Question about Return of the Jedi

[johnmiic]

I think Lucas should make Episode 1A without any gungan characters as an apology for creating Jar Jar Binks, and 2 prequels to Episode 1 to fill it all out to 9 films.

For the new TV series he should sign Danny Bonaduce, Samuel 'Screech' Powers & Jaleel "Erkel" White as new Jedi in the TV show because the have not been mentioned in continuity in any of the later films. Mr. Snufflelufugus from Sesame Street should be the voice of wisdom on the Jedi council because he hasn't had work in decades.

Marlee Matlin should play a major female character and use only sign language when she does her lines and sub-titles should appear below forcing us to read what she has to say. The other characters should also be able to see these sub-titles and regard it as her using the force.

Peter McCallum should be ditched and Rick Berman of Star Trek hired as producer.

Instead of using Darth Vader, who is too powerful, a new villain should be introduced played by DJ, Jerry Carroll, of the old Crazy Eddie tv commercial fame. Every time he strikes against the rebels he should say, " You can't defeat the Sith! They're In-saaaaaaannneeee!"

LiveLeak.com - Crazy Eddie Commercials 1980's

[PCofmisfittoys]

If i can find the issues , it was talked about in Starlog and other mags of the day. I even think it ws in Bantha tracks back then too. I've got all the starlogs/ bantha tracks but they are in storage.
He always said that he had to do the middle three first because not only would it not make sense to people watching it or been interesting , but the technology was where he wanted it to be to do the other 6 films at the time. I think the middle three captured the world. Lord knows it was/is the greatest marketed toy line ever.
I remember thinking it would be exciting to see all 9 in a row. I knew then that he would make them all . I think he still could have. I wish he could have continued the Droids/ewoks lines. Some of my favorite toys from all of the SW toys .

[danadoll]

Johnmiic! Don't give Lucas any ideas! His own ideas are bad enough, lately.

Dana

I think Lucas should make Episode 1A without any gungan characters as an apology for creating Jar Jar Binks, and 2 prequels to Episode 1 to fill it all out to 9 films.

For the new TV series he should sign Danny Bonaduce, Samuel 'Screech' Powers & Jaleel "Erkel" White as new Jedi in the TV show because the have not been mentioned in continuity in any of the later films. Mr. Snufflelufugus from Sesame Street should be the voice of wisdom on the Jedi council because he hasn't had work in decades.

Marlee Matlin should play a major female character and use only sign language when she does her lines and sub-titles should appear below forcing us to read what she has to say. The other characters should also be able to see these sub-titles and regard it as her using the force.

Peter McCallum should be ditched and Rick Berman of Star Trek hired as producer.

Instead of using Darth Vader, who is too powerful, a new villain should be introduced played by DJ, Jerry Carroll, of the old Crazy Eddie tv commercial fame. Every time he strikes against the rebels he should say, " You can't defeat the Sith! They're In-saaaaaaannneeee!"

LiveLeak.com - Crazy Eddie Commercials 1980's

[danadoll]

I'm sure Lucas had 9 films planned...Oh and the Holiday Special too.

[wyldpny]

Yes it's true, Lucas originally had planned on 9 movies.
As he shopped around the stories at different studios he kept getting shot down, and it wasn't until Alan Ladd at 20th Century Fox decided to take a chance on Lucas and one of his space stories that Star Wars was made. But Ladd said he would only do episode 4 as he felt it had the most action and adventure. Lucas argued that they needed to start at the beginning but Ladd held firmly and told Lucas that if it did well enough they would relook at maybe doing another one. Since Lucas had been shot down by just about every other studio, even though he didn't like it and didn't want to start right off almost in the middle of his 9 stories he didn't have much of a choice.
Fans were shocked and ****ed off when later Lucas made claims that he had always said and planned on doing just six movies. Fans knew better and had been looking forward to not only the three before New Hope but also the three that were supposed to be after Return of the Jedi.
BTW: How many remember what Return of the Jedi was originally going to be called?
And how many know the real reason why it was changed to the word "Return"?

[Merlyn1976]

BTW: How many remember what Return of the Jedi was originally going to be called?
And how many know the real reason why it was changed to the word "Return"?

Revenge of the Jedi....revenge isn't a Jedi trait....

[wyldpny]

Yes, it was originally going to be called Revenge of the Jedi, but the reason why it was changed to Return was NOT because of what Lucas said later, that Revenge is not a Jedi trait. Which is of course true, but still not the original reason.
Anyone else know why it was originally changed to Return?

[apes3978]

Anyone else know why it was originally changed to Return?

This is a total guess: Is it because the Jedi returned thru Luke after they were thought to "extinct"?

[Vortigern99]

The story about Ladd picking Ep. IV out of a range of stories is incorrect, a sort of Hollywood myth that has no basis in actual fact. From the very beginning of his writings on the subject, Lucas' THE STAR WARS had a similar plot to Kurosawa's Samurai film The Hidden Fortress: a Princess escapes the cluthces of an enemy clan with her faithful commander, and her royal fortune hidden in her belongings. All treatments, drafts and notes on the film adhere to this basic idea in one form or another. There were no other episodes written or conceived of except for a few pages of backstory notes that later became the prequel films.

As far as sequel ideas go, Lucas conceived of Splinter in the Mind's Eye as a low-budget sequel to the original film, in case it did modestly well at the box office. There was no grand saga conceived of at that time with multiple episodes all dealing with the Skywalker family. Mark Hamill talks about how George had all kinds of ideas for sequels after the original 1977 film became a huge worldwide success. Early drafts and treatments of "STAR WARS II" in 1978 by sci-fi writer Leigh Brackett, and by Lucas himself, show that the author had no specific plan as to what direction the story would or should take. It wasn't until he codified the idea of Darth Vader as Luke's father, sometime in 1978 (which he had toyed with before in his mind, but had never set down in writing) did the Saga as we now know it take shape.

As to the 9 episode idea, this was put forward by Lucas in the days when he was not entirely certain what precise shape the sequels would take, and when he had stars in his eyes as a result of the phenomenal worldwide success of the first film. Even Gary Kurtz's outline for those fabled nine episodes are notably vague and unclear. In 1981 and 1982 Lucas condensed his ideas for those episodes into one climactic film, Revenge/Return of the Jedi, which rendered obsolete the need for more films since it tied up all loose ends regarding the lost Skywalker sister and the death of the Emperor.

[wyldpny]

This is a total guess: Is it because the Jedi returned thru Luke after they were thought to "extinct"?

The actual reason why it was changed from Revenge to Return was a studio one, not a Lucas one.
At the time when Jedi was being created there was another sci-fi movie that was also in the works. That "other" movie was going to be called The Revenge of Khan.
Each studio realizing that they could have potentially confused movie goers with two major films coming out around the same time both with Revenge in the title, each studio quickly decided to change the Revenge to something else. When the studio presented this problem to Lucas he agreed and changed the title to Return, figuring that Revenge may not have been the best choice anyway due to the reasons already mentioned. Collectors are well aware of the fact that 20th Century Fox had already produced a few advanced items including a teaser poster and a fold out promo release which were quickly pulled and presumed destroyed. Of course most collectors know that some survived. Plus some merchandising had already started to promote the new "Revenge" movie as well, like Kenners Empire Strikes Back action figures having a promo sticker on the cards announcing the new "Revenge of the Jedi" movie. . In the end, if Paramount had known that 20th Century Fox was going to change their title they could have left theirs alone.
But that is all now water under the bridge and the two new movie titles are now in the history books with of course neither of them using the word Revenge.
Of course we all know that Lucas was able to bring back and use the word Revenge in a title after all with his last film, which was the third in his "new" shortened series of six movies, with his Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

[wyldpny]

The story about Ladd picking Ep. IV out of a range of stories is incorrect, a sort of Hollywood myth that has no basis in actual fact.

That is untrue. There is quite a bit of documentation to that fact as well as the fact that Lucas had planned on a total of 9 movies. These facts are backed up in many early magazine and news interviews with Lucas in the late 70's and early 80's. It is true that not much of any back stories were developed at the time, and millions of fans once they had heard that nine films were planned wanted to hold Lucas to that no matter what. But all of that that doesn't change the fact that nine films was at one point the actual plan.
Even up to the making of Jedi, Lucas continued to talk about going back and making the first three and then after those were made going and making the last three. Mark Hamill has contradicted himself at times over the years as to the facts as he knows them, especially at some of the early conventions.
A few years after Jedi had been released Lucas decided he wanted to move on and do other projects and to the horror and dismay of millions of fans Lucas dismissed the idea of making any more Star Wars films. Three years after Jedi was released Lucas filmed and released Howard the Duck as an attempt to show that he could do something other than Star Wars, but that movie laid a big one and Lucas was left with egg on his face.
Some people point to Raiders of the Lost Ark as a successful Lucas non Star Wars film which was released in 1981 between Empire and Jedi. This was a character and story idea originally created by Lucas, but Lucas passed on trying to make it in favor of Star Wars. Later while talking to his friend Spielberg on a beach after Star Wars had been a huge success, they talked about other movie ideas and Lucas mentioned Raiders to Spielberg who loved the idea. Raiders would go on to be directed by Steven Spielberg, NOT by George Lucas who is credited only as executive producer since the movie was based on his original story ideas. It is important to note that the two later Star Wars films, Empire and Jedi and the Ewok stories, Lucas is also credited with only being executive producer.
A few interesting facts:
George Walton Lucas Jr. was born on May 14, 1944.
His current net worth is estimated at around three and half billion.
He divorced his wife Marcia Lucas in 1983 which many feel was a big part of the reason why fans had to wait 16 more years for the next Star Wars film to finally be made after Jedi. Marcia was a very big part of his Star Wars films, even winning an Oscar for best editing for the first film "New Hope".
After his divorce he was then in a long relationship with and actually engaged to singer Linda Ronstadt for quite awhile, though they later broke up and went their separate ways.

[Brue]

That is untrue. There is quite a bit of documentation to that fact as well as the fact that Lucas had planned on a total of 9 movies.

Absolutley true!

There is a TON of after the fact, imagined, speculation and fictionalized documention.

Actually lucas has an MS Word document that he printed off in 1974 explicitly stating ALL of the episodes in detail. I read it myself in 1973 so I know for a fact it is true.

[wyldpny]

Absolutley true!

There is a TON of after the fact, imagined, speculation and fictionalized documention.

Actually lucas has an MS Word document that he printed off in 1974 explicitly stating ALL of the episodes in detail. I read it myself in 1973 so I know for a fact it is true.

I hope you actually mean 1983 since Microsoft Word wasn't even created and released until 1983, though even at that time I don't think it was called MS Word but something more like Multiple Tools or something like that. Yes, I am a computer geek as well.

[Vortigern99]

wyldpny, I'm not disputing that Lucas at one time said he had conceived of nine movies. I'm saying he said that in the late 70s, when he was uncertain as to what precise direction the sequels would take, when the original film had been an unprecedented success, and the possibilities for sequels seemed limitless. But in the end all he had were vague notions -- no concrete plots -- about what might constitute each of these films, and rather than draw the series out for seven (or four) movies after Empire Strikes Back, he decided to take the main narrative thrust -- the Skywalkers vs. the Emperor -- and take that to its full fruition in a single climactic film, which of course was Return of the Jedi.

I still stand by my assertion that the story of Alan Ladd picking Ep. IV out of a middle of a bunch of story ideas is a myth and unsupported by any documentary evidence. Lucas has never maintained that, does not maintain that to this day, and in fact we can see from the very first story treatments, that the Hidden Fortress-like plot was in place from the very beginning.

[wyldpny]

Well, I guess you either didn't grow up in the 70's and got to read anything and everything Star Wars at the time like I and many others did, or you just didn't get into Star Wars until later when Lucas and others started to put different spins on what actually happened. I am not going to argue on what Lucas possible intentions were, I can only state that at the time when the movie was about to be made that it was stated as a fact in more than one publication that Ladd had picked out episode 4 as the one he wanted his studio to gamble on. Since I believe this still to be true, then that also tells me that Lucas had more than just a basic outline for at least 4 films, since Ladd picked the 4th one out of who knows how many others Lucas had when he shopped the film ideas around.
Lucas has said a lot of different things over the years since and he has changed a lot in his views since the first three Star Wars films. But just because he has changed what he said and thought prior and stands firm on those said thought changes now does not change or overwrite what he said before. This is the same guy remember that now has officially disowned himself from his own work and involvement with Howard the Duck. Yeah, thats a guy I am going to believe 100% of what he says now over what he said, was interviewed saying and was quoted as saying back originally in the 70's.
If you don't want to believe this information is true then thats fine. I am obviously not going to change your mind if those later stories you heard are what you want to believe.
I'm just saying that some of us know better.