Star Wars' Super Chef: "Droidmaker" George Lucas

By JULIETTE ROSSANT While Super Chef explores the inner workings of celebrity chef empires, this week's release of the final episode of Star Wars should draw attention to a book on the inner workings of a super director's empire. I'm talking about Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution. Given the expansion of film franchise empires, it is very interesting to compare Star Wars (1977) with, say, the rise of Wolfgang Puck who at the time was already famous at Ma Maison. As a former employee of the Computer Division, author Michael Rubin takes you inside Lucasfilm as few others can -- having already documented some of the technical feats of Mr. Lucas in his earlier book, Nonlinear -- easily the most important textbook on nonlinear editing, now in its fourth edition. Equally exciting, Michael Rubin's continued good standing won him unprecedented access to images and key participants at Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Zoetrope: George Lucas, his executives, and real-life pioneering scientists. Lucasfilm is the catalyst (if not source) for Pixar, digital video editing, videogame avitars, and THX sound, among others. This book commands such depth that George Lucas has asked that it not be published until this last Star Wars episode comes out later this year on DVD -- but you can order an advance copy -- and click here to keep up-to-date on Droidmaker's official website. (Michael Rubin appeared in this month's Wired magazine article on George Lucas and Star Wars -- click here to read the article). Other articles: Life After Darth (Wired 2005.05) Somewhat Individual (Forbes 1996.03.11) Previous articles: STORE WARS: The Making of the Movie Year's Most Important Movie: STORE WARS Tags: Star Wars George Lucas --> back to superchefblog