A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Photo Credit: collector-actionfigures.com  Although the Star Wars saga is perhaps associated with dazzling set-piece action sequences replete with lightsaber duels and dogfights in space, the series is replete with small moments that are in themselves fateful or revelatory. In filmmaking, no scene is -- or should be, anyway -- extraneous or tossed in just because it looks "cool." Every tiny bit of dialogue, every single shot has to move the story forward, even something that seems irrelevant.  In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, everything is set up to propel Anakin Skywalker from his life as a slave to the start of his training as a Jedi Knight, a seemingly straight path that will, of course, zig and zag to Anakin's ultimate destiny…his deviation from the true path of the JedI, his forbidden romance with Padme Amidala, and his turning to the dark side of the Force.  Hasbro's Mos Espa Encounter scene pack beautifully recreates the face-off between y

(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

(C) 2016 by Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Limited. Cover art by Mike Mayhew With the success of its 2015 hardcover re-mastered reissues of its classic Star Wars Trilogy comic adaptation, Marvel Comics decided to give the Prequel Trilogy a similar re-release the following year. Starting with the May 24 publication of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , Marvel collected all four issues of Dark Horse Comics’ 2002 adaptation of Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the second installment of George Lucas’s “Tragedy of Darth Vader” saga. Written by Henry Gilroy – a screenwriter who has worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels – and drawn by Jan Duursema ( Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi ), the four-issue series tells the tale of a corrupt Republic’s gradual transformation into an authoritarian dictatorship, an ambitious Jedi apprentice’s stormy relationship with his Master, and a star-crossed romance that will ultimately affect the fate of the galaxy.

(C) 2016 Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. Cover art by Mike Mayhew In May of 1999, Dark Horse Comics (which then had the license to publish Star Wars comics) released Issue No. 1 of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Written by Henry Gilroy and illustrated by Rodolfo Damaggio (with inks by the late Al Williamson, who had worked on the syndicated newspaper  Star Wars comic strip with Archie Goodwin, plus Marvel's adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi ). the first of four issues covered the first 30 minutes or so of George Lucas's 1999 space-fantasy film.  Later that year, Dark Horse collected all four issues in a trade paperback edition simply titled Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  Like most comic books based on the  Star Wars  movies, the four-issue series successfully taps into the spirit of The Phantom Menace, even though some of the events are moved around or compressed to fit the requirements of the printed page. With t

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an evil legacy long believed dead is stirring. Now the dark side of the Force threatens to overwhelm the light, and only an ancient Jedi prophecy stands between hope and doom for the entire galaxy. On the green, unspoiled world of Naboo, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, arrive to protect the realm’s young queen as she seeks a diplomatic solution to end the siege of her planet by Trade Federation warships. At the same time, on desert-swept Tatooine, a slave boy named Anakin Skywalker, who possesses a strange ability for understanding the “rightness” of things, toils by day and dreams by night—of becoming  a Jedi Knight and finding a way to win freedom for himself and his beloved mother. It will be the unexpected meeting of Jedi, Queen, and a gifted boy that will mark the start of a drama that will become legend. - Jacket blurb, Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace For nearly 40 years, Ballantine-ow