According to David Cronenberg - Wikipedia, Cronenberg was considered by George Lucas to direct Return of the Jedi.
As a big Star Wars fan, and a big Cronenberg fan (esp. his later, less vomit-inducing stuff), this blows my mind. How would the movie have been different?
I’ll start.
The Ewoks would have been insectoid, and would have defeated the Stormtroopers by sneaking into their barracks and laying eggs inside their sleeping bodies. Just as the rebels are surrounded, the eggs would hatch, the larva eating the Troops inside out.
Christopher Walken, fresh from his leading role in Cronenburg’s The Dead Zone steals every scene he’s in as a Jedi warrior. This would strongly influence his portrayal of Major Koons years later in *Pulp Fiction: *
“The way your Dad looked at it, Luke, that lightsaber was your birthright. He’d be damned if any Jawas were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy’s birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something…”
Why, kinky inter-lifeform sex, of course.
The sarlacc would talk, of course, probably about Interzone.
I seem to recall that David Lynch was also considered for Jedi, which would have been its own brand of strangeness. The Ewoks would have been filmed in reverse, maybe?
“You can sit this one out, John - the soundtrack will be by Toto for no reason at all apart from obliquely indulging my Wizard of Oz obsession.”
I expect the standard way of sleeping would be to slash open a large animal’s belly and nestle into its intestines (rather than just in a survival situation).
If he’d directed The Phantom Menace instead, JJ Binks’ head would have exploded in the first seen.
Darth has a fever… a fever for more cowbell!
So there ARE upsides to the substitution…
Didn’t we have a game here a few years back where we would envision how a given movie premise would work in the hands of another director?
Why does the idea of Christopher Walken in any project make me smile? 
Christopher Walken in any Star Wars movie would have rocked!
“Please, ewoks…scootch closer. Don’t make me tell you again about the scootching!”
I feel like it’s safe to say we would have explored the psychological ramifications of Luke and Leia’s incestuous feelings a little more explicitly.
OTOH, I doubt he would have changed Jabba’s palace or the Sarlacc pit much.
Replacing Palpatine with a seductive female Empress (think Borg queen) would probably be right up Cronenberg’s alley. Or maybe just keep Palpatine but have him be disturbingly sexually aggressive toward Luke.
The gold bikini’s still there.
On Han.
Did you realize that Walken did, indeed, read for the part of Han Solo in the original movie?
That doesn’t take much change from the actual script. 
I did not know that.
LOL!
**Luke **(to self): Oh, my God… Is he coming on to me?!
Emperor: Take your Jedi weapon. Use it! I am unarmed!
**Luke **(to self): gasp He IS coming on to me!