Preorder the new Star Wars Icons: Han Solo book by Insight Editions for 20% off the cover price only through Sideshow Collectibles.

Smuggler. Rogue. Hero of the Rebellion. Scruffy-looking nerf herder. Han Solo has been called all these things and more since making his debut in the original Star Wars film back in 1977. Four decades later, the irrepressible Solo continues to be one of the most iconic and enduring elements of the saga.

Update: Now in stock at Sideshow Collectibles

With every new Star Wars release, there is a plethora of reference material and resource publications that go along with it. For me, they are some of my favorite gifts to give and receive for the holidays. The Last Jedi hits theaters next week, and DK will be releasing their Visual Dictionary and Incredible Cross-Sections books plus Abrams’ The Art of The Last Jedi book. All three are available for preorder now on Amazon at up to 51% off their retail price and ship next week.

StarWars.com has updated giving readers and collectors a first look and several books coming with the release of The Force Awakens on Dec. 18. Most interesting is the Star Wars: The Force Awakens The Visual Dictionary which will be full of the minutia we’ve been waiting for surrounding the characters and technology of the new film.

Hitting book stores and e-tailers now is the LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded.

The updated and expanded ultimate guide to the minifigures of the LEGO® Star Wars® galaxy DK’s LEGO® Star Wars® Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded now includes many more new LEGO Star Wars minifigures! Discover incredible LEGO Star Wars facts, such as which minifigure is the rarest and which can be found in the most LEGO sets. This updated and expanded edition contains 72 additional pages of new minifigures and includes an exclusive minifigure to add to your collection.

As a bonus, this book also includes a McQuarrie Concept Boba Fett minifigure. Order yours today from Amazon.com

Continuing the popular Star Wars Art series, Amazon has up for pre-order Star Wars Art: Posters

Few pieces of artwork distill the passion for Star Wars as do posters. From Tom Jung’s iconic one-sheet for Episode IV to Roger Kastel’s Gone with the Wind–inspired painting for Episode V and beyond, Star Wars has enjoyed nearly four decades of poster art from some of the most renowned artists working in movies. The fifth book in the George Lucas–curated Star Wars Art series, Posters collects the best artwork from all six Star Wars films, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated television series, and limited-edition prints. This collection unites all of the action, artistry, and drama of a galaxy far, far away into one lavishly produced tome.

Complete your  library with the newly released enhanced eBooks for J.W. Rinzler’s “Making of” Star Wars books. All three editions are loaded with extra video and audio content only available in these eBook releases. Click on through for the press releases and check out the Star Wars Blog for their feature as well.

 

THE MAKING OF STAR WARS (Enhanced Edition)

by J.W. Rinzler

Del Rey/LucasBooks

$17.99

On sale October, 2013

 

This enhanced eBook transforms The Making of Star Wars into an immersive multimedia experience worthy of the original film, featuring bonus content such as never-before-seen photos and behind-the scenes video.*

After the 1973 success of American Graffiti, filmmaker George Lucas made the fateful decision to pursue a longtime dream project: a space fantasy movie unlike any ever produced. Lucas envisioned a swashbuckling SF saga inspired by the Flash Gordon serials, classic American westerns, the epic cinema of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa, and mythological heroes. Its original title: The Star Wars. The rest is history, and how it was made is a story as entertaining and exciting as the movie that has enthralled millions for more than thirty years—a story that has never been told as it was meant to be. Until now.

Using his unprecedented access to the Lucasfilm Archives and its trove of “lost” interviews, photos, production notes, factoids, and anecdotes, Star Wars scholar J. W. Rinzler hurtles readers back in time for a one-of-a-kind behind-the-scenes look at the nearly decade-long quest of George Lucas and his key collaborators to make the “little” movie that became a phenomenon. It’s all here:

• the evolution of the now-classic story and characters—including “Annikin Starkiller” and “a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and large gills” named Han Solo
• excerpts from George Lucas’s numerous, ever-morphing script drafts
• the birth of Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects company that revolutionized Hollywood filmmaking
• the studio-hopping and budget battles that nearly scuttled the entire project
• the director’s early casting saga, which might have led to a film spoken mostly in Japanese—including the intensive auditions that won the cast members their roles and made them legends
• the grueling, nearly catastrophic location shoot in Tunisia and the subsequent breakneck dash at Elstree Studios in London
• the who’s who of young film rebels who pitched in to help—including Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Brian DePalma

But perhaps most exciting, and rarest of all, are the interviews conducted before and during production and immediately after the release of Star Wars—in which George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Sir Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, composer John Williams, effects masters Dennis Muren, Richard Edlund, and John Dykstra, Phil Tippett, Rick Baker, legendary production designer John Barry, and a host of others share their fascinating tales from the trenches and candid opinions of the film that would ultimately change their lives.

No matter how you view the spectrum of this phenomenon, The Making of Star Wars stands as a crucial document—rich in fascination and revelation—of a genuine cinematic and cultural touchstone.

*Video may not play on all readers. Please check your user manual for details.

 

THE MAKING OF STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (Enhanced Edition)

by J.W. Rinzler

Foreword by Ridley Scott

Del Rey/LucasBooks

$17.99

On sale October, 2013

 

This enhanced eBook transforms The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back into an immersive multimedia experience worthy of the beloved film, featuring bonus content such as never-before-seen photos and behind-the scenes video.*

In this lavish thirtieth-anniversary tribute to the blockbuster film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, New York Times bestselling author J. W. Rinzler draws back the curtain to reveal the intense drama and magnificent wizardry behind the hit movie—arguably the fan favorite of the Star Wars Saga.

Following his The Making of Star Wars, the author has once again made use of his unlimited access to the Lucasfilm Archives and its hidden treasures of interviews, photos, artwork, and production mementos. The result is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes, up-close-and-personal look at the trials and triumphs, risks and close calls, inspiration, perspiration, and imagination that went into every facet of this cinematic masterpiece. Here’s the inside scoop on:

• the evolution of the script, from story conference and treatment to fifth draft, as conceived, written, and rewritten by George Lucas, famed science-fiction author Leigh Brackett, and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan
• the development of new key characters, including roguish hero Lando Calrissian, sinister bounty hunter Boba Fett, and iconic Jedi Master Yoda
• the challenges of shooting the epic ice planet battle in the frozen reaches of Norway and of conjuring up convincing creatures and craft—from tauntauns and snowspeeders to Imperial walkers
• the construction of a life-sized Millennium Falcon and the swamp planet Dagobah inside a specially built soundstage in Elstree Studios
• the technique behind master Muppeteer Frank Oz’s breathing life into the breakthrough character Yoda
• the creation of the new, improved Industrial Light & Magic visual effects facility and the founding of the now-legendary Skywalker Ranch

In addition, of course, are rare on-the-scene interviews with all the major players: actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and David Prowse; director Irvin Kershner; producer Gary Kurtz; effects specialists Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, and Phil Tippett; composer John Williams; and many others. Punctuating the epic account is a bounty of drawings, storyboards, and paintings by Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, and Ivor Beddoes, along with classic and rare production photos. An added bonus is a Foreword by acclaimed director Ridley Scott.

The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a fittingly glorious celebration of an undisputed space-fantasy movie milestone. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

*Video may not play on all readers. Please check your user manual for details.

 

 

 

THE MAKING OF STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI (Enhanced Edition)

by J.W. Rinzler

Foreword by Brad Bird

Del Rey/LucasBooks

$17.99

On sale October, 2013

 

This enhanced eBook transforms The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi into an immersive multimedia experience worthy of the legendary film, featuring bonus content such as never-before-seen photos and behind-the scenes video.*

Just as Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi completed the most successful cinematic trilogy of its generation, perhaps of all time, this splendid thirtieth-anniversary tribute completes New York Times bestselling author J. W. Rinzler’s trio of fascinating behind-the-scenes books celebrating George Lucas’s classic films.

Once again, the author’s unprecedented access to the formidable Lucasfilm Archives has yielded a mother lode of extremely informative, vastly entertaining, and often unexpected stories, anecdotes, recollections, and revelations straight from the closely guarded set of a big-screen blockbuster in the making. Brimming with previously unpublished photos, production artwork, script excerpts, exclusive intel, vintage on-set interviews, and present-day commentary, The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi chronicles “how George Lucas and his crew of extroverted artists, misfits, and expert craftspeople roused themselves to great heights for a third time” to create the next unforgettable chapter in one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Get up close to the action and feel like a studio insider as

• creator George Lucas, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, and director Richard Marquand huddle in a script conference to debate the destinies of iconic Star Wars characters, as well as plot twists and turns for the epic final showdown between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire
• artists and craftspeople at the groundbreaking Industrial Light & Magic facility top their own revolutionary innovations—despite the infamous Black Friday—with boundary-pushing new analog visual effects
• a crack team of sculptors, puppeteers, actors, and “monster-makers” bring Jabba the Hutt and his cohorts to startling, slobbering life from the inside out
• a who’s who of heavyweight directors—from such films as Superman, Gremlins, Halloween, Dune, Scanners, and Time Bandits—are considered for the coveted job of bringing a new Star Wars adventure to the silver screen
• actors and crew race to the finish line at Elstree Studios, in a fiery desert, and beneath the trees of a dense redwood forest—before money runs out—to answer the questions that audiences had waited three years to find out: Is Darth Vader really Luke’s father, who is the “other”—and who or what is the Emperor?

Star Wars’ stars from both sides of the camera—including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Alec Guinness, director Richard Marquand, producer Howard Kazanjian, Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and mastermind George Lucas—weigh in with candid insights on everything from technical challenges, character design, Ewoks, the Empire’s galactic city planet, and the ultimate challenge of bringing the phenomenal space fantasy to a dramatic close. The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi gives a spectacular subject its just due, with more than five hundred images and many, many new interviews.

*Video may not play on all readers. Please check your user manual for details.

 

io9.com has posted the exclusive look at the first novel in the upcoming Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion “Razor’s Edge” series. The series kicks off with focusing on Princess Leia and the events after A New Hope and subsequent books will revolve around Han and Luke. Head on 0ver to io9.com for more details.

Amazon has added a new listing to their site revealing a new action figure collecting resource book from super-fan Steve Sansweet. Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection: 35 Years of Characters features 352 pages and is slated for an October 17, 2012 release. Pre-order yours today!

Thanks to KnightsArchive.com for the tip!

There have been many books written discussing the mythology, characters and technology of the Star Wars universe but now is your chance to experience many of the locations of Star Wars that were filmed right here in the United States. Read on to find out how you can be a part of publishing Star Wars Filming Locations of the United States by Adam Parr with Carl Cunningham and John Klinger as well a view sample pages of this book.