A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

In Star Wars could the “Chosen One” apply to all Skywalkers? No. The “Chosen One” that the old Jedi prophecy from  The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones,  and  Revenge of the Sith  refers to was, is, and always will be Anakin Skywalker. The messianic figure who we met as a young slave on Tatooine, saw grow up into a conflicted Jedi Knight, then turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith was the realization of the Jedi Prophecy: " A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored. " That’s per the creator of the  Star Wars  Saga, writer-director George Lucas. In many interviews and - most importantly - the behind-the-scenes materials (featurettes, audio commentary tracks, making-of documentaries) in the DVDs and Blu-rays, Lucas does not veer away from this through-line:  Anakin, even after becoming Darth Vader, was still officially the Chosen One and not Luke. Obviously, the prop

Owen Lars, Luke Skywalker, and Beru Lars. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. In the original Star Wars films (before Return of the Jedi ) were there any clues given that Darth Vader was Luke's father? In  Star Wars  (aka  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope ) there were no clues that Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, was the father of either Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia Organa. All of the available evidence (story treatments, film outlines, internal memos, and various drafts of the screenplay) points to Vader being a separate and distinct individual from “Luke’s father.” Now, it’s possible, however unlikely, that  in his mind  George Lucas decided that Vader and Luke’s father were one and the same during principal photography, thus explaining why Uncle Owen is so reluctant to talk about the subject of his supposedly dead father and his connection to the mysterious “Obi-Wan Kenobi” in the dinner table scene in Act One of  Star Wars.  or why, after Aunt Beru s

Was it Irvin Kershner who came up with the "Vader is Luke's father" plotline in The Empire Strikes Back? No. It was George Lucas’s idea. Lawrence Kasdan incorporated Lucas’s concept into his draft of  The Empire Strikes Back’s  screenplay. Irvin Kershner did not have any say into how the screenplay was written. His job as a director was to  interpret  visually what Lucas and Kasdan wrote (in Courier font and proper screenplay format) on paper.

Have you listened to 'Star Wars: The Radio Drama'?  Does its subplot about the Death Star plans impact 'Legends'? If you’re referring to 1981’s  Star Wars: The Radio Drama,  of course I have! Brian Daley (1947-1996) Photo Credit: Beauregard Simmons, www.briandaley.com So have many other  Star Wars  fans, both at the time that Brian Daley’s 13-part adaptation aired on National Public Radio and later, when Highbridge Audio (a subsidiary of Minnesota Public Radio) released it on audiocassette and compact disc in the early 1990s. In fact, I have two box sets of the  Star Wars: The Radio Dramas.  One is the “as heard on NPR” edition that most people own on tape, CD, or MP3 audio files; the other is the pricier  Limited Collector’s Edition  set that presents the Radio Dramas as they were originally recorded, without the edits asked for by NPR stations for station identification breaks and other industry-related issues. In case some of the readers aren’

Although the novelization was published in advance of Star Wars' May 25, 1977 release, George Lucas's film is not based on a pre-existing novel or short story. Poster © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation.  Are the Star Wars movies based on books? No. None of the nine  Skywalker Saga  films or either of the two  Star Wars  Anthology films is based on any pre-existing novel or short story. To recap, the  Skywalker Saga  films consist of: The 1999–2005 Prequel Trilogy ( The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones,  and  Revenge of the Sith ) The 1977–1983 Original Trilogy ( Star Wars  or  A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back,  and  Return of the Jedi ) The 2015–2019 Sequel Trilogy ( The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi,  and  The Rise of Skywalker ) The two   stand-alone Anthology films are 2016’s  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,  which is a direct prequel to  A New Hope  (and is based on that film’s title crawl), and  Solo: A Star Wars Story,  which is the origin story

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know (or should know) that one of my pet peeves is cognitive dissonance. It doesn't matter if it involves politics, interpersonal relationships, or pop culture, but I am easily annoyed when people willfully ignore facts and publicly express notions that are based on personal opinion or political dogma. For instance, in the Star Wars fandom, there is a subgroup of fans that continually ascribe decisions made by Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company that creates content for both the Indiana Jones and the Star Wars franchises to its parent company, The Walt Disney Company. No matter what it is - whether it's the announcement that a new film or TV series is being considered or that a new book is going to be published, it's never Lucasfilm that gets credit (or the criticism) for the decision, it's Disney.  Allow me to illustrate by sharing yet another Star Wars- related item from Quora. In the Star Wars category, Jensen

When did George Lucas start tampering with the original Star Wars films by changing the special effects? Ah. Here we go, another loaded question with a subliminal anti-Lucas bias. First of all, I will remind you that like it or not, George Lucas had every right to revise (not  tamper with ) films that he conceived, produced, and in the case of  Star Wars,  directed between 1973 (when he first wrote the story treatment for what he originally called  The Star Wars ) and late 1982 (when  Return of the Jedi  was in post-production and scheduled for a May 25, 1983 release. It is a matter of record that Lucas was not happy with some of the compromises he had to make, technologically speaking, when  Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back,  and  Return of the Jedi  were produced. The first film’s budget, which came from the coffers of the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, were barely sufficient for the effects that Lucasfilm and its special effects division, Industrial Light and Magic

The current edition of Heir to the Empire, which was originally published in 1991 by Bantam Spectra. Cover art by Tom Jung. © 1991, 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  On Quora, Matt Swanson asks: Why do you think Lucasfilm decided not to adapt Timothy Zahn's Trilogy into movies? My response: There are  several  reasons why Lucasfilm never had any intention of adapting  Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising,  and  The Last Command  from novels to movies. The main reason, and the only one that truly matters, is that George Lucas clearly did not want to do so. In the late 1980s, which is when Lucasfilm Licensing was given his go-ahead to revive the moribund  Star Wars  franchise after being in a post- Return of the Jedi  coma, the creator of the saga was emerging from his post-divorce funk and thinking about making the long-awaited Prequel Trilogy. From  his  perspective, allowing Lucasfilm Licensing to hire a diverse group of writers that would create a series of interconnec

Dan Perri's classic logo for Star Wars. ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) If there's one current trend that I hate on social media is the myth that "Disney" makes editorial decisions re Star Wars and Indiana Jones.    What exactly did Disney add and remove from the Star Wars universe/story? What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. -  The Captain,  Cool Hand Luke One of the most persistent myths about  Star Wars,  the franchise, and especially the business end of how the films and other media products are made is that The Walt Disney Company “adds and removes” elements of the  Star Wars  story. Not a day passes in which I don’t see any mention on social media - usually derisive and hateful - about how “Disney” did this, that, or the other thing to  Star Wars. Lucasfilm, which was founded in 1971 by George Lucas, did not magically disappear in 2012 after The Walt Disney Company acquired it. The company still exists.