SciFi Wire discusses the imminent new book The Making of Star Wars by J W Rinzler, which makes use of some newly unearthed material to throw light on one of cinema’s biggest-ever hit series as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. Interestingly some early material the author found shows that the film makers were less than sure of the potential success awaiting them, with George Lucas and Alan Ladd Jr looking at the huge lines of people waiting outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and thinking it might just be an opening weekend thing that wouldn’t last…
On the production side Rinzler found that early attempts to film the first (now part IV, of course) Star Wars movie used old-hat cinema technology in the form of front projection for effects sequences such as the now legendary attack on the Death Star. When they realised it wasn’t going to work the movie makers had to switch to blue screen, in the process pretty much jump-starting the modern, big budget special effects industry we take almost for granted in our summer blockbuster fantasies. Quite ironic given Lucas would later film much of the second set of Star Wars films with poor actors forced to imagine everything from alien characters to the sets around them as they were shot against green screen. Then again, I suppose shooting a modern SF blockbuster ain’t like dusting crops…
Wed, Apr 25, 2007
Books, Film, TV and radio