A Long Time Ago... with Marc Guggenheim
Hello there.
Welcome to A Long Time Ago… the fortnightly series where I ask guests to share their favourite Star Wars story and historical site. This started as a tie-in to my first piece of published writing, the article ART WARS for Star Wars Insider #226. The whole archive of my exploration of fourteen ancient art sites and every Star Wars story on my shelves can be found here.
This marks the fourteenth guest on the newsletter - equalling my fourteen original posts. Plus, totally unforeseen by me… today is May 4th!
May the Fourth be with you!
This is also a special newsletter as though I love every guest who’s come before, this writer’s work (and his work as a producer) has inspired me more than any other. The Arrowverse, the DC Comics-based TV multiverse of six (plus) simultaneously airing, crossing over shows deeply impacted my storytelling across mediums, inspiring characters, formats, events and aesthetics. It’s a storytelling feat that can’t be replicated, sui generis.
Today, I hand over to Marc Guggenheim!
Marc Guggenheim grew up on Long Island, New York, and earned his law degree from Boston University. After over four years in practice, he left law to pursue a career in television.
Today, Guggenheim is an Emmy Award–winning writer who writes for multiple mediums including television, film, video games, comic books, and new media. His work includes projects for such popular franchises as Percy Jackson, Star Wars, Call of Duty, Star Trek, and Planet of the Apes. He is also a novelist. His latest book, In Any Lifetime, was released by Lake Union Publishing on August 1st 2024.
Guggenheim currently lives in Encino, California, with his wife, two daughters, and a handful of pets. Keep up to date on his latest projects with LegalDispatch, a weekly newsletter where he shares news and notes about writing, comics, and the entertainment industry.
Longtime readers of my newsletter will have read about Marc’s work and know how chuffed I am every time Marc features one of my comments on that newsletter… which have been lacking recently as I catch up with my reading… sorry!
In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…
When I was six years old, my father took me and my brother Eric (then 2) to go see The Bad News Bears, a baseball comedy about a group of ragtag kids who come together under the coaching of a misanthropic grump and alcoholic of a coach. We went to go see the movie at the Roosevelt Field Mall out on Long Island. Before it was a shopping mecca, Roosevelt Field was where Charles Lindberg launched his historic flight over the Atlantic to England. It also happens to be where Sonny Corleone met his violently bloody end in The Godfather.
At any rate, my brother and father and I entered the theatre, tickets in hand. The theatre was bisected by a single aisle and we took up seats on the right hand side of the theatre circa the middle rows. The lights dimmed and the 20th Century Fox logo came on the screen accompanied by its brash, big score. I was too young to know or care if 20th was the studio behind The Bad News Bears — and still don’t know — so the presence of the Fox 3D lettering and waving searchlights didn’t throw me.
But then the logo faded off and was replaced by blue letters over a black field, which said, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….”
Something odd was happening.
Then John Williams’ score thundered in and yellow letters spelling out STAR WARS flew backwards.
By the time the Star Destroyer flew over my astonished 6-year-old head, my life was forever changed.
It’s hard, even now, to articulate how profound this cinematic experience was. Simply put, there had been no movies at all like Star Wars in 1977. None. There was no precedent for the size and scope — desert vistas and exotic aliens — no previous instance of such realistic visual effects — no prior examples of space battles and a score that hit you in both the gut and the feels.
In the 20th Century, experiencing the new was almost unheard of. It’s particularly extinct now in the 21st Century. All the ground has been broken. All the precedents have been set. The sui generis is very few and far between — if it can be found at all.
Star Wars was a thunderclap of cinema, changing not just movies but, I would argue, storytelling forever.
In Washington, D.C., United States…
I’m not exactly sure why the Jefferson Memorial speaks to me. Part of it, I’m sure, is the high esteem I hold Jefferson as a writer and a thinker. But the Memorial itself is also pretty gorgeous. I love that it’s on the water and I love the rotunda design. I first visited Washington DC when I was a little kid and the Memorial really made an impression on me. And, I suppose, that impression has lasted.
Thank you so much Marc!
Subscribe today to discover the next guest and their picks!
Cheers,
Harvey