Books
Enjoy beautifully realised concept art from the film featuring a wannabe smuggler in a galaxy far, far away
What does The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story bring to the concept art table?
Fans will be taken by multiple visions of the original Millennium Falcon
The latest standalone Star Wars film may have stumbled at the box office, but as this art-of book reveals, it wasn’t for a lack of inspirational visual material.
Detail-packed concept sketches and full-colour paintings appear throughout the book, and the layout gives them plenty of room to breathe. Lengthy captions reveal the thinking behind the art, too: the costumes of the lead characters, the vehicles of an Empire in ascension, the creatures from a criminal underworld, the many dangerous and exotic environments, and more. And we’re glad to see that all artists are properly credited.
Fans will be taken by multiple visions of the original Millennium Falcon (some hits, plenty of misses!), a variety of compelling depictions of everyone’s favourite Wookie, and a breakdown of the scene where Han Solo first meets his future furry friend.
There’s no hint of the controversy that hung over the production of Solo. Namely, the firing of original directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord during filming and their replacement by Ron Howard. And yet it’s possible to read between the lines and realise how much the film changed as a result.
As forewords by production designer Neil Lamont and design supervisor James Clyne make clear, the story of the young Han Solo was originally to have a unique look. Their vision was to draw on the late Sixties; in Neil’s words, to be “cool, retro, hip, retro, lo-fi” and inspired by “muscle cars, Shaft, Route 66, travelling east to west across the United States, Jimi Hendrix, a boy’s dream (back then), the height of the Cold War, the arms race, 2001: A Space Odyssey, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Planet of the Apes and The Driver.”
While it’s frustrating that there are only hints of this intriguing vision in the final film, plenty of sketches and concepts along this line of thinking appear in the book. And as author Phil Szostak explains how the production design evolved over time, it’s clear to see – although never explicitly stated – how many of these original concepts were altered dramatically after Ron Howard stepped in.
In short, this could be seen as two great books in one: the art of the film, and the art of the film that might have been. As the scruffy-looking nerf herder said later on in his smuggling career, “Here’s where the fun begins.”