Ralph McQuarrie designed several futuristic films but is best-known for visualising the landscapes of Star Wars and designing characters including Chewbacca, R2-D2 andC-3PO. It led to more "space" projects but he also worked on other science-fiction and fantasy projects and won an Oscar for Cocoon.

Ralph McQuarrie designed several futuristic films but is best-known for visualising the landscapes of Star Wars and designing characters including Chewbacca, R2-D2 andC-3PO. It led to more "space" projects but he also worked on other science-fiction and fantasy projects and won an Oscar for Cocoon.

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This week an unknown US author, Amanda Hocking, joins an elite literary club alongside just 11 others – including Stieg Larsson, James Patterson and Nora Roberts – by racking up her millionth Kindle sale. Unknown is, of course, a relative term in this case (no one can shift that many books by remaining anonymous) but Hocking is unusual because she has sold all of her books via Amazon's electronic Kindle reader. Entirely self-published, her first physical book does not reach traditional bookshops until January.

A self-publishing fantasy writer has become an e-book phenomenon

A stunning teaser can make a mediocre film look like a classic, but what are the vital ingredients when making one? David Crookes finds out why a pop song can be just as key as a classy voiceover

Yesterday a Supreme Court copyright ruling cleared the way for Andrew Ainsworth, the UK designer who made the Star Wars stormtrooper helmets, to sell his replicas of the famed costumes.We look at other icons from the sci-fi saga that have permeated pop culture.

A British prop designer who made the original Stormtrooper helmets for the first Star Wars film won a Supreme Court battle to continue producing replicas – but faces a damages payout to the creators of the science-fiction blockbuster.

Forty years on, Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show is still a moving portrayal of teenage life in small-town America, says Geoffrey Macnab

He's famous for his brutal characters and shocking plotlines. What personal experiences inform Neil LaBute's dark material? On the eve of a new play, he talks about family, critics and telling racist jokes

'Star Wars' creator George Lucas believes the world will end in 2012.

Irvin Kershner (known as "Kersh" to his friends) directed what many consider the best of the Star Wars films, The Empire Strikes Back (1980). As well as containing many of the cycle's most iconic moments, including the revelation of Luke Skywalker's parentage, it is arguably the most entertaining and accessible of the films for those who are not ardent fans of the enormously popular franchise. Keshner said that his aim was to instil greater character development into the work.

Irvin Kershner – who directed the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, the James Bond film Never Say Never Again and Robocop 2 – has died at the age of 87.