Back in 1999, Lucasfilm decided it was time to explore yet another money-making venture – the official convention. The hype surrounding the first Star Wars Prequel was at a fever pitch and fans all over the world were reveling in it all. Fansite traffic was through the roof and I met a lot of people simply by having this website up and running.
One of those people was a guy named Adam Parr. We stayed in touch, with the internet making it very easy to do so. Another of these guys was Carl Cunningham. I know Carl a little better because we’ve met numerous times and collaborated a little more on website efforts and so on. John Klinger was yet another guy I met with, but only a few times and usually he was there with Carl at conventions. So the planets aligned and these three personalities decided they were going to write a book, and write one they did! It’s called: In a Galaxy Not So Far Away… The Star Wars Filming Locations of the United States.
Being avid fans and big collectors of merchandise, it was only natural that these guys would put their heads together and come up with a book that’s a virtual road map to the Star Wars filming locations here in the USA.
You may have seen articles before (not to mention tons of photos) from places like Death Valley or Yuma, where they filmed a lot of the Tatooine footage. But let’s say you wanted to take a Star Wars themed vacation or make a Star Wars-style pilgrimage of sorts. How much research would you have to do to find all the filming locations? How would you know what to bring or when it’s best to go?
This book tells you everything you need to know and more. Inside you’ll find background information on every location, checklists of what you should know and bring with you, exact directions to each specific location with maps, weather information, and lots of photos. You’ll also get great comparison photos of the actual film frames compared to the authors’ pictures taken years later. You’ll be surprised at how similar they still look.
Like the back jacket says, this is a book you can actually use as a guide and it covers places you can actually visit, even on a modest budget. The tips and personal experiences from the locations are all icing on the cake.
Reading through, you can tell that Adam and the boys have put their hearts into this guide, leaving no stone unturned. This was truly a labor of love and it should be on any fan’s bookshelf. It could not have been an easy feat to compile all this information.
I’m really proud that my friends have put this together and hope you’ll find time to grab yourself a copy and perhaps take a little Star Wars road trip yourself.
P.S. Rumor has it that there’s more to come from this crew… so make sure you follow them, fan them, and all that jazz. You can find them at http://starwarsroadtrips.com/
Enjoy!