MAKING OF STAR WARS, THE - THE DEFINITIVE STORY BEHIND THE ORIGINAL FILM

The filmmaker George Lucas realized a longtime dream, creating a swashbuckling sf saga inspired by vintage Flash Gordon serials, classic American westerns, the epic cinema of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa, and mythological heroes. Its original title - 'The star wars'. The rest is history - and how it was made is a story as entertaining and exciting as the movie that has enthralled millions for the past three decades. Using his unprecedented access to the Lucas film archives and its trove of never-before-published 'lost' interviews, photos, production notes, factoids, and anecdotes, 'Star Wars' scholar J. W. Rinzler hurtles readers back in time for an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the nearly decade-long quest of George Lucas and his key collaborators to make the 'little' movie that became a phenomenon. It’s all here - the evolution of the now-classic story and characters - including 'Annikin Starkiller' and 'a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and large gills' named Han Solo; excerpts from George Lucas’s numerous, ever-morphing script drafts; the birth of Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects company that revolutionized Hollywood filmmaking; the grueling, nearly catastrophic location shoot in Tunisia and the following breakneck dash at Elstree Studios in London; the intensive auditions that won the cast members their roles - and made them legends; the who’s who of young 1970s film rebels who pitched in to help - including Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Brian DePalma.