George Lucas (born 1944) is a producer, screenwriter and director, who played a major role in the anti-establishment New Hollywood movement of the 1970s and helped define the blockbuster era of the 1980s. He is best known as the creator of the Star Warsspace opera and the producer of the iconic Indiana Jonesadventure film series. Lucas had directed THX 1138(1971) and American Graffiti(1973) before launching, in 1977, the first film in the Star Warsfranchise. Rapidly a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, this was followed by two sequels- The Empire Strikes Back(1980) and Return of the Jedi(1983). Sixteen years later a new trilogy, The Phantom Menace(1999), Attack of the Clones(2002) and Revenge of the Sith(2005), were released. The Star Warsseries has spawned a range of other media, including tv series, video games and comic books. With this simple yet powerful saga, lucas has created a brand, a business empire and a technological revolution.

The essential biography of the influential and beloved filmmaker George Lucas. On May 25, 1977, a problem-plagued, budget-straining independent science-fiction film opened in a mere thirty-two American movie theaters. Conceived, written, and directed by a little-known filmmaker named George Lucas, the movie originally called The Star Wars quickly drew blocks-long lines, bursting box-office records and ushering in a new way for movies to be made, marketed, and merchandised. It is now one of the most adored-and successful-movie franchises of all time. Now, the author of the bestselling biography Jim Henson delivers a long-awaited, revelatory look into the life and times of the man who created Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Indiana Jones. If Star Wars wasn't game-changing enough, Lucas went on to create another blockbuster series with Indiana Jones, and he completely transformed the world of special effects and the way movies sound. His innovation and ambition forged Pixar and Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and THX sound. Lucas's colleagues and competitors offer tantalizing glimpses into his life. His entire career has been stimulated by innovators including Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, actors such as Harrison Ford, and the very technologies that enabled the creation of his films-and allowed him to keep tinkering with them long after their original releases. Like his unforgettable characters and stories, his influence is unmatched.

A director, producer, and writer, George Lucas is the power behind "The Force." The son of a conservative small-town businessman, he grew up to become arguably the most identifiable and popular filmmaker in the history of the medium. Yet unlike his more publicly engaged contemporaries, Lucas rarely grants reporters an audience. This first book of Lucas's interviews affords fans and students of film and science fiction a rare opportunity. Editor Sally Kline collects conversations from the reticent director spanning Lucas's entire career, from the making of his first film, 1971's "THX-1138," through "American Graffiti," the triumph of the "Star Wars" trilogy, and even a 1999 interview given while awaiting the release of "Star Wars: Episode One--The Phantom Menace." In interviews from venues such as "Rolling Stone," "Playboy," and "American Film," Lucas reveals his distrust of the Hollywood establishment, his love for making movies, and his unambiguous values and how those values translate into the epic clash between good and evil created when he explores characters like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Lucas revolutionized the movie industry and created the most successful film series of all time. Along with films of his close friend Steven Spielberg, Lucas's releases invented the notion of blockbuster movies. Before the end of the millennium, he could count the loyal fans of the Star Wars trilogy in the millions. Sally Kline is film critic for "The Journal" newspapers. She has worked as a film commentator on a number of Washington, D.C. radio stations and as a guest lecturer at George Washington University. A freelance writer and researcher, she has contributed to two books, including a biography of Robert F. Kennedy.

This revised and updated edition of Charles Champlin's insightful study of George Lucas includes 85 new illustrations and brings the story of this remarkable man and his innovative empire up to the present. 290 illustrations, 130 in full color.

A Galaxy of Things explores the ways in which all puppets, masks, makeup-prosthetic figures are "material characters," using iconic Star Wars characters like Yoda and R2-D2 to illustrate what makes them so compelling. As an epic franchise, Star Wars has been defined by creatures, droids, and masked figures since the original 1977 movie. Author Colette Searls, a theatre director and expert in puppetry studies, uncovers how non-humans like Chewbacca, semi-humans like Darth Maul, and even concealed humans like Boba Fett tell meaningful stories that conventional human characters cannot. Searls defines three powers that puppets, masked figures, and other material characters wield—distance, distillation, and duality—and analyzes Star Wars’ most iconic robots and aliens to demonstrate how they work across nearly a half-century of live-action films. Yoda and "Baby Yoda"—two of popular culture’s greatest puppets—use these qualities to transform their human companions. Similarly, Darth Vader’s mask functions as a performing object driving mystery and suspense across three film trilogies. The power of material characters has also been wielded in problematic ways, such as stereotypes in the representation of service droids and controversial creatures like Jar Jar Binks. Bringing readers forward into the first Star Wars live-action streaming series, the book also explores how the early 2020s stories centered material characters in particularly meaningful, often redemptive ways. A Galaxy of Things is an accessible guide to puppets, masks, and other material characters for students and scholars of theatre, film, puppetry, and popular culture studies. It also offers useful perspectives on non-human representation for researchers in object-oriented ontology, posthumanism, ethnic studies, and material culture.

In this thorough account of one of cinema's most lasting works, Kaminski presents the true history of how "Star Wars" was written. For this unauthorized account, he has pored through more than 400 sources.

Through conversations held with fifteen of the most accomplished contemporary cinematographers, the authors explore the working world of the person who controls the visual look and style of a film. This reissue includes a new foreword by cinematographer John Bailey and a new preface by the authors, which bring this classic guide to cinematography, in print for more than twenty-five years, into the twenty-first century.