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Making of Empire Strikes Back pushed back to October.

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 (Edited)

According to the page on Amazon.  First pushed back from may to july, now to almost december.  Completely unacceptable.  I know the arc copy has been out for a while and just how rare it is.

The book is finished.  Make people wait a year for no good goddamn reason, great idea.

Reminds me of the fourth fate of the jedi book all over again.  But at least there they had the excuse of the writer having a heart attack.

The star wars publishing program at the moment seems to be run very moronically, or maybe the market is really bad?

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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I just hope it's not because any of the content is being edited.

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Hey, they gotta get the Christmas shoppers.

Want to book yourself or a guest on THE VFP Show? PM me!

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I know the arc copy has been out for a while and just how rare it is.

 

What is the "arc copy"? Agree they forsee better sales if the book comes out in time for the holidaze. Could pay off, but again, they're making their core wait...  sucks.

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I doubt they are pushing it back even though it's ready. May is the anniversary. It's likely being pushed back because it's not ready. Don't forget, Making of SW was already half-made since it is just a super-deluxe version of Charles Lippincott's aborted 1977 book--Making of ESB was an improvisation based on that book's success, and not only had to be readied in the same or less time, but it had to start from scratch, rather than just supplement an unpublished manuscript.

Sad, but in some ways understanable. Nothing official been reported yet, so who knows. I don't think there's anything malicious here though, book release dates often get moved around based on progress/editing updates, shame in this case as I was really looking forward to it--I'm sure the decision was based on the fact that releasing it early would result in an inferior product. Then we'd all be complaining about how crappy it is, that they are releasing something not ready instead of delaying it and fixing it (cough, 2004 DVD). I'm glad they are showing some backbone and commitment to quality in this decision.

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There's just not enough info to draw a conclusion.  On one hand, SW was easier since it had the origin story which could fill pages.  But also harder since maybe the archiving wasn't up to the level it would be.  On Empire they knew people had an interest in everything so the Archiving and documenting would have gotten greater scrutiny, making production easier.  But conversy, maybe finding interesting storylines from the production would be hard to come by, since people knew what to do and just got to it.  So what could be holding it up are new interview material.  Finding all the production people, chatting them up and seeing what fleshes out into printable material.  It is a tremendous undertaking, first seeing/hearing what's out there, then putting it all together.

 

In the mean time, here's an interview with Roger Christian (production designer SW, Alien)

http://www.shadowlocked.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134:exclusive-interview-the-worlds-of-roger-christian&catid=47:movie-interviews

There's some talk about Empire in it.

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Heh, totally forgot this was (originally) about to come out. Ridley Scott doing the intro had really piqued my interest. I didn't know Roger Christian worked on Alien until just now, none. Brian Johnson, one of Alien's sfx people, co-supervised the vfx of Empire with Richard Edlund (he brings it up in the dvd making-of).

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Maybe they want to coordinate better with the big nostalgic Empire 30th promotional push. There's that big convention and apparently they're re-launching the toy line with the old school packaging, all that stuff is later in the year. (of course, just like in 2007, it's all meaningless when they try to sell you every possible anniversary-related thing except the actual thing that is turning 30)

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Baronlando said:

 they try to sell you every possible anniversary-related thing except the actual thing that is turning 30)

 Oh, the irony.  It is painful.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Fang Zei said:

Heh, totally forgot this was (originally) about to come out. Ridley Scott doing the intro had really piqued my interest. I didn't know Roger Christian worked on Alien until just now, none. Brian Johnson, one of Alien's sfx people, co-supervised the vfx of Empire with Richard Edlund (he brings it up in the dvd making-of).

There are also connections between the unfilmed Dune (developed by director Alejandro Jodorowsky), Star Wars and Alien...

 

The project was sabotaged in Hollywood. It was French and not American. Its message was not "enough Hollywood". There were intrigues, plundering. The story-board circulated among all the large studios. Later, the visual aspect of Star Wars resembled our style. To make Alien, they invited Moebius, Foss, Giger, O'Bannon, etc. The project announced to American the possibility of carrying out science fiction films to large spectacle and out of the scientific rigour of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The Dune project changed our life. When it was over, O'Bannon entered a psychiatric hospital. Afterwards, he returned to the fight with rage and wrote twelve scripts which were refused. The thirteenth one was Alien.

 

http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/jodorowsky.asp

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neebis said:

There are also connections between the unfilmed Dune (developed by director Alejandro Jodorowsky), Star Wars and Alien...

 

The project was sabotaged in Hollywood. It was French and not American. Its message was not "enough Hollywood". There were intrigues, plundering. The story-board circulated among all the large studios. Later, the visual aspect of Star Wars resembled our style. To make Alien, they invited Moebius, Foss, Giger, O'Bannon, etc. The project announced to American the possibility of carrying out science fiction films to large spectacle and out of the scientific rigour of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

http://www.duneinfo.com/unseen/jodorowsky.asp

 Jodorowsky is a damn loon, and his film would have been pretencious trash. The Lynch Dune, flawed as it is, is infinitly better than Jodorowsky on his best day.

"The visual aspects of Star Wars resembled our style" is vague, unprovable, and for my money nonsense.

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none said:

 

I know the arc copy has been out for a while and just how rare it is.

 

What is the "arc copy"? Agree they forsee better sales if the book comes out in time for the holidaze. Could pay off, but again, they're making their core wait...  sucks.

 Advanced Reader Copy.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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RAS Syndrome!

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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...and how is it known that the advanced reader copy is out there?

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I knew I forgot something:

John Mollo designed the costumes for Star Wars, Alien and Empire.

Oh, and I remembered that Jodorowsky quote as something more along the lines of "Star Wars ripped off our designs." Reading it again now, though it could be inferred from his statement I'm not so sure he's saying that. He may simply be pointing out it "resembles the style." His version would've been way too bizarre and had little to do with the book. I'm surprised it even got as far as it did before the plug was pulled, but imagining what it could've been like (especially when we got Star Wars just a few years later) is fascinating. The guy may be crazy, but check out El Topo if you haven't, one of the best movies I've ever seen.

It should be noted that Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov and other SF writers were pissed that GL was reaping so much success over ideas that were basically lifted from their novels. But that's a discussion for another thread.

Ridley was working on Dino's Dune film when Empire came out, and he says in the Blade Runner making-of that it "would have been a step very much in the direction of Star Wars." Maybe that's why he's writing the intro for the book.

I love the David Lynch film because it makes you feel the same way as when you read the book. Paramount is trying to turn it into a film once more, with the guys who made the two mini-series serving as producers and Pierre Morel (as of right now) attached to direct.

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Nothing really exciting, the text is pretty much about the huge sucess following Star Wars and the hardships George went through of making it and end with a qoute from George taken from the documentary "From Star Wars to Jedi" about not have been able to fully explore the world he created in the first film. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this book.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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http://blogs.starwars.com/jwrinzler/8

We also did some TOPPS trading cards to promote The Making of The Empire Strikes Back (two "Unseen McQuarrie" production illustrations)...

The Making of the Empire Strikes Back: Yep, Del Rey books is promoting the heck out of this one. We're even working on a promotional video piece, which is a first for us. There will be a sizzler version and a longer "director's cut" version. It'll debut in June or July. Anyway, this book has been probably the most fun to write. Also I laid out the images for this one, which was additional fun. Instead of hoping a designer would get it right, I was able to manipulate the images to my heart's content. The images and words should now come together for the reader to tell the cast and crew's unbelievable Empire stories.

 

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What's a 'sizzler' version?  I'm still ticked my softcover version is missing 20ish pages (or whatever) from the hardcover.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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YOU'VE BEEN SIZZLER'D.  wah wah waaaaaaah.

 

I don't have a clue either, it's one of those situations where you want to promote both versions, but one is lacking in material so how do you go about putting a good face on it.  But yes look at the hardcover, and if they several pages of storyboards (or what ever it turns out to be) interests you, get that version.  Otherwise enjoy the sizzler'd soft cover.  or claim you've been Rinzler'd and hope you get your money back.

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Why is it that when I hit the Enlarge button, it shows the image smaller?

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There's some answers to that question in the comments of the article.

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Why does that illustration of Vader's Castle remind me of the Nostromo from Alien?