A must-have for Star Wars fans--the definitive behind-the-scenes
history of the classic film that started it all
After the 1973 success of American Graffiti, filmmaker George Lucas made
the fateful decision to pursue a longtime dream project: a space fantasy
movie unlike any ever produced. Lucas envisioned a swashbuckling SF saga
inspired by the Flash Gordon serials classic American westerns, the epic
cinema of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa, and mythological heroes. Its
original title: The Star Wars. The rest is history, and how it was made
is a story as entertaining and exciting as the movie that has enthralled
millions for thirty years-a story that has never been told as it was
meant to be. Until now.
Using his unprecedented access to the Lucasfilm Archives and its trove
of never-before-published "lost" interviews, photos, production notes,
factoids, and anecdotes, Star Wars scholar J. W. Rinzler hurtles readers
back in time for a one-of-a-kind behind-the-scenes look at the nearly
decade-long quest of George Lucas and his key collaborators to make the
"little" movie that became a phenomenon. For the first time, it's all
here:
- the evolution of the now-classic story and characters-including
"Annikin Starkiller" and "a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and
large gills" named Han Solo
- excerpts from George Lucas's numerous, ever-morphing script drafts
- the birth of Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects company
that revolutionized Hollywood filmmaking
- the studio-hopping and budget battles that nearly scuttled the entire
project
- the director's early casting saga, which might have led to a film
spoken mostly in Japanese-including the intensive auditions that won the
cast members their roles and made them legends
- the grueling, nearly catastrophic location shoot in Tunisia and the
subsequent breakneck dash at Elstree Studios in London
- the who's who of young film rebels who pitched in to help-including
Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Brian DePalma
But perhaps most exciting, and rarest of all, are the interviews
conducted before and during production and immediately after the release
of Star Wars-in which George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie
Fisher, Sir Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, composer John Williams,
effects masters Dennis Muren, Richard Edlund, and John Dykstra, Phil
Tippett, Rick Baker, legendary production designer John Barry, and a
host of others share their fascinating tales from the trenches and
candid opinions of the film that would ultimately change their lives.
No matter how you view the spectrum of this thirty-year phenomenon, The
Making of Star Wars stands as a crucial document-rich in fascination and
revelation-of a genuine cinematic and cultural touchstone.
