Star Wars Episode 7 News

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Interview with "The Making of Star Wars ROTJ" Author J.W. Rinzler with an Excerpt from the Book + a Short Film About the 30th Anniversary.


Huffingtonpost published a great interview and an excerpt from J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi". Find out about Anakin's story and how Harrison Ford wanted Han Solo dead. Also check out Kyle Newman's short movie "The Return of Return of the Jedi: 30 Years and Counting"...

First here's the interview with Rinzler.

On sex among the actors who played Ewoks:
I don't know how much of that has been exaggerated over the past but, yeah, a few people had funny stories about having to knock on any doors that contained private places. I think there was one Ewok couple that did get married a few years later, which is not in the book, but that did happen. What they said, normally little people aren't used to seeing so many other little people at the same time -- so it was kind of a new experience for them.

On the trials of the director of "Return of the Jedi," the late Richard Marquand:
Certainly George did not want to have a repeat experience of "Empire" in terms of the time and the budget ... George wanted coverage of every scene, which he didn't really get as much of with ["The Empire Strikes Back" director] Irvin Kershner. It made it harder to do what he does in the editing room -- and for George, that's where some of the most important filmmaking takes place, so he really wanted to get that footage and he was determined to get it for "Jedi." And Marquand was kind of wondering at some points, "What's my job?" Kershner was kind of -- not exactly doing it like Hitchcock -- but more like Hitchcock. Saying, "I know what this is going to look like. I know how it's going to cut together." That forces the editor into a single way of cutting it together, and George didn't want to be handcuffed that way.


On Harrison Ford's attitude toward "Return of the Jedi":
Obviously, Harrison Ford career had taken a mega leap with Indiana Jones and he had just done "Blade Runner." So, he was doing really interesting work. I think he was as interested as always, but he just felt that in terms of the character arc of [Han Solo], it would serve the story more if he died. And it's well known that he was really pushing that. But George didn't want to kill off a major character -- or even a minor character -- in "Jedi." But in the story conference [with Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, Richard Marquand and producer Howard Kazanjian], I think you can see in hindsight that what happened was that Han and Leia, their storyline, didn't receive as much attention as it might have. It's not really Ford losing interest as it is neither character has as much to do in "Jedi" as they did in "Empire."

On George Lucas' divorce:
That's not something I want to play up at all. It's obviously in the book, and George is the one who talked to me about it ... but he brought it up and basically kind of wanted it in the book because it was obviously having a big effect upon him at the time. As he said, he just had to drag himself to work during post-production every day.

On the legacy of "Return of the Jedi," compared to "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back":
In a way, "Jedi"'s trajectory is similar to "Empire'"s. They both got mixed reviews, and a lot of the actors back then in 1982 didn't even like "Empire" that much. They really preferred "Star Wars" and they preferred "Jedi." Then, over the years, "Empire" has kind of appeared as a lot of people's favorite. I was taking to Guillermo del Toro about this. Already with "Jedi," you have another generation of filmgoers going to the theater. And for people like me, "Jedi" was already a kind of "The Phantom Menace" in that we're like, "You've got to be kidding me with these Ewoks. I just cannot relate to this. These are little people in suits and it looks ridiculous." There's already a generational divide. But those kids who were seven and eight who saw Jedi -- for a lot of people, "Jedi" is their favorite film. And del Toro is saying it will be the same way for the prequels.

Now a direct excerpt from the book about the story of Anakin:

Lucas: Anakin Skywalker starting hanging out with the Emperor, who at this point nobody knew was that bad, because he was an elected official.
Kasdan: Was he a Jedi?
Lucas: No, he was a politician. Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a really nice guy. He sucked Luke’s father into the dark side.
Kasdan: The Force was available to anyone who could hook into it?
Lucas: Yes, everybody can do it.
Kasdan: Not just the Jedi?
Lucas: It’s just the Jedi who take the time to do it.
Marquand: They use it as a technique.
Lucas: Like yoga. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it; but the ones that really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate. Also another misconception is that Yoda teaches Jedi, but he is like a guru; he doesn’t go out and fight anybody.
Kasdan: A Jedi Master is a Jedi isn’t he?
Lucas: Well, he is a teacher, not a real Jedi. Understand that?
Kasdan: I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t believe it; I am in shock.
Lucas: It’s true, absolutely true, not that it makes any difference to the story.
Kasdan: You mean he wouldn’t be any good in a fight?
Lucas: Not with Darth Vader he wouldn’t.
Kasdan: I accept it, but I don’t like it.

Lucas: Well, anyway, Luke’s father gets subverted by the Emperor. He gets a little weird at home and his wife begins to figure out that things are going wrong and she confides in Ben, who is his mentor. On his missions through the galaxies, Anakin has been going off doing his Jedi thing and a lot of Jedi have been getting killed—and it’s because they turn their back on him and he cuts them down. The president is turning into an Emperor and Luke’s mother suspects that something has happened to her husband. She is pregnant. Anakin gets worse and worse, and finally Ben has to fight him and he throws him down into a volcano and Vader is all beat up.
Now, when he falls into the pit, his other arm goes and his leg and there is hardly anything left of him by the time the Emperor’s troops fish him out of the drink. Then when Ben finds out that Vader has been fished out and is in the hands of the Empire, he is worried about it. He goes back to Vader’s wife and explains that Anakin is the bad guy, the one killing all the Jedi.
When he goes back his wife, Mrs. Skywalker has had the kids, the twins, so she has these two little babies who are six months old or so. So everybody has to go into hiding. The Skywalker line is very strong with the Force, so Ben says, “I think we should protect the kids, because they may be able to help us right the wrong that your husband has created in the universe.” And so Ben takes one and gives him to a couple out there on Tatooine and he gets his little hideout in the hills and he watches him grow. Ben can’t raise Luke himself, because he’s a wanted man. Leia and Luke’s mother go to Alderaan and are taken in by the king there, who is a friend of Ben’s. She dies shortly thereafter and Leia is brought up by her foster parents. She knows that her real mother died.
Kasdan: She does know that?
Lucas: Yes, so we can bring that out when Luke is talking to her; she can say that her mother died when “I was two years old.”
Source: huffingtonpost



And here's EW's project of a short movie about ROTJ:

EW approached filmmaker Kyle Newman (Fanboys) with a simple proposition: Will you make us a short film that collects famous voices talking about Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi and their feelings about the film as it reaches its 30th anniversary?
After sweet-talking him with promises of no money and too-little time, we mentioned that he was our only hope and, weirdly, that worked. The result is  The Return of Return of the Jedi: 30 Years and Counting, which shows elite geeks — among them Kevin Smith, Seth Green, Chris Hardwick, Jaime King, Topher Grace, Fall Out Boy, Eli Roth, and Jason Mewes — revisiting the movie in which tribal Teddy Ruxpins put down an Imperial invasion force with rocks, logs, and other Gilligan’s Island-esque props. Who saw that coming?
 For the short movie Click Click Here

And finally find out which are the 30 Things You Didn't Know Star Wars Gave Us!

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