Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars

From the authors of The Fifty-Year Mission and So Say We All, comes the first and only comprehensive oral history of the Star Wars movie franchise.

For the past four decades, no film saga has touched the world in the way that Star Wars has, capturing the imaginations of filmgoers and filmmakers alike. Now, for the first time ever, Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, the bestselling authors of The Fifty-Year Mission, are telling the entire story of this blockbuster franchise from the very beginning in a single exhaustive volume. Featuring the commentaries of hundreds of actors and filmmakers involved with and impacted by Star Wars, as well as writers, commentators, critics, executives, authors, film historians, toy experts and many more, Secrets of the Force, will reveal all in Altman and Gross’s critically acclaimed oral history format from the birth of the original film through the latest sequels and the new televisions series.

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Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars

From the authors of The Fifty-Year Mission and So Say We All, comes the first and only comprehensive oral history of the Star Wars movie franchise.

For the past four decades, no film saga has touched the world in the way that Star Wars has, capturing the imaginations of filmgoers and filmmakers alike. Now, for the first time ever, Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, the bestselling authors of The Fifty-Year Mission, are telling the entire story of this blockbuster franchise from the very beginning in a single exhaustive volume. Featuring the commentaries of hundreds of actors and filmmakers involved with and impacted by Star Wars, as well as writers, commentators, critics, executives, authors, film historians, toy experts and many more, Secrets of the Force, will reveal all in Altman and Gross’s critically acclaimed oral history format from the birth of the original film through the latest sequels and the new televisions series.

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Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars

Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars

Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars

Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars

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Overview

From the authors of The Fifty-Year Mission and So Say We All, comes the first and only comprehensive oral history of the Star Wars movie franchise.

For the past four decades, no film saga has touched the world in the way that Star Wars has, capturing the imaginations of filmgoers and filmmakers alike. Now, for the first time ever, Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, the bestselling authors of The Fifty-Year Mission, are telling the entire story of this blockbuster franchise from the very beginning in a single exhaustive volume. Featuring the commentaries of hundreds of actors and filmmakers involved with and impacted by Star Wars, as well as writers, commentators, critics, executives, authors, film historians, toy experts and many more, Secrets of the Force, will reveal all in Altman and Gross’s critically acclaimed oral history format from the birth of the original film through the latest sequels and the new televisions series.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781250236883
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date: 07/13/2021
Sold by: Macmillan
Format: eBook
Pages: 496
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

About The Author

EDWARD GROSS has an extensive history covering film and television as a member of the editorial staff of a wide variety of magazines, including Cinescape, Starlog, Cinefantastique, SFX, Movie Magic, Sci-Fi Now and Geek. He has written or co-written over three dozen non-fiction books.

MARK A. ALTMAN is a television showrunner and motion picture writer/producer who is executive producer of the hit sci-fi series, Pandora. Previously he served as Co- Executive Producer of The Librarians, Agent X, Castle and Necessary Roughness among others. His first motion picture was the award winning, Free Enterprise, starring William Shatner and Eric McCormack, which he wrote and produced and for which he won the WGA Award for Best New Writer.

In 2019, Altman launched the Electric Surge video podcast network with producer Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate) which produces numerous podcasts spotlighting pop culture topics with notable experts in their field. The video podcasts which include The 4:30 Movie and Inglorious Treksperts, which he co-hosts, along with Best Movies Never Made as well as several others is also available on the streaming OTT platform, Electric Now, as well as through traditional podcast providers.

His bestselling two-volume book series with Edward Gross, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete Uncensored, Oral History of Star Trek, was released by St. Martin’s Press in 2016 in hardcover to unanimous critical acclaim including raves in The Wall Street Journal, Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Their oral history of the James Bond films, Nobody Does It Better, was released in 2020.


EDWARD GROSS is a veteran entertainment journalist who took his childhood passion for film and television and turned it into a career. As a student at Hofstra University, while most of the staff of The New Voice was interviewing the likes of student senators and faculty members, he was speaking to people like playwright Neil Simon (awarded an honorary degree by the school), Curtis Sliwa of New York’s Guardian Angels, Dr. Daniel Schwartz, the police psychiatrist who interviewed both David Berkowitz and Mark David Chapman; and James Bond director John Glen. Early on he sold pieces to New York Nightlife, Starlog and Filmfax magazines and was on his way.

Over the years he would not only become a correspondent for Starlog, but part of the editorial staff of Fangoria, Cinefantastique, SFX, Cinescape, Sci-Fi Now, Not of This Earth, RetroVision, Life Story, Movie Magic, Film Fantasy and TV Magic. Online he was Executive Editor, US for Empire Online, Film and TV Editor at Closer Weekly, Life&Style, and In Touch Weekly, and Nostalgia Editor for DoYouRemember? Currently he is senior editor at Geek magazine, and editor and podcast host for Voices from Krypton (devoted to the superhero genre), TV RetroVision (classic television) and Vampires and Slayers (the name says it all).

In addition to the oral history books he’s written with Mark A. Altman, Gross’ other titles include Secret File: The Making of a Wiseguy and The Unofficial 25th Anniversary Odd Couple Companion; X-Files Confidential; Spider-Man Confidential; Planet of the Apes Revisited with Joe Russo and Larry Landsman; Rocky: The Ultimate Guide; and Stargate: SG1 — In Their Own Words.


MARK A. ALTMAN is a television and motion picture writer/producer/director who is the showrunner/executive producer of the sci-fi series, Pandora, distributed globally by Sony Pictures Television. Previously he served as Co-Executive Producer of The Librarians (TNT), Agent X (TNT), Castle (ABC), and Necessary Roughness (USA) among others. He also recently completed work on the gonzo documentary spotlighting the pop culture touchstones of the seminal moviegoing year of 1982, Greatest Geek Year Ever!

His first motion picture was the award winning, Free Enterprise, starring William Shatner and Eric McCormack, which he wrote and produced and for which he won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Writer. In addition, Altman has sold numerous pilots and feature films and produced the $30 million film adaptation of the bestselling video game, DOA: Dead Or Alive, which was released by Dimension Films. He is also a producer of the House of the Dead series, based on the videogame from Sega, released by Lionsgate. In addition, he produced director Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and writer James Gunn’s feature film, the superhero satire, The Specials.

Altman has also directed several comedy specials including Aries Spiers: Comedy Blueprint for NBC/Universal and Comedy Dynamics and in 2019, he launched the Electric Surge video podcast network with producer Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate) which produces and distributes numerous podcasts spotlighting pop culture topics with notable experts in their field. The video podcasts which include The 4:30 Movie and Inglorious Treksperts, the only podcast for Star Trek fans with a life, which he co-hosts, along with Best Movies Never Made is also available on the streaming OTT platform, Electric Now, as well as through traditional podcast providers.

His bestselling two-volume book with Edward Gross, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek, was released by St. Martin’s Press in 2016 to unanimous critical acclaim, including raves in The Wall Street Journal, Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Altman and Gross have since collaborated on oral histories of Battlestar Galactica (So Say We All), the James Bond films and Spymania (Nobody Does It Better), and the complete Star Wars saga (Secrets of the Force).

Altman is a former entertainment journalist as well. In the past, he has contributed to such newspapers and magazines as The Boston Globe, Written By, L'Cinefage, Film Threat, The Guardian, Brandeis Magazine and many others, including the legendary genre journal, Cinefantastique for which he launched their independent film division, CFQ Films, which produced numerous successful genre features for both DTV and VOD release.

He has also spoken at numerous industry events and conventions, including ShowBiz Expo as well as the Variety/Final Draft Screenwriters Panel at the Cannes Film Festival. He was a juror at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain. He has been a frequent guest and panelist at Comic-Con held annually in San Diego, CA and a two-time juror for the Comic-Con Film Festival. In addition to being a graduate of the Writers Guild of America Showrunners Training Program, he is a member of the Television Academy.

Table of Contents

DATALOG


1. A NEW HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL by Mark A. Altman
“You don’t need to see his identification.”

2. A GREAT DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE by Edward Gross
“Rebellions are built on hope.”

Part One
A STAR (WARS) IS BORN


3. LAUNCH BAY ’77
“You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought”

4. BY GEORGE: I AM YOUR FATHER
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”


Part Two
THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY
1977 - 1983

5. HOPE&GLORY: STAR WARS
“Never tell me the odds”

6. LIGHT&MAGIC: THE VISUAL EFFECTS
“That’s no moon, it’s a space station”

7. EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: SELLING STAR WARS
“It’s the story of boy, a girl and a universe…”

8. TO BEA OR NOT TO BEA: THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL
“We have to get Chewie home for Life Day”

9. ICE, ICE, BABY: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

10. CELEBRATE THE LOVE: RETURN OF THE JEDI
“I’ll never turn to the dark side. You’ve failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”

11. ISN’T THAT SPECIAL? WARS AFTER JEDI
“Prince Xizor. Who knew?”

Part Three
THE PREQUELS
1999 - 2005

12. DUEL OF THE FATES: THE PHANTOM MENACE
“And you, Young Skywalker, we will watch your career with great interest”

13. SEND IN THE CLONES: ATTACK OF THE CLONES
“Begun, The Clone Wars have…”

14: SITH HAPPENS: REVENGE OF THE SITH
“I have waited a long time for this moment, my little green friend. At last, the Jedi are no more.”\


Part Four
THE SEQUELS
(A.G. - AFTER GEORGE)
2012 -
15. FORCE FED: THE FORCE AWAKENS
"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?"

16. REY OF HOPE: THE LAST JEDI
“This is not going to go the way you think.”

17. THE SKYWALKER’S THE LIMIT: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
“I have died before. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be... unnatural.”

18. THIS IS THE WAY: STAR WARS ON TELEVISION
“I will help you. I have spoken.”

ACKNOWLGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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