ST George Lucas and the Mystery of the Treatment

Yes, agreed. And I think we'll only get our (subjective) answers when TFA is released.

 

I had an interesting thought....more of a question. And I think I already know the answer, but here goes:

What if KK/JJ had said, "we kept George's core ideas from the treatments. But as the script involved, we did change some stuff around, added, deleted a few things."

Would that have been good enough? or would it have led to, "well, what did they change? Maybe they changed something important, and now it's not Lucas' idea anymore."

 

Wyatt Earp is ok... but The Bodyguard is not very good IMO. Tombstone is classic.

 

It would have been the latter. The only reason this is really all that big a point of concern is because of the who, not the what. Like it almost doesnt' matter what the story ends up being, or how it ends up playing. The importance is more heavily weighted towards whose name is on those ideas, rather than the quality of them, and so long as that's the case, the appearance of someone aside from Lucas having input (much less the majority input) into where the story goes is always going to be the source of disconnect.

 

I think the Bespin lightsaber as a MacGuffin, the Captain Phasma name/character, the village massacre and Finn refusing to take part in it, the lead being a female and one of the male leads being black all came from either GL's treatments or encouragement.

 

I think Kasdan understands Lucas ('I can get into his head') comment. Another strength is Kasdan and Abrams in terms of age and perspective. Kasdan will be able to write from the perspective of Han, Luke and Leia in terms of the life cycle. Hopefully JJ has a good sensibility for the younger generation since he is sort of the 'apprentice' to Kasdan, Lucas and Spielberg. That's a great construction in terms of writing the story.

 

I like your thinking but one doesn't need to be 'at point of life cycle' of character to write or empathise with them. I am 32 and I prefer writing elder men. Just because you are a thing doesn't mean it's what makes the most sense or has the most meaning for you.

 

Agreed. But Kasdan did indicate that he enjoyed writing Ford, Hamill and and Fisher's characters because they were close to his age. It's a bit meta.

 

Absolutely. The best writers can write from any perspective, be it young or old, man or woman. It's just that Kasdan is revisiting the characters and universe from a different perspective than that of thirty years ago. That's a very special joy of circumstance.

 

I only agree with the Dreamcatcher criticism. And the failings of most of the other films, if they have failings, are mostly due to direction, IMO.

 

This is a great point. Though Lucas, whose vision and creativity is undeniable (and was the main force behind why Star Wars was made and was successful), deserves the lion share of the credit for making it all happen. He's the leader. The general. Without him, there would have been no battle plan.

But if we try to artificially isolate the most important elements of implementing Lucas' vision, and ensuring ANH's success, I would say it was two main things:

1. Ralph McQuarrie
2. The actors

Without the unparalleled design work of McQuarrie, and without the fire, energy and chemistry that this still unrivaled ensemble cast brought to the film, it would have simply been another Flash Gordon.

 

In addition to the epoch-defining work of ILM (raising the bar for special effects post-SW) I would also add John Williams and Ben Burtt as absolutely pivotal here - the soundtrack and audio effects are really important: the desolate scream of the Tie fighters! The brooding hum of the lightsabers!

 

Oh, definitely. I'd amend my list to include Williams, and then Burtt as a very, very close fourth. This kind of team, IMO, has never quite come together so perfectly for a film series since then. LOTR came close, but IMO missed the mark due to excessive bloat and melodrama.

 

C-3PO was supposed to be a slick car salesman type, probably not unlike Watto, but when AD got in the suit the character became a stuffy, neurotic upper crust British butler type. It's just kismet.

 

No, a while back people on this board ( you know who you are ) were saying...Spielberg may have recommended abrams or Kennedy but not Lucas. This kinda spits in the face at that idea. Lucas seemed to like the idea of Abrams as well to take over the story. Everyone involved seems to be very impressed with what he's done. I'm excited to see for myself.

 

George gave JJ the keys to GFFA when he called and said "if you do it it's your thing" JJ understands the importance of this it's basically obi handing luke anakins saber "I'm getting to old for this sorta thing"

 

Poll: Did George Lucas intend for his sequel story to be filmed?

 

I wouldn't think Kennedy and Abrams took Lucas' treatments and ritualistically burned them and not use 100% of anything, they probably just took some key broad strokes.

 

George no doubt intended for his outlines to be developed into a script but would have been aware there was a possibility Disney and KK would move away from them. He is not an idiot.

 

No. He intended for his outlines to be potentially used in developing screenplays which would then be filmed. That may sound pedantic, but it's an important distinction. You can't just film a story.

 

Poll: which part of George's treatment was your favourite?

 

Around the time he stopped writing about the crime and went on to the punishment bit.

 

Probably about as much as he expected "The Star Wars" to reach the screen. George makes movies. He knows how this works.

 

George's treatment: great story, or greatest story?