ST Connection: TFA and the Brackett ESB Script

Interesting, now we have Lucas's ideas discarded and a script written my JJ with the help of Kasdan. As a great man said "It's like poetry, it rhymes"

 

vader's castle is in this script. on a large rock in a crimson sea.

vader and luke have a mind battle.

another interesting quote regarding the dark side of the force. yoda - "it is the dark side of you. it's in all of us. that's what makes the temptation so great. the force is power. it's up to the individual how he uses it.

this is what i've said myself.

more names. bahiri. ethania eredith.

actually the film ends with han leaving to find ovan.

 

And that brings us back to the question of making that plausible.

 

It depends on the proximity of the Savannah planet to Bespin. If it's close by, is that even a problem any more?

I mean, the simplest answer is - the last time we saw it it was falling somewhere.

The next time we see it it's landing somewhere.

If the journey is:

Bespin - Savannah - Naka - Trader - Jakku - sold to wealthy gentleman/ Clan vs the Seven - The Vicar has it somehow - he calls in Poe.

I mean, that's a 30 year journey, but does that work?

I mean LOTR gave us a very brief history of the One Ring that spanned hundreds of years.

 

We don't even know that the saber fell out of Cloud City after it left Luke. I'm getting a sense of de ja vu here

 

Sure, we know very little, but the last time we saw the saber it was falling. The next time we see it, it's landing. Maybe it's that simple.

 

Yeah, that would make for a pretty powerful "reveal" of Luke at the end, if that is indeed Mark Hamill's only appearance in the film.

 

I still get the feeling that there will be no mention of where Rey is going or who she is going to see. She just takes off, lands, climbs the mountain and there's Luke!

 

Based on a story is putting it mildly. They did a story conference which is basically Lucas telling her the story in incredible detail.

Lucas did discard her draft. Any resemblances are because it's Lucas' detailed story.

He did not finish a draft with Kasdan.

He wrote at least one "draft" (which itself is a term open to revisions within said draft) then brought Kasdan in to be the story editor to expand scenes add transitions etc. From then on it was collaborative in that Lucas was constantly rewriting Kasdan's work based on the original script.

 

Thank you for the clarifications. It's good to get these details correct. I was in part simplifying (perhaps too much) the process as I understood it.

The "finished another draft himself (Lucas) with Lawrence Kasdan," I used because, in part, some of the dialogue changes made by Kasdan:

To Luke's line: "Is the dark side stronger?"

• (Lucas) "Not stronger, aggressive. The attacker hateful. Tempted you will be, by the easy way" (Yoda speaking)
• (Kasdan) "No, no. Easier, quicker, more seductive" (Yoda speaking)

And:

• (Lucas) "Not material are we. Luminous beings are we, tied together by the Force. . . Yes. There are two of you . . . your body and your energy." (Yoda speaking)
• (Kasdan) "Luminous beings are we. . . (Yoda pinches Luke's skin) Not this crude matter." (Yoda speaking)

(Quotes are from Rinzler's The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, pg. 76).
I'm not saying that we only have Kasdan to credit for the script of ESB, but he does deserve some acknowledgement for simplifying and streamlining some of the dialogue, IMO.

 

Yes. The explanation (if any) of the lightsaber's journey will have to be uncomplicated, with as few lines of exposition as possible. If not, the story could get bogged down in details that many in the audience may not be aware of and over-complicate the narrative.

 

Kasdan wasn't story editor Qui, he wrote his own drafts. There's a big difference.

 

I give Kasdan credit for matching Lucas in terms of dialogue style. They're both pulpy and old fashioned in that regard, as evidenced by Continental Divide and Body Heat. But it's also worth noting that Lucas didn't stop writing when Kasdan started. All the scripts by Kasdan are also by Lucas.

 

In what sense Ken?

 

Is this crystal in the saber's hidden compartment the Kaiburr crystal?

The original script of ANH had 3 sith's standing around said crystal and Vader "Feeling and awakening of something ancient".

Is there a possibility this crystal focuses and\or amplifies the Force to help the wielder of the light-saber and aid in combat? (whether Force sensitive or not)

 

I'd suggest that there is very little OT dialogue that didn't benefit immensely from the contributions of others. Even for ANH Lucas gave a draft to Huyck and Katz to infuse the dialogue with humor and 'bounce'. He acknowledges that about 30% of the dialogue was theirs. As has been pointed out many times, Lucas himself acknowledges that dialogue isn't his strong point.

IMO the ESB example above indicates that Kasdan's changes constitute a substantial improvement. The dialogue is much more economical, almost lyrical.

Edit

This is what Kasdan said Lucas gave him at the point he started working on ESB:

'What George handed me was a very rough first draft, really somewhere between and outline and a first draft. The structure was all there--it was the skeleton for a movie. What was needed was the flesh and the muscle.'
From Cinefantastique vol. 28

 

Kasdan didn't just add some dialogue and put in some transitions.

 

Let's hope we see this mind battle between Luke and Snoke.

 

Rey and Kylo

 

CrazyOldJedi My ideal scenario is Luke's destiny is to restart the Jedi Order and take out Snoke. A mind battle between two masters of the Force would be epic. Rey's destiny is of course to face Kylo. Two young Force users should have much more emotionally charged battles that focus on the physical. Then you got Finn. Trained to be a soldier and, I believe, later to be a Jedi. This makes him a perfect choice to be a General later in the trilogy in charge of soldiers. Then you got Poe doing what Poe does best. Kicking ass and taking names from the cockpit of his X-Wing. Of course this scenario isn't a must for me to love it. Just what I'd prefer.

 

Just referring to the mind games that take place between Rey and Kylo during her interrogation. It seems quite similar to the Luke/Vader thing in that ESB draft. I don't know how they will portray it onscreen though.

 

And while we're talking about the contributions of other writers, I think it demonstrates a general ignorance of the creative process, and a specific ignorance of the screenwriting process, to assume that there is no residual value in an abandoned draft of a screenplay. The rough and bloody first draft of any script is almost always carved away from the pages that arrive on set, but that doesn't make it worthless. Every journey has a first step, and sometimes it takes seeing the things that don't work to recognize the things that do.

 

According to Rebels, the crystal inside every saber is a kaiburr crystal

 

While fantasy stories require suspension of belief in the first place, at the same time, there also has to be large elements of reasonable progression since flat (2D) characters never work in any lasting capacity. The members of the Fellowship started out with rounded (3D) personalities that were recognizable. From that foundation, they were able to be placed in extraordinary situations, the most important of which was how the One Ring came to be in Frodo's possession. That LOTR montage was well done, in that the ring's journey over time and place seemed reasonable.

If the Bespin lightsabre is to play the same role as the One Ring (only in so far as it's the object that gets the story on its feet and going, then TFA has got some 'splainin' to do.

Regarding MacGuffins in general, Alfred Hitchcock stated:

the device, the gimmick, if you will, or the papers the spies are after ... The only thing that really matters is that in the picture the plans, documents or secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no importance whatsoever.​