A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 1998 Del Rey/Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm, Ltd. (LFL) Pros:  Contains the entire screenplay by Kasdan and Lucas; storyboards are included Cons:  None. Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tatooine in an attempt to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. Little does Luke know that the GALACTIC EMPIRE has begun construction on a new armored space station even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star. When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for the small band of Rebels struggling to restore freedom to the galaxy.... -- Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas, Return of the Jedi When George Lucas set out to create a youth-oriented "modern myth" set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" in the mid-1970s, his first script was so large that he had to break it down into three smaller 120-page screenplays. No, they weren't fully fleshed

(C) 1983 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Pros:  Good script; stunning effects and dazzling space battles; a classic John Williams score Cons:  A bit talky...to some, the Ewoks and to others, the Special Edition version is sacrilege.... On Wednesday, May 25, 1983, exactly six years after the premiere of George Lucas's  Star Wars  (now known as  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope ), millions of fans queued up in front of thousands of movie theater box offices to be among those lucky viewers to watch  Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi  on its first day of release. Three years had passed since the theatrical run of  The Empire Strikes Back,  which had surprised critics and fans alike with its  Episode V  subtitle, the introduction of Jedi Master Yoda, the romance between Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), the claim made by Darth Vader (David Prowse, voice of James Earl Jones) that  he  was Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) dad and - frustrati

Return of the Jedi CD set cover art. (C) 1997 HighBridge Audio and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In late 1983, after the box office success of director Richard Marquand's Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and the equally positive reception to National Public Radio's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, writer Brian Daley, director John Madden, and the creative team that had brought two thirds of the Star Wars Trilogy to the airwaves started thinking about adapting Jedi for NPR.  After all, both of the previous Star Wars radio adaptations had done well in the ratings and had given the nearly-extinct genre of radio dramas a huge jump start. And with Star Wars at the height of its popularity, it would not be very long until Madden, Daley, and the rest of the crew led by producer Mel Sahr began work on Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - The Radio Drama. Unfortunately, it would be a long time till the Star Wars Radio Drama trilogy could be completed.  As

(C) 1983 National Public Radio and Lucasfilm Limited. Art by: Ralph McQuarrie Way of the Jedi Cast: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) Artoo Detoo Yoda (John Lithgow) Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi (Bernard Behrens) Darth Vader (Brock Peters) Captain Needa (Nicholas Kepros) Admiral Piett (David Rasche) Emperor Palpatine (Paul Hecht) Reviewer's Note: All quoted material is from the 1995 Del Rey book Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - The National Public Radio Dramatization. This edition contains Brian Daley's complete radio play, which differs slightly from the version of the Radio Drama which aired on National Public Radio in 1983 and the original 1990s HighBridge Audio cassette and compact disc editions. The version in Daley's script was recorded, but as with the original 1981 Star Wars Radio Drama, edits were made at the request of NPR due to the needs of the radio format. The longer version is available in HighBridge Audio's more expensive Limited Edition CD col