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Making of Star Wars (New Book) Discussion — Page 2

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I now have a couple of pics of my script on my site and I will update it every now and then with different pages and scenes.A great piece to have and I am just thrilled as it has been one of my goals to obtain a draft script for star wars for some time.The Third Draft is very interesting reading although I wont be reading it too much for fear of damaging it!

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this quote from the talkback thread is classic:

Great book
by George Peppard Apr 25th, 2007
03:55:02 AM
for a great movie. Please just give it the Criterion type treatment, George. Please. It won't hurt, baby I promise. Have a drink of this wine cooler, it'll loosen you up. Let me see those Interpositives, come on. Don't be so stuck up.
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I found it kind of interesting that in the last section (of the hardback) "Lucas expands his universe", his blurb about the Force mentions Midi-chlorians back in August of 1977 (!!).

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Thanks for the update bigbaddaddyvader, that script is very cool.

On the subject of Midi-chlorians; Having read lots of SW related material over the years, it seems that Lucas had a plethora of ideas that weren't used for financial reasons or were dismissed or discouraged by those around him. In creating a universe and characters it's clearly important to have some background as a reference. Remember Oz writing his own Yoda background to help him act the part? The point is that the background doesn't have to be relayed to the audience.

I just think it's a shame that many of Lucas's rejected ideas were recycled for the PT. Many of them were previously dismissed for good reason.

Just in the same way that explaining how a magic trick works, giving us a 'canon' description, it takes away the impact and mystique. For me, Lucas managed to strip away 23 years of mystique in about 2 hours by mapping out the science of The Force and making all those weak connections between the characters of the PT and OT.

One thing that this book does well is avoid making these connections. It purely looks at the conception and creation of the first Star Wars film. I'll shut up now.

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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Well midi-chlorians go back to the third draft of Star Wars really. In that one Obi Wan says that people are born with lots of the Force stored within them, but then laments that he might not be up to the challenge of rescuing the princess because he is old and has little of the Force left in him. Lucas cut this part out for the final draft, but with ROTJ he brought back the whole physical connection, stating that Luke is strong with the Force because he is Anakin's son, and Leia strong because she is his daughter--in other words genetics, biology. I think ROTJ brushed off this whole "sister" plot point so quickly that most people weren't even aware of the transformation that Force underwent with that plot point.
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I will take a pic of the scene in which this is mentioned from my script and put it up later.

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Just because the Jedi in the PT talk about midichlorians doesn't mean that it's the be-all/end-all definition of the Force. If one looks at the arc of the series in numerical order, by the time of the OT, Yoda and Ben seem to have somewhat rejected the scientific explanation of the Force in favor of the more spiritual one - perhaps because the being with the most midichlorians ever ended up destroying all the Jedi instead of saving them. So much for science, they might have said.
Even in the EU (or what I have read of it) midichlorians seem to never be mentioned in any story taking place after the PT. Perhaps within the universe, the science of the Force died with all the Jedi?
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Pro or con, I don't care. I just had been under the impression that "midi-chlorians" as a specific word and concept was developed explicitly for the PT, setting aside vague hints that Force-sensitivity was inheritable. Lucas has always revisited his battered notebook for names, planets, ideas. For some reason, he conflates this all the disparate elements in his notes into the idea that he had the whole saga planned out in advance. I have enough experience with the story and development thereof to usually call him on his bullshit. The specific mention of midi-chlorians (using his August 1977 spelling), however, was the biggest surprise in the whole book. Second biggest was the mention of Luke and the Princess being twins at one point in the development. Now obviously, it's not a direct line concept to Return of the Jedi's revelation. It's just another developmental element that was in his notebooks that reappeared when he needed a story point. There's plenty of cites in the book that he never actually planned them to be siblings in the final concept as he originally wanted Luke and Leia to end up together and Han to go away. It just never worked in the eventual storyline of Luke becoming a Jedi so Han got the girl.

This has been a very interesting book and I really hope that they do them on the sequels. His next project appears to be Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Originally posted by: caligulathegodSecond biggest was the mention of Luke and the Princess being twins at one point in the development.


I am absolutely positive that that is a comment made in 2006. The Lost Interviews from 1975-1978 werent the only source Rinzler used--he quotes a few other interviews from later dates and interviewed Lucas three times in 2006--i am pretty certain that the "twins" quote came from this because its contradicted by so many other evidence.
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i had a bad fealing that lucas might get involved with the book and rewrite history or get rinzler to do so, how much of charlies work survives?

i would like to know before buying the book i don't need another expensive picture book or another lucas aplogists work, what i want and have wanted for a long time is the actual story of how the film was made and came to be.

i like once upon a galaxy a journal of the making of the empire strikes back and the making of return of the jedi because they cut quick to the chase so to speak to the real meat of the making, warts and all approach including feuding on the set.

the best book up til now on the making of the first film was skywalking, plus there was the starlog and rolling stone interviews as well as the more technical aspects in american cinematographer. cinefex was not around yet the first film on star wars they covered was empire, unless you count the retrospective they did in the early nineties.

i want the hardcover of making of star wars and the star wars chronicles book just need to find a fair price.

on top of buying children of hurin deluxe edition i shall be very broke indeed, lol

never mind me wanting to buy the making of spiderman 3.

Charles Lippincott or "charlie" as he's known to his fans and friends is one of the nicest and most honest and approachable people on the making of the first star wars. someone who i would personally like to meet someday and thank and shake his hand, same with Mr Gary Kurtz.

Charlies love of the great movie serials Flash Gordon from the thirties and forties starring the late great Buster Crabbe. made him a natural to document and oversee the first advertisements and marketing of the film. Like getting the deal made for the 1976 paperback novel and the marvel comic.

I was not alive at the time so i could not go to the world science fiction convention, i am envious of anyone who was there and bought the chaykin poster, and saw the early 35mm promotional slides and got to meet Mark Hamill.

“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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Personally I think this is the best book done on Star Wars to date and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.Just one thing,though,that before anyone starts getting too cosy with the notion of Kurtz being some saint let us not forget that old Gary has been selling his name and sticking them onto highly priced and highly questionable if not downright damnably fake props for the past few years to rake in some cash.

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skyjedi2005: Don't worry, thats actually the only explicit revisionist reference in the entire book other than one other reference to Vader. But this is by far the best thing relating to Star Wars to ever be released--and i mean that. Its a wonderful, candid book.
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bought the paperback edition of the book and it is awesome. in fact its brilliant.

what is exclusive to the hardback? amazon.com does not say.

if there anything special enough to warrant me saving aside money to buy the hardback?

i got the paperback version for dirt cheap on ebay.

“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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Originally posted by: skyjedi2005
bought the paperback edition of the book and it is awesome. in fact its brilliant.

what is exclusive to the hardback? amazon.com does not say.

if there anything special enough to warrant me saving aside money to buy the hardback?

i got the paperback version for dirt cheap on ebay.


The complete storyboard collection for the early drafts--so you get the most complete re-creation of the discarded storylines which is very interesting (notable ones include how Kenobi survives his duel with Vader and Vader ripping the arm off a rebel officer on the blockade runner) as well as a really interesting story conference transcription where Lucas fleshes out the backstory for all the characters in early 1977. If you already have the paperback i wouldn't re-buy it, but at 50 pages its a pretty substantive bonus, even if its mostly pictures.
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Now the 4th draft of Star Wars has been out of circulation for a long time. Do those storyboards quote from that draft?
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As far as i remember the storyboards shown are taken from the third draft I think.

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This weekend I finally had time to sit down and dive into this massive book. It truly is a must-have for any serious Star Wars fan. There are so many photos I've never seen before- and I have a very respectable collection of SW books. I've only read a few sections of the text, but so far I've loved reading the anecdotes and minutia of the day-to-day filming. The best part about the book is that there appears to be no mention of the PTs or SEs - not even a hint or a footnote. It's nice to have one SW item that doesn't any PT or SE baggage attached (a rarity in recent years).

My only complaint about the book is that it's difficult to read without getting a crick in your neck. It's heavy, and I found it difficult to hold and to find a comfortable position to examine the book as thoroughly as I'd like (I guess that's where having the softcover edition would be and advantage).

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I've also found it to be great research material for myself.As another little personal bonus on page 79 there is a picture of the ILM workshop's TIE construction bench and pictured is the top right portion of my TIE blueprint was was really cool to see!

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The STAR WARS AFICIONADO MAGAZINE team got the chance to talk to J.W. RINZLER in the FAN CLUB lounge at CELEBRATION IV. Impressed with his recently released MAKING OF STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE, we managed to ask him some burning questions that we thought needed to be covered, and glean some additional information that we think you might find interesting:


1. That no photos or information exists in the LUCASFILM ARCHIVES on the creation of the Vader mask/main costume. Very few behind the scenes shots available in the LUCASFILM ARCHIVES of Dave Prowse as Darth Vader from A NEW HOPE.

2. Of all the photos taken for the films, A NEW HOPE is the one that is the least represented in the archives with few discs of images compared to the two sequels that followed it and the Prequels.

3. Very little was documented of the pre-production build up to filming. With the film being green lit for filming so late in the day by FOX, no one was thinking properly about creating any visual documentation. Additionally, so much documented information from that period is not in the archives (either lost, destroyed or in private collections).

4. There were also very few images of behind the scene production personnel in the LUCASFILM ARCHIVES, with Rinzler having particular trouble finding good images of British Special Effects Technician John Stears (we at AFICIONADO can attest to this-we had great trouble finding images for our MAKING OF STAR WARS issue as well!!)

5. According to Rinzler’s information, the on set photographer (we assume he means John Jay) was not present for every day’s filming- apparently only handling a certain batch of days a week. For some sections of the book where filming of certain scenes was not apparently covered, Rinzler had no choice but to use screen grabs (kindly supplied to him by his friend John Knoll-some of which were from the SPECIAL EDITION and had been used in Knoll’s own 365 DAYS book). From information AFICIONADO has, however, we believe that Jay was present throughout the location and ELSTREE/SHEPPERTON filming. There were other photographer so the set as well, like David Steen and Terry O’Neill, who may not have been around for the full filming (often handling the posed studio pictures), so I’m wondering if there is some understandable confusion there on Mister Rinzler’s part.

6. A longer, full length transcript version of Alan Arnold’s ONCE UPON A GALAXY: THE MAKING OF EMPIRE STRIKES BACK book exists, which is a possibility to be used when Rinzler ultimately begins work on his own MAKING OF EMPIRE edition (something that looks very likely, after he has completed work on his INDIANA JONES book, as sales of the MAKING OF A NEW HOPE book have been very encouraging, alongside several very positive reviews).

7. In some instances, the best behind the scenes information came from Lucas and his lawyer (who kept very precise notes on the creation of the first film, and the director’s relationship with TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX).

8. A full cast list for A NEW HOPE exists in the LUCASFILM ARCHIVES but there is no pressure for them to release the information.

9. The Midichlorians reference in the character notes of the hardback edition was not added on to ease pressure on Prequel criticisms. Rinzler confirms that this was in Lucas’s original reference material/commentaries given to Carol Titelman in 1977/78 (of which Threepio’s original origin, as having come from the planet Affa, would later be confirmed by Anthony Daniels to Presenter Chris Kelly in the UK 1980 edition of the Children’s film-making television programme CLAPPERBOARD.

10. For reasons unknown, possibly timing (as he was not present for all the filming-traveling to and from the States), Charles Lippincott did not interview the enigma that was Sir Alec Guinness, or Peter Cushing (who was only on set filming for a select period of days in early May). Additionally, other actors, such as Dave Prowse, weren’t either. In some cases, Rinzler had to use quotes from other sources, from 1976/77, for Alec Guinness, and later 1990’s quotes for Peter Cushing.

11. The full script for REVENGE OF THE JEDI (RETURN OF THE JEDI) exists in the archives. There are no plans to release it at this time.

12. As far as Rinzler is aware, the LOST CUT that was featured in David West Reynolds STAR WARS INSIDER article back in 1998/99 is the FIRST ROUGH CUT and was never apparently intended as a real version of the film (we don’t know what to make of this info-John Jympson, who was hired, and later fired, for his work on the FIRST ROUGH CUT was an acclaimed film editor at that time-why would Lucas hire someone so prestigious to work on a ROUGH CUT?)

I offered Mister Rinzler, who gave an excellent talk and was an extremely nice guy, a copy of the MAKING OF STAR WARS AFICIONADO special issue (which cointains behind the scenes information not in his book) but, for understandable legal reasons, he was not able to accept it.
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It doesn't surprise me that there's more documentation for ESB and JEDI, after all, they really didn't have knowledge of what a phenomenon SW would end up being, so they didn't document the behind-the-scenes stuff like they did for the other films. Plus, everything seemed to be so hectic and chaotic with the making of the first film, I guess it just wasn't a priority to document everything when they were in fear of Fox pulling the plug at any time.

That's interesting that there are no photos of the creation of the Vader costume.....the photos in the book of the various 3P0 masks are facinating.

I really do hope Rinzler does companion books for ESB and JEDI.

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I've been thinking about getting this book lately, considering most of you guys here rave about it.

But I haven't seen any copies of it in bookstores near me so I'll have to order it via amazon.com.

Considering I can't flick physically flick through the pages before I purchase it does anyone know of any pictures of sample pages or would anyone be willing to take a few samples pictures with a camera of their own copy?

A big ask but it's otherwise going to be a blind buy for me.

p.s I just read the above aicn review. It has me excited to read the book.

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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The book is great because all the work was essentially done by Charlie Lippincott in the Late Seventies.

Rinzler had access to the interviews and transcripts that Charlie  took for a 3 year period from 1976-1979. 

Funny how other than a small mention in the foreward Lippincott gets no credit for the Book.

His name should be on the book for all intents and purposes.  HE should also get half the salary Rinzler was paid to do it.

“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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You can see some pages of the book on the official site: http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/bts/article/f20070220/index.html?page=1

 

And there's a preview on the publisher site: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345494764&ref=news&name=starwars0507

 

Don't hesitate to buy it blindly !  It's the best book ever published on Star Wars.  (and get the hardcover version, if you like storyboards, there's a lot of them in the extra pages)

 

Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!

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Thanks Z6PO!

The link to the publisher is awesome, exactly what I wanted. I would of been happy with a half dozen pages but the first 37 is even better!

I'm definately going to get it now, but I may wait for Christmas. And definately the hardcover.

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt