Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) on location in California’s Buttercup Valley aboard Jabba’s barge, April 1982.
Copyright © 2013 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated.
All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House
Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-54358-5
www.starwars.com
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Additional research by Brandon Alinger
PHOTO CREDITS
Terry Chostner, Albert Clarke, Frank Connor, Douglas Dawson, Howard Kazanjian, Barbara Lakin, Long Photography, Inc., Roberto McGrath, Ralph Nelson, Jr., Kerry Nordquist, Bob Penn, Dave Pickoff/AP Photo, and Charles Wessler
Additional photos: Brandon Alinger, from the collection of Rose Duignan, Ben Burtt, the Prop Store, Kit West, and Steve Starkey
COVER: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is caught between his father, Sith Lord Darth Vader (David Prowse), and the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid), with the fate of the galaxy in the balance; Elstree Studios, March 1982. Photo by Albert Clarke.
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DEDICATION
To Geneviève, Sarah, and Judith
In memory of Ralph McQuarrie, a fantastic visionary artist and gentleman, who, in the end, enjoyed sitting peacefully in his garden
And hats off to Stuart Freeborn, who seems to have led a wonderful, charmed life, and who helped create such lovable creatures
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am particularly thankful for several individuals who went out of their way to help. Howard Kazanjian opened his archives to my research assistant down south, Brandon Alinger, and the two of them thus provided a great deal of important information; Brandon also supplied the supplemental credits and was an essential reader, fact checker, and provider of camera info and other esoteric bits of Jedi lore. Robert Watts and Jim Bloom made themselves available, the former via email and long-distance calls, the latter during an afternoon in his home across the Bay and during supplemental calls. Dennis Muren, as always, has been just one floor down at Industrial Light & Magic, providing quick answers to a stream of visual effects and general questions; Dennis very kindly also read the manuscript to check its accuracy. Craig Barron took the time to watch the whole movie with me, detailing the work behind every matte painting and relating many memorable stories, and then reviewed the manuscript’s matte painting sections.
Indeed many Jedi veterans donated hours of their valuable time, notably Terry Chostner, Rose Duignan, Chris Evans, Steve Gawley, Lorne Peterson, Aggie Rodgers, and Thomas G. Smith. The award for the best phone interview must be shared by Duwayne Dunham and Nilo Rodis-Jamero, both of whom recalled incidents and anecdotes with wonderful humor and clarity. I am also indebted to Carol Marquand and James Marquand for their memories of Richard Marquand. Without their feelings and insights, the book would not have been complete.
Once again, like each of the previous forays, I couldn’t have written this book without the custodians of Lucasfilm’s several treasure troves: In the Lucasfilm Archives at Skywalker Ranch, Laela French, Arran Harvey, and Joanee Honour made the high quality artwork reproductions possible. It was always a real pleasure to arrive Thursday mornings, sit on the couch, and chat—before heading off into a past of drawings, storyboards, models, and maquettes. Kathy Smeaton then took hundreds of chosen two-dimensional artworks and scanned them patiently.
The Skywalker Ranch Research Library is overseen by Jo Donaldson and Robyn Stanley, and they once more gave me the “keys” to the research warehouse, allowing me to forage through dozens of cardboard boxes filled with papers that hadn’t been disturbed since 1983. When the odd question came up during the writing phase, Jo and Robyn were always available—thank you. In the film archives, Monica Chin-Perez came up with the rough cut and fine cut of Jedi, carefully cueing up picture and sound reels on the old KEM flatbed editing table. Fragments of animatics, telematics, camera reports, and computer printouts provided a thorough basis for writing about postproduction effects and editorial.
I’m running out of adjectives for Image Archives, but Tina Mills’s crew (and Tina herself) has been superlative as always. Stacey Leong oversaw scanning the negatives, collating the collections, sending pics out for drum-scanning, and basically making sure the book exists image-wise; Matthew Azeveda helped on final frame screen grabs, while Shahana Alam chipped in and Tina made sure the whole operation worked like clockwork.
At Random House, Erich Schoeneweiss has had my back on all three books—and has been enthusiastic throughout (despite my moments of despair) and one of the books’ biggest fans. Frank Parisi, formerly my partner in crime at LucasBooks, was my editor and contributed many valuable notes. And warm thanks to Nancy Delia and her crew for keeping me honest grammatically and in other textual ways, and to Scott Biel, Keith Clayton, Joseph Scalora, and David Moench. For the design, I am indebted to Katie Benezra, at becker&mayer! (where Delia Greve pitched in, too), who took my rudimentary book map and gave it elegance (Katie also designed Star Wars: The Blueprints).
And I can’t say how much I appreciate the time Brad Bird donated to write his foreword and to discussing the Star Wars saga one rainy afternoon, sitting by a burning fire in a Skywalker Ranch “office.” His foreword adds a lot of context, expertise, and professional passion to this book.
At Lucasfilm, thanks to Pablo Hidalgo, who also read and corrected my manuscript; to my boss, Carol Roeder, who facilitated the whole enterprise; more thanks to Troy Alder and his design acumen; and to Howard Roffman for his great interview; to Jane Bay and Connie Wethington in the chairman’s office; to Chris Argyropoulos for his PR help; to Chris Holm, who made sure I didn’t trespass illegally; and—again!—to the whole infrastructure that George Lucas has maintained. Of course I owe so much to George himself. I’ve promised him not to write any more of these books, as I’m sure they take their toll on his psyche, while taking up too much of his time. But I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity to set forth in words and images the making of perhaps the most beloved trilogy in the history of cinema. It’s been an honor.
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
List of Enhancements
Foreword by Brad Bird
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Revenge of a Slavering Hulk (February 1979 to February 1981)
Undated Outlines Summary
Rough Draft Summary, February 24, 1981
Chapter 2: Directors Cut (February to June 1981)
Revised Rough Draft Summary, June 12, 1981
Chapter 3: A City Too Far (June to July 1981)
Story Conference Summary, July 13–17, 1981
Chapter 4: A Poet’s Emperor (July to September 1981)
Second Draft Summary, September 21, 1981
Chapter 5: Setup on Space Street (September 1981 to January 1982)
Revised Second Draft Summary, November 1, 1981
Third Draft Summary, December 1, 1981
Chapter 6: The Friction of Multiple Lenses (January to February 1982)
Chapter 7: An Ending of Elstree (February to April 1982)
Chapter 8: The 4:12 to Yuma (April to May 1982)
Chapter 9: Harnessing the Elements (June to November 1982)
Chapter 10: Butterfly Effects (November 1982 t
o February 1983)
Chapter 11: Post-Traumatic Film (February to May 1983)
Chapter 12: Joy of the Jedi (May 1983 to September 1987)
Epilogue
Cast and Crew Credits (Complete)
Bibliography
List of Enhancements
Occasionally you will see colored film “slugs” where a sequence was taken to be used in the final film. Not all film clips contain audio.
Chapter Four
Audio: Conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie talks about his need to withdraw from the film.
Audio: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) discusses his character’s emotional and physical arc, and his interplay with the dark side.
Chapter Five
Video: An excerpt from the telematics (or videomatics) of the rocket bike chase, with temp sound and voices by sound designer Ben Burtt, shot at ILM, fall 1981.
Video: A short excerpt from a 20-minute Jabba the Hutt test—eyes, hands, general movement, et cetera—shot at Elstree, fall 1981/early 1982.
Audio: Producer Howard Kazanjian, in the thick of production, goes over some of what a producer’s role is.
Chapter Six
Video: A printed daily of Anthony Daniels as C-3PO telling the story of the saga so far to the Ewoks—in English, minus the sound effects—as directed audibly by Richard Marquand.
Audio: Director Richard Marquand on making sure the Jabba puppeteers feel safe on set and inside the giant animatronic puppet.
Audio: Hamill explains why Luke hasn’t given C-3PO all the information about his plans to rescue Han Solo.
Video: A printed daily of Jabba negotiating with Luke (Hamill delivers his lines off camera); Jabba speaks in English, and moves as directed by Marquand at Elstree Studios, January 1982.
Video: Printed dailies of Leia (Carrie Fisher) strangling Jabba aboard the latter’s barge, as directed by Marquand (off camera), January 1982.
Video: Printed dailies from February 11, 1982, of Salacious Crumb chewing on C-3PO’s eye.
Video: On the briefing room set, makeup and creature designer Phil Tippett helps dress Tim Rose in his Admiral Ackbar costume, which is having audio problems (first assistant director David Tomblin can be heard on the megaphone asking people to get a move on), circa February 25, 1982.
Video: Mark Hamill talks with Kenny Baker (R2-D2); director Richard Marquand goes over his shots for the day with producer Howard Kazanjian; Marquand then blocks out a scene with Ford, Fisher, Hamill, and Mayhew, as director of photography Alan Hume takes measurements, circa February 25, 1982.
Chapter Seven
Video: Printed dailies from February 16, 1982, of General Nadine (Dermot Crowley) and crew as they react to the battle and the destruction of the Imperial fleet (again, Marquand is directing from off camera).
Video: A behind-the-scenes shot on March 3, 1982, of Luke’s duel with Vader (Bob Anderson, here, as stunt double), as performed by Hamill and his stunt double (Colin Skeaping; sometimes shot in reverse) on the throne room set at Elstree Studios.
Video: A black-and-white dupe of a daily showing the death of a female X-wing pilot (Vivienne Chandler), as filmed and directed by the second unit.
Video: A printed daily from circa March 19, 1982, of Vader picking up the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid), who is rigged with wires; his cowl comes off, and stunt coordinator Peter Diamond runs in to help after “cut” is called.
Video: A printed daily from circa March 23, 1982, of Luke and Vader (David Prowse) on Endor, with Marquand speaking Vader’s lines (and cuing the lightsaber effect).
Chapter Eight
Video: On location in Buttercup Valley, California, stuntmen take the plunge into the Sarlacc pit, experimenting, April 1982.
Video: On location, Buttercup Valley.
Video: Behind the scenes of the land battle on Endor as Marquand, Lucas, and first AD David Tomblin try to organize the Imperial officers, scout troopers, Ewoks, and so on with varying degrees of success (visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren, in a gray baseball cap, can be seen in the background), on location near Crescent City, California, early May 1982.
Chapter Nine
Video: Telematics (or videomatics) are featured in Marquand’s cut (a black-and-white dupe) of the attack on the second Death Star (portions are without audio), which is intercut with Imperial Moff Jerjerrod (Michael Pennington) ordering countermeasures; Ben Burtt performs Ackbar’s lines, circa August 19, 1982.
Video: Marquand’s first cut makes use of Hamill’s footage shot at Elstree on the rancor set, and temp footage shot at ILM of someone in an ape suit standing in for the rancor, circa August 19, 1982. (Note the Jawas pounding on Luke’s fingers when he’s holding on to the grate—a scripted moment that won’t make the final cut.)
Video: Marquand’s cut features the Emperor ordering the Death Star to turn its laser on Endor (a scene that will not make the final cut), circa August 19, 1982.
Video: Marquand’s cut has a longer scene on the rebel hangar set as Lando, Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca say their goodbyes, circa August 19, 1982 (the matte painting of the Falcon had yet to be completed for the background).
Chapter Ten
Video: Temp shots using material from Empire and A New Hope, along with action figures, a McQuarrie painting, and a placeholder actor, are cobbled together to show what a scene depicting Luke building his lightsaber might look like, circa November 1982. Note the partial set of Jabba’s palace door, which will be completed by a matte painting.
Audio: Visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston talks about “Black Friday,” the day Lucas cut many effects shots (and substituted others) in order to improve the film. (Interview by Garrett, 1983).
Audio: Model shop co-supervisor Lorne Peterson talks about the Millennium Falcon models built over the years. (Inteview by Garrett, 1983).
Video: Nearly a final cut, though without music or sound effects, of the scene in which Vader realizes Leia is Luke’s sister—with Marquand doing Vader’s lines. However, this moment will be altered when James Earl Jones performs the Sith Lord’s final lines in order to emphasize Vader’s sinister discovery, late 1982.
Audio: Burtt discusses how he goes about creating alien languages, specifically Ewokese. (Interview by Garrett, 1983).
Video: A printed daily from a pickup shot by DP Hiro Narita of C-3PO walking toward Jabba’s palace (shot on location in Death Valley, December 11, 1982).
Video: The final celebration Ewok song—in English—in a near-final cut of the film, early 1983.
Chapter Eleven
Audio: Visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston talks eloquently about how ILM creates a special effects shot and its evolution.
Audio: Matte painting supervisor Michael Pangrazio discusses the variety of matte paintings done for the film, in particular Frank Ordaz’s painting of the Falcon for the rebel hangar featured behind Lando and Han.
Chapter Twelve
Audio: Fans in line at the Egyptian Theatre are interviewed on opening night.
Epilogue
Audio: George Lucas on the durability of the phenomenon that he created and feeling the joy it’s inspired come back to him through its fans, particularly kids.
FOREWORD BY BRAD BIRD
On its opening night on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon … I first saw Star Wars.
We had driven a good distance to see it—an hour and a half one way—because in Oregon it was playing in only a single theater. But that theater was blessed with a big-ass screen and impressive sound. Very few people remember this now, but Star Wars appeared in only something like 32 theaters in the country when it first opened; yet every one of those theaters was showing a 70-millimeter print with 6-track Dolby Stereo, at a time when Dolby was brand-new and the 70mm format was practically extinct.
I’d heard rumblings about Star Wars before it came out, through back channels, from film-savvy friends, but the general public had no idea what it was. Because of that, Star Wars had a sexy sort of street cred that other films didn’t
. Save for Alec Guinness, the film’s lead actors were unknowns. But as I sat in the theater waiting for the lights to dim and the curtains to open, the feeling in the air was unmistakable: This was going to be something.
“Something” was an understatement. What followed was probably the most amazing experience I’ve ever witnessed between a film and its audience. Almost immediately, right after the Flash Gordon– inspired crawl, as the rebels’ ship was pursued by an endlessly enormous Imperial starcruiser … something happened that never happens in Oregon—the opening shot of a movie got an ovation.
This wasn’t Hollywood, where knowledgeable industry people show appreciation for the efforts of their fellow co-workers. This was Oregon, where audiences had never, ever, in my experience (and I saw a lot of movies growing up), applauded a shot. And not two minutes later an even more extraordinary thing happened: As stormtroopers invaded the rebel ship, blowing back the resistance with a hail of laser blasts, the film’s villain, Darth Vader, made his entrance—and, instantaneously, on the opening night of a movie that no one knew anything about—the audience booed and hissed.
This was not worked out beforehand. This wasn’t audience-participation theater, slowly learned over months of screenings, like it was for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This was spontaneous, theater wide, and instant, as if every member of the audience possessed dormant silent-movie-villain-hating DNA passed down from their grandparents, behavior that had been slumbering inside them for generations, which had been suddenly awakened in that moment because the right mixture of events—the crawl, the music, the opening shot—had preceded it. Some intricate combination had unlocked a forgotten region of the audience’s collective heart, and a sold-out crowd of moviegoers responded as if they were greeting a long-lost friend.
The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Enhanced Edition) Page 1