Star Wars Episode III: Fall of the Republic....what?

I can't believe I didn't do this sooner, but it recently crossed my mind while spacing out in class.

A number of years ago, long before Attack of the Clones and quite possibly before even The Phantom Menace were in existence, I came across a comic book dealer at this mall who had possession of these old old Star Wars scripts. Among the many were various drafts of Empire, Star Wars, and possibly Jedi, but it was a long time ago and I can't recall them all exactly.

But one in particular caught my eye. There were no drawings or special designs to any of these scripts, appearing as having been copied from versions typed on a typwriter. The cover was nice red paper with the words written, almost EXACTLY like how both the Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith logos look (you know with the red outline and everything):


STAR WARS
FALL OF THE REPUBLIC

Story Treatment By
John L. Flynn

Adapted from Part 1:
"The Adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi"
The Journal of the Whills
By George Lucas

All rights reserved.


Those are, in fact, the exact words on the front red cover. On that same day, being very young and early in my fanship of Star Wars (I was in elementary school I think, or possibly early middle school), my mother bought me the short 26 page treatment that was supposedly Episode III. I was completely bewildered, having only heard rumors of this "prequel" trilogy that could only happen one day far off beyond reality. This was quite a moment.

From that day forth, I have had no clue what this thing is or where it comes from. I don't know if it in any form is even legimate or canon or what. I once looked up John L. Flynn on Google and it turns out he's a professor at some school. I looked at the list of works he's written, and, lo and behold, I kid you not, I found "Star Wars: Fall of the Republic" amongst the many titles.

Before I go on in this story, let me make very clear that I have been extremely strict with spoilers in the final film. I haven't seen the teaser trailer, read the opening crawl, or anything. I haven't even seen the Clone Wars series. With that in mind, if anything I say ends up somehow being a spoiler, there was no intention. All information I'm about to give is from a treatment written on September the 6th of 1983.

The script, quite simply, is fascinating, and completely blew my mind back when I first read it, answering tons and tons of questions I had prior to my questioning of the piece's legitimacy.

It begins when "the High Council of Senators dispatched the Jedi Knights...on a quest to retrive the lost Kaiburr Crystal." It continues by saying "However, within their Council, the evil Senator Palpatine had other traitorous designs. Foreseeing that the Crystal would secure his position as Emperor, Palpatine deceived one of the Jedi Knights and sent him to acquire the Crystal..."

I think this is the prologue, because the next page begins the first scene on a planet called "Sigma Vulcanus". From there, "a swarthy man with a dignified stature, makes an important discovery. Using his lightsabre (as the quivalent of a divining rod), he uncovers the legendary Kaiburr Crystal." Before long, Anakin is confronted by Obi-Wan, who wants to know what Anakin's doing with the crystal.

At this they begin their big fight. There isn't much dialogue in the script, but it ends with a huge earthquake sending Anakin "into a pit of molten lava".

The next scene goes to a planet called Jhantor, described as "the bright center of the universe". I assume this means Coruscant, as its descriptions are almost exactly the same. The scene begins when Senator "Palpatine enters his senate chambers - followed closely by a brash, young courtier named Prince Valarium". In a meeting with other Senators, Palpatine manipulates them to electing him President of the Republic. The only Senators that don't go along with it are Tars Courtney, Mon Mothma, and Bail Organa. At this point, Palpatine orders troops to blockade commercial shipping lanes of Spice and Mineral Mines. His two

 

I did not read the summary since some of it may potentially spoil things, but I would be interested to know what the deal with that script is.

 

Much like the "Lando dies" ROTJ script, it predates all official drafts. And Anakin's wife was never going to be named Arcadia. Don't confuse it with anything associated with Lucas.

 

How could a piece of twenty year old fan-fiction spoil the script as GL has written it today?

After reading GL's own early drafts of SW with Kiber Crystals and what-not, I wouldn't expect this to have much in common with the current conception of Galactic politics and the Clone Wars.

 

If any of the Anakin/lava death/resurrection stuff turns out to be true, we are in for one hell of a movie.

 

You should always be suspicious of these dealers with their super-secret-honest-to-God-it's-the-real-thing one off scripts. I remember encountering such a dealer in a mall once. The "script" was priced as if it were a valuable commodity, so I asked him where he got it. He said he got if from a friend. When I asked him where his friend got it, he fixed me with a steely gaze and said, "I don't ask questions." I, of course, laughed in his face.

 

If you do a search on google or another search engine, and just look up "Star Wars Fall of the Republic" you can find the whole script pretty easily and read it for yourself if you like. I thoroughly doubt Revenge of the Sith will play out anywhere close to this little story treatment, but it's still fun to read just to look at the various elements and whether they could actually be in the film, though again its unlikely.

I thought some of the early names were the most interesting as well as the Obi/Anakin duel. I also liked the incorporation of Mandalorians in the Clone Wars and Boba Fett in the Jedi Purge...good stuff.

I wonder if Flynn knew Lucas or was a friend of his or something, and just compiled his own fan fiction based on some of Lucas' early ideas. That would be an interesting bit of info to hear, though probably not likely.