Star Wars: How The Movie Would Have Changed With George Lucas’s Original Script – Zyri

Posted: May 25, 2022 at 5:04 am

The origin of Star Wars has changed over the years until the director finished shaping the first installment of the saga. Some characters were thought of in one way but later saw the light of another. 45 years after the premiere of Star Warsit is clear that the film would have changed if George Lucas first original script had been kept.

Released on May 25, 1977, Star Wars marked a new era in the history of cinema. The initial budget assigned was 7.5 million dollars, which finally ended up climbing to 11 million. To everyones surprise, the first film grossed $513 million worldwide and it laid the foundation for one of the greatest franchises of all time.

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The reason Im doing Star Wars the thing is I want to give young people some kind of faraway exotic environment to get their imagination moving.Lucas said in an interview before the premiere of Episode IV, A New Hope, as the first of the nine films was called, which were divided into three trilogies.

And back then, he was more explicit: I have a strong feeling about kids interested in space exploration. I want them to want it. I want you to get over the basic bullshit of the moment and think about colonizing Venus and Mars. And the only way thats going to happen is if a kid fantasizes about it: Get your ray gun, jump in your ship, and run off into outer space. Its our only hope in a way.

George Lucas dreamed of creating a universe, a space opera that hardly made its arrival on the screen. The winds were blowing in 1973 and Lucas was a young director, struggling to make a name for himself in the industry when he finally put his name to a low-budget film called American Graffiti, inspired by his teenage years in Modesto, California.

With a budget that did not reach a million dollars and a cast that included names like Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Bo Hopkins and Wolfman Jack, the film grossed more than 50 million and 5 nominations. to the Oscar, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Back then, the science fiction genre was rife in Hollywood. Most were dark tales. Nevertheless, the young filmmaker had something completely different in mind. Something that young teenagers could identify with and adopt as a form of escape. Steeped in his early days of success, Lucas was determined to go ahead with his ambitious idea of a space opera to win over the new generations. Inspired by adventures like those of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, he got down to business.

Also, it was not easy. Lucas and his partner Gary Kurtz had their Star Wars idea embodied in 12 pages, and for years they distributed it among the big Hollywood studios. Several turned them down, including United Artists and Universal. However, 20th Century Fox decided to give the duo some money to start work on the script.

The path from the idea to the script took years. In fact, the first drafts of Star Wars they would be unrecognizable to any fan of the saga. Luke Skywalker was presented as an old general, while Han Solo looked like an alien frog. There was a central character named Kane Starkiller and a side of the force named Bogan.

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Lucas struggled to shape his great space epic. The story was too dense, tonally unbalanced, and its elaborate scenes would be too expensive to film. His friend and mentor, back then, Francis Ford Coppola expressed his doubts about the first drafts of the script.

However, each new script got better and the story took shape. In a second draft, Luke Skywalker was a farmer and not a general, and Darth Vader was a menacing man dressed in black. Very similar to how it is known today. Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared in the third draft, and the tension between Leia and Han Solo was palpable.

Finding it difficult to create dialogue, Lucas enlisted the help of screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, though he ultimately rewrote much of what they had contributed. Finally, on January 1, 1976, Lucas completed the fourth draft of the script and the one used to start production on March 25, 1976 in Tunis.

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Star Wars: How The Movie Would Have Changed With George Lucas's Original Script - Zyri

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