J. W. Rinzler

Brad Bird

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 concludes New York Times bestselling author J. W. Rinzler’s trio of breathtaking books celebrating George Lucas’s classic saga. Once again, the author’s unprecedented access to the Lucasfilm Archives has yielded a mother lode of fascinating and often unexpected revelations from behind the scenes of a blockbuster in the making. Brimming with previously unpublished photos, concept artwork, script excerpts, storyboards, on-set interviews and present-day commentary, The Making of Return of the Jedi chronicles ‘how George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 stories in movie history. Get up close to the action and feel like a studio insider as: * 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 * The artists and technicians at the ground-breaking Industrial Light & Magic facility surpass their own revolutionary innovations with boundary-pushing new visual effects * A crack team of sculptors, puppeteers, actors and ‘monstermakers’ brings Jabba the Hutt and his unsavoury cohorts to startling, slobbering life * Actors and crew race to the finish line at Elstree Studios, in a fiery desert and beneath the canopy of a dense redwood forest to provide answers to the questions that audiences had waited three years to find out: Is Darth Vader really Luke’s father? Who is the mysterious ‘other’? And who, or what, is the Emperor? Star Wars luminaries 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, all weigh in with candid insights on everything from technical crises and character design, to the Ewoks and the ultimate challenge of bringing this phenomenal space fantasy to a dramatic close. A gloriously illustrated and painstakingly researched tribute to a truly spectacular movie, The Making of Return of the Jedi invites you to return to a galaxy … far, far away.

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