Now we have our first official straight-on look at the cover for The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, due out next year.
The next three years in Star Wars publishing
Well, after starting an avalanche of reveals last week, StarWars.com gives us a lowdown of the new publishing contract (so far.) Some of it we already know: Fate of the Jedi, Blood Oath, The Clone Wars. As for reveals…
- Blood Oath features… Zekk! Still not dead.
- Christie Golden’s Star Wars debut in summer ’09 will be titled Fate of the Jedi: Enigma.
- Karen Traviss’ Imperial Commando series will be in paperback, and the first book is 501st, also due next summer.
- Winter ’09 brings another (horror!?!) standalone from a new author, Joe Schreiber.
- And a guide to Vader published by Becker & Mayer, who handled last year’s Vault.
- Drew Karpyshyn’s third Bane novel (hardcover, natch) will appear in early 2010, as will Kemp’s standalone.
- Fall 2010 bring a Star Wars craft book by Bonnie Burton.
- And another new-to-us author, Alex Irvine, tackles the ancient Jedi.
- For 2011 expect Traviss’ Boba Fett standalone in paperback.
- And another PB from Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff.
J. W. Rinzler on The Making of Indiana Jones
Lightsabre conducts an interview with J. W. Rinzler, who wrote The Making of Indiana Jones, which covers all four films, and also talks about the joys of having to manage media books for not one but two movies coming out in a year (Crystal Skull and The Clone Wars).
Del Rey gets the contract!
…To publish Indiana Jones books. (Nuk nuk nuk.) They’ve tapped author James Rollins to write the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novelization, with Laurent Bouzereau and old hat J. W. Rinzler on nonfiction duty.
30th Anniversary hijinks
Haven’t made it to the bookstore yet? Peek inside Making of Star Wars with a new feature on the Random House website.
Star Wars events all over this May, with author appearances by Timothy Zahn, Matthew Stover, J.W. Rinzler, Michael Stackpole, Helen Keier and more!
Book and comic updates
Nonfiction: J.W. Rinzler talks about wrapping up work on next year’s Making of Star Wars. He mentions two books I don’t think we’ve heard much about, a scrapbook and a pop-up book.
Fiction: Sue Rostoni posts a short timeline of Tempest. And in comics, John Jackson Miller has announced that Dark Horse is going to revive the in-continuity news source starting with in Knights of the Old Republic #13. No word on if this will spread to the other comics.
ETA: Apparently letter columns are returning to the comics as well, though it’s not known in what issues yet. (Thanks, Broox!)
Video Monday
What if Quentin Tarantino made Lord of the Rings? Orodruin Dogs, Ring Fiction, Natural Born Orcs, and White City. Not as good as Star Wars Pulp Fiction, but still pretty damn funny.
Bill Moyers’ interview with George Lucas from The Mythology of Star Wars TV special, in four three parts: 1, 3, 4. I’m not sure where part 2 went, if it was ever there at all.
James Michael Tyler talks to Jonathan Rinzler about The Art of Revenge of the Sith and The Making of, as well as Matthew Stover about the ROTS novelization and James Luceno about Dark Lord.
Screw that, have more funny
- Matthew ‘General Grievous’ Wood and Warwick Davis sing a classic Disney song.
- Hayden Christensen on MTV’s TRL.
- Budweiser Star Wars. I’m sorry.
- To continue tonight’s slide into cheesiness, a Jeff Foxworthy/Star Wars mashup. Really, very, very sorry.
- Okay, okay, here’s something that will only make you cringe a little: 1977 cast interview on The Today Show.
More big stuff for 2007
TFN reports there’s a new Making of book coming out next year, focusing on the original trilogy.
UPDATED: Starwars.com preview.
EU tidbits in our pocketses
Next issue of Star Wars Insider will feature their Top 20 EU Moments. I expect there will be quite a bit of debate once this is released, but it’s always nice to see the books get some Insider page space.
Comic-Con 2005 is currently in progress in California, and there have been some hints that Jonathan Rinzler has an unfinished copy of The Swarm War cover. No guarantees, but attendees might get a peak. In the meantime, there’s plenty of other SW goodness going on in San Deigo.
Lucasfilm’s Sue Rostoni has started a starwars.com blog, where she has posted that Elizabeth Hand’s 2007 Old Republic novel has been canceled. No word on what will replace it, but fear not, there’s still one OR book in the queue – Drew Karpyshyn’s Darth Bane novel. Which I suspect is the one we’re all more interested in anyway. ;)
(More EU VIP blogs can be found in starwars.com’s listing of all the latest VIP posts.)
Another interesting post found in the starwars.com blogs is Ithorian Guy on The Mystery of the Whills. He obviously knows his stuff, and the entry came to my attention via a message board post by LFL’s Leland Chee, so you know he’s gotta be onto something.
And finally, starwars.com posted the October 2005 comics yesterday – previews of Empire #38, X-wing — Rogue Leader #2, Republic #83, and Clone Wars Volume 7, which collects the Obsession arc.
Release dates bearing down…
Starwars.com posted a pretty hefty look at ROTS literature last night – interviews with authors Matt Stover (novelization) and J.W. Rinzler (Making of/Art of) as well as excerpts from all three books.