A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2015 Henry N. Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On December 18, 2015, Henry N. Abrams (aka Abrams) Books published image archivist Phil Szostak's The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh book in The Art of Star Wars series of books devoted to the concept art used by Lucasfilm Ltd. to create the Star Wars live-action movies. Following the traditions established by Carol Titleman in her 1979 book The Art of Star Wars, Szostak curates an impressive array of pre-visualization paintings, costume and set designs, concepts for Resistance and First Order starships and secret weapons such as Starkiller Base, and sketches and photos for such now-iconic props as Kylo Ren's "crossguard lightsaber" and Rey's handy fighting stave. Released on the same day of Star Wars: The Force Awakens' theatrical release, The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens features artwork contributed by renowned production designer Rick Baker (who wrote the book's forewor...

(C) 1979 Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  In   November of 1979, Ballantine Books (then the sole licensed publisher of Star Wars novels and most of the literary tie-ins) published two versions of Carol Titleman’s The Art of Star Wars . One was a limited-edition hardcover, which I have never seen, the other was one of those "trade paperback" editions (coffee table size but in softcover). What made The Art of Star Wars a must-get for me in those days was that it contained the entire fourth revised draft of the screenplay for A New Hope (it was the first time I had seen the Episode IV subtitle, even though I bought this after seeing The Empire Strikes Back ). The screenplay included scenes that were later edited out of the final film (mainly scenes on Tatooine focusing a bit on Luke's life there and introducing Biggs Darklighter early in the film’s first act. Another deleted scene – which was restored for the Special Edition 20 years later – intro...