A summary of the original back-story.
Don’t know how accurate it is, but I have heard that Lucas, at best, hoped that “Star Wars” would make enough money for him to make a low-budget sequel. When it hit big, the low-budget sequel story was dumped for “The Empire Strikes Back.”
The low-budget sequel story, again, “I have heard,” was given to Alan Dean Foster to turn into an original novel, which he did. It is entitled “Splinter of The Mind’s Eye.”
Anybody know for sure?
Sir Rhosis
Yes, that’s true. Lucas thought that if his movie was a success he could make the sequels he wanted, but if it wasn’t he could at least salvage the sets and costumes from the first film and make a new one-off story, which he asked Alan Dean Foster to write for him - Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.
Star Wars as a franchise is somewhat special because Lucas owns everything, free and clear. It was a term he negotiated with Fox (normally, the studio would have had the exclusive rights to make any sequels). The reasoning he often gives in interviews is some variation on his being able to tell the rest of the story regardless of how successfull/unsuccessfull it might be. This way if Fox didn’t want to make it, or tried to change something he had his heart set on, he could up and take it to whatever studio would have him. Of course, as it turned out that wasn’t necessary, but it points to him having some plans for more of a series than just the first film.
My WAG is that he had some vague notions about what would come later, but probably didn’t have anything specifically planned more than the idea of a trilogy, and some basic premises. I’m almost positive the Leia-as-Luke’s sister angle was tacked on late in the writing of Empire, but Vader being Luke’s father seems like it could’ve easily been one of his earlier notions for what to do with the sequels.
Another interesting tidbit is that he negotiated for exclusive ownership of any and all merchandising profits. Merchandising just wasn’t a big deal for Hollywood at the time, so the studio didn’t put up much of a fight. One of the interesting side effects is that none of the actors get any kind of royalty when their images were used for Star Wars merch (except Alec Guinness, who wisely insisted on it).
I just want to comment on a few things MaxTheVool touched on. I think a lot of people are looking at Star Wars through 2007 glasses, not early 1970s glasses. If you did not grow up during the 1950s and 60s you have no idea of just how different Star Wars was. I was in my early 20s when SW came out, and I can tell you that it was different from every science fiction movie I had ever seen up to that point.
If you doubt this go rent a selection of 10-12 SF movies from the late 60s, and early 70s and watch them. Then watch Star Wars again. Then come back and tell me it was not original.
I saw it the first Sunday it came out at Graumann’s Chinese theater, it was a 10AM show, and we had to line up for tickets. This was the first time I ever heard of anyone lining up for movie tickets. I am not talking about 3 or 4 people getting to the box office at the same time, I am talking about getting to the theater hours before show time.
When the movie started, within 30 seconds, we knew we were in for something way different that what we had seen before.
It appears that the original story was closer to The Hidden Fortress (which Lucas has acknowledged as an inspiration) then the final script was.
In a recent thread, I wrote that I regarded Star Wars as being a major turning point in science fiction films. But I think its roots are clear, at least in retrospect.
There was a relatively strong SF film genre in the decade prior to Star Wars (which Lucas was himself a part of with THX 1138). Jaws had pioneered the idea of the summer blockbuster. Special effects are an ongoing process that was starting to mature in the seventies (an earlier filmmaker couldn’t have made Star Wars if he had wanted to). And the action adventure theme goes back to the early silent serials. Somebody was going to combine these seperate elements and it was Lucas who got there first.
Golly gee:
I point this out because it seems clear that Lucas had a fairly extensive collection of a nebulous “story” to pull the elements of a good single movie together. That’s what Star Wars was: a single hero’s-journey-myth with a bunch of context that was touched upon enough to make sense of the larger world the story was taking place in.
I still say it isn’t, as a movie.
As a concept, it was way different. And the themes and tones was also very different. Big SF movies pre SW was of course, 2001, Soylent Green, Silent Running and even Planet of the Apes, all with a dystopian or at least pessimistic view of the future.
Lucas put out a cheesy space opera, with crappy acting by most of the actors involved, but in reverting back to Flash Gordon and making it look new and shiny, with great SFX, he put fun back in SF.
I loved it and still do, but original it ain’t.
I maintain (as others have) that Lucas used (and credited) a large number of sources, but using sources as derivative material is part of the creative process. Taken to the extreme we can write off J.S. Bach as derivative because he didn’t invent the fugue (or the pipe organ for that matter).
Do you still maintain your earlier comments on Lucas:
For ‘never having an original thought in his head’ he has done amazingly well for the industry (and made a few $$ for himself in the process) being the driving force behind several innovations:[ol]
[li]Digital photography[/li][li]Computer assisted photography[/li][li]3-D computer animation[/li][li]Enhanced sound (THX)[/li][li]Special effects[/li][/ol] Sure these weren’t all his ideas (insert Al Gore ‘invented the internet’ joke here) but he was instrumental in bringing them forward and getting them mainstreamed.
I have yet to understand the loads of vitriol that get poured at the man. Sure his movies aren’t perfect but who has ever pulled that off? I guess that some of the hatred is that unlike so many celebrities who rise and fall Lucas has never crashed and burned.
This is like saying Shakespeare was a great creative writer because he invented the ticket stub.
No, I think a lot of it is just disappointment. Lucas showed great promise in his early career and he’s failed to live up to it. And to rub it in, he goes back to “improve” his early work - he’s managed to pull off the unprecedented feat of desecrating his own corpse.
Tut tut, Max, he probably thinks ESB is the best of the series. 
It’s cool to slam successful. Did Lucas have an outline for three trilogies on paper before Star Wars? I can’t say. Did he have them sometime between Star Wars and SW:III? most certainly.
Give the guy some credit. He took an idea 30 years ago and made a career out of it. For the folks that think he’s a hack that can’t write dialog, so what? You KNOW you’ve spent at least $500 on the franchise over the years (Add it up. 6 movies, 12 dates, how many times did you see Empire in the theatre? Buy any cards? Toys? Books? Videogames? Happymeals?)
Face it, Lucas OWNED my childhood, I’ll bet he owned a significant portion of yours too. On balance, I’ve been happy enough with the results.
And I’ll say to the OP what I say to MOST folks that criticize things this way: You’re more than welcome to come up with a better product.
I would say it’s more like inventing the theatre. Name one living film maker that has more impact on how movies are made today (note I didn’t say director or writer for which I personally don’t put Lucas at the top of the heap).
Didn’t live up to the early promise he showed early in his career! Is there anyone you can say you like? I hope I never treat anyone this way: ‘You know son I’m proud of your medical degree and all but I was expecting more after you pulled down straight A’s in 3rd grade.’
As for changing his work, how many successful movies don’t change in some way over time? We have ‘added footage’, the ‘director’s cut’, the ever popular ‘remastered from the original’ and the ‘alternate ending’. Do any of these ‘improve’ the movie? It’s all subjective. On the whole I have thoroughly enjoyed the Star Wars experience and would, if I ever met the man, profusely thank Lucas for creating it–not choose to burn him in effigy.
Well yes, kinda proves my point doesn’t it.
One idea, re-inventing the Flash Gordon serials he loved as a kid.
He made wheelbarrow loads of money, made a lot of technical innovations and inventions, created a franchise loved by millions and so on and so forth. As a Hollywood creature he might be one of a kind, the Bill Gates of the movie industry, and I’m not denying the greatness he’s achieved.
But you cannot convince me that SW was an original piece of storytelling. Lucas may be a genius in many ways, but he doesn’t really have anything to say.
I do not for one minute believe Lucas originally planned for Vader to be Luke’s father, nor for Luke and Leia to be related.
As for Lucas’ talent, I think he once had a very creative imagination, but it was smothered under a big pile of money.
Well, of course. By then, 11:10 would have become 11:25!
I think Lucas had only the vaguest outlines of a backstory in mind at the time he wrote the first screenplay. When ESB came out three years later, though, a Time magazine sidebar (in the issue with Vader on the cover, IIRC) referred to what we now know of as the Old Republic backstory and the potential for a series of nine movies (the last three of which will probably be made after Lucas has slip’d this mortal coil, if he doesn’t get around to it himself).
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye is a pretty good SW adventure, incidentally, even if it’s no longer canon. The romantic angle between Luke and Leia is much stronger than in ANH, which wouldn’t make sense if Lucas already knew they were siblings.
I should be so lucky. 
I haven’t found a person yet that, when approached with wheelbarrows full of loot said: “No thanks, it’ll compromise my art.”
I think folks are being unrealistic here. Lucas has stood on the shoulders of a tremendous workforce. His ideas were a catalyst that has shaped the industry today and severely kinked how we perceive Sci-fi.
You do know that there are only 7 plots in all of literature, don’t you?
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=210539
Even Unka Cece has commented on it:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/001124.html
I recall an ep of Phil Foglio’s What’s New with Phil & Dixie (can’t seem to find it in the online collection) devoted to the Star Wars series. One panel: Caption: "I lost faith in the Lucas mystique when Return of the Jedi came out. This was the guy who had beaten the Hollywood machine! He could have done anything! What did he give us? Ewoks!" Illo shows an Ewok and two teddy bears with t-shirts labeled “Sucrose Bear” and “Saccharine Bear,” running towards him with open arms and crying, “Papa!”
Charlie Tan, by your judgement there are no oiginal thinkers and probably have been none since the age of Cro-Magnon man. This may be accurate for a certain value of “original,” but it’s also a useless definition. Nobody’s original, and everything is ultimately a variation of what has come before. Reality is limited; so are our stories. There have been few, if any, new plots since cavemen drew on walls.
That’s easy - Spielberg. He’s made a career out of the same type of audience pleasing blockbusters as Star Wars. And he did it before Lucas did and he’s been able to repeat his success several times which Lucas has not.
By your metaphor, Lucas is the guy who got straight A’s in third grade (THX 1138) went on to get a medical degree (American Graffitti, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back) and then moved into his parent’s garage for thirty years (Willow, Howard the Duck, The Phantom Menace). We’re not condemning him because of the work he created at his peak; we’re disappointed by the long decline afterwards.
Actually most movies don’t change over time. Lucas was a pioneer of the idea of going back and tweaking his older movies. As for the results, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. In Lucas’ particular case, I don’t think he’s noticably improved his early movies with his later revising.
I wouldn’t burn him either. But I don’t see any need to pretend I loved every movie he made when I didn’t.
However, the DVD for Hidden Fortress which I watched not long ago had a clip from Lucas where he says that the movie was not a major inspiration. The droids for sure, in that the story is told from the droids point of view, like Hidden Fortress is told from the peasant’s point of view, but not the plot so much.
The earlier drafts were indeed more like it, but not what hit the screen.