The Shooting Scripts

As I'm sure most here are aware, the shooting scripts are the final versions of scripts that are to be shot for a movie or television series. However, as I'm sure most of us are aware, there are still plenty of changes that are made as the story is physically implemented and acting/technical limitations are found.

I was just reading through some of the shooting scripts for the original trilogy, and I was more than a little surprised at just how different some of the scripts for the OT were from how the movies actually turned out. So my question is, upon looking over these, are there any changes that were made in the movies from the scripts that you would've liked to have seen left in? For example, while reading through ROTJ's, I noticed that Lando wasn't originally supposed to survive the Death Star's explosion. I actually thought that was rather interesting and wouldn't have minded seeing it.

Oh, and here are the links to a few of the scripts:

http://www.bus.miami.edu/~jdavis/Starwars/sw-script.html
http://www.bus.miami.edu/~jdavis/Starwars/esb.html
http://www.bus.miami.edu/~jdavis/Starwars/jedi.html

And this one has a couple of others versions, including the really early ones:

http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/scripts.htm


[Please, please, PLEASE do not turn this into a bash-fest in any manner. This is just a post on interesting "what-if" ideas within the saga.]

 

Please, please, PLEASE do not turn this into a bash-fest in any manner. This is just a post on interesting "what-if" ideas within the saga.

Which actually belong in the STAR WARS SAGA forum.

 

Are those really the shooting scripts? Because I've seen them before, published in books, and they weren't marked as the shooting scripts, just as the published scripts.

 

Okay...after perusing the ESB script, it either can't be the actual shooting script, or lots of people have been lying about how the film was made. There's a few moments in this script -- Han putting his hand over Threepio's mouth, and Han's line "I know" as he's being frozen -- that have always been said to be improvisations, and not a part of the original script. Kerschner's always said that the latter came from a long day's shooting and frustration with the original line of "I love you too" or "You remember that, because I'll be back!" to Leia's declaration of love.

Either this stuff is fan-made, or Kerschner's been lying all these years. Neither would surprise me all that much.

 

It's a fan script. The writing style is too poor.

 

So I gave the wrong link, I apologize. I was scanning through links and just picked one up.

As for the question of which forum it belonged to, I assumed Saga meant spanning the PT to the OT, and since this was particularly centralized on the OT, I set it here.

Feel free to shut the topic down.

 

The scripts at starwarz.com are particularly interesting. The script for TESB on that site has alternate dialogue for the "I love you" - "I know" scene. However, the more interesting one is the Revenge of the Jedi draft attributed to Lucas, I assume before it was revised by Kasdan. It has multiple Death Stars, a much more open rivalry between Palpatine and Vader, Kenobi and Yoda joining Luke in the fight against the Emperor, and the appearance of the Imperial capital then known as Had Abbadon. An interesting read if you've got the time, but I much prefer the released version of RotJ.

 

This often happens with scripts while they're being filmed. Unless the writer is hellbent on the production following the script to the letter, then the director and the actors will occasionally allow for small modifications here and there. However, if the writer is involved in the post production and doesn't like it, then the scenes may end up on the cutting room floor or they'll be reshot to satisfy the writer/editor/what have you.

Last minute re-writes are also something which happens quite often, and those are pretty straight forward.