The making of Star Wars - J. W. Rinzler

A must-have forStar Warsfans-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.