A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The cover for the paperback edition. (C) 1998 Bantam Spectra and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Take the artistic talents of the late and acclaimed designer Ralph McQuarrie and the writing skills of prolific author Kevin J. Anderson ( The Jedi Academy Trilogy ) and you get The Illustrated Star Wars Universe , a coffee table book that gives readers a glimpse of the various planets showcased in George Lucas' original Star Wars Trilogy (1977-83). Using McQuarrie's production sketches and paintings for A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and other Lucasfilm projects set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” (including the Endor-based television specials of the mid-1980s plus preliminary sketches for the 1997 Special Edition updates), Anderson takes readers on a grand tour of the most important planets seen in the Original Trilogy of the Star Wars Saga.  A production painting for Star Wars (1977) is used to illustrate the chapter on Tatooine. ...

(C) 1995 Bantam Spectra and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  "Mos Eisley Spaceport," says Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker as they stand on a mesa overlooking the Tatooine metropolis in a transition scene in Episode IV. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be careful." Of all the many eye-catching and memorable sequences in Star Wars (aka Episode IV: A New Hope ), the fateful meeting between Luke Skywalker, Ben Kenobi, and a pair of smugglers with a starship for hire is perhaps the most intriguing. It's not only important dramatically or even as far as the change in the film's pacing goes (from this point on, there will be chases, shootouts, rescues, and battles), it's also visually intriguing. The dim lighting, the tense atmosphere, all those aliens, and, of course, that funky cantina band playing Benny Goodman-like tunes. Of course, in the film, the focus was on Kenobi, Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca as they ne...

Cover art by Drew Struzan. (C) 1998 Bantam Spectra and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) One of the side effects of creating a literary "expanded universe" of a popular movie or television series is the studio's licensing division coming in and saying to a diverse group of authors something like  Okay, go ahead and write novels based on our characters and situations and carry the story forward, even though what counts as the Official Story is what we show on movie screens or TV shows. We will vet almost anything so long as it doesn't seriously contradict or affect any past or future project we may have later on. Lovely idea, this, since it keeps the fans happy with new stories set in their favorite universes and gives them new insights into the offscreen lives and "further adventures" of such characters as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the captains and crews of the various starships named  Enterprise , and, of course, the heroes and villains that populate George Luc...

(C) 1995 Bantam Books/Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars:Tales From Jabba's Palace is one of several anthologies of short stories set in George Lucas' "galaxy far, far away" that delve into the cast of supporting characters that were seen in specific scenes of Classic Trilogy Episodes IV, V, and VI. Edited by prolific Star Wars author Kevin J. Anderson ( Darksaber, The Jedi Academy Trilogy, and various Dark Horse comic book series), this volume contains 19 entertaining stories set within the walled palace of Tatooine crime boss Jabba the Hutt. In the dusty heat of twin-sunned Tatooine lives the wealthiest gangster in a hundred worlds, master of a vast crime empire and keeper of a vicious, flesh-eating monster for entertainment (and disposal of his enemies). Bloated and sinister, Jabba the Hutt might have made a good joke -- if he weren't so dangerous. A cast of soldiers, spies, assassins, scoundrels, bounty hunters, and pleasure seekers have come to his palace,...