Star Wars, the Lost Interviews

smooth wombat writes "Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Release of Star Wars, Ballantine Books is publishing J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars", which bills itself as "The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film." The book is the result of Rinzler's discovery of interviews that Charles Lippincott, Lucasfilm's VP marketing and merchandising in the mid-'70s, conducted with the film's principals between 1975 and 1978."

Unearthed information!

[ubrgeek]

In the book, Lippincott admits that he actually fired first ...

Interviews

[Anonymous Coward]

These are not the interviews you're looking for. Move along.

Re:I still want to know

[Stanistani]

Archived interview with studio janitor:
Ho, I tol' dat Missah Lucas dat dey chould be' funnay guy in nex' movie! Meesah told him dat! Woo!
But he nevah reeplyy, how wude!

Re:Enough Already

[dr_dank]

What acrobatics? Did we watch the same movie?

Thats the problem with editing. When he uttered his famous line, Admiral Akbar really said "It's a trapeze!". He then wowed the crowed with his death-defying acrobatics without a net.

Re:Watch them squeeze that stone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, next comes the exclusive interviews with the lead gaffer and the boom guy, with the real inside scoop. Also, there is an exclusive excerpt from Carrie Fishers hairdressers upcoming book,"Cinnabuns and Laserguns"

Some excerpts

[Yeechang Lee]

I've seen an advance galley proof of the book, and let me tell you, it's filled with fascinating material. Here's some nuggets:

Q: George, there are rumors going around that Luke and Leia are related in some way.
GL: (Laughs) Charlie, I can assure the fans that they are not related. Look at the chemistry between Carrie [Fisher] and Mark [Hamill] on screen! Everyone would feel ill if they turned out to be brother and sister or something like that.

Q: Fans seem to be fascinatated by Darth Vader. What do you think about him has captured everyone's imagination?
GL: People love mysteries. They always have. I learned that a long time before USC. Vader is full of them. Perhaps some of peoples' questions will be answered over time, but I think anyone who expects to get all the answers on things like who he (Is "he" even the right word?) is, what's his name, does he have a family, is or was he ever married, those sorts of things may be disappointed.

Q: What about the Force? Is it magic? Telekinesis? A God-given gift? Illusions?
GL: All of them. None of them. What I can say is that the Force is certainly not something that can be pinned down to anything physical or tangible. If we were to find out that magicians need an extra gland or anything else unusual in their bodies to do their stage tricks we'd all be disappointed, because that means they wouldn't be human any more. We couldn't relate to them. If there's anything the Jedi are, it's that they are as 100% human as you or me.

Q: The Negro community—
GL: Isn't the word "black" nowadays?
Q: —sorry, the black community—some have complained that there aren't any black people in the Star Wars world. What's your response?
GL: Charlie, I want to say that I have the utmost respect for black culture and Negr--blacks' contributions to American society. While, of course, there are no black Americans per se "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," I can assure fans that anyone who looks black, or sounds black, will be portrayed in a completely-dignified fashion. I won't stoop to using demeaning cultural stereotypes of any kind in my work.

Q: Here's another question from a fan: "Do people in Star Wars use money?"
GL: Charlie, with all due respect to the fan, I want to emphasize how I am trying my best to depict on screen a completely new society. A completely new world. One of the many things different about this world is that it's moved beyond things like "money." Why, one might as well ask whether people will still be talking about "free trade" and "trade cartels"! I mean, come on! Talk about losing the audience! (Laughs)

Q: Speaking of money, what's your take on tie-in products? Toys, games, that sort of thing.
GL: I don't like them. As much as I love and admire Steve[n Spielberg], one thing I found distasteful about Jaws was all the commercialism around [the movie]. I mean, come on! A Jaws lunchbox? A book? Does a shark movie really need a novelization? Mark my words, you're not going to see anything like that for Star Wars. Well, maybe a toy or two for the little kids. But that's it.

Re:I Remember This!

[Pollardito]

Back when Star Wars first came out, Starlog [wikipedia.org] magazine spent an entire issue devoted to Stars Wars. They mentioned somewhere that Charles Lippincott was writing a book called "The Making of Star Wars", inspired by "The Making of Star Trek" book, but it never appeared.

I'm really glad to see that some of this material is finally seeing the light of day.

you're going to have to wait a little longer for some of it, this is actually going to be a book about the middle part of the making of Star Wars. he plans to make a prequel to this book telling about the first part of making Star Wars, and then he'll round out the series with a sequel some time down the road (though that might possibly be a different author or take the form of a cartoon)

Re:Which Version Will They Show

[badboy_tw2002]

Its still exists [slashdot.org], but digitally inserted into Saturday's stories because that's where the editors originally wanted it, they just didn't have the story written or the technology exploit that made the story possible. You should consider this new version of Saturday's stories as "original" and forget about the flawed earlier version you saw.

Star Wars - The Broadway Play! Featuring Spiderman

[modelmaker10]

I would like to suggest that Spiderman do a broadway play including the cast of characters from Star Wars! This would be far more exciting.. imagine all of the things flying around the stage! I am sure there will be an "accidental" beheading! Ever seen that movie Ghost Ship where the teather wire snaps and the recoil slices everyone in half! Just like that! If there ever were a Broadway play (parody of sorts) that actually followed this premise they might want Borat to join the fun! We can have Steve Martin as "The Jerk" replace Jar Jar and then the children from his later movies can disembowel him like a Gallagher performance! It is a whole new genre called derived from "composite play-writing". We all know that carbon fiber with epoxies can yield amazing strength to weight ratios... how about amazing shock to amusement ratios! This would be beatiful and appauling. Just like Evil Dead was! Bruce Campbell pulled it off.. and inspiration was born.

Re:Speaking of Star Wars...

[sg3000]

> If you think about it, Anakin/Vader lost just about every fair fight he was in.

You're close, but I think he squeaks ahead

FIGHT!

Episode I
1. Anakin vs Droid ship: Anakin

Episode II
2. Anakin vs Padme in front of Queen: Padme
3. Anakin vs mercenary: Mercenary knocks him off, so he loses
4. Anakin vs Padme in attempt to get to first base: Anakin!
-. Anakin vs Padme on Tatooine in the cockpit of her spacecraft: Anakin concedes ("I've given up arguing with you"), so Padme wins by default. However, match is a draw because Anakin clearly used the Force to turn on Padme's "headlights"
5. Anakin vs that creature in the ring: Anakin
6. Anakin vs Count Dooku: Dooku

Episode III
7. Anakin vs buzz droids: Anakin
8. Anakin vs Dooku (rematch): Anakin
9. Anakin vs Mace: Anakin
-. Anakin/Vader vs random padawans: Anakin (doesn't count as it wasn't fair)
10. Anakin/Vader vs Obi-Wan: Obiwan

Anakin score so far: 6/10

Episode IV
1. Vader vs. Obi-Wan: Vader
2, 3, 4. Vader vs X-Wing pilot: +1+1+1 (at least)
5. Vader vs Han Solo: Solo

Episode V
6. Vader vs Han Solo: Vader (blocks blaster bolts with glove for the score!)
7. Vader vs Lando (debate): Vader
8. Vader vs Luke: Vader

Episode VI
9. Vader vs Luke: Luke
10. Vader/Anakin vs Emperor: Vader

Vader score: 8/10

Anakin/Vader score (lifetime): 14/20

So he didn't do too bad.

(I can't believe I wasted time doing this)

Re:Some excerpts

[LMacG]

OK, my ASCII art ability is non-existent, so just imagine in this space the classic Slashdot "joke/arrow over stick figure/you" response.

Re:Star Wars - The Broadway Play! Featuring Spider

[modelmaker10]

Indeed! the venue would be an exciting one - Carrie Fisher could wear here Jaba the Hut slave gear and sing "What's New Pussycat" as Tom Jones is frozen into a solid piece of carbon! People will pay just to see that! Perhaps Captain America can show up with the girl that won his 80's comic competition (Boy George) and they could sing YMCA! To really delve deep into the basement of bizzarre... BatBoy needs a role. Batboy can play Lando C. in the Air City and sing "Lonely" ... I'm so lonely.. I have nobody...to call my own... Meanwhile Darth Vader has found his talent on american Idol as the "human beat-box".