(Originally for manikcreations.com; interviewer Manik Spalding)
INTERVIEWER: Tell us a little about yourself and your background. Where are you from, where you grew up, when did you start writing etc.?
JWR: I’m from NYC and Berkeley, CA, bout half/half. I didn’t start writing books till I was living in Paris, France, during the 1990s; I wanted to write a book on Spielberg, but I didn’t get very far. Later, I was able to fulfill that dream in writing the Making of Indiana Jones book.
INT: It seems you have mostly built your career on more or less showing the behind the scenes of some extremely popular pop-culture films. How did you think of this?
JWR: I worked for Lucasfilm for 15 years as the nonfiction editor, so the writing was a natural out-growth of my job. I spent three years shadowing George Lucas while he made Revenge of the Sith. Then I pitching the idea of writing a giant making of Star Wars book, and because he liked my first book he said yes.
INT: From your behind the scenes books and research on both films what was the most interesting thing you learned about each franchise?
JWR: The most interesting thing I learned about Star Wars was how it almost never happened. The studio was against it and George Lucas had to finance much of preproduction from his own pocket, which would not have been possible if his American Graffiti hadn't been such a huge hit just before.
INT: As I said I am a huge fan of Star Wars and one of the coolest things I have seen is the graphic novel you created based on the original screenplay by Lucas called The Star Wars. Can you talk a little about how this came about?
JWR: The graphic novel took years to get off the ground. I had to sell George Lucas on the idea, which Dark Horse and I finally did by doing a wordless comic book, a few pages, to show him what it would be like. Then I gave George my whole written adaptation and he accepted it, and we are on our way. I really just wanted to show fans that story in illustrated form because it was so different from the final film. It had flaws obviously, that's why he re-wrote it, but it also was extremely interesting as a rough draft blue-sky approach.
INT: You have a new book coming out called ALL UP, can you talk a little about it?
JWR: I would love to talk about ALL UP. It's about the most exciting adventure in modern history: our species’ first small steps into space, ramped up by a bunch of amazingly interesting people: German, American, and Russian, who were considered to be crackpots at first. In a way, thanks to World War II, the rocket became a viable instrument of warfare and therefore something that all the superpowers had to take very seriously. So the period from the 1930s to the 1960s becomes interesting. Because I wanted to get into the heads of the historical participants—Wernher von Braun, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, Eisenhower, Hitler, Truman, JFK, Churchill, Stalin, I thought writing a novel was the best way to approach it. Also because some of the information is hard to confirm, a novel provides more poetic license. There's info that most documentaries or nonfiction books are not going to touch, for instance Freemasonry and UFOs. The extent to which von Braun was or was not a Nazi and a member of the SS. Operation Paperclip, the CIA's recruitment of former Nazis etc. etc. Also the Russian/Soviet side of the story is sometimes glossed over, but without Korolev and Sputnik and Gagarin, there would be no US space program to speak of, possibly.
INT: ALL UP is quite a bit different from your other books and works as it is more history focused, what drove you to write this book? Are you a history buff or did you just find the topic interesting?
JWR: In a way I think it's pretty similar to what I've been doing. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the Space Age. In both nonfiction and fiction and in this case historical fiction, you're telling a story which involves pacing, dialogue, atmosphere, the same ingredients are present in both nonfiction and fiction. Of course with fiction you get more into character and other aspects. But if people didn't feel something for George Lucas and his collaborators, they wouldn't necessarily have enjoyed reading the making-of books either. But yes I did find the topic extremely interesting and in doing the research I learned a ton about it. That's the advantage of doing a book that has real historical foundations, you get to become a semi-expert.
INT: I have often thought about this, that if the Nazis had the resources I think they could have undoubtedly won the war, invented the atomic bomb, and put a man in orbit and on the moon. From my own research, to some extent, I think the Allies, US in particular, just out-produced Nazi Germany in terms of weapons and men. In terms of aerospace, Operation Paperclip was massive for the US. What are your thoughts on Nazi engineering and Operation Paperclip?
JWR: That's a complicated topic and I'm not an official historian. I do think the Soviet Union had a lot to do with the collapse of Nazi Germany. Also the Germans almost wanted to self-destruct, which is harder to prove, but seems to be psychologically true. But certainly during the war Hitler for a while put a lot into the development of rockets. Then he stopped; then he started again. If they had gone full on from the beginning it's possible that they could have come up with a more long-range missile that could've hit America, but they had problems with manufacturing which meant it was not going to rival 250 bombers dropping tons of bombs. The V-2 could never do something like the bombing of Dresden. As for the atomic bomb I really couldn't say. Operation Paperclip is clearly very controversial, but in doing the research I understand America’s point of view: there was simply no way they could let these German engineers and scientists go over to the Soviets, which is where they would've probably ended up. The alternative was just throwing them in prison or something, which would've been an incredible waste of talent. Post World War II, as it turned out, provided enormous opportunities for peaceful space travel, which is something that we're now getting back into. I sincerely hope we’ll soon have a manned mission to Mars. As a species we have to go to other planets; it’s the natural thing to do. The question is: what kind of people will we be when make those first space travels and possibly establish outposts on other planets.
INT: Can you talk about Tron: Legacy and the character "Rinzler" in the movie?
JWR: That really didn't have much to do with me. Apparently the writers of Tron Legacy were trying to think up a name for the sort of villain and they had my Making of Star Wars book on the table, so they thought they’d name him after me. I guess he's kind of a heroic villain, but I'm not sure what to make of it (laughs).
INT: I see on your site you also have an "18 Underrated Films" link, can you talk about this? Are you a part-time movie critic?
JWR: I'm not a movie critic but I am critical when I watch movies, so if I see one that I think is undervalued, which most people haven't seen or know about, I just feel like I should let people know. I get very enthusiastic about movies that I love and I want to share my enthusiasm. On the other hand sometimes I think I'd like to post blogs about giant plot flaws in not-so-good movies, but it's more fun to be positive.
INT: I also see that you have paintings on your site, do you paint? If so can you talk about how you got into painting and why?
JWR: I used to paint when I was in my 20s; I started when I was probably 18 and painted diligently for about 10 years; I had a few shows in New York, Berkeley, and Paris but I could never make a living and I really wasn't trained the way I should be. I was OK at expressing myself but not very good when it came to technique. Maybe in my retirement, if I ever do retire, I'll learn some basics and go back to painting. But I find writing to be very gratifying because you can tell the whole story. Course there's a whole story in a painting, but you know, it's different.
INT: You have also produced an animated short called Riddle of the Black Cat. Can you talk about this and why you wanted to venture down this road?
JWR: I just like storytelling and trying to get to what is under the surface of things. Even when it comes to writing objectively about Star Wars and Indiana Jones I feel that a lot of books missed lots of salient details. Same with books about the first Space Age. And I felt that if you read Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat short story, that interpreters often miss the point. The whole idea is that the villain, the psychotic, is not really psychotic; he's a more or less cold-blooded murderer who uses cats and witches as excuses to try and get off on an insanity plea. The reader is supposed to be the detective. I thought I could convey all this through an animated short. I also wanted to direct some animation; I thought that would be really fun, and fortunately Greg Knight did a fantastic job doing all the illustrations himself. And then Chris Vibbert did a fantastic sound design and score. Working closely with them and with the editor Dave Sidley was a huge amount of fun and I wish I could do more of it. I have an idea, so if some producer out there wants to contact me and raise money--let's go! Maybe I'll do a Kickstarter in a year or so.
INT: Who is your biggest influence?
JWR: My favorite writer is Herman Melville, although I could never approach his level; but I love lots of folks. Shakespeare; Lord Byron; Raymond Chandler; Will Eisner. When it comes to music I've got to go with the Baroque period and Bach; more contemporary with The Beatles but I'm really getting into jazz now. There are so many people and there were so many great publications back in the day, like Mad magazine and Heavy Metal magazine in the late 1970s. But when I was doing painting I absolutely loved Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and Bronzino and Picasso and Delacroix—I feel that on Earth we’re really blessed with a whole slew of fantastic artists whose work is still around!
INT: What book that you have written are you most proud of and why?
JWR: At this point, I’d have to say ALL UP. It’s been a passion project now for more than five or six years and I’m excited that people are finally going to be able to read it. I sincerely hope they enjoy it.
INTERVIEWER: Tell us a little about yourself and your background. Where are you from, where you grew up, when did you start writing etc.?
JWR: I’m from NYC and Berkeley, CA, bout half/half. I didn’t start writing books till I was living in Paris, France, during the 1990s; I wanted to write a book on Spielberg, but I didn’t get very far. Later, I was able to fulfill that dream in writing the Making of Indiana Jones book.
INT: It seems you have mostly built your career on more or less showing the behind the scenes of some extremely popular pop-culture films. How did you think of this?
JWR: I worked for Lucasfilm for 15 years as the nonfiction editor, so the writing was a natural out-growth of my job. I spent three years shadowing George Lucas while he made Revenge of the Sith. Then I pitching the idea of writing a giant making of Star Wars book, and because he liked my first book he said yes.
INT: From your behind the scenes books and research on both films what was the most interesting thing you learned about each franchise?
JWR: The most interesting thing I learned about Star Wars was how it almost never happened. The studio was against it and George Lucas had to finance much of preproduction from his own pocket, which would not have been possible if his American Graffiti hadn't been such a huge hit just before.
INT: As I said I am a huge fan of Star Wars and one of the coolest things I have seen is the graphic novel you created based on the original screenplay by Lucas called The Star Wars. Can you talk a little about how this came about?
JWR: The graphic novel took years to get off the ground. I had to sell George Lucas on the idea, which Dark Horse and I finally did by doing a wordless comic book, a few pages, to show him what it would be like. Then I gave George my whole written adaptation and he accepted it, and we are on our way. I really just wanted to show fans that story in illustrated form because it was so different from the final film. It had flaws obviously, that's why he re-wrote it, but it also was extremely interesting as a rough draft blue-sky approach.
INT: You have a new book coming out called ALL UP, can you talk a little about it?
JWR: I would love to talk about ALL UP. It's about the most exciting adventure in modern history: our species’ first small steps into space, ramped up by a bunch of amazingly interesting people: German, American, and Russian, who were considered to be crackpots at first. In a way, thanks to World War II, the rocket became a viable instrument of warfare and therefore something that all the superpowers had to take very seriously. So the period from the 1930s to the 1960s becomes interesting. Because I wanted to get into the heads of the historical participants—Wernher von Braun, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, Eisenhower, Hitler, Truman, JFK, Churchill, Stalin, I thought writing a novel was the best way to approach it. Also because some of the information is hard to confirm, a novel provides more poetic license. There's info that most documentaries or nonfiction books are not going to touch, for instance Freemasonry and UFOs. The extent to which von Braun was or was not a Nazi and a member of the SS. Operation Paperclip, the CIA's recruitment of former Nazis etc. etc. Also the Russian/Soviet side of the story is sometimes glossed over, but without Korolev and Sputnik and Gagarin, there would be no US space program to speak of, possibly.
INT: ALL UP is quite a bit different from your other books and works as it is more history focused, what drove you to write this book? Are you a history buff or did you just find the topic interesting?
JWR: In a way I think it's pretty similar to what I've been doing. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the Space Age. In both nonfiction and fiction and in this case historical fiction, you're telling a story which involves pacing, dialogue, atmosphere, the same ingredients are present in both nonfiction and fiction. Of course with fiction you get more into character and other aspects. But if people didn't feel something for George Lucas and his collaborators, they wouldn't necessarily have enjoyed reading the making-of books either. But yes I did find the topic extremely interesting and in doing the research I learned a ton about it. That's the advantage of doing a book that has real historical foundations, you get to become a semi-expert.
INT: I have often thought about this, that if the Nazis had the resources I think they could have undoubtedly won the war, invented the atomic bomb, and put a man in orbit and on the moon. From my own research, to some extent, I think the Allies, US in particular, just out-produced Nazi Germany in terms of weapons and men. In terms of aerospace, Operation Paperclip was massive for the US. What are your thoughts on Nazi engineering and Operation Paperclip?
JWR: That's a complicated topic and I'm not an official historian. I do think the Soviet Union had a lot to do with the collapse of Nazi Germany. Also the Germans almost wanted to self-destruct, which is harder to prove, but seems to be psychologically true. But certainly during the war Hitler for a while put a lot into the development of rockets. Then he stopped; then he started again. If they had gone full on from the beginning it's possible that they could have come up with a more long-range missile that could've hit America, but they had problems with manufacturing which meant it was not going to rival 250 bombers dropping tons of bombs. The V-2 could never do something like the bombing of Dresden. As for the atomic bomb I really couldn't say. Operation Paperclip is clearly very controversial, but in doing the research I understand America’s point of view: there was simply no way they could let these German engineers and scientists go over to the Soviets, which is where they would've probably ended up. The alternative was just throwing them in prison or something, which would've been an incredible waste of talent. Post World War II, as it turned out, provided enormous opportunities for peaceful space travel, which is something that we're now getting back into. I sincerely hope we’ll soon have a manned mission to Mars. As a species we have to go to other planets; it’s the natural thing to do. The question is: what kind of people will we be when make those first space travels and possibly establish outposts on other planets.
INT: Can you talk about Tron: Legacy and the character "Rinzler" in the movie?
JWR: That really didn't have much to do with me. Apparently the writers of Tron Legacy were trying to think up a name for the sort of villain and they had my Making of Star Wars book on the table, so they thought they’d name him after me. I guess he's kind of a heroic villain, but I'm not sure what to make of it (laughs).
INT: I see on your site you also have an "18 Underrated Films" link, can you talk about this? Are you a part-time movie critic?
JWR: I'm not a movie critic but I am critical when I watch movies, so if I see one that I think is undervalued, which most people haven't seen or know about, I just feel like I should let people know. I get very enthusiastic about movies that I love and I want to share my enthusiasm. On the other hand sometimes I think I'd like to post blogs about giant plot flaws in not-so-good movies, but it's more fun to be positive.
INT: I also see that you have paintings on your site, do you paint? If so can you talk about how you got into painting and why?
JWR: I used to paint when I was in my 20s; I started when I was probably 18 and painted diligently for about 10 years; I had a few shows in New York, Berkeley, and Paris but I could never make a living and I really wasn't trained the way I should be. I was OK at expressing myself but not very good when it came to technique. Maybe in my retirement, if I ever do retire, I'll learn some basics and go back to painting. But I find writing to be very gratifying because you can tell the whole story. Course there's a whole story in a painting, but you know, it's different.
INT: You have also produced an animated short called Riddle of the Black Cat. Can you talk about this and why you wanted to venture down this road?
JWR: I just like storytelling and trying to get to what is under the surface of things. Even when it comes to writing objectively about Star Wars and Indiana Jones I feel that a lot of books missed lots of salient details. Same with books about the first Space Age. And I felt that if you read Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat short story, that interpreters often miss the point. The whole idea is that the villain, the psychotic, is not really psychotic; he's a more or less cold-blooded murderer who uses cats and witches as excuses to try and get off on an insanity plea. The reader is supposed to be the detective. I thought I could convey all this through an animated short. I also wanted to direct some animation; I thought that would be really fun, and fortunately Greg Knight did a fantastic job doing all the illustrations himself. And then Chris Vibbert did a fantastic sound design and score. Working closely with them and with the editor Dave Sidley was a huge amount of fun and I wish I could do more of it. I have an idea, so if some producer out there wants to contact me and raise money--let's go! Maybe I'll do a Kickstarter in a year or so.
INT: Who is your biggest influence?
JWR: My favorite writer is Herman Melville, although I could never approach his level; but I love lots of folks. Shakespeare; Lord Byron; Raymond Chandler; Will Eisner. When it comes to music I've got to go with the Baroque period and Bach; more contemporary with The Beatles but I'm really getting into jazz now. There are so many people and there were so many great publications back in the day, like Mad magazine and Heavy Metal magazine in the late 1970s. But when I was doing painting I absolutely loved Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and Bronzino and Picasso and Delacroix—I feel that on Earth we’re really blessed with a whole slew of fantastic artists whose work is still around!
INT: What book that you have written are you most proud of and why?
JWR: At this point, I’d have to say ALL UP. It’s been a passion project now for more than five or six years and I’m excited that people are finally going to be able to read it. I sincerely hope they enjoy it.