Marcia Lucas, the Oscar-winning editor of Star Wars and wife of George Lucas, died at the end of May.
Marcia Lucas, the Oscar-winning editor who first took audiences to a galaxy far, far away with 1977’s “Star Wars,” has died at the age of 80, her family confirmed.
Marcia, part of the editorial team for both “Star Wars” and “Return of the Jedi,” was married to the franchise’s founder George Lucas from 1969 to 1983. She died after a battle with metastatic cancer.
“Marcia will be remembered as a brilliant storyteller, a trailblazer for women in film, a loving mother and grandmother, a generous host and a loyal friend whose humor and sparkle filled every room she entered,” the family said in a statement. “Her influence on film is indelible, but those who knew her best will remember the way she made life feel more vivid, more beautiful, more fun and more full of love.”
Snip.
She won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for her work on the original “Star Wars” movie, an award that came four years after she was nominated for editing George’s previous film, “American Graffiti.” She additionally edited his debut feature, “THX 1138.”
Beyond these collaborations with her then-husband, Marcia worked as an editor with other acclaimed filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. She was credited as sole editor for Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” and served as supervising editor for “Taxi Driver” and “New York, New York.”
Marcia served as part of a three-person crew editing both “Star Wars” and “Return of the Jedi.” On the first film, she worked alongside Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew and was personally responsible for editing the Battle of Yavin — otherwise known as the iconic “trench run” sequence near the end of the film.
I wanted to do this obit because the attack on the Death Star is one off the greatest, best-edited action scenes in all of film history.
The swift inter-cutting between different shots does a great job of ratcheting up the tension. Indeed, the state of the film when Marcia Lucas started working on it included two Luke trench attack runs, the first where he used the targeting computer that was unsuccessful. She had a huge role in salvaging a film that George Lucas thought was a failure upon viewing the first rough cut, helping turn it into a masterpiece.
Yes, those Mads. Mike, Kevin and Bill are incredibly happy to announce that MST3K legends Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff will be the guest bad guys on the fourth and final show of this run.
Trace and Frank will return to their iconic roles of Dr. Clayton Forrester & TV’s Frank, taking the reins for one cheesy movie experiment (title TBD) – tormenting Mike and the bots just like in the good ol’ days.
In addition to that, Trace and Frank will be cowriting this episode along with the RiffTrax gang. We’re over the moon to work with our old friends again!
Given that Joel Hodgson is still a consultant to the whole shebang, I think this indeed counts as “Getting the band back together.”
Something colossal is happening in the not-too-distant future — Mystery Science Theater 3000: The RiffTrax Experiments! For the past two decades, we’ve been serving up fresh movie riffs as RiffTrax, but in celebration of our 20th anniversary this year, we’re going back to where it all began.
We’re thrilled to announce that for 2026, in partnership with Shout! Studios, we will be making FOUR brand-new episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000! Mike Nelson is returning as host, alongside Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett as his robot friends Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot.
The entire production will take place this spring/summer in Minnesota with Mike, Kevin, and Bill as creative leads. We’ll be building all-new, hand-crafted sets and props. And the hilarious MST3K host segments WILL, of course, be back! We plan to release all four episodes by the end of 2026.
Well, people have been asking for the original cast back since the first reboot, and now they’re getting it (though I think many have preferred Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank involved).
(Donaldson, Stephen R.) W. A. Senior. Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Variations on the Fantasy Tradition. Kent State University Press, 1995. First edition hardback (“03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 5 4 3 2 1” numberline), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket (although, oddly, it seems quite like a heavy grade of red construction paper). Critical companion to the Thomas Covenant books. Added mainly because Kent State has put out a number of interesting SF/F/H related books over the years, some of which (like Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Fiction) have gotten quite pricey on the secondary market. Bought for $8 at Recycled Books in Denton.
Moskowitz, Sam. Explorers of the infinite: Shapers of Science Fiction. World Publishing Company, 1963. Hardback reprint (Currey says First Edition stated on copyright page, and I’m not seeing it anywhere), a Near Fine copy with bend at head and heel and a few pinpoint spots to boards, in a Near Fine- Mylar-protected dust jacket with wear at head and heel, slight age darkening to spine, some rubbing, and slight darkening to white portions of rear panel. Mostly essays on individual writers, arranged chronologically, from well-known figures like Lovecraft, Stapledon and Burroughs to more obscure ones like Fitz-James O’Brien and Frank Reade Jr. Moskowitz was tremendously important as one of the field’s first historians and critics, but also tremendously controversial due to many tendentious opinions. Bought at a DFW Half Price Books for $6.99.
Westwood, Emma, editor. Midnight Movie Monographs: Bride of Frankenstein. Electric Dreamhouse/PS Publishing, 2023. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Essays on the celebrated second film in the Universal Frankenstein series. The only other volume I have in this series is their Plan 9 From Outer Space book. Bought for $6 from Recycled Books in Denton.
Allston, Aaron. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal. Del Rey, 2006. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel and slight bumping at points, in a Fine- dust jacket with trace of bumping at points, signed and dated (“2006/6/24”) by Allston. Bought at Half Price Books for $9.99.
I manage to fill one of the few gaps left in my Jack Vance collection.
Vance, Jack. Bad Ronald. Underwood Miller, 1982. First hardback edition, #63 of 200 signed, numbered copies, a Fine- copy with a very small bump to top rear boards, in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight age darkening to top of spine, and a trace of same along edges. Suspense novel originally published as a paperback original under his legal name of John Holbrook Vance, and the basis of a well-regarded 1974 TV movie of the same name. Hewett, A.43.c. Cunningham, 5.b. Chalker/Owings, page 434. Hubin, page 404. Supplements copies of the text in Volume 12 of the Vance Integral Edition and the Subterranean Dangerous Ways omnibus (which I have both lettered and trade states of), but I still lack the 1973 Ballantine PBO. Though overgraded as Fine/Fine, I can’t really complain since I bought this at a bargain $35 price.
Haydock, Ron. Deerstalker! Holmes and Watson on Screen. Scarecrow Press, 1978. First edition hardback (no additional printings listed), a Fine- copy with wear at points, sans dust jacket, presumably as listed. Filmography of Sherlock Holmes films and TV shows. Bought for $10.
