New Agreement Consolidates Current Star Wars Book Properties with New Publications Tied to Next 3 Star Wars Films
NEW YORK-- The Ballantine Publishing Group has just acquired rights to a sweeping program of future Star Wars fiction and nonfiction titles, it was announced today by Linda Grey, President of the Group. Ballantine, a division of Random House Inc., the largest general trade book publisher in the English-speaking world, has been publishing the best selling novelizations of the first three Star Wars films for over 20 years.
"Star Wars has become the most successful franchise in the entertainment industry," said Ms. Grey, "and we're excited to have an opportunity to play such a key role in the publishing that will accompany the new Star Wars movies. Along with our bestselling Star Wars backlist, publishing all of the new adult fiction and nonfiction well into the next millennium will introduce the magic of Star Wars to a whole new generation of readers."
"We're delighted to bring our complete Star Wars adult publishing program under one roof," said Howard Roffman, Vice President of Licensing for Lucasfilm, Ltd. "It will create an unprecedented opportunity for a coordinated program that will take Star Wars publishing to its highest level and bring exciting new books to our fans the world over."
The first of the three new Star Wars films has just completed the first phase of principal photography and is expected to be released in May, 1999.
Under the new licensing agreement, Ballantine through its Del Rey imprint, will publish novelizations of the three new Star Wars films, which are prequels to the original Star Wars Trilogy, Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In addition they will publish all the nonfiction books based on the new trilogy of films, and spin-off novels set in the periods of both the classic films and the new prequel trilogy.
Ballantine's Star Wars novelizations have more than 13 million copies in print. In addition to the trilogy, Ballantine publishes more than 55 Star Wars titles, including The Art of Star Wars, Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures, A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Star Wars: The Lando Calrissian Adventures, and Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels. The first ever Star Wars book, Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker was published by Ballantine in 1976, prior to the release in 1977 of the phenomenally successful Star Wars.
Ballantine's sister Random House Inc. companies will publish the three new Star Wars novelizations, the classic Star Wars spin-off novels and new novels relating to the upcoming films throughout the English-speaking world. The companies include Random House UK, Random House Australia, Random House New Zealand, Random House South Africa, and in Canada, Ballantine Books. The Star Wars fiction will also be available throughout the English-speaking world in audio format from Random House Audio Publishing.
The nonfiction Star Wars projects, including illustrated and art books, guides to the various aspects of the Star Wars universe, illustrated scripts and other informative and entertaining companions to the Star Wars experience will be published by Ballantine in the United States and Canada.
