Should Lucas have done it like Peter Jackson?

Does anyone think whether the PT would have been different (i.e., better) if Lucas had done it the way Peter Jackson did LOTR? That is, write the screenplays for all 3 movies, take a couple of years to film everything, then start editing and working on post-production? Then the movies can be released a bit closer together.

Of course, that would have been a big departure from GL's modus operandi, but this is just a "what if?" question -- how would it have affected the movies of the PT?

 

well no i don't think so...because one of the reason that lucas films the movies apart is that...it allows his actors to age abit and mature as a person...

this is a good idea as it allows him to use the same people in the movies...

 

think if he would have filmed the movies that way he (GL) would have made more SW movies?

 

nar i don't think that he would have, this has taken up the best part of 30 years for him...he wants to do the 100eps of the star wars tv series and then pass it on to someone else...

then i think that he will either spend more time with his kids or make those arty movies that he always wanted to make...

 

Nah... LOTR is one big movie, SW is also one big movie, but it consists of 6 subplots, which makes the whole saga much better than the IMO slow and boring LOTR.

 

I think doing SW LotR style would have killed Lucas. I've been reading the Making of RotS book and getting him to get started writing that movie was like pulling teeth. I'm amazed that Rick McCallum didn't commit ritual suicide during preproduction considering what a pain in the butt George is when it comes to writing.

Besides I think one of the reason he stretched it out over the last decade instead of shooting them all at once as originally intended was to make sure that the technology would be there for each film he wanted to do. I know that GL was upset that the high-def cameras weren't ready for Episode I. No doubt that tied in to why he waited a few years to do Episode II, he wanted to ensure that he had it his way and was able to control each element of production.

If all three films had been shot at once there would have been a lot of variables and a huge cast all contracted for the trilogy for him to contend with.

He saved himself some ulcers but it cost him a decade.

 

So much more design went into star wars than LOTR... it would have been a much more visually sterile movie had they done it that way, at the very least.

LOTR had it easy... I mean, yeah, they had to design costumes and everything, but it was all based on a body of knowledge that had pretty much been determined. Elves are tall and have pointy ears. Dwarves have big beards. Wizards wear big hats and hold staves.

I know I'm just focusing on one aspect, but I think SW needed 9 years to design all the neat stuff that I don't think for which enough people credit the series. They built a world from scratch. Well, like 15 worlds, really.

 

well, with LOTR the three movies all flowed together as one movie. each movie happened right after the one before.

with star wars each PT movie had a few years in between each other. i don't think it would have worked the same way.

 

Isn't the obvious point that the original trilogy was staggered by three years for each movie, thus the prequel trilogy would as well be staggered three years for each movie?

Certainly LotR is more one continuous story than either of the Star Wars trilogies. Heck, FotR doesn't really even end, it just stops. Not to mention, I can't recall any other movie trilogy as broad and expansive as LotR being filmed all at once before. The closest thing I can recall is the 2nd and 3rd Back to the Future movies that were filmed at the same time, and those don't even come close to the scope of LotR or the SW prequel trilogy.

 

LOTR had it easy... I mean, yeah, they had to design costumes and everything, but it was all based on a body of knowledge that had pretty much been determined. Elves are tall and have pointy ears. Dwarves have big beards. Wizards wear big hats and hold staves.

I, and many other LotR fans, would disagree with this point. Although the general story was certainly established, there was still an incredible amount of art direction and planning that went into the movies. Watch the LotR special features and you'll see what I mean. For instance, the jedi lightsaber was a well established item. There's not a whole lot of difference from one jedi's lightsaber to another's. Every character's sword in LotR had to be painstakingly designed and created, not an easy accomplishment.

 

It's apples & oranges. GL doesn't make films that way.

Now, I've actually writtena film trilogy all @ once - it took 15 months - and I'm working on getting the first one off the ground. It definately helps to have the whole thing mapped out.

But Lucas just doesn't do things that way.

 

Ask Peter Jackson how he feels about making 3 films at once. He says right in the commentary for one of the films that if anyone is thinking of doing that, DON'T.

 

That doesn't really make sense. LOTR worked because it was a single story, divided into three films. The PT consists of three separate stories which combine into a larger epic (six if you count OT). I actually enjoyed watching Obi-Wan age into a mature Jedi Knight. Heck, Ewan McGreggor's transition from young Obi-Wan, to his current incarnation in ROTS is amazing. This simply wouldn't be possible if you filmed each film back to back.


I'm not criticizing Jackson (the LOTR trilogy is also a favorite of mine), I'm just saying that these franchises are too different to be given the same treatment. The only thing I would have liked to see was more character development (particularly the relationships between Anakin and Padme, and Anakin and Obi-Wan).

 

I don't think he should have filmed all three at once, but I do believe that the movies could have been improved if all three scripts had been written at the same time and finished before any of the movies were shot.

 

One of the amazing things of Star Wars is the fact you follow all these characters through their lives. Indeed, it's great to watch them mature. This element is essential for me to make it all work.

 

Exactly point5! If GL had written these scripts out (not just the basic narrative spine) as a whole piece, it would've given far more time for reflection. As it goes, pre-pro was already into its final stages by the time GL handed the script for each PT film over. There just isn't enough time to make concerted changes. Budgets start to escalate if you do that and GL was not about to have another ESB on his hands. Rarely in the film biz do you actually get a script that is so perfect that every line, every character interaction is kept in tact to final locked print (they do exist but they're just few and far between). Many good films have come out of the grind work of making the film itself. Actors try a new approach, writers re-write scenes, directors approach a set action cue from a totally different angle (visually and artistically). However, I'd be surprised if GL made many changes from his shooting draft to what we see on screen. All this adds up to a lower quality films than what could've been delivered IMO simply because he didn't have the time to correct or approach the material from different angles in the script itself (it's the cheapest part of any film and yet it is the most crucial...).

 

There's not a whole lot of difference from one jedi's lightsaber to another's.

I think there's more truth in that than you realize.

I mean, look at OB1's ROTS/ANH lightsaber and Luke's ROTJ lightsaber. Or Anakin's AOTC lightsaber and Darth Vader's lightsaber. OB1 uses the exact same lightsaber in TPM and pre-arena AOTC. And some were saying some of Grievous' lightsabers were similar to other ones as well, right?

I think the props department got kind of lazy in this aspect.

 

No.

The maturity evident in both Hayden and Natalie's performances and looks in the trilogy would've been sacrificed.

Look at Natalie Portman in AOTC. Then ROTS. She grew into quite a beautiful woman, which only helped to make her role in ROTS that much more believable.

 

Writing all three screenplays first certainly wouldn't have been the craziest way to do it.

 

" Look at Natalie Portman in AOTC."

Who DOESN'T??

 

Not filming them all at the same time...


... BUT, he should have wrote them all at the same time. It is mindboggling that he didn't. He claims that he has a grand vision and then blatantly makes it up as he goes along.

It would have prevented this thing of Maul, Dooku and Grievous being underdeveloped throwaway characters.

 

I agree with most everyone in that he should have written them all at once. Maul and Dooku both had a lot of potential but never got there.

 

I, and many other LotR fans, would disagree with this point. Although the general story was certainly established, there was still an incredible amount of art direction and planning that went into the movies. Watch the LotR special features and you'll see what I mean. For instance, the jedi lightsaber was a well established item. There's not a whole lot of difference from one jedi's lightsaber to another's. Every character's sword in LotR had to be painstakingly designed and created, not an easy accomplishment.

Of course! I didn't mean to engage in any LOTR bashing. I just felt that they wouldn't have enough time to do it for SW in only 3 years. Maybe it was a bad comparison.

 

Imagine if Lucas had done love scenes like Peter Jackson. You may hate those AOTC scenes now but imagine them as slow-motion dream sequences, ARGH!