A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 1979 Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  In   November of 1979, Ballantine Books (then the sole licensed publisher of Star Wars novels and most of the literary tie-ins) published two versions of Carol Titleman’s The Art of Star Wars . One was a limited-edition hardcover, which I have never seen, the other was one of those "trade paperback" editions (coffee table size but in softcover). What made The Art of Star Wars a must-get for me in those days was that it contained the entire fourth revised draft of the screenplay for A New Hope (it was the first time I had seen the Episode IV subtitle, even though I bought this after seeing The Empire Strikes Back ). The screenplay included scenes that were later edited out of the final film (mainly scenes on Tatooine focusing a bit on Luke's life there and introducing Biggs Darklighter early in the film’s first act. Another deleted scene – which was restored for the Special Edition 20 years later – intro...

“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984) Directed by Steven Spielberg Written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on a story by George Lucas Starring: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, Ke Huy Quan After the successful theatrical run of 1981’s  “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” executive producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg began developing the second installment of the Indiana Jones film series. They considered various story ideas (a haunted castle in Scotland, a “lost world” scenario with dinosaurs), all of which were discarded in favor of an India-based quest for the sacred Sankara Stones. Lucas intended “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” to be darker in tone than “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He wanted the second installment in the Indiana Jones series to be the thematic equivalent of  the “Star Wars” trilogy’s “The Empire Strikes Back.”  As it turned out, “Temple of Doom” became too dark: the...