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New making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan book

Titan’s other two “Making Of” movie books have been total let-downs, largely because the photographic reproduction in both was terrible.

I’ll wait for reviews before dropping another $50 on a shitty Titan book.
 
Yeah i tend to agree that I thought the photos used in the First Contact book were largely awful and really dampened my enjoyment of it :(
 
Grant said:
Does anybody know anything about the new Star Trek making of book by John Tenuto?

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film (Star Trek, 2): Tenuto, John, Tenuto, Maria Jose: 9781789099751: Amazon.com: Books
Click to expand...
I’ve heard multiple interviews with the Tenutos. They’ve done a fair bit of research including deep dives into Nicholas Meyers’s archive at his alma mater, Iowa. They’ve also seen and reported on the workprint (which I believe may be archived at the Museum of Motion Pictures). If I recall correctly, it includes audio of Sulu’s scene about a command.

Whether or not this book is worth $50 (or $25 Kindle) I can’t guess. I don’t expect the price to dip, but thanks to your post I know it will exist and I’ve pre-ordered in case Amazon has one of those weird price drops. I’d say there’s a decent chance I cancel if I can’t find reviews in advance and/or I sense I can find a better price.

Either way, I see this as good news. I’ve been wanting to read what they know for several years — though I’d rather have had a more standard book than a coffee table one. 192 pages doesn’t sound as in-depth as I’d have hoped. Hopefully it means they’ll include some images we haven’t seen. Who knows.
 
The workprint is at UCLA. It has all the deleted scenes including the infamous Sulu scene but as part of the film not just the audio.
 
Daddy Todd said:
Titan’s other two “Making Of” movie books have been total let-downs, largely because the photographic reproduction in both was terrible.

I’ll wait for reviews before dropping another $50 on a shitty Titan book.
Click to expand...
The Discovery book was really nice, but I agree with you that the TMP one was kinda ho-hum (haven't checked out the FC book).

TWOK is the holiest of holies, I feel like they'd do a better job on it @IronWaffle's report gives me hope.
 
IronWaffle said:
I’ve heard multiple interviews with the Tenutos. They’ve done a fair bit of research including deep dives into Nicholas Meyers’s archive at his alma mater, Iowa. They’ve also seen and reported on the workprint (which I believe may be archived at the Museum of Motion Pictures). If I recall correctly, it includes audio of Sulu’s scene about a command.
Click to expand...
I managed to help their research in a minor way a while back by providing some script drafts for TWOK they hadn't come across yet.
 
I'm really looking forward to this! I've been wishing we could get something approaching the level of JW Rinzler's books on Star Wars and Alien (among others). While I can't be sure if it'll be as in-depth as those (the preview images look more like they're leaning into the "coffee table book" aspect and aren't so dense with text), I do know that the Tenutos have been researching this movie for years and have gotten their hands on material otherwise only available in the workprint or in Nicholas Meyer's collection (both of which you gotta actually travel to a university to see for yourself).

They've showcased some of it at various conferences, the below I believe is from Star Trek: Mission New York in 2016.

kMVGKh3.jpg

(from https://trekmovie.com/kirk-david-marcus-wins-fight-wrath-of-khan/)
 
So two months from today....
$50.00 is a lot but, it is my favorite Trek movie. Honestly, I know so much about the movie I can't imagine there is too much I will be seeing for the first time. The deleted scenes are my main interest but as all the deleted scenes were shot on the same sets and are mostly part of longer scenes as opposed to scenes on otherwise unseen sets it won't be all the eye opening.
The deleted scenes that may be the most interesting are of course the alternate Kirk vs. David fight and the shots of the "child" along with a couple of shots of Chekov on the operating table on the ship. With my luck as soon as I buy the book, they will release the deleted scenes in yet another Blu-ray release!!
Wish I knew how extensive the deleted scene section actually was..... 5, 10, 20 pages out of the 192 in the book
 
So it's out now. Did anybody get it?
I'm dying to know if there is a lot of new material/info/photos or it's almost all stuff we've seen and heard before. It's down to $45.00 but I'm not rolling in cash to be able to take a chance without knowing how much new stuff I'm going to see.
 
Grant said:
So it's out now. Did anybody get it?
I'm dying to know if there is a lot of new material/info/photos or it's almost all stuff we've seen and heard before. It's down to $45.00 but I'm not rolling in cash to be able to take a chance without knowing how much new stuff I'm going to see.
Click to expand...
I am in complete agreement. I’ve been burned by so many of these re-hash for money projects that I’m (sadly) super skeptical
 
And no matter how much they claim it is the definitive accurate version of the history it will be picked apart and mocked as incorrect. Their version of history at this point is not at all intriguing to me. I want to see the deleted scenes but just how interesting are STILLS of deleted scenes....
This site has had threads dedicated to deleted scenes and they just aren't that exciting. It's a movie. Deleted scenes are better shown as actual video not as stills of actors on the existing sets. The TOS "Lost Scenes" book was nice but seeing deleted scenes as in the "Roddenberry Vault" was 5X better.
If I was rolling in dough, I would pick this up as a completist, read it, and chances are only look at it again a couple times going forward. As deleted scenes on a Blu-ray/UHD, I would watch them every time I rewatched the movie. And I'm pretty sure the price won't drop much.
"Lost Scenes" costs more now than I paid for it 5 years ago.
 
I can't pick this up just yet but it's definitely still on my radar. At the very least going by the little bit of what they've released to the press it does have a lot of pictures I haven't seen before.

AKemfTQ.jpg

"Here, [director Nicholas] Meyer, [production designer Joseph] Jennings, and [art director Michael] Minor on the practical set they collaborated to create.”
Click to expand...

Stuff like this is what I'm most interested in:
zWcoPCd.jpg

From left: “Pre-production storyboards of Sulu and Chekov meeting Khan and Marla’s replacements, Sojin and Morey.” Far right: “Ru-byk, the robot who would help save the day, and David.”
Click to expand...

I had no idea there were storyboards of the earlier drafts!
 
Grant said:
Wish I knew how extensive the deleted scene section actually was..... 5, 10, 20 pages out of the 192 in the book
Click to expand...

The deleted scenes info and pics are scattered throughout, not a separate chapter. I found plenty of new and less-seen studio stills! Some small and b/w, but certainly worth having. Loved the pics of Khan and Spock stunt people and stand-ins.

The Acknowledgment page:

ST II Acknowledgments by Ian McLean, on Flickr

PCz911 said:
I am in complete agreement. I’ve been burned by so many of these re-hash for money projects that I’m (sadly) super skeptical
Click to expand...

The "making of" book for TMP had lots of new material.

Sometimes it was an extension of a known photo. For example, TMP had this pic, which I already knew from Susan Sackett's TMP book:

"How are things on Arcturus?" by Ian McLean, on Flickr

But "ST:TMP: Inside the Art and Visual Effects" (Titan, 2020) by Jeff Bond & Gene Kozicki brought us this:


An Andorian, an Arcturian and a security guard by Ian McLean, on Flickr

I guesss it's where your interests lie. After 40+ years, how much brand new material is there to be shared?
 
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