A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 2017 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. On February 21, 2017, Random House's Del Rey Books imprint published Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire's End, the final volume in author Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy. Set in the turbulent days after the Battle of Endor, the destruction of the second Death Star, and the deaths of Emperor Sheev Palpatine and Darth Vader, Wendig's trio of canonical Star Wars novels reveals some of the events that occur in that "galaxy far, far away" between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.  Wendig begins Empire's End with a short prologue set before the Battle of Endor. Emperor Palpatine, perhaps sensing his approaching demise, orders Imperial Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax aboard the still incomplete Death Star II to receive his final instructions: "I need you to be ready." " I am always ready."   "It may soon be time for the Contingency."  At that, Rax's throat tightens. My destiny.

(C) 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. and Buena Vista Home Entertainment On Tuesday, April 4, Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) - Walt Disney Motion Pictures Studio's home media division - released the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy three-disc set of director Gareth Edwards' blockbuster hit  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This home media debut of the first in a series of Star Wars Anthology stand-alone films comes less than four months after its theatrical premiere and almost one year after the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray and DVD.  Although BVHE offers various "exclusive" editions for specific sellers (such as the "SteelBook" edition for Target), most Star Wars fans will probably buy the set that I bought from the Disney Store - the three-disc edition with two Blu-ray discs (BDs), one DVD, and the code for a digital download (which expires after April 4, 2022).  In many respects, BVHE'sBD/DVD/HD Digital Copy Rogue One  combo package resemb

(C) 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. and Buena Vista Home Entertainment In April of 2016, less than four months after the theatrical premiere of J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) released the blockbuster movie on Blu-ray and DVD. This home media release was a huge success in its initial run; The Force Awakens was the No. 1 best-selling Blu-ray/DVD combo set at Amazon and other retailers, including Best Buy. As I wrote in my review of that release: Buena Vista Home Entertainment did a remarkable job with its first BD/DVD of a Star Wars feature film. J.J. Abrams’ foray to that galaxy far, far away looks and sounds great on HD TVs, especially large sets connected to 5.1 stereo home theater systems. What I didn't know at the time was that Disney-owned BVHE had released, in addition to its regular plastic-packaged Blu-ray/DVD combo three-disc set, a SteelBook edition exclusively for Best Buy.  Now, if you are a regular reader of A Certa

(C) 2016 Marvel Comics & Lucasfilm Ltd. Cover art by Phil Noto On December 6, 2016, Marvel Comics published Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a 136-page hardcover compilation of the six-issue comics adaptation of director J.J. Abrams' eponymous blockbuster space-fantasy film. Written by novelist, screenwriter, and game designer Chuck Wendig ( Star Wars: Aftermath ) and illustrated by Luke Ross and Frank Martin, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is based on the screenplay by J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Michael Arndt, as well as the characters and situations created by George Lucas. IT'S TRUE - ALL OF IT!  THE BIGGEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR JUMPS FROM THE BIG SCREEN TO THE COMIC-BOOK PAGE! It's been three decades since the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star and toppled the Galactic Empire...but now, on the remote planet of Jakku...there is a stirring in The Force. A young scavenger named Rey...a deserting Stormtrooper named Finn...an ace pilot named Poe...and a d

Officially?  None.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  and its two sequels, Star Wars: The Last Jedi   and Episode IX  are all-new original stories based on concepts by J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, Lawrence Kasdan, and the Lucasfilm Story Group. (George Lucas, when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, handed in a treatment for  Episodes VII-IX,  but it was not used.) Unofficially:  Some story elements of  The Force Awakens  bear some resemblance to plot points from the  Star Wars  Expanded Universe novels and comics. For instance, in the film, Han and Leia have a son (Ben Solo) who is strong with the Force and is seduced by its Dark Side. This is also a plot point in the old EU, except that in the books the son is named Jacen Solo (who has a twin sister, Jaina) and after undergoing training as a Jedi in Luke Skywalker’s academy, turns bad and becomes Darth Caedus.

The slipcover features a stylized drawing of Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Force Awakens Last September, Dorling Kindersley (DK) Books published Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition, a lavishly-illustrated look at the multi-media franchise created by George Lucas 40 years ago. As the title implies, it is a sequel (and an expansion of) to DK's 2010 book Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle, which was written by Ryder Windham, Daniel Wallace, Gus Lopez, and Pablo Hidalgo. Like DK's well-known Star Wars: Visual Dictionary series,  Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition is a user-friendly reference book that blends text by writers who know their subject well and a Star Destroyer's docking bay's worth of photographs and illustrations that include publicity stills from various Lucasfilm movies and TV shows, book covers, trading cards, Star Wars action figures and vehicles, posters, and video game scr

(c) 2015 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment  On November 10, 2015, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment re-released George Lucas’s two “Star Wars” movie trilogies in all-new limited edition steelbook packaging. Coming less than five weeks before the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” this is Fox’s third re-issue of the popular space-fantasy saga since 2011. (And it probably won’t be the last; the studio holds the distribution rights to five of the seven existing “Star Wars” films until 2020, and it owns “Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope” outright.)  “Star Wars” fans, especially those who clamor for the release of the original 1977-1983 Classic Trilogy in its pre-Special Edition form, will find that Fox’s focus is not on content but rather the packaging. As was the case with the studio’s October re-issue of its’ 9-disc “Star Wars: The Complete Saga” box set, the Blu-ray disc (BD) doesn’t have any new tweaks or cool extras; what’s different is the limited edition steel