The original stories?

It was interesting that in the Empire of Dreams documentary, they show story outlines or scripts for sequels headed Episode Five and Episode Six which they imply were written at the same time as ANH was being developed (I'm writing this from memory, but I think that's what they showed), but in the When Star Wars Ruled the World doc, the shooting script is shown with the rather extravagant title of The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, as Taken from the Journal of the Whill: Saga Number One - The Star Wars. During interviews for AOTC, Lucas said he proposed labelling the first film as Episode IV, but the studio nixed it, so maybe he went back and forth as to whether the original movie was really Episode I or Episode IV. I don't think the title A New Hope appeared anywhere until 1979 though.

 

Lucas came up with the outline for the original trilogy and the overall story arc before filming ANH. He then made changes and revisions over the years and wrote the screenplays and specific stories as he went along.

 

Also in the Art of Empire Strikes Back book, there are several pictures of concept artwork etc. labelled "Star Wars: Episode 2."

 

SomeRandomNerd:

You DO realise that all of which Gary Kurtz speaks of were HIS ideas to begin with, not GL's - Luke's story ending at Ep 9 with the Emperor and such......

Does any of that stuff even sound like GL? One only needs to read the "Annotated Screenplays" to see how ROTJ evolved in the various screenplay drafts that GL and Kasdan wrote.

 

SomeRandomNerd:

Also, read the "Annotated Screenplays" where it mentions GL's and Leigh Brackett's story conference in Nov/Dec 1977. There's a list of planets; many of them having no bearing on the story at all for ESB. A few of them sound like Kamino - "a water planet" - and Geonosis - "a rock planet with a civilisation living in caves". Seems as though the PT backstory was very much in GL's mind when writing ESB, probably so he could have a backstory for the "Clones".

 

Having just listened to the commentries on the OT DVDs, it seems Lucas can be a bit contradictory about his old plans for sequels and prequels. He says the script he was writing got too big for one movie (he's said that many times before), yet on the ROTJ track, he says that the only carry over from the earlier drafts of ANH was the idea of a technologically primitive civilization helping to defeat the Empire. As I mentioned before, he had simply substituted Wookiees for Rebel pilots attacking the Death Star - one event but just done differently. Lucas admits that he had to bring in a second Death Star to accommodate the Ewok battle, he did not intend to have two fortresses in his original scripts. He says the rescue of Han from Jabba the Hutt had to be added to ROTJ, but we know the Han/Jabba conflict was set up in ANH, so where else was he intending to go with it?

It's clear from ANH that he had a backstory, and he was setting things up for sequels, but I'm still sceptical that Lucas has a firm outline for TESB and ROTJ mapped out, although he says he did on the DVDs. And where does Splinter of the Mind's Eye fit in? At some point, Lucas had Alan Dean Foster create a sequel storyline that could be filmed cheaper than the original. Again, the concept of the Kaiburr Crystal was from the early drafts of ANH, but the Splinter story wasn't Lucas's, it was Foster's.

 

Lucas is very visual as far as I can understand. He had a lot of visual ideas about things he wanted on screen, but little coherent story to bind them with.

Did the story exist? Probably not.

Did the screenshots exist? Definately yes.

 

Having just listened to the commentaries on the OT DVDs, it seems Lucas is a bit contradictory about his old plans for sequels and prequels. He says the script he was writing got too big for one movie (he's said that many times before)

This script that "got too big for one movie" he refers to was the Rough/First draft of Star Wars, May 1974. This is in the Annotated Screenplays book, which GL authorised and probably assumes that die-hard fans at least know the details involved...

yet on the ROTJ track, he says the only carry over from the earlier drafts of ANH was the idea of a technologically primitive civilisation helping to defeat the Empire. As I mentioned before, he had simply substituted Rebel pilots for Wookies attacking the Death Star - one event just done differently. Lucas admits he did not intend to have two fortresses in his original scripts.

All true, no contradiction. After the unwieldy first draft, he significantly pared the story down, basically taking the "shavings" and putting them "on the shelf" as ideas or concepts that could be used later. Thus you had the second and third drafts getting closer to the final, but still not up to GL's liking. So just before writing the fourth draft, he sat down and wrote a 40-page outline, which contained the story for the movie, plus what happens before, and what happens after. You can probably imagine that the "meat" of those 40 pages was the story for the movie itself.

He says the rescue of Han from Jabba the Hutt had to be added to ROTJ,

Correct, because in his 40-page outline, little detail was mapped out in regards to Han's story.

but we know the Han/Jabba conflict was set up in ANH.

It was set up only to make the movie "work" on it's own. Much like the killing of Obi-Wan's character.

So where else was he intending to go with it?

One needs only to read the "Annotated Screenplays" to look at the "glosses" of Leigh Brackett's first draft of ESB to see where he had originally intended to go with Han's storyline. It certainly had nothing to do with the Jabba/bounty subplot. It very well may be that Harrison Ford's resistance to signing the contract for two sequels, as Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher had done, had "forced" Lucas to reconsider opening the Jabba/bounty subplot again for Han's character.

It's clear from ANH that he had a backstory, and was setting things up for sequels, but I'm still skeptical that Lucas had a firm outline for ESB and ROTJ mapped out, although he says he did on the DVDs.

No, GL does not say this. The DVD implies it because of the freeze-frames showing the screenplay headers for ESB and ROTJ.

And where does Splinter of the Mind's Eye fit in? At some point, Lucas had Alan Dean Foster create a sequel storyline that could be filmed cheaper than the original.

It was, in the form of the "Kaiburr Crystal", a left over concept from the ANH drafts, number two and three. But realise that he commissioned ADF for this in 76, before the original was even finished with post-production. Remember, his story for what happens after SW, in the 40 page outline, had Obi-Wan living on and training Luke as a Jedi, then "leaving" Luke at the end to face the Emperor (Luke, that is. Not Obi-Wan). Vader may not have even figured much in the later pages, at least not to the extent that he eventually does in the final version of the saga.

 

I always got the impression that the story has never really been "set in stone" and that GL has been re-using old ideas throughout the process. I couldn't believe it when I read about an old story treatment with a "mace windy" in it. I must admit that it is frustrating on the one hand but ultimately its amazing that we can see these ideas develop like we do.

 

god am I a conversation killer or what. such an interesting thread too...

 

Bantha Tracks, 1980:
BT: At one point, there were going to be twelve Star Wars films.

George Lucas: I cut that number down to nine because the other three were tangential to the saga. Star Wars was the fourth story in the saga and was to have been called "Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope". But I decided people wouldn't understand the numbering system so we dropped it. For "Empire" though we're putting back the number and will call it Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. After the third film in this trilogy we'll go back and make the first trilogy, which deals with the young Ben Kenobi and the young Darth Vader.

That's the quote! 9 essential episodes! Thx Ben_07!
In the 70's GL and GK discussed several ideas/directions for the whole Saga. Basically we will only have 6 films now because of their decision that Vader really IS Lukes father and Luke does NOT turn to the dark side - as planned by the Emperor - when defeating Vader (which always disturbed me tbh!) Originally Vader was NOT Luke's father, Luke KILLED him IN RAGE and turned to the dark side in Ep6 exactly as the Emperor had planned. So as it is now the climax is in Ep6 whereas it otherwise was in Ep9. Therefore it will STAY 6 films as the story the way it is now IS TOLD just as Lucas always says these days. The only way the original 9 Episodes will happen will be if 1. Lucas changes the end of ROTJ (unlikely but not impossible as Lucas already has changed his films in the past) OR 2. follows his quote that Ep7-9 deal with one who survives Ep3 or 3. continues Luke's, Leia's and Han's building up the new republic (NEW story, original plan related - emperor clone ? - or licensed book which probably has Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy as most likely candidate which is best and most famous and which MANY SW fans would surely like to see as films!)

xxstefanx

P.S.: Needless to say that as a TRUE SW fan Star Wars always will be 9 Episodes or 3 Trilogies! Other way it still stays unfinished and uncomplete! (Hm, maybe I only like the original plan a bit more!)

 

Anyone who's ever been involved in writing or film production will know that the only time something is set in stone is when you've stopped working on it.
Personally, many things which I've had published, I've later read and wished to God I could change, but by then it's too late!
'Films aren't finished, they're abandoned' as they say. And things like scripts always change as they go along, that's why there are first drafts, shooting scripts etc. They get rewritten because of new suggestions, budgetary constraints, feasability of special effects, actor and set availablity, actor tantrums - any number of reasons. So if there has ever been a script written for anything which stayed the same from first draft to shooting script and storyboards, and was filmed like that too, I'd be amazed.
The big clue here is of course the revamped versions of the original 3 movies, which in addition to being restored and CGI'd, were also tweeked and altered. So even when it seems things are 'set in stone' by George Lucas, they can still change and evolve, and I can't blame him for wanting to do that!
You have to remember here that at the time Star Wars was being made, although a few people were anticipating its release with excitement (me included), there was no way that George Lucas or the studio could possibly know for certain whether it was going to be the massive hit it turned out to be. Particularly when you consider that sci-fi/fantasy pics were not hugely popular at the time. Many people were convinced it was going to bomb in fact, and if the studio had been really certain of its popularity they would certainly have allocated it a bigger budget, which, of course, would have altered the story. Then again, if that had happened, maybe we would have had a different film which nobody would have liked. So it's really a happy accident that the draft of the story which got used turned out the way it did, nothing more.

 

Well written, Mr Bradbury!