The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars Ships Battles

Tag Archive: The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars Ships Battles

borg’s Best of 2020–The Best Books

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes, TV — 1 Comment

December 17, 2020

Our borg Best of 2020 list continues today with the Best Books of 2020. If you missed them, check out our reviews of the Best Movies of 2020 here, the Kick-Ass Heroines of 2020 here, and the Best in TV 2020 here. Our list continues tomorrow with the Best Comics and Games of 2020. And we wrap-up the year with our additions to the borg Hall of Fame later this month.

We reviewed more than 100 books that we recommended to our readers this year, and some even made it onto our favorites shelf. We don’t publish reviews of books that we read and don’t recommend, so this shortlist reflects only this year’s cream of the crop.

So let’s get going!

Best Sci-Fi, Best Thriller Novel – Hearts of Oak by Eddie Robson (Tor Books). It’s a far-out science fiction novel with all the right notes of a good supernatural fantasy. And it has an easy pace and an impending, looming darkness waiting ahead that will keep you planted firmly in your seat until you get to the last page.

Best Tie-In Novel – Bloodshot novelization by Gavin Smith (Titan Books). A great update to the genre that began with Martin Caidin’s Cyborg, Smith creates an exciting, vivid novelization of the comic book character adapted to the big screen. Honorable mention: Firefly: The Ghost Machine by James Lovegrove (Titan Books).

There are many more best book selections to go…

Continue reading →

Tags: 52 More Must-See Movies, A Bond Undone, A Snake Lies Waiting, Abrams Books, Abrams Books for Young Readers, Algonquin Young Readers, Anna Holmwood, Are Snakes Necessary, As Told at the Explorer's Club, Best Books 2020, Best in Print, Best in Print 2020, Best of 2020, Bloodshot novelization, Brian DePalma, Curtis Craddock, Daniel Kraus, Disney Plus, Eddie Robson, Elizabeth C. Bunce, Erle Stanley Gardner, Firefly, Firefly: The Ghost Machine, Gavin Smith, George Plimpton, Gigi Chang, Hard Case Crime, Harry N. Abrams, Hearts of Oak, How to Get Away with Myrtle, Jacobs Brown, James Lovegrove, Jeremy Arnold, Jin Yong, Lyons Press, Marc Cushman, Masquerade for Murder, Max Allan Collins, Mickey Spillane, Mike Hammer, Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars Ships +Battles, Phil Szostak, Pierre Boileau, Premeditated Myrtle, Pushkin Vertigo, R.A. Salvatore, Relentless, Relentless Salvatore, Running Press, St. Martin's Press, TCM's The Essentials, The Art of The Mandalorian, The Art of The Mandalorian season one, The Knife Slipped, The Last Uncharted Sky, The Living Dead: A New Novel, The Mandalorian, The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars Ships Battles, The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars: Creatures & Aliens, These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s, These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s Volume 2, Thomas Narcejac, Titan Books, Tor Books, Vertigo

The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars–Ships and battles take center stage in new Star Wars guide

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment

January 6, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

The “Moviemaking Magic/Cinemagic” series from Abrams Books is my current favorite book format for genre tie-in non-fiction works. Check out my reviews of the volume on the Marvel Studios Heroes and Villains here, and the first volume on Star Wars, The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars: Creatures and Aliens, here. The format is interactive, featuring several series of foldout photographs that allow the reader to see the changes in design over time, like ships from concept to realized model. And these books allow for hundreds of photographs and how-to film production process accounts and interviews, arranged in an easy to reference chronology. With the latest film in theaters, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Abrams has published the next look behind the scenes at the production process, The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars: Ships and Battles, the most comprehensive account of the 11-film franchise’s models, sculptures, concept artwork, and their creators since Sculpting a Galaxy was released in 2005 when we only had six films available (you can see my review of that book here).

The book is targeted at a younger audience, but Star Wars fans of any age will appreciate the detail and information they may not have read about before, including notes from George Lucas from the first idea for the film, his treatment for The Star Wars, to Colin Cantwell and Joe Johnston′s concept drawings, all the way through the two “Star Wars story” movies Rogue One and Solo, and all nine Skywalker saga films, including a preview page of concept art from The Rise of Skywalker. The original trilogy gets the biggest share of the coverage, including the full run of major ships, how they were developed, and what method was used to get them on the big screen, but the 21st century films and the prequels also get significant sections. Readers will follow the development of filmmaking methods old and new: full-sized sets and vehicles like the landspeeder and X-wing fighter, scale models (both small and large scale), kitbashing, matte painting, and CGI.

Fans of the Millennium Falcon specifically will not want to miss this book. They can track the development of the many models and designs used across the original trilogy, which had to be resurrected for the final trilogy with a side trip to an early, modified version of the ship for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Coverage includes concept art, unused designs, and photos of the pocket-sized models through the multiple full-sized, walk-on creations. The various Death Star space stations and Star Destroyers get similar handling in the book.

Continue reading →