In 1976, Alan Dean Foster was one of the first people not directly linked to the film's production who got to take a closer look at the Star Wars galaxy. Tasked to pen the novelization of the future blockbuster, he created an in-depth journey to a living, breathing galaxy far, far away. Two years later, Mr. Foster created the Star Wars Expanded Universe when he wrote the original Star Wars sequel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. For many a fan of Star Wars, he vanished after that and only returned when he conceived the prequel to Attack of the Clones, The Approaching Storm, in 2002.
The truth is, however, that he never vanished at all: As one of the most successful writers of tie-in novels and novelizations, he helped films like Alien, Transformers, The Chronicles of Riddick and Terminator: Salvation to bookstores around the globe. In 1995, he created the novelization of Steven Spielberg's brainchild, The Dig, which was deemed too imaginative to make it to the movie screens and was instead turned into an innovative graphic adventure by LucasArts.
Mr. Foster's greatest impact, however, may well have been on the Star Trek universe: In the 1970s, he wrote novelizations of the animated series, in 1980 his story became the foundation of the first Star Wars motion picture. When J. J. Abrams rebooted the universe in 2009, it was again Alan Dean Foster who brought the new incarnations of Kirk, Spock and Bones to live in his novelizations. Whether that successful collaboration will be repeated on Episode VII remains to be seen.
35 years after Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Mr. Foster has now been gracious enough to answer our questions about his work:
Before we start asking you lots of pesky questions regarding Star Wars and its adventures, we need to know: Is it possible that you are an undercover agent? After all, you studied karate with Chuck Norris, you frequently travel around the world and you swam with white sharks...
I had three years of karate with Chuck Norris studios. While I did occasionally encounter Chuck, my regular instructor was his brother, Aaron Norris. Steve McQueen used to come into our dojo for private lessons, and I suspect it was he who talked Chuck into going into movies.
There are plenty of pictures on my website from my travels. A non-fiction book, Predators I have known, tells stories of my encounters around the world with some dangerous animals (those with humans will have to await another book).
Over the course of your career, you have worked on virtually every major movie franchise, from Star Trek and Star Wars to Alien and the Transformers. In 2008 you were even awarded the Grandmaster Award of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers for your outstanding achievements in the field of tie-in writing.
Did you you ever feel shunned by either your non-tie-in-writing colleagues or the press for writing “mere” novelizations? And what is it that makes tie-ins such a compelling medium for you as a writer?
Writing tie-ins definitely gives you the writers’ “mark of Cain”. To me they are straightforward collaborations between myself and the original screenwriter. It’s no different from collaborating with another writer on a straightforward novel. The genre is not important…the writing is. There is good and bad in all genres, in all fields. I enjoy doing tie-ins because I get to make my own, personal “director’s cut” of the film.
In 1976, you were called in to (ghost-) write the novelization of the first Star Wars movie, which must have made you one of the first people outside the actual production team to venture into George Lucas’ galaxy. Do you recall your first impression of that world and its more elusive features such as Jedi, Sith, and the Force?
The Jedi immediately struck me as futuristic versions of samurai, which is obvious in retrospect when one knows of George’s admiration for Japanese cinema. The Sith were not so well developed at the beginning. As for the Force, different forms of telekenesis, telepathy, and so on have been around in science-fiction for a very long time.
Your novelization starts with a, by now, legendary prologue “as taken from the Journal of the Whills” that basically told the back-story of the entire conflict. What clues or reference material did you receive regarding the history of the Star Wars galaxy? Did you perhaps hear or read things that were eventually used in the two subsequent films or even the prequels?
There was absolutely nothing available to me about any prequels or sequels. Anything I added I made up as I went along…which is what writers do.
Now, you added so many fantastic details to the book that fleshed out this galaxy and really helped bring it to life, and yet I have read that you usually don’t spend more than a month on a novelization, which seems like an awfully short time. How did or how does that work? Can you describe your writing process?
When I am doing a novelization, I visualize the movie from the screenplay and then describe what I am seeing. I add in details that are not in the script but would obviously be in the film. I read fast, and I write fast (I also type fast…a useful tool).
These days, everyone is talking about the upcoming Star Wars sequels, but you wrote the original Star Wars sequel. Can you guide us through the process of writing Splinter of the Mind’s Eye? Did George Lucas ask for anything specific?
George asked me to write a sequel, set in the same universe. The only restrictions were that I could not use the character of Han Solo, since Harrison Ford had not yet signed on for any sequels. I was given complete freedom to create new characters, worlds, etc., but no specific guideliness. George was much too busy finishing the film to have time to add input to something like a prose sequel.
One of the many intriguing elements of Splinter of the Mind’s Eye is that you included the Kaiburr crystal which was a great MacGuffin with the potential of becoming the saga’s Holy Grail. Do you happen to recall how it found its way into the novel?
Alas, the answer to that is lost in the mists of history…I really don’t remember if I came up with it or if it was from an earlier draft.
After Star Wars, you became instrumental in revitalizing Star Trek by supplying the basis for the screenplay of the first Star Trek movie. How did you become involved in the rebirth of Star Trek and how do you feel about the film you helped shape?
Gene Roddenberry was preparing to revive Star Trek as a TV series. Preparatory to that, his company (Norway Productions) put out a request for story ideas for the proposed new show. A number of writers were asked to submit, including me (probably because of my work doing the Star Trek Logs…the novelizations of the animated TV shows). When it was decided to open the new series with a two-hour movie for TV, I was asked to expand one of my submissions (IN THY IMAGE) to two-hour length. It was then chosen as the basis for the movie, when the TV show was dropped in favor of a film.
The history of the film details how production was rushed, the sfx were not completely polished, etc. I still think it’s a valiant attempt to do real science-fiction and to deal with a big issue. Imagine trying to sell a studio executive today by saying “We want to make a film about the next possible step up in human evolution.”
I read that you loved to work on the Pale Rider novelization in the mid-1980s because it gave you the opportunity to actually write a Western. When you returned to Star Wars in 2002, your novel, The Approaching Storm, seemed to be heavily influenced by Westerns, too, with the Alwari playing the role of Indians. Was that, in fact, something that inspired you?
I didn’t think of the Alwari as Amerindians. It’s too easy to think of Ben Kenobi as a lone gunslinger, too. Have to be careful about such things.
How was it, in general, to return to Star Wars after all that time?
It was great fun to return to Star Wars; not so much fun to have to deal with a whole committee going over and over the story.
When you wrote the book, you had access to the script of Star Wars: Episode II. Do you remember if you were told that Chancellor Palpatine was the Sith lord behind the entire crisis?
I was not told about Palpatine’s Sith Lord involvement, no.
And how do you feel about the politics behind the novel, as well as the prequels? After all, you yourself created a tantalizing bit of intrigue for The Approaching Storm.
One of the hallmarks of the extended Star Wars saga is that it does deal quite a lot with politics. Some fans believe that is an indication of a mature approach to the universe while others think it just slows things down.
The early access to scripts leads me to a follow-up question: As a tie-in writer, you frequently find out about the major twists and turns of upcoming movies. Is that a blessing to you as a fan of the respective franchises or a curse to you as a moviegoer since you always learn story details regular people only find out about in a darkened movie theater?
It’s definitely a curse. While I enjoy working on the stories and occasionally entering my own twists and turns, it makes it impossible for me to go into a theater and just enjoy the movie. Imagine, if you will, that neither George Lucas nor Steven Spielberg has ever been able to properly enjoy one of their own films for just that reason.
In recent years, you returned to Star Trek, when you were asked to provide the novelizations for J. J. Abrams’ new Star Trek films. How was it to return to this new Star Trek universe Mr. Abrams’ created?
J.J. puts a lot of love into his work. That shows through in the end result, and makes it much easier for me to do the book versions. I think he and the writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, rebooted the universe in the only way possible.
Would you be interested if Mr. Abrams or Lucasfilm called you to return to their universe to provide the novelization for Star Wars Episode VII?
It would depend on the script.
You know, as many of these films as I’ve turned into books, it would be nice if one day someone asked me to turn a book into a film. But I don’t live in Los Angeles, I don’t go to the right parties, and I don’t push myself on people. Perhaps that explains it.
I read that you recently penned an interactive novel in the tradition of the great H. P. Lovecraft. Can we hope for a similarly immersive take on your Commonwealth stories at some point?
The Lovecraft project, THE MOANING WORDS, will hopefully be available around the end of October. It’s been tremendous fun working on this project. As to doing something similar with the Commonwealth, that would obviously be a great treat to work on, but it’s not up to me.
I suppose I really should go to more parties.
For more on Alan Dean Foster's extensive body of work, please check out his website at AlanDeanFoster.com and cthulhu.byook.com for updates on The Moaning Words.