Mike Schramm

Matthew Stover has read the script of the new "Star Wars" movie, and he has bad news for you. "Anakin Skywalker falls to the dark side," the author says over the phone. "The Republic falls, the Empire rises." And, apparently, though it might not be widely known, Darth Vader is Luke's father.

As the author handpicked by George Lucas to write the novel adaptation for "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," you'd think Stover might be a little more careful with this information. But, he says, "I've known this story for more than a year and a half now, and it's only made me more excited to see this film. There is nothing in this film that is going to be spoiled by knowing about it in advance." In fact, it might just make the last of the Star Wars prequels more exciting. "This is the culmination of the closest thing to classical Greek tragedy that American cinema has ever seen," says Stover. "We know the story--what is going to be the glory of this film is watching it unfold."

Stover knows a little something about the glory of "Star Wars," too. At 15, a friend enticed him to bike out to see this new science-fiction movie at the Fisher Theater in Stover's hometown of Danville, Illinois. "I'd seen the commercials, I thought it looked kind of silly." But like everyone else, he was sold right away. "I actually saw that movie more than twenty times in the theater."

After publishing two science-fiction books of his own (he says they're "kind of like `Star Wars' rated R, leaning towards NC-17") with publisher Del Rey, he was asked to write for the Star Wars expanded universe, a long series of books about characters all over the "Star Wars" continuum. He used his own plots, but had to fit them within the plans that Lucasfilm had for the franchise. "I was originally trying to pitch them ideas that were more in line with the spirit of the original trilogy, more that kind of light adventure, high action, narrow escapes." But he found out that the universe was heading in a darker direction. "`We want something that's really going to evoke [the feeling of] "All Quiet on the Western Front',''" the Lucasfilm honchos told Stover. "And I said, `Have any of you actually read "All Quiet on the Western Front"? Everybody dies! You really want something that dark?' And they said, `Yeah.'"

After publishing two Star Wars books, Stover's editors convinced Lucas that he was the one to adapt the coming movie, and Lucas met with him about adapting his screenplay into a novel. Near the end of the meeting, Stover says, "I asked him flat out how much I could change. How faithful I had to be. How much of your dialog do I have to use? He said, `As long as you don't change the action, you don't change the spirit of the film and the scene, do whatever you want, just make it good.'" And though this is the first book he's put together from someone else's story, Stover says there's not a big difference between creation and adaptation. "Adaptation is actually more like translating than anything else. It is a process of creation. It's just a process of creation that has to remain faithful to not only the spirit of the source material, but also the action of the story."

A story that he says he's ready to see on the big screen, despite any bad feelings against Jar-Jar Binks or Jedi love scenes, two things that fans disliked in the earlier prequels. "I think it's that people did not understand what was going on in the first two movies," he counters when asked about the reaction. "I think that `Revenge of the Sith' is going to be, for a lot of people, a transformative experience. It's going to change the way they look at the first two prequel movies. They're going to go back and look at the films and go `Oh, wait.' Because the prequel trilogy is a single work of art, and when you see it that way, it's going to make a lot more sense."

Does that mean that "Episode III" is the last "Star Wars" movie? Stover says the last three of Lucas' planned nine screenplays probably won't ever be made. "It's not gonna happen," he says with conviction. "The `Star Wars' saga on film is the story of the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker." Which means that, if "Episode III" does everything it's supposed to, it will not only solidify the first three movies, but also finish off an epic six-movie storyline. Can Lucas really pull that off? Stover doesn't doubt it. "I think that it has always been, as Darth Sidious once said, that `Everything is proceeding according to plan.'" George Lucas as Sith Lord: yet another sign of how dark Star Wars has really become.

(2005-05-17)

Also by Mike Schramm

The Illustrated Life
Ray Bradbury says there's no question why the relatively inexperienced Sam Weller was chosen to write his official biography
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Amazing Story
Is Sam Weller a geek? "I am a full-on geek!" he exclaims
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Don't they know there's a war on?
"Today is a war protest," Sixth District Police Commander John Doty says, gesturing towards the gathering of activists and signs gathered in Washington Park on the second anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq
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Belting the Maintenance Blues
It's National Manufacturing Week at McCormick Place, and in between a demo of an industrial compactor and a booth that bills itself as "America's Leading Bearing Supplier," a man stands in front of a laptop and sings
(2005-03-15)

Game over?
(2005-03-08)

Spam and Cheese
(2005-03-01)

Serving Kurtwood Smith
(2005-02-22)

Not too many cooks
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Go West
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Curtain Call
(2005-02-08)

Cheap inspiration
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Umphrey's McGee
(2004-12-21)

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