1982) directed by Ridley Scott and whose third also discusses Blade Runner 2049 (2017) directed by Denis Villeneuve. The Making of Starship Troopers (1997) similarly covers Starship Troopers (1997) directed by Paul Verhoeven, and Ridley Scott: The Making of His Movies (1999) examines the twentieth-century oeuvre of Ridley Scott. Conan: The Phenomenon (2007), with a foreword by Michael Moorcock, celebrates the famous Heroic Fantasy character created by Robert E Howard. [DRL]
Paul M Sammon
born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 22 December 1949
works
nonfiction
- Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (London: Orion Media, 1996) [nonfiction: hb/photographic]
- Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (London: Victor Gollancz, 2007) [nonfiction: exp of the above: hb/photographic]
- Future Noir: Revised & Updated Edition: The Making of Blade Runner (New York: William Morrow/Dey Street Books, 2017) [nonfiction: exp vt of the above: covers both Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 films: hb/photographic]
- Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (London: Victor Gollancz, 2007) [nonfiction: exp of the above: hb/photographic]
- The Making of Starship Troopers (New York: Boulevard Books, 1997) [nonfiction: pb/]
- Ridley Scott: The Making of His Movies (London: Orion, 1999) [nonfiction: hb/photographic]
- Conan: The Phenomenon (Milwaukie, Oregon: Dark Horse Books, 2007) [nonfiction: foreword by Michael Moorcock: hb/Frank Frazetta]
works as editor
series
Splatterpunks
- Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror (New York: St Martin's Press, 1990) [anth: Splatterpunks: hb/]
- Splatterpunks II: Over the Edge (New York: Tor, 1995) [anth: Splatterpunks: hb/Shelley Eshkar]
individual titles as editor
- The King Is Dead: Tales of Elvis Postmortem (New York: Dell/Delta, 1994) [anth: pb/Steven Ferlauto]
links
previous versions of this entry