TIL the first Star Wars movie (A New Hope) was actually made after a book adaptation, which means Star Wars hype is technically literary-based in nature
TIL the first Star Wars movie (A New Hope) was actually made after a book adaptation, which means Star Wars hype is technically literary-based in nature
Star Wars: A New Hope, formerly titled Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, is a Legends novel ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and credited to George Lucas. It adapts the film of the same name, and it was based on the screenplay by Lucas. The novelization was first published on Novembe...
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But the novel is based on a screenplay so...
The title is very specific, and doesn't claim the movie is based on the novel despite that clearly being what they're trying to really claim.
The order was screenplay > book > movie, but the writing was screenplay > book and screenplay > movie. The book and movie aren't actually related, other than the underlying screenplay they both use. The Fandom wiki page linked literally says:
It adapts the film of the same name, and it was based on the screenplay by Lucas.
"which means Star Wars hype is technically literary-based in nature"
With this logic, all movies are literary-based since all movies are created from screenplays.
I wasn't trying to claim the movie was based on a book (not sure where that's coming from), just that the book's status as coming before the movie in terms of release has the weird effect of implying the hype train could've begun with a book and that one could argue Star Wars is technically a book series first, even if it's a movie tradition first.
Like imagine back then any Lord-of-the-Rings-type discussions that could've played out, a la "did you see this movie, it's awesome" followed by "yeah, but did you read the book?"
"implying the hype train could've begun with a book"
But it didn't. Yet your title wasn't posed as a hypothetical but as a fact.
You say that like the title ever claimed the movie was actually based on the book.
True, I just find it fascinating the movies have this large orbit of devotion, and then you have this book that could've put everyone on the hype train a few months early.
I'm sure there are some people that saw the book first. The back cover literally said it was being made into a motion picture, so clearly the publication was meant to at least partially hype the movie.
George Lucas had a true stroke of brilliance to embrace the merchandise aspects of what Star Wars could make. The thought of merchandising movies wasn't really a thing at the time, and it's one of the main reasons he made so much money from Star Wars, he wanted the "worthless" merchandising rights that the studios were willing to give up easily. A ghostwritten novel listing him as the writer based on his screenplay releasing a year ahead of the movie could have been the very first thing he did with that merchandising right.