The Making of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
by J.W. Rinzler

Published by Del Rey

Scott's Rating:   3.5 out of 4

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This book details the making of Revenge of the Sith from the earliest concept art meetings all the way through the pick up shooting in London. Along the way you see bits of the script as it changes, scrapped ideas for characters, and more. You see candid conversations with Lucas, ideas for the characters from the actors, deleted scenes, and other interesting things.

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Scott:

    This book is a fantastic look at the making of the film. Rinzler is there every step of the way and goes into great detail about the creative process of making the final prequel. Here are a few highlights that stood out for me:

- You learn that Lucas, at one time, was considering having Darth Sidious take credit for Anakin?s miraculous birth. You also learn that Han Solo was going to make a cameo appearance on Kashyyyk as a 10 year old boy. Concept art of him was shown.

- You find out that Steven Spielberg helped do animatics for key sequences in the film like Yoda and the Emperor?s battle and the final duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

- You see scenes that will be deleted from the film like Shaak Ti being killed by Grievous, Obi-Wan and Anakin being pursued underwater by droids, and more. You also see a full listing of deleted shots including one where Yoda acts crazy while evading clone troopers.

- You learn details about the characters like the fact that the Star Wars Saga is told by R2-D2 to the Whills hundreds of years after the events take place. You also learn that Darth Vader can?t shoot Force lightning because his arms were chopped off.

I could go on and on, but as you can see there are all sorts of great nuggets of information on not just the making of the film but the characters and stories as well. This is a great addition to the collections of fans. I should also note that it is offered in both hardback form and paperback form (for budget minded fans).

Scott:

    The only reason that I didn?t give this book a perfect score was because it ended with Lucas, ILM, and the crew with seven months to still work on the film. The book tells you to go online to get the final chapters of the story. Having paid good money for the book, it feels like a real rip-off to have to go online to read the rest. I would have rather waited a bit longer and got the whole book than having an incomplete copy. It makes me wonder if another edition will come along that will have the whole thing.

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Scott:

    Toast Anakin is not a pretty sight.

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