Table of Contents
Foreword J.W. Rinzler 7
Author's Note 11
Preface 13
Cinema Alchemy 17
Lucky Lady-the road to Star Wars 17
Star Wars: how it began 20
Star Wars 31
Once Upon A Time In The West 80
Djerba 97
Tozeur 99
Final day's prep for Tunisia 121
Star Wars first day shoot looms 130
Star Wars becomes a movie 132
British attitude at the time Star Wars was made 141
Twin suns-a hero's journey moment 142
Problems mount for George 160
Star Wars summation 173
Marty Feldman's The Last Remake of Beau Geste and the Sex Pistols 174
Monty Python 183
Alien 195
Standby art director 204
Dan O'Bannon 205
Nick Allder and Brian Johnson: SFX 207
Nostromo bridge set 222
The crew fire up the Nostromo 248
Tension on the set 256
Ridley punches through the bridge ceiling 257
Jones the cat in the locker 258
Crew quarters 260
Nostromo commissary 261
Mother 263
Back to Life Be Brian 285
Back to film school 290
Black Angel 293
The script 293
Where do stories originate? 295
The true origin of my story 296
The script evolves 297
Vangelis 313
Giant heavy horses 315
Black Angel: Day 8 332
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi 349
Final Words 353
Star Wars 353
Alien 354
Black Angel 355
Acknowledgments 363