Star Wars beginnings

alvin l nunley

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How many here know that Star Wars, (I'm not positive on the name, but all the characters were in the books, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, they're all there) was first a series of books written well before there was ever a movie? And that more books were written, after the first movie came out, by the same author. I had always assumed that the movie series was all original material.
 
Al,

I volunteer as a Big Brother for Big Brothers, Big Sisters. My little brother struggles with reading, not actual words, but he hates it so much that he refuses to do it. The Star Wars books actually brought him into reading more. Every month I buy both of us a new Star Wars book and we read on our own time and then when we get together to play sports or hang out we always discuss what's going on it the book.

So yes, to answer your question, I am aware of the Star Wars saga. The cartoon series "The Clone Wars" is based on the books of the time between episode 3 (the birth of the Empire and Darth Vader) and 4 (a new hope...Luke Skywalker's debut). I have not watched it because I'm not THAT much into it, but I hear it's some good stories.
 
From the documentaries I've watched, I always took from them that Lucas had the main story all written, but when it came time to script it, it was too long to be just one movie. Him and his writers then filled in the blanks as needed to tell each part of the story on the big screen. There's all kinds of Star Wars books out there, but I've never heard of any that were published before the first movie of the first trilogy - it would be interesting to find out if there was!
 
I did a book report on one of the books that wasn't a movie ("Splendor of the Minds Eye" I believe) and my teacher thought I just changed up the movie with the real characters. I had to bring the book in and show it to her. The look on her face was priceless. I wanna say it was '84.
 
84? how funny is that, in light of the, "1984", Orwell classic , BTW, a distant relative, Edgar Rice Burroughs, wrote SCI-FI books back in early 1900's, I've never read any of them..
 
From the documentaries I've watched, I always took from them that Lucas had the main story all written, but when it came time to script it, it was too long to be just one movie. Him and his writers then filled in the blanks as needed to tell each part of the story on the big screen. There's all kinds of Star Wars books out there, but I've never heard of any that were published before the first movie of the first trilogy - it would be interesting to find out if there was!
I subscribe to a “free books on tape” program from the state of Texas. This is where I heard the story in question. At the start of the tape they sometimes have a listing of other books by the same author. On the tape in question they gave titles and dates. Many of the dates were before the star wars movies. The one I listend to include, or mentioned star wars the movie character’s but was dated before episode four, a new beginning. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader were mentioned, and Darth Vader was in the book. Luke Skywalker was mentioned in references to an earlier time.
Comments compliments criticisms and questions always welcome.
If the data does not support the theory, get a new theory.
 
To the best of my knowledge, George Lucas began and he and Alan Dean Foster working together wrote the opus that became the original Star Wars as about the 4th draft of the script, completing it in 1976 as both the script, and in an edited form, a novelization of the movie script, with the movie being released in 1977. While Lucas had originally contracted with Foster to write 2 novels as sequals to the original Star Wars (Star Wars - Episode IV, the first in the original trilogy, the middle 3 tales of the whole package Lucas envisioned) and that Lucas would then base the next 2 movies on those novels, that plan changed and only one novel was written by Foster for Lucas (it did not become a movie), and was published as "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" in 1978 or 1979. Between 1979 and 1983 there were two trilogies written that related adventures of Han Solo and Landro Calrissian, but again, nothing that became a movie. The real lanslide of books, comics and such began in the 1990s, and there was another explosion in the early 2000s which continues to this day. While all of these use characters that we are all familiar with, as well as some invented for the publications, in a which came first, the chicken or the egg review, it appears that each of the movies began as a script based on a master plan developed by George Lucas as the original move idea grew, developed and matured into what is now 6 movies, the original trilogy that is the middle period, the next trilogy that is the pre-quil to the original, and will eventually grow into three more movies with Disney's purchase of LucasFilms. All the written works form a rich Star Wars universe, but none of the (actually quite a large number) published novels, novellas or comics seems to be the specific basis for any Star Wars movie script, just great tales of the adventures of the original characters and lots of new ones.
 
On a long flight to Georgia, I read that book "splinter of the minds eye", but that was 25 some odd years ago. Seems like I remember something in the preface about the, " with permission" or something like that. But I still remember that tape listing pre star wars, the movie, works. And they were not written by, or conceived by, George Lucas.
 
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