Just as
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi completed the most successful
cinematic trilogy of its generation, perhaps of all time, this splendid
thirtieth-anniversary tribute completes New York Times bestselling author J. W.
Rinzler’s trio of fascinating behind-the-scenes books celebrating George
Lucas’s classic films.
Once
again, the author’s unprecedented access to the formidable Lucasfilm Archives
has yielded a mother lode of extremely informative, vastly entertaining, and
often unexpected stories, anecdotes, recollections, and revelations straight
from the closely guarded set of a big-screen blockbuster in the making.
Brimming with previously unpublished photos, production artwork, script
excerpts, exclusive intel, vintage on-set interviews, and present-day commentary,
The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi chronicles “how George Lucas and
his crew of extroverted artists, misfits, and expert craftspeople roused
themselves to great heights for a third time” to create the next unforgettable
chapter in one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Get up close to the
action and feel like a studio insider as
• creator
George Lucas, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, and director
Richard Marquand huddle in a script conference to debate the destinies of iconic
Star Wars characters, as well as plot twists and turns for the epic final
showdown between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire
• artists
and craftspeople at the groundbreaking Industrial Light & Magic facility
top their own revolutionary innovations—despite the infamous Black Friday—with
boundary-pushing new analog visual effects
• a crack
team of sculptors, puppeteers, actors, and “monster-makers” bring Jabba the
Hutt and his cohorts to startling, slobbering life from the inside out
• a Who’s
Who of heavyweight directors—from such films as Superman, Gremlins, Halloween,
Dune, Scanners, and Time Bandits—are considered for the coveted job of bringing
a new Star Wars adventure to the silver screen
• actors
and crew race to the finish line at Elstree Studios, in a fiery desert, and
beneath the trees of a dense redwood forest—before money runs out—to answer the
questions that audiences had waited three years to find out: Is Darth Vader
really Luke’s father, who is the “other”—and who or what is the Emperor?
Star Wars’
stars from both sides of the camera—including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford,
Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Alec Guinness,
director Richard Marquand, producer Howard Kazanjian, Ralph McQuarrie, Joe
Johnston, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and mastermind George Lucas—weigh in with
candid insights on everything from technical challenges, character design,
Ewoks, the Empire’s galactic city planet, and the ultimate challenge of
bringing the phenomenal space fantasy to a dramatic close. The Making of Star
Wars: Return of the Jedi gives a spectacular subject its just due, with more
than five hundred images and many, many new interviews.
Praise for J. W. Rinzler’s The Making of Star
Wars
“A mammoth
tome so packed with photos and facts, a wookiee could get a hernia trying to
lift it.”—New York Daily News
“Outstanding
. . . Rinzler’s Making of will be an instant fan fave and a shining star in
that galaxy far, far away.”—Library Journal (starred review)
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