A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2002 Del Rey Books (Ballantine) and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Which of the Star Wars books tell the stories of the movies? It depends on what you mean by “the stories of the movies,” and in what context. If you mean the stories, characters, situations, and settings of the films themselves, then you’re probably asking about: Dust jacket of the 1977 hardcover. Art by John Berkey. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker,  credited to George Lucas but actually written by Alan Dean Foster. (Del Rey Books, 1976) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,  by Donald F. Glut. Story by George Lucas. Based on the screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. (Del Rey Books, 1980) Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,  by James Kahn. Story by George Lucas. Based on the screenplay by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. (Del Rey Books, 1983) Original 1980 paperback edition of The Empire Strikes Back novelization. Cover art by Roger Kastel.  © 1

On Quora, Daniel Brown asks: Is  Star Wars: The Clone Wars  canon? Unlike its 2003–2005 2D animated precursor,  Star Wars: Clone Wars,  the 2008–2013 3D computer animated series  Star Wars: The Clone Wars  is included in the overall canon. Lucasfilm Ltd., the parent of Lucasfilm Animation, has stated since 2014 that the series created and executive produced by George Lucas is a key element of the  Star Wars  canon, which currently looks like this: Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones Star Wars: The Clone Wars Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Solo: A Star Wars Story Star Wars Rebels Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Star Wars: The Mandalorian Star Wars: Resistance Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise

In Quora, Bryce Howell asks: Why has George Lucas made so many changes to the original trilogy? My answer: Because as the filmmaker who conceived, created, and - in the case of  The Empire Strikes Back  and  Return of the Jedi -  financed the  Star Wars  films, George Lucas was entitled to make changes. It is a matter of historical record that  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope  underwent a series of alterations even before 1981, which was the year that Lucasfilm convinced 20th Century Fox to reissue the film with its  Episode IV  subtitle. Before that, Lucasfilm had had to fix the audio mix, make sure that all the prints (both the 35 mm and the 70 mm) matched, missing lines of dialogue restored, and other minor adjustments that were needed at the time. Followers of  Star Wars  history, as well as viewers who listen to Lucas’s audio commentary tracks on the DVDs and Blu-ray home media releases, also know that Lucas always thought that the special effe

On Quora, I keep on seeing questions such as this one: Does George Lucas still own the Star Wars franchise after it was taken over by Disney? My answer: © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  No. When George Lucas sold his company, Lucasfilm Limited, to the Walt Disney Company in 2012, he sold  all  of the rights to intellectual properties Lucasfilm owned, including: The  Star Wars  franchise and brand, which includes the five  Star Wars  films produced by Lucasfilm before 2012. 20th Century Fox owns the distribution rights for those until 2020, at which time the rights will be transferred to Disney. Fox, however, still owns the rights to  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope,  in perpetuity   because the studio financed the making of the film in addition to releasing it. The four  Indiana Jones  movies and the  Young Indiana Jones  TV series ,  which Paramount Pictures released but were financed by George Lucas. © 1981 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) S

Image Credit: www.toonzone.net Why did Disney decide to end The Skywalker Saga, instead of leaving open the possibility of continuing it after "The Rise of Skywalker"? First of all, The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) does not have that level of micromanaging editorial control over any of its subsidiaries (ABC, ESPN, Marvel Enterprises, National Geographic, Lucasfilm, or 21st Century Fox). I don’t know why people keep on assuming that Alan Horn and Bob Iger are omnipresent and omnipotent and that “Disney” execs have their fingers in every pie, ostensibly ruining franchises and people’s childhoods just for grins. If I seem to be a bit annoyed at this question’s basic assumption, it’s because I  am  annoyed about how intellectually lazy people get, especially when it comes to Lucasfilm Ltd., its leadership, and its role in making decisions as far as its biggest intellectual properties,  Star Wars  and  Indiana Jones. Second, Star Wars needs to grow beyond the trav

Cover art for Marvel Comics' omnibus edition of The Last Jedi comics adaptation. © 2018 Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On Quora, member Michael Justin asks: Why did Kathleen Kennedy let Rian Johnson throw away J.J. Abrams’ Episode VIII script if she was going to hire him back for Episode IX? This question, like so many others like it, is based on a basic assumption that seems to be popular among many “fans” who get their information almost exclusively from YouTube or bloggers whose views they share. The assumption:  That J.J. Abrams had a detailed plan for the Sequel Trilogy, even had  scripts  for all three Episodes, and that this grand plan was wrecked by Rian Johnson with  Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.  And clueless, SJW Princess Kathleen Kennedy let Johnson ruin  Star Wars. Oh, you poor deluded child. First of all, just as George Lucas did not write a ginormous 360-page screenplay with all the beats and plot twists of the Original Trilogy c

What was known about Padme, Luke and Leia’s mother, prior to the release of the prequel trilogy? Before the run-up to  Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace’s  release in May of 1999? Certainly not much. And what little we  did  know was either wrong or was learned from tidbits in action figure packages in late 1998, when Hasbro added a  Flashback  line of  Star Wars  figures from the Classic Trilogy but with Lucasfilm-supplied nuggets of information about major characters from the upcoming film. For instance, a  Power of the Force  figure of Princess Leia Organa with  Flashback  packaging was my first inkling that Luke and Leia’s mother was Queen Amidala of Naboo and that Leia was not just royalty by adoption, but she was also royalty - of sorts - by heredity. Hasbro’s writer did not divulge the fact that on Naboo “royalty” was elected and wasn’t necessarily  hereditary,  but Lucasfilm kept a lot of pesky details about such things close to the vest. But  before  1998, we

In Quora, someone asked: How much of Star Wars did George Lucas actually write? My reply: If you’re asking about the original screenplay for  Star Wars  (aka  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope ), the film that begat the franchise, he wrote every one of the four drafts, most of them without a co-writer. However, whenever he showed the script to his peers (Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola), they would critique his efforts (which is what Lucas wanted them to do) and suggest revisions or rewrites. Lucas, as fans have learned over the years, is a dedicated  filmmaker,  and a talented one at that. However, he is happier when he is in the editing room and shaping his movies, while the actual tasks of writing scripts and working with actors are simply not in his comfort zone. (That doesn’t mean he doesn’t like people; Lucas has a reputation for being a super nice person and generous to a fault. He’s just not into  writing  or helping his

Do you think Disney has done a better job with Star Wars than Lucasfilm? Questions such as “Do you think Disney has done a better job with Star Wars than Lucasfilm?” reflect either willful ignorance or a misunderstanding of the corporate relationship between The Walt Disney Company (TWDC or “Disney”) and Lucasfilm Ltd., especially when it comes to the topic of  Star Wars. The relationship between TWDC and Lucasfilm is no different from that of Sony and Columbia Pictures or the “old” 20th Century Fox Film Corporation and Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox (and before that, News Corporation). TWDC is the “corporate parent,” while Lucasfilm is an editorially-independent production company with its own President. Lucasfilm, for the most part, has free rein to decide how to handle its two major franchises,  Star Wars,  and  Indiana Jones.  TWDC has the right to decide  when  and  how  movies are scheduled for production  and  distribution, since it doesn’t want to have intramural

Ralph McQuarrie production painting for Return of the Jedi. © 1983 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Michael Justin, a Quora member, asks: Why did George Lucas decide on Ewoks instead of Wookies for the battle in Return of the Jedi? My reply: There were two reasons why George Lucas changed his original concept of showing the Empire’s defeat at the hands of the Wookiees at the Battle of Endor to the version we see in  Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The reason Lucas gives in the audio commentary track on the  Jedi  DVD and Blu-ray is that when he was writing the story for the film, he was making an allusion to the Vietnam War, a conflict that witnessed a technologically superior superpower being handed a humiliating defeat by a bunch of fierce but technologically unsophisticated peasants. Remember, Lucas was a young man who came of age in the shadow of the Kennedy assassination and the tragedy of Vietnam. Like many of the college-age kids of that time, he did not suppo

© 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  Recently, someone asked this question on Quora: Is Star Wars based on a comic book? I, of course, replied: What? Holy Mother of Skywalker, of course not. Star Wars  was not based on an eponymous pre-existing literary work that a 30-something George Lucas happened to come across at a used book store whilst trying to come up with a follow-up film to his 1973 hit  American Grafitti. Rather,  Star Wars  as we know and love it (?) was created by Lucas himself, starting in 1971 with some early (and bizarre) story ideas for a space-fantasy film that would be the antithesis to his dystopian (and unsuccessful) sci-fi film  THX-1138,  which his friend Francis Ford Coppola produced and Warner Bros. released that same year. Considering how large   a shadow  Star Wars  casts upon modern pop culture over 40 years after the original movie premiered on May 25, 1977, it’s hard to believe that Lucas’s original plan to make a fun, escapist, tongue-in-c