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Showing posts with the label Ian Doescher

Book Review: 'William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace: Star Wars Part the First'

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(C) 2015 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.(Lucas Books) THREEPIO, THREEPIO, WHEREFORE ART THOU, THREEPIO? Join us, good gentles, for a merry reimagining of Star Wars: Episode I as only Shakespeare could have written it. The entire saga starts here, with a thrilling tale featuring a disguised queen, a young hero, and two fearless knights facing a hidden, vengeful enemy. ’Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights, soliloquies, and doomed romance . . . all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with twenty gorgeous Elizabethan illustrations. Hold on to your midi-chlorians: 
 The play’s the thing, wherein you’ll catch the rise of Anakin! - From the dust jacket blurb, William Shakespeare’s The Phantom of Menace Star Wars. Since its premiere on May 25, 1977, the title of George Lucas’s space-fantasy set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” evokes futuristic images of speedy starships, flashing laser swords, and snappy dialogue written in modern Ame

Breaking Book News: Ian Doescher's 'The Force Doth Awaken' to hit bookstores this October

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(C) 2017 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. William Shakespeare’s Star Wars fans, prepare yourselves. The verse will be with you this fall when Quirk Books publishes Ian Doescher’s highly anticipated William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh. As fans of Doescher’s Shakespeare-meets-Lucas mashups are no doubt aware, the Portland (Oregon) based author became nearly an overnight sensation four years ago when Quirk Books released William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, a retelling of 1977’s Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope in the style of a play by the Bard of Avon himself. Doescher took George Lucas’s screenplay and rewrote it as a five-act work for the stage, complete with soliloquies, asides, and even a narration by an all-seeing, all-knowing Chorus – presented in glorious iambic pentameter. This unlikely little volume earned rave reviews and became a fan favorite. It was followed up in 2014 by William Shakespeare’s The Empire Stri

'William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back: Star Wars Part the Fifth' book review

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(C) 2014 Quirk Books/Lucas Books/Lucasfilm Ltd. Scene 1. The Ice world of Hoth. Enter LUKE SKYWALKER. LUKE: If flurries be the food of quests, snow on. Belike upon this Hoth, this barren rock, My next adventure waits. 'Tis time shall tell. And yet, is it adventure that I seek? Shall danger, fear, and action fill my days? Shall all my life be spent in keen pursuit Of great adventure and her fickle fame? What if William Shakespeare had written Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in the Elizabethan era? Could George Lucas’s epic space saga have been told by the Bard of Avon on a 17th Century stage with actors, props, and a script written in iambic pentameter? To many Shakespeare fans (or, for that matter, Star Wars fans), such a mashup seems silly and (gasp) sacrilegious. Shakespeare and Lucas are, after all, separated from each other by several centuries and their distinct narrative styles. In 2013, first-time author Ian Doescher succes