Evidence that Star Wars wasn't initially planned as 6 movies?

Cafe Society
41

Well, I saw it in '77. Was 16 at the time and have a lot of fan stuff that was released as it was getting evident that this was a blockbuster. Think of it as “the making of” we get on TV and DVD nowadays, but in printed form. It sure ain’t called “A new Hope”.

All during the 70’s, I was in my teen/geek/SF years and consumed most of Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke. Space:1999 kept me glues to the TV. So I was space-struck and gobbled anything Staar Wars.

Now, when I look back I realize a couple of things:

  1. Starwars and Spielberg’s Jaws really changed the whole movie industry. Fewer movies, bigger budgets, but also bigger profits. Lucas and Spielberg are just two kids, who grew up watching matinees at the local theatre and then struck lucky and made gazillion dollars out of it. In doing this, they paved the way for all the Big Special effects movies that were to dominate cinema till now.
  2. But when Lucas and Spielberg got started, they had stories to tell. And that’s the most important thing. We all bought Star Wars, because it was a classic saga of good and evil, young lovers unable to get it on, brilliant settings and special effects for the era. Lucas took the money from American Graffittti and spent it well. And this whole time he’s just been doing two things: re-tell stories from his childhood and things about his own teen years.
  3. And good movies, books, TV, depends on one thing. Tell the story. And lucas no longer has a story to tell. Ep’s 1+2 is dazzling, techically brilliant and totally void of any story.
  4. A good writer ‘jumps to the chase’ by cutting out the backstory and getting right into the action. Most movies work like this. Books too. Start with a dramatic twist, then - briefly - tell the backstory, then continue with the setup of the protagonist, the antagonist and the basic conflict. For the drama to work, our hero must have a flaw, something he needs to overcome to gain his goal (The achille’s heel, as seen in Die Hard. Bruce Willis is afraid of heights and where is he stuck?). The character must also go through some evolution, and hopefully come out a better person, in the eyes of the audience. Basic drama. The Greeks started it.
    But Lucas doesn’t have anything more to say, so he’s exploiting the back story, which was cut from the first episode, and is now trying to sell prequells. Since the galaxy was saved at the end of RoTJ, there is no more story to tell there.

Let’s face it. All our talking about what he meant and what he’s trying to achieve… It doesn’t matter. 'Cause Lucas hasn’t got anything to say anymore.

42

Where do the Disney (???) movies about Endor fit in?

ducks for cover

43

vibrotronica: Star Wars rough draft script

44

Were there TWO novelizations? My hardback of Star Wars is written by Lucas, not ADF.

45

Woo Hoo! Thank you, ** Larry Mudd ** ! Now, if you can just hook me up with some of your women…

** Chance **, the novelization of * Star Wars * was GHOSTwritten by Alan Dean Foster and Lucas put his name on it. Foster was then given the chance to write * Splinter of the Mind’s Eye * and use his own name. Cite here: http://www.echostation.com/interview/foster.htm

46

I was in elementary school when “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” were released. I remember hearing that there were supposed to be four different trilogies, which meant that there would be a total of twelve movies.

47

Here are the facts, as told by Lucas, and as disseminated by me:

First he had an idea for one movie.

He could not fit all those ideas into one movie, so he split them into a trilogy, and fleshed out each one with additional cool stuff.

Many of his ideas evolved and changed over that period.

After the success of the original Star Wars, he saw he could actually make the other movies to complete the trilogy. He also saw the possibility of fleshing out the pre-Star Wars story, a vague idea he had of the origins of the Jedi Knights, and Darth Vader. He wove in some of those ideas in his subsequent movies, for potential continuity.

When asked if he had plans for more movies, he told of the immediate trilogy he wanted completed, the prequel trilogy he had vague ideas of, and also he thought that maybe there’d be a further trilogy afterwards, though he had no idea what they would be about at that time.

Later he decided that the third trilogy was not really feasible, and ended Return of the Jedi fairly assuredly.

Now he is making the prequels, and the vague ideas he had are now being made more solid. They have altered a little from earlier interviews he may have made in the 70s, but the essence is still there. THAT’S what he means by having it all worked out years before - not that he actuially had anything written in diamond.

Give the guy a break - he’s just a guy.

48

GuanoLad, please understand that I mean no personal offense mate, but this:

is one of the funniest things I’ve heard in, well, less than 12 parsecs.

I too, recall the stories, shortly after Star Wars became huge, of a planned trilogy of trilogies. The two droids were going to be the only characters seen outside of their ‘respective trilogies’ and by extension, the only characyers in all nine movies. He has said, since then, that he’s always had a plan for just six movies, with the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker as the central theme.

He was, of course, talking out of his ass in both these instances. The original novelization of the first film, the one ghost written by ADF, based on Lucas’ original screenplay, bears quite clearly on the cover, “From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker.” (See vibrotronica’s posts earlier.)

In that “Journal of the Whills” bit, the Emperor is described as a figurehead, controlled by a shadow government of advisors and former senators. This from the man planning out his story in advance? Hell, in the first film, the Emperor controlled practically nothing, as all the regional governors (which means… I have no idea, really) had direct control of thier star systems.

Darth Vader killed Luke’s father, then he was his father. Luke was the only hope for the galaxy, then suddenly, “No, there is another.” Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny… unless you’re a Skywalker, I guess.

Hell, the man filmed entire screenplays full of material that never made it into the movies. He’s always claimed that it was a case of not letting anyone know what the true story was, but doesn’t it seem just a little like he was still changing the screenplays while filming, for whatever reasons, and unsure of his changes?

I’ll buy that some bits of the story has unfolded as Lucas planned from the beginning. But to say that he’s paid more than a glance at long term continuity is stretching it, I think.

Anyone honestly think the “certain point of view” speech was anything other than a cop-out by a man who is an incredible storyteller, but a mediocre scriptwriter and piss poor dialogue writer?

[Tangent] Wish I had a cite, but I’ve heard it said that Harrison Ford once told Lucas, on the set of one of the three films, “George, this (dialogue) may work on paper, but it sounds like shit when people actually say it out loud.”
[/Tangent]

[sub]And when the hell did Boba Fett, a character Lucas complained about the fans blowing all out of proportion, because he was a very minor character, suddenly develop such a huge role in the history of these films?[/sub]

49

Everything I said in my post above fits the facts, and answers your points. He DID change his mind on some things, and adapt ideas. Maybe he never intended Vader to be Luke’s father, or maybe he did, there’s no way to know for sure, but it really could be either way. Considering he didn’t really expect teh sequels to ever get made, he did write the first Star Wars in a mostly self-contained way for that reason. After the fact, he started to weave in his original ideas, and also add some new ones.

Certainly he never intended Luke and Leia to end up being brother and sister - that’s one thing that I dislike too.

As for adding Boba Fett into the prequels - what’s wrong with that? He saw an opportunity to use a character again in a creative way. Kind of coincidental, but one thing you all have to realise is that Star Wars is not a Classic Piece of Cinema Art to Lucas - he just sees it as a bit of popcorn fun he likes to doodle around with, and thinks most people’s obsession with the minutiae of it all kind of silly.

Switch your brains off and go on the ride, that’s all he wants. If nobody had ever looked on the original trilogy as seminal and sacred parts of their childhood, maybe this obsession to dismiss George as a talentless writer and director wouldn’t be so prevalent.