Book Club: The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind The Original Film

If you read the internet you have surely seen “May the fourth be with you” a whole lot today. You might be over it. Too bad. I’m here to tell you about a young girl from the mean streets of Beaumont, Texas, who was OBSESSED with the Star Wars movies. She saw Empire Strikes Back about eight times when it came out. Remember, this is the early 1980s. You had to go to the movie theater to see movies back in those days. In her spare time, she worked on a screenplay that was about 1,000 times better than Return of the Jedi. (Her story focused on a new character, Princess Leia’s hilarious, smart-talking junior-highish-age sister, played by a young ingenue/writer/actress from Beaumont, Texas but living in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.) This young lady also had a feeling that George Lucas was following her around to make sure that she was right for his films. (She had some ideas for some Raiders of the Lost Ark sequels as well.) This girl wore this for several Halloweens (and a lot of other days, too) and was sad when NO ONE knew who she was. Okay, that weirdo was me. My sister and I have probably watched Star Wars 1,000 times, and even today we can make ourselves laugh and laugh when we speak in Carrie Fisher’s bad British accent: “Governor Tark, I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.” Anyway, that’s all a really long way of saying, Star Wars was a huge part of my childhood, and  I want this book right now.