On Novelizing 'The Force Awakens'

Alan Dean Foster's been writing with the fervor and excitement of a 14-year old since 1972.

by Giaco Furino

January 15, 2016, 8:45pm

The Novelization to The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster, out now. Photo courtesy Del Rey.

If a movie’s like a shot of espresso, consider a movie novelization like a warm cappuccino. It’ll get you going just like the film, but the best adaptations have a bit more depth and flavor to them than the whizz! bang! of the cinema. Alan Dean Foster, author of over 120 novels since 1972, is a mainstay in the world of movie novelizations. Along with nearly 100 original standalone and series novels, he also ghost-wrote the original Star Wars novel (credited as George Lucas). He went on to write novelizations of Alien, The Thing, The Chronicles of Riddick, and more. With the release of his newest adaptation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens for Del Rey, the author told The Creators Project about the new book and a life in novelization.

“One thought was,” Foster begins, “that since I had done the book version of the first film, it would be kind of ‘squaring the circle’ if I did the newest one. The agreement was made in very early 2015. I was provided with the (then) most recent version of the screenplay, plus some stills of sets, characters in costume, and gear. I was not provided with dailies or any actual footage. Not enough time, I suspect.”

With a project as tightly controlled as The Force Awakens there were bound to be some restrictions on what Foster could and couldn’t write. While the novel does add a little bit of emotional background for the characters, most of what you see on the screen matches closely with what you read in the book. As Foster explains, “I’m usually allowed a certain amount of leeway in showing action and, more importantly, characters’ inner thoughts and motivations. However, in the case of an ongoing franchise like Star Wars (or Star Trek, Alien, etc.,), control is correspondingly tighter because of the desire of those owning the relevant property to render everything canon. There were areas where I was allowed a certain degree of sway and others where I was not.”

Even with those restrictions, the novel pointed to some fun little moments that we don’t get to see in the film. Poe Dameron’s escape from Jakku, for example, a bit more background into Kylo Ren’s emotional life… these may be morsels for die-hard fans, but they help to flesh out the world. “Every decent novelization provides additional material,” Foster explains. “A novel is notably longer and denser than any screenplay. If you don’t allow for this, you might as well just print the screenplay and be done with it.”

Author with wild Mayotte brown lemur, M'bouzi Island, Comoros. Photo by Michael Melford. Photo courtesy of Del Rey.

So, why does Foster think he’s had so much success in novelizations over the years? He explains that he’s got the right combination of “professionalism and 14-year old fan.” His all-time favorite project reveals a glimpse of that 14-year old fan: “I’d have to say Dinotopia. I had the opportunity to write a book involving pirates and dinosaurs (Dinotopia Lost). Might be every kid’s dream.”

Click here to check out Star Wars: The Force Awakens the book.

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

On Novelizing 'The Force Awakens'

ONE EMAIL. ONE STORY. EVERY WEEK. SIGN UP FOR THE VICE NEWSLETTER.