The First Draft of Star Wars
Oh my, this is horrible.
The first draft of Star Wars was pretty awful. Mystery Man on Film takes a closer look at the 1974 version in which the young hero is Annikin Starkiller, Luke Skywalker is an elderly general, and Darth Vader is a minor character.
LEIA
Will we make it? Is there any hope? Stay with me… I love you.
Starkiller is slightly shocked at this outburst. The princess starts to cry and clings to him for support.
STARKILLER
No-one is going to die…so stop acting like a child, and start behaving like a queen. What is this silly talk of love? You belong to the people of Aquilae, and my job is to return you to them, nothing more. Now straighten up and get into a lifepod.
She’s deeply hurt by his callousness. She breaks away from him and runs down a hallway into a lifepod. He is tired, and angry at the whole incident.
It makes you wonder what difference it would have made if George Lucas had rewritten the prequels a couple more times.
It makes you wonder what difference it would have made if George Lucas had rewritten the prequels a couple more times.
Or better yet, let someone who can actually write, write them.
See: The Empire Strikes Back
See: The Empire Strikes Back
Yep.
Did you know that Lucas considers that to be the
worst
of the Star Wars movies?
May Lucas rot in a hell filled with Jar-Jar clones.
OK, maybe that's a bit harsh....
May Lucas rot in a hell filled with Jar-Jar clones.
OK, maybe that's a bit harsh....
Ewoks, then.
ETA Harrison Ford had a classic quote during the shooting of Star Wars - "You can type this shit, George, but you sure can't say it."
And I just saw it attributed to Raymond Chandler.
I recently saw The Blue Dahlia, which Chandler wrote as an original script. Studio came close to ruining it by tacking on a new ending at the last minute.
Xpost: That's the only Chandler-penned screenplay out there, too. Usually other writers adapted his work for the movies.
That AV Club article is wonderful, too. I'm surprised they didn't get Kiss Me Deadly on there, though, mainly because I love to see Mickey Spillane get what's coming to him.
Xpost: That's the only Chandler-penned screenplay out there, too. Usually other writers adapted his work for the movies.
He also had a hand in Strangers on a Train, though I've heard his credit counts for more than what eventually ended up in the final film.
Great link, Tom. The Alan Moore clip was really interesting -- I had never seen him interviewed.
