Salvatore to Write STAR WARS: EPISODE 2 Novel

    June 21, 2000

Fantasy author R.A. Salvatore will pen the novelization of Star Wars: Episode II. He follows on the heels of another fantasy author, Terry Brooks, who wrote the novelization to Episode I. Salvatore's previous Star Wars novel credit was the controversial Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime, which (stop now if you haven't read the book already) featured the death of Chewbacca.

'Here I am, the same kid who watched the original Star Wars movie with wide-eyed awe, getting ready to sit down with George Lucas and the other folks at Lucasfilm and help expand Mr. Lucas's vision of the next installment of the magical series into the novel format,' said Salvatore on the official Star Wars website (www.starwars.com). 'I'm thrilled, I'm honored, I'm stunned, I'm ecstatic--I'm all of those things and more. How could I not be?'

The novelization is slated for a 2002 release from Ballantine (in the United States) and Random House (in the United Kingdom).--SFX