Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

An original design bible used in the production of the 1980 science fiction picture The Empire Strikes Back, the second instalment of the classic Star Wars franchise directed by Irvin Kershner.

During pre production of The Empire Strikes Back George Lucas was aware that visual continuity from Star Wars to its sequel was key to its success and with this in mind he once again hired the services of conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie and visual effects art director Joe Johnston. While they set about designing much of the expanded universe we see in Empire Lucas also rebuilt the Industrial Light & Magic effects team, this time headed up by Brian Johnson and Richard Edlund. Between late 1977 and early 1979 concept designs for various characters and craft underwent many changes and refinements at the hands of McQuarrie and Johnston.

Production bibles such as this were issued in very low numbers and only to senior production staff, they contained the constantly changing vision of the film in the form of production issued copies of the original concept designs and illustrations created by McQuarrie and Johnston. The bible covers all aspects of the picture from the varying snow walker and snowspeeder designs to alien and costume designs, throughout the production many designs were omitted and replaced with updated versions as small changes were made. Presented in a high quality blue plastic covered binder which bears the McQuarrie designed Empire Strikes Back logo sticker to the front the bible contains 92 pages which feature various designs and illustrations to include but not limited to:

• Snow Walkers
• Snowspeeders
• Cloud Cars
• Luke Skywalker
• Boba Fett
• Yoda
• Snowtroopers
• Rebel Base
• Cloud City
• Imperial Probot
• Tauntans
• Penocha
• X-Wing Fighter
• Y Wing Fighter
• Tie Fighter
• Blockade Runner
• Millennium Falcon
• Star Destroyer

All but one of these concepts are housed back to back in plastic wallets separated by black paper which is how they were issue by the production, these are divided in to categories by file dividers which feature a printed tab advising of the content (some of these tabs are absent). Housed at the front of the bible are three period memos from production coordinator Miki Herman advising of removals which were to be removed from the bible and returned to her, the earliest being dated 5/2/78 these memos are on Star Wars headed paper.

The bible remains in excellent condition having been carefully stored since its use on production, the binder itself being near perfect with only very very minor surface and edge wear. The first three of the plastic sleeves which house the concepts have split to the leading edge but the vast majority remain in original as issued condition with the memo to the very front of the bible having pulled its punch holes due to age and use. This represents a concise history of a very important part of the production process on The Empire Strikes Back in very very fine condition. The final three images show bibles identical to this in use during the production.

An incredibly rare and comprehensive production artefact from one of the most influential and highly regarded franchises in cinematic history.

A further selection of the concept designs and illustrations can be viewed on our featured article http://www.thepropgallery.com/in-detail-esb-production-bible