BTS The History of the Writing of SW Ep. I - VI

Let me first say I don't whether this deserves its own thread or if it could be intergrated in another thread (feel free to move, mods). I started a new thread because this is supposed to be about all six films, instead of a subset of the films.

What is actually known about the Writing Process for Star Wars Episode I - VI ?

I'm talking specifically about facts, but I'm also interested in rumors.
Let my share my limited knowledge:
Of course they all started from a story by George Lucas.

TPM: Lucas wrote the script himself. He started on November 1st, 1994 and it took him two years to write the finished screenplay (fact). I've once read a rumor that Carrie Fisher made her way through the script. Is there any chance this might be true?
And: How many (official) drafts were written?

AOTC: Lucas wrote the first three "official" drafts (the first one was a result of 14 or 15 unoffcial drafts). Jonathan Hales wrote two drafts subsequently. Afterwards, Lucas wrote the final draft. Hales continued to refine dialogue on set in Australia (all facts).
Any other rumors or facts?

ROTS: It was written by Lucas in whatever fashion (fact). Tom Stoppard worked on the screenplay in some unknown capacity (rumor). Is there any basis for this particular rumor and are there any other facts/rumors? How many (official) drafts were written?

ANH: It was written by Lucas, starting in 1973. Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck (the couple that also worte Howard the Duck) ) refined about a third of the film's dialogue (all facts).
Anything else? How many (official) drafts were written?

TESB: Lucas hired Leigh Brackett to write the script (fact). However, Lucas was very dissatisfied with Brackett's approach (rumor) and disregarded her first draft after she had died anyway (fact). Lucas then wrote one (or two?) offcial drafts on his own and subsequently handed it over to Lawrance Kasdan, after having read Kasdan's script for Indiana Jones.
How many drafts did Kasdan write afterwards? How much input had Lucas, Kershner after the initial Lucas draft? How many drafts were written?

ROTJ: The script was written by Lucas and Kasdan (fact). I'd guess Lucas worte the early drafts with Kasdan writing the subsequent ones. Is that true?
How many drafts were written?

I'd appreciate any information. I think users like Darth_Nub , oierem , ATMachine ; darth-sinister etc.will be able to show great insight!

Thank's in advance.

 

Based on what's known, there is only three finalized drafts. With regards to Fisher, it's been said that she looked at it, but different sources say she didn't work on it.

I don't know about how many drafts went through before May of 2000.

Stoppard's name started showing up sometime in late 2003, I think. It's been a while. I do not recall how his name got brought up. As to the number of drafts, only three.

Just four drafts and the original thirteen page treatment that Lucas used in his proposals to United Artists, Universal and FOX. There was also a different version of the second draft that changed the names to more alien/Asian sounding names. The story is no different.

The treatment and four drafts with revisions on drafts two and four. I think Kasdan worked mostly on drafts three and four.

The rough draft and a revision. The second draft and a revision. The third draft. And then the final shooting script.

http://starwarz.com/starkiller/

You should consult that.

 

I'm going to handle these in production order, since that seems most germane to the topic.

SW 1977: Rough notes for the initial "Journal of the Whills" concept, including a two-page outline written in first person; a treatment; a rough draft; a revised rough draft, which simply changed all the names; the second draft; another outline; drafts three and four; and the revised fourth draft, which was turned into the shooting script after a dialogue polish by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. Of note is that the death of Obi-Wan wasn't in the shooting script as originally written; Lucas came up with that idea while filming in Tunisia.

There's also the "public version" of the fourth draft, which has been altered to match the finished film exactly. This is the version that's usually found in official publications.

ESB: Story conference notes with Leigh Brackett; the Leigh Brackett draft; Lucas's own second draft (existing in two versions, one handwritten and one typed, with slight differences); Lawrence Kasdan's third, fourth, and fifth drafts. The fifth draft is the shooting script.

On both ESB and ROTJ the most crucial plot spoilers (like Luke losing his hand, and Vader's revelation about Luke's father) were kept on special separate dialogue pages.

ROTJ: Two rough drafts by Lucas; story conference notes with Lawrence Kasdan; Kasdan's second draft; Lucas's revision of Kasdan's draft; Kasdan's revision to Lucas's version (the third draft); Lucas's revisions to Kasdan's third draft.

TPM: There were at least three drafts. The rough draft features Obi-Wan as the sole Jedi protagonist up until the scenes on Coruscant, when Qui-Gon is introduced. The second draft introduces Qui-Gon from the beginning, and the two Jedi are roughly of equal age. The third draft features the mentor-student relationship of the final film, where Qui-Gon is the elder of the two Jedi.

AOTC: Lucas really procrastinated while writing this film, with the result that he only got one draft done before it was time to begin principal photography. Jonathan Hales then did a dialogue polish.

ROTS: I believe there were three drafts. As I recall, in the first draft Palpatine declares to Anakin that he is his true father, having used the Force to bring about his conception. Tom Stoppard did a dialogue polish on the shooting script.

 

Lucas was indeed very dissatisfied with the Leigh Brackett script of ESB. I think this was largely because the heroes were not shown to really be in danger. Vader doesn't strangle anybody; he tells subordinates who screw up, "Leave me, you incompetent idiot." Luke doesn't lose a hand; Han is never frozen in carbonite. Also, the script was very talky, with little emphasis on exciting action sequences.

Carrie Fisher did not work on the TPM screenplay. Lucas asked Lawrence Kasdan to do a dialogue polish right before principal photography began, but Kasdan turned it down, feeling there wasn't enough time for him to revise the script adequately.

I might actually be wrong about the thing with AOTC only having one draft, but I'm pretty certain that Lucas procrastinated severely while writing it, giving him less time than usual to work on the screenplay.

 

Wasn't David Peoples involved on the ROTJ script, too? I remember reading that he or somebody wrote some additional dialogue during the Throne Room duel, where Vader is trying to provoke Luke to attack him.

Perhaps Kasdan's lack of involvement on TPM was also due to the fact that by that point, he was focusing on his career as a director. During ESB and ROTJ he was just starting out, but when TPM was beginning production he'd done several features. Perhaps Lucas underestimated how much time Kasdan was likely spending on his own work, having only worked with him back at the beginning of his career.

 

Here are the known drafts, based largely on what's listed in an appendix of The Secret History of Star Wars (zombie also lists and dates various outlines, notes, story conferences and synopses, but I don't think we want to go mad). All drafts written by GL unless noted:

Star Wars
- Journal of the Whills - two page handwritten plot summary, circa January 1973
- The Star Wars - 14-page treatment, May 1973
- The Star Wars - Rough Draft, May 1974
- The Star Wars - First Draft, July 1974 (identical to the Rough Draft, except with mostly different character and location names)
- Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode I: The Star Wars - Second Draft, January 28, 1975
- The Star Wars: From the Adventures of the Starkiller - Third Draft, August 1, 1975
- The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars - Fourth Draft, January 1, 1976
- The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars - Revised Fourth Draft, March 15, 1976 - shooting script, written by George Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck

The Empire Strikes Back
- The Empire Strikes Back - Treatment, November 28, 1977
- Star Wars Sequel - First Draft, February 23, 1978 - written by Leigh Brackett
- Episode II: The Empire Strikes Back - Second Draft, April 1978
- The Empire Strikes Back - Revised Second Draft, April 1978
- The Empire Strikes Back - Third Draft, April 1978
- The Empire Strikes Back - Fourth Draft, October 24, 1978 - written by Lawrence Kasdan
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - Fifth Draft, February 20, 1979 - shooting script, credited to Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett (Brackett died in March 1978, shortly after completion of her draft)

Return of the Jedi
- Star Wars Episode VI: Revenge of the Jedi - First Draft, February 20, 1981
- Star Wars Episode VI: Revenge of the Jedi - Rough Draft, February 24, 1981
- Star Wars Episode VI: Revenge of the Jedi - Revised Rough Draft, June 12, 1981
- Star Wars Episode VI: Revenge of the Jedi - Second Draft, September 21, 1981 - written by Lawrence Kasdan
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - Revised Second Draft, November 1, 1981 - written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - Third Draft, December 1, 1981 - written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan - shooting script, following revisions by GL dated January 4, 1982

The Phantom Menace
- The Beginning - Rough Draft, January 13, 1995
- The Beginning - Revised Rough Draft, January 13, 1995
- The Beginning - First Draft, January 13, 1995
- The Beginning - Second Draft, 1995
- The Beginning - Third Draft, May 13, 1997
- The Beginning - Revised Third Draft, June 6, 1997 - the shooting script

Attack of the Clones
- Episode II: Jar Jar's Great Adventure - Rough Draft, March 13, 2000
- Episode II: Jar Jar's Great Adventure - First Draft, circa June 2000 - written by George Lucas and Jonathan Hales
- Episode II: Jar Jar's Great Adventure - Second Draft, circa June 2000 - written by George Lucas and Jonathan Hales
- Episode II: Jar Jar's Great Adventure - Revised Second/Third Draft, June/July 2000 - shooting script, written by George Lucas and Jonathan Hales

Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Rough Draft, January 31, 2003
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - First Draft, April 10, 2003
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Second Draft, circa June 2003
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Revised Second Draft, June 13, 2003
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Third Draft, circa June 2003
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Fourth Draft, June 26, 2003 - the shooting script

Phew! I've added links to the scripts which are available at the Jedi Bendu Script Site (http://starwarz.com/starkiller/), if anyone has links to legit online copies of any of the others, or if there's any errors, I'll update. The link for the Journal of the Whills outline is to a post made by ATMachine in which he has transcribed the first page.
The linked shooting scripts will most likely include revisions made during the shoots - e.g. the Revised Fourth Draft of SW doesn't have Obi-Wan surviving the Death Star - rather than being the original version of those drafts.

As far as uncredited script doctors are concerned - despite the rumours, I'm pretty sure Carrie Fisher didn't work on TPM, there's never been anything to confirm that she did. Hayden Christensen apparently confirmed in a Playboy interview that Tom Stoppard did some work on the script of ROTS - not sure at what stage of the writing process, it may well have been for pickups mid-shoot.
(Input from GL's circle of friends on the various drafts of SW in the 1970s doesn't really count)

 

That's a long running rumor about AOTC. That it took him a good long while to get it done and it was barely done by the time filming started. Lucas also had asked Frank Darabont to work on TPM, but he said that as far as he was concerned, it was fine.

 

Makes you wonder what would have happend if Leigh Brackett hadn't died......
Would Lucas have given her another chance to write, based on a more detailed outline/guideline/guidance? Had he chosen to do it himself? We'll never know.

According to the AOTC Making of book ("Mythmaking"), Lucas began writing in September 1999. He's quoted as saying:

Given that information, it seems unlikely he had only one draft when filming started. However, design work obviously consumed a lot of time and Lucas ran out of time. That's when he hired Jonathan Hales. According to his cinematic biography, they met about a week before shooting began on Skywalker Ranch and confered about 1,5 days. Hales then went to London and wrote two drafts. Apparently, Lucas eventually received the final script one day before he left for Australia.

Doesn't the "Empire of Dreams" documentary say Kasdan even only agreed to co-write ROTJ because he felt grateful?

 

What's with the first draft coming before the rough draft?

 

I think what that actually means is that the "first draft" is a handwritten script by George Lucas, and the "rough draft" is the typewritten version with a few minor changes. Back on ESB, Lucas also followed up his initial handwritten script with a revised typewritten version almost immediately. Then he went back and hand-revised the typed version, creating another variant. However, all of these are still clearly the second-draft script of ESB.

(Incidentally, one version of the Empire second-draft script introduced a major new idea that didn't last, as it described Obi-Wan and Vader's famous volcano duel as actually taking place around a nuclear reactor. Vader in that version was thus horribly mutated rather than severely burned.)

The "revised rough draft" of ROTJ, on the other hand, is a completely different script from the earlier rough draft, with several plot ideas that didn't make the final film (for instance, Luke is captured by Imperial troops right after leaving Jabba's palace).

 

But why was the typewritten version called "rough"? Doesn't "rough" mean "before first"?

 

I guess because the "first draft" was the very first to be written, but it's still a "rough" script even when typewritten? I honestly don't know.

 

There's times when I wished that Lucas had kept inventing new stuff to overwrite the famous mythology that he gave up in goddamn interviews. Wouldn't it have been great if we'd seen or known something in the PT that would've told us that everything we'd heard up until that point about volcano duels and the like had gone out the window, and that we had little to no idea how those movies would proceed? Often I think the only real mistake he made with the PT is that he left so much information about them in the public, giving us so many spoilers that the dyed in the wool fans would already have directed a thousand and one movies in their heads by the time they sat down in the theaters. I would have loved to see Anakin become Vader by some means I hadn't heard of before, volcano, nuclear reactor or whatever.

That being said, if you'd never heard of the volcano duel before, seeing it happen is pretty damn cool. Though that's kinda the point.