ST George Lucas and the Mystery of the Treatment

Being the creator of a series does not automatically mean you will always have the best ideas. Look at Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry for example. The First season of Star Trek TNG was very close to Gene's vision...and it was terrible. It wasn't till about season three when he stepped away from the reigns that things turned around. In fact if you want an example of his mistakes look at the Ferengi in their first appearance in series. The same applies to Lucas.

 

Actually, Lucas was part of the DGA right up to ESB.

George Lucas is credited with popularizing this with his Star Wars films which display only the film's title at the start.[1] His decision to omit opening credits in his films Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) led him to resign from the Directors Guild of America after being fined $250,000 for not crediting the director during the opening title sequence. However, Hollywood had been releasing films without opening credits for many years before Lucas came along, most notably Citizen Kane, West Side Story, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Godfather. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits

To preserve the dramatic opening sequences of his films, Lucas wanted the screen credits to come at the end of the films. While this practice has become more common over the years, this was a highly unusual choice at the time. The Writers and Directors Guilds of America had no problem allowing it on Star Wars, back in 1977, because the writer-director credit (George Lucas) matched the company name, but when Lucas did the same thing for the sequel it became an issue because Lucas had his last name on the start of the film (Lucasfilm), while the director and the writers had theirs on the end. They fined him over $250,000 and attempted to pull Empire out of theaters. The DGA also attacked Kershner; to protect his director, Lucas paid all the fines to the guilds. Due to the controversy, he left the Directors and Writers Guilds, and the Motion Picture Association. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empire_Strikes_Back

As such, he had to hire non-union director Marquand for ROTJ.

 

I have to defend Lucas on that... those demands are just absurd

 

Well, the biggest problem was that Lucas asked Kershner if he would mind it if his name wasn't in the opening credits of ESB, and Kershner complied. The DGA fined Lucas in spite of Kershner's agreement.

I can understand why the DGA would have such a rule...but to ignore even the director's wishes is foolish, especially since other films also ignored this rule. Sounds like someone in the DGA was itching for a high-profile fight with what was arguably one of the most anticipated films at the time.

 

Just to add to that, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was very much a Roddenberry project...and the results were pretty ho-hum. Parmount then said "sorry, Gene, not again" and gave production and writing duties to Harve Bennett...and the results were Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a far superior movie and arguably the highlight of the Star Trek franchise. Sometimes the Creator does not have the best ideas, or loses sight of what made their creation so amazing in the first place.

 

That's a terrible example. The Ferengi in their first appearance were the way they were because the director told them to act the way they did, despite Roddenberry's wishes.

 

I actually think he would get ripped for doing a remake and essentially just replaying all the 'hits'

 

Both would happen, actually.

 

The reason that ST:TNG first season was so close to Gene's vision, and fairly blah, is it reused story ideas from the aborted ST: Phase II TV series (which itself morphed into ST: TMP). Riker and Troi are essentially Decker and Ilia, unused outlines reworked as TNG scripts etc. Roddenberry's ego was also pretty unchecked by that point and he was notoriously difficult to work with, very stubborn on getting exactly what he thought was good for Star Trek because he had created it. Sound familiar to anyone we know?

 

IMO Star Trek works a lot better as a TV product than a film product... somewhat analogous to things like the twilight zone and the outer limits. TV shows can explore strange and interesting things a lot more easily than films IMO... one episode that doesn't work so well isn't nearly as big a deal as a film that doesn't work so well.

Star Trek 2 and 6 are definitely my favorites (although I also enjoy 3 and 4... despite some of the absurd silliness)

 

Hell, no....can you imagine Lucas watching over your shoulder as you made TFA? That would be terribly unnerving and annoying.

<tap on shoulder> "Hey, why don't you make him say, 'I love you, too' instead? Just a suggestion."

 

Hell, no....can you imagine Lucas watching over your shoulder as you made TFA? That would be terribly unnerving and annoying.

<tap on shoulder> "Hey, why don't you make him say, 'I love you, too' instead? Just a suggestion."[/quote]


I don't think the situation would be fair on anyone. It would be different if George hadn't sold because he wanted to retire. If he was going to run the show like he did with the OT that would work because the chain of command would be clear and ultimately George would get the final say. Same with TCW. It's not in George's DNA to watch other people drive his baby forwards while only chipping in when asked. I think that would be the same for most people.

 

I don't hate or dislike George. He will always be remembered as an innovator and movie making genius.I will always be very grateful for him giving us Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But there comes a point when you have to acknowledge that sometimes even the greatest lose their mojo, and it's been apparent for years that he has. I started becoming a bit worried with Radioland Murders, a project he tried getting made for YEARS. The Prequels, although they have great moments that I love, overall are not his best work. Then Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a major disappointment for many (although there are many to blame for that, not just Lucas). Then another project he tried making for years, Red Tails was a bust. Finally we have Strange Magic, billed as being from the mind of George Lucas. You could argue The Clone Wars show was an achievement, but I feel that had more to do with Dave Filoni than Lucas. So does anyone honestly feel, deep down, that George could have made a fantastic new Star Wars movie? I don't, and I struggled with this for years, accepting that George has simply lost his creative drive and is out of touch now with what movie goers and Star Wars fans want. He has even claimed recently that Empire Strikes back was one of the weakest Star Wars movies! HUH???

 

It's interesting that George, as an independent filmmaker, became the very thing he detested: a corporate studio. Then he divested himself, like a good billionaire Buddhist.

 

How in Gods name does this topic warrant 300 pages of discussion?

 

A good question, for another time.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

This is an interesting article, Kathleen Kennedy seems to be suggesting something I've suspected for a while - that George's treatment was very short:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/...t-star-wars-the-force-awakens-20151211?page=2

 

I do wish we could see the treatment so people could decide for themselves if something better was just thrown out.

 

Those are valid points. I'm pretty sure the greenlit ST:TPM due to the success of Star Wars and Close Encounters. But Trek CAN work as a movie, if done correctly. Wrath of Khan is among my favorites of all time, and it still felt like "Star Trek" to me. The whole genesis of Phase II into the Motion Picture/The Next Generation, and an earlier attempt at a Star Trek movie (which Ralph McQuarrie did some concept art for!) is actually really interesting reading.

 

I agree that II think it CAN work... but as history has proven Trek seems harder to translate to the big screen.

 

I think a lot of that is ST portrays real-world issues in sci-do scenarios to provide an alternate point-of-view, or a "What if...?"

One of my favorites was the episode where Riker falls in love with the girl from the planet where everyone is supposed to be androgynous, but she has distinctly feminine feelings. It turned the "Homosexual feelings are wrong" mindset on its head by making heterosexuality the "unnatural" behavior.

These situations are comfortably explored and addressed in 30 minutes.... an hour, tops. Stretching it out to two hours is iffy, or requires several stories to intercut with, so everything is spread out.

 

What a lot of people have been suspecting for well over two years:

 

Yup - brief treatments has always made the most sense to me.

 

LOL so 302 pages over nothing

 

"I care"