Dusting Off The Making of Star Wars

Over the years, fans and film students have been able to cite a number of officially-published sources to learn how the Star Wars saga was made:

• Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back (Del Rey, 1980)
• The Making of Return of the Jedi (Del Rey, 1983)
• The Making of Episode I: The Phantom Menace (Del Rey, 1999)
• Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones (Del Rey, 2002)
• The Making of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Del Rey, 2005)

'Wait -- what happened to Star Wars?' you ask.

Ah, a very good question. And the answer would be, there was a "Making of Star Wars" book -- almost. "The reason quite a few people thought there was already a "Making of Star Wars" book is because Charles Lippincott, who was the vice-president of marketing and merchandising for the first film, had fully intended to write one," says Lucasfilm Executive Editor Jonathan Rinzler, who resurrected the idea to produce a definitive "making of" book for the first film two years ago when tasked to come up with ideas to celebrate the saga's 30th anniversary.

"Lippincott had conducted over 50 interviews, including talks with George Lucas, Gary Kurtz, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, John Barry, John Dykstra, and many, many others -- sometimes interviewing them more than once," continues Rinzler. "George Lucas was interviewed several times in 1975, 1976, and 1977. But the book was never written. And the interviews were filed away."

Having discovered through online searches that Lippincott had allegedly penned an illusory "making of" book on Star Wars back in the day, Rinzler asked Lucasfilm's Steve Sansweet if he had any leads on the subject. "He told me to ask the library if they still had the Lippincott files," says Rinzler. "And thankfully, they did!"

Presented with four boxes of Lippincott's interview transcripts, Rinzler was faced with literally thousands of pages of material. "I was overwhelmed!" says Rinzler, who immediately recognized he had a goldmine of unpublished content before him. Some highlights included an insightful interview with 20th Century-Fox executive at the time, Alan Ladd, Jr., who had to face down an apathetic board of directors and studio to get the film green-lighted. Other formerly obscure people also came to light: ILM film control coordinator Mary Lind, sound supervisor Sam Shaw, animation supervisor Adam Beckett, optical department head Robbie Blalack, and scores of others.

"Suffice to say nearly each interview had something interesting in it," says Rinzler, "and they were all so fresh. Everyone remembered so much more than they do in later interviews -- and no one knew that Star Wars was going to be a hit. Even those interviewed in 1978, after the movie came out, had no idea that the film was going to last and last and last!" (See the full list of Lippincott interviews following this article)

The result of Rinzler's extensive research through the Lucasfilm Archives, as well as new chronology interviews conducted with several of those involved, will be the much-belated Making of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler, due out this April. Fittingly, it will be published by Del Rey, who completes their own published "making of" saga which began with Once Upon a Galaxy back in 1980.