Additional fact. The president of Fox lost his job for the deal with Lucas giving him more money for a better percentage of the take. Fox wanted the sequel rights back. In retaliation for the firing, Lucas took Raiders to Paramount instead of Fox as he originally intended.
I have a ton of Respect for George, but the prequels proved that the people who would stand up to him are how the original trilogy was so successful. His wife especially, on New Hope. The video about how it was saved in the edit is really a great watch if you're a Star Wars fan. As someone who edits video it gave me a lot of perspective. George's constant changing of the Special Editions show how incompetent he is about Star Wars. ILM is a true marvel though.
Man, that was a lot of stressful bts for Lucas at the time. Being a creator of the IP was really hard work. No wonder he had stress related chest pains, I mean who wouldnt
Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie because George Lucas delegated a lot of the production to others instead of trying to do it all by himself and yet when people talk about the creator of Star Wars only his name comes up
It honestly changed his entire outlook. Until 1980, Lucas is a bold, visionary filmmaker (and that includes writing and production work on Raiders of the Lost Ark). After 1980, he becomes a much more conservative filmmaker, and also decides to bring Star Wars to a close in 1983 (he had previously planned to keep the story going with the Luke/Leia/Solo group for several more movies).
@@KaitainCPS Lucas in 1977-1981 was a beast and then work overload, divorce, and being nearly bankrupt changed him and that caused temple of doom being kinda shit then later 1-2 being completely cg, race cars, kid actors, symbiotic relationships, and other garble as lucas was a different man. Episode 3 was the only time after Raiders that lucas kinda gave a shit again.
That was a great insight. One thing, be careful when you say ILM had “nothing to show for it”. They did. They had built two, advanced, complicated computerized motion control cameras and most of the models. They had no footage to show, however.
Nothing to show for it other than revolutionizing sci-fi movies and changing the world!!! Looks like you have nothing to show for it when it's a camera, a motorized rail system and this wall of lights and film stuff. A computer doesn't look like much, but it does so much.
@@SaturnCanuckneither of the first two shots required the dykstraflex they had spent all the time and money on. They shot them quickly as they had nothing to show and thought it might help
I never would have thought how completely different Empire strikes back would have been. The original storyboard has a lot of cool concepts and ideas but I’m glad with what we ended up with. I’m also glad that there were people that challenged George with his ideas and told him “No” when things got too extreme. That is something the prequels needed. Most of you misunderstood my comment so I’ll preface that I LOVE the Prequels as much as I love the Orginal trilogy. But looking back now as an adult you can see the flaws and how things could have been done better or different.
I think the prequels are better off without that. Perhaps they would've been better if people gave Lucas more push-back, but as it stands, I and many other still like them more than the OT.
@@KidPrarchord95 don’t get me wrong I absolutely love the prequels and think they are better than Disney Star Wars. But I think George went to far in a few places and would have been better if he had people challenge some of his ideas when things went to extreme. Like with Jar Jar Binks. I think if he didn’t try to make his character to comical people would have liked him better . But I’ll always love the Prequels as much as I love the orginals
Prequels are good as they are, they are different. There was a 20 year gap in technology, movie making techniques and other things. The prequels were never meant to be and feel like the OT because they were also set in a different time too.
@@John-ns5se Here's a controversial take: Perhaps the problem was that there wasn't enough Jar Jar. Binks should have been a central hero rather than a redundant clown, like the droids in Star Wars IV and the hobbits in Fellowship---we see events of galactic importance unfold from the perspective of the little people. Jar Jar really could have been the key to everything.
People in my generation (Gen Z) love the prequels, and while I appreciate certain things about them, Empire Strikes Back is, for me, the definitive Star Wars movie. One of the greatest movies in cinema, period.
I like the prequels as "Star Wars" movies, they're not great movies by a writing perspective but the way they influenced and shaped the entire way we view star wars cannot be understated, Empire however transcends being a good star wars movie, Its an amazing movie in general in terms of acting, writing, effects.
@@nigelpisswater484their will be good star wars movies again. it is only a matter of time. but yes, i too like the prequels. I actually wouldnt mind if someone built up a good script to work with the best ideas for the prequels and clone wars, to create a new prequel reboot someday, decades later perhaps, as long as everyone was good at what they were doing. I always prefer the classics, but sometimes a really good reboot that takes all the lessons from previous films and puts heart into it, well, theres room to always do or do not.
Remember: Chewbacca died on Sernpidal while saving the life of Anakin Solo, the third child of Leia and Han. This occurred in the first year of the Yuuzhan Vong War. That's from the series of books which is NOW non-canonical. Thanks to Disney. I have many years of books from the Star Wars series that WERE canonical at the time. When Disney took over, they decided they wanted to take the story in a different direction, rendering those books non-canonical.
@@goldman77700 it's mostly just running away. The fights in the bespin corridors are lame. When Han solo gets frozen it's mostly chewbaccas noises and cheesy dialogue. It ain't bad overall but nowhere near new hope
@@Lbf5677 Bah, Yoda is awesome. And Lando. Vader and Luke duel is iconic. So is the father reveal. World-building is amazing. Character development of the main trio is waaayy better. New hope they felt chars in a story, and Empire they felt like human beings. The less Lucas is involved creatively the better, the opposite is how we got the Prequels.
Just like how they took George Lucas's original Star Wars script and turned it into a comic, I love to see them take the original Empire Strikes Back script and turn it into a comic, that be interesting… The movie we got is one of the best of all time, so it all worked out
I have the Annotated Screenplays they put out in 97 to promote the special edition, it has cool first draft stuff and all the Special Edition changes on the sides of the dialogue. I always imagined the "Alternate" versions in my head when I read them.
Also I'd like to see Lucas's original sequel trilogy adapted into a comic too. It'll probably never happen, but I think everyone would be really interested in reading it
A comic adaptation of Bracket's "Empire" treatment would be amazing! She had one scene of Chewbacca fighting a wampa (which makes Chewie look small). Lots of other interesting stuff, too.
9:30 Mark Hamill has stated on multiple occaisions that his injury from the car accident and the wampa attack trom Empire are completely unrelated. He has also stated that the injuries incurred during the accident were greatly exaggerated in the years following ESB's release.
Mimban is actually reused in the Expanded Universe as the location of one first major sites of the Clone Wars. Mimbanese natives and mining guild special interests engage in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Clone Wars, with the Republic and the Separatists aiding each respectively. Originally in the EU content, Mimban was completely Separatist. It is hinted in Solo that eventually, the Empire turns on the Mimbanese natives to make sure that the mining continues unabated, and the natives are none-too-happy about it, which is confirmed in later expanded media.
I've read some of Brackett's script, and have come to realize that Disney might've read it. I know that sounds crazy, but it truly feels like one of the Disney-Wars (I refuse to call them sequels) films. The whole sub-plot of Luke finding a crystal in his lightsaber that contains a map containing the location of his father is very similar to TFA's map to Luke sub-plot. Also, the Emperor is described as wearing "a robe of gold cloth." Remind you of anyone?
So you read Star Wars material written under Lucas supervision (in the time period where the movies you consider canonic were made), found it underwhelming and you somehow manage to tie it into a Sequel tirade? If anything, it should make you realize in how many directions a SW sequel can go in, instead you're folding it into your irrational hatred of, yes, the Star Wars sequels that got made. Your brain is melting
@@almendraman While the script was written under Lucas' supervision, he didn't oversee Leigh writing it. He looked over it after she delivered it, and made notes on some of the stuff he didn't approve of. She passed away before he could talk to her about doing a re-write. I also understand the different directions the OT could've gone in, it's just that some of the stuff in Leigh's script reminded me of the Disney trilogy at the time I read most of it.
I read Splinters of the Minds Eye in high school. A fun story that made an impact of me. Today, I love just about everything sci-fi. Star Wars and Clifford Simak helped me to embrace sci-fi.
this is your best work! i knew so much of this going into this but still learned a couple new things and you laid it out so well. it’s amazing how many pitfalls happened during SW and ESB and how close they were to being sloppy messes and yet they both redefined what movies are and could be and ESB ends up being the best sequel of all time (followed closely by Aliens). that reason and how many different crew all simultaneously hit home runs, is what makes SW and ESB two of my all time fav movies.
This is incredibly well done. Most people who put these kind of videos together do shoddy research and rely on a lot of hearsay but this one is spot on. Impressive... Most impressive.
@@dugroznostalgia it was where the galaxy came under attack from mad clones who unleashed the clone army on the Republic. Primarily it was alluded to in many EU Star Wars media in the 90s such as novels and comics, but never actually shown.
I read Splinter of the Mind's Eye as a kid. I remember actually feeling cheated reading it as Han Solo was absent. How could it be 'Star Wars' without Han Solo? Made no sense to me (let's face it, still doesn't). I had no idea that Gilbert Taylor (cinematographer for the first film) gave Lucas any trouble, but I'm not entirely surprised. He'd been working as a cinematographer for nearly 30 years before he worked on Star Wars. He was the cinematographer for such classics as Dr. Strangelove, A Hard Day's Night as well as Hitchcock's Frenzy. I would imagine that Taylor's resistance to Lucas's ideas resulted in better results than they would have gotten had he always listened to Lucas. Whatever a person achieves in their life, however successful they may be, one should never blindly follow what they say - particularly if it contradicts your own understanding. Brilliant people can still be wrong, however big their ego might be, whether they can comprehend they could be wrong or not. Lucas wasn't always right, even back then. His greatest works were when he listened to the experts he hired, his biggest failures were when he didn't.
Gil was right about how soft looking Star Wars was being shot, considering Lucas went back years later with digital tools and sharpened those scenes. He didn't like shooting anamorphic either he thought the distortion was garbage.
@@matthewgaudet4064 That's interesting. I actually like the soft scenes (I only watch the 4K77 version), I think the softness adds a kind of timeless ethereal quality.
Taylor was wrong, as someone has mentioned, the softness gives SW an ethereal and mythical look which Lucas was after; a kind of "knights of the round table" effect as seen in paintings by the Pre Raphaelites and their ilk. When Lucas was filming SW most of the British crews were condescending towards him, (saying things like "Wanker!" after / before takes) refusing to work overtime even a few minutes, in order to finish scenes. Constant tea breaks, etc. Taylor looked upon him as some young upstart from America, who didn't know what he was doing. When he should've respected the director's vision.
@@agfagaevart Hey, do you know that every time a film is made in the UK by Americans, the UK crew get a base wage, whatever their role? They don't get any percentage share, they get whatever the going BECTU rate is at the time for their work. They don't work overtime for a few minutes because they're invariably not paid for those minutes. US filmmakers come over here, taking advantage of our tax breaks, then f*** off back across the pond where they bask in the glory and the fortune enabled them by our base paid film crews. They should have respected his vision? They didn't know his vision. Did you not hear Mark Hamill speak about the fact that not a single extra understood what was going on in the scenes where they all got medals in the end? He had to explain to it them. What's more, with all the studios who passed on Lucas's vision, were they any different in not respecting his vision? Few did at the time. If he wanted his crew to 'respect his vision' he should have shared his vision instead of just telling people to stand there and do that.
2:39 (Splinter of the mind's eye) I listened to an audiobook verison of this floating around on RUclips a year ago. i've heard the title and i think seen the cover for years, but never read it. I think the audiobook was made with Ai or something as far as voicework. I forget the exact details. But I mainly sought it out becasue i couldn't find an official audiobook/drama of it at the time. So this was a relief and really accessible. book itself, I really liked it. Felt a lot like what the other Extended Universe would end up becoming. Thought it was a nice scaled down adventure story. Also, i didn't catch that Vader's hand got cut off in the book. I guess i must've missed that detail. still, had a good time with it.
I remember Dave prowse saying Darth Vader was gonna be revealed to be Luke Skywalker's father in 'Star Wars 2' on either Swap Shop or Blue Peter (BBC1) in 1978.
What we got is still the best Star Wars movie ever made. The only problem I have is the cliffhanger ending, but it’s more of a pet peeve as I prefer movies have proper conclusions
That’s an interesting take. I honestly really like a proper cliffhanger like this one where there is a complete journey so it feels like a full movie but also has more story to be told, leaving you excited for the next one. Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest, Back to the Future part II, and Avengers Infinity War also have great cliffhangers.
Not sure if anyone already mentioned it, but the scars on Hamill could've been explained by fighting with rebellion off-screen. The Wampa scene wasn't written to cover for that. Cheers from France! 🍻
great video man, i'm enjoying it a lot! one thing i would humbly bring to your attention: it was Marcia Lucas, his wife, who got the idea to kill off Obiwan because the plot needed some more dramatic weight and they were editing the film together and George decided that was actually a pretty great idea... before anyone sheds tears, Sir McGuinness was certainly not sorry about it as he reportedly hated his role as much as Harrison Ford hated his own... geez, actors can be such entitled drama queens lol
@@maricallo6143 regrettably i have no data on the late Sir's financials, however i do recall reading that both he and Ford felt the characters and script were too amateur and provencial for their artistic ambitions, i'm a huge fan of star wars just for the record
The reason Gary Kurtz let the film go over budget was because he liked the way Irvin Kershner directed. I don't think Gary Kurtz should have spoken freely with George Lucas's money, but at the same time, Gary Kurtz helped give us one of, if not the best, film of all time. It's also the highest-grossing Star Wars sequel, so it definetly paid off.
I have an original copy of, "Splinter of the MInd's Eye, from 1978. the pages are antiquated, and the type is definitely from the 1970's. It makes a good interlude between A new Hope, and, Empire Strikes Back. Spoiler alert, Luke and Leia are siblings.Who would of thought? But you never know... Darth Vader, just might be Luke, and Leia's father. But I'll have to explore that a bit more before I am convinced.
@@MeanMrMustard1if it was floating around in his head, the proof seems to heavily indicate at the time he made ep 4 and sometime after its release his official canon was that the two characters were completely separate
@@jacobwest7 The earlier drafts are the proof that the idea that Vader (father in Dutch), who ended up being Anakin Skywalker, formally named Annikin Starkiller in these earlier drafts, sometimes the hero of the story (first draft) and sometimes the father (of Luke in the 3rd draft), that the seed was planted in Lucas' head as a possible idea. I'm just saying it was there as a possibility. He changed his mind several times during each draft on who the hero was and what his name was. Vader=Father. Annikin=Luke's father. Lucas just combined the ideas for when he finally decided who Luke's father was gonna be. It was always there in his head waiting to happen. It just wasn't planned.
@@MeanMrMustard1The Vader=father thing is obviously coincidence. The earliest version of Vader is an Imperial General who dies at the end of the first film.
Awesome video. 🔥 but Empire wound up exponentially better than the “what could have been” version. It’s a shame Lucas had such a bad experience with it, because it led to a rushed Episode VI and no more SW movies for 16 years.
@@timewarpdrive77They’re fine as they are. He had plenty of help with the PT and he asked other directors to make them but they said no. In the end it’s good he did, because he told the story he wanted.
Awesome video with good insights on the behind the scenes process of the film. I had read about Lucas' near heart attack during filming of a New Hope and was glad to see it talked about here
Amazing how much the OT was a collaborative tightrope walk. A bunch of people who really cared about storytelling, all trying to see the project through
Love the thumbnail for this video. I never got the true sense of the sheer size of the Wampa as nothing in his scenes really gave it any scale. But standing next to these rebel soldiers, the Wampa is truly a fearsome creature along the lines of a rancor.
Great story! This is definitely one of my favorite movies ever made and it’s always cool to learn more about it. It’s definitely interesting to learn about the struggles that Lucas, and others went through. Good work on this project! I love all 6 classic Star Wars movies and I also have a soft spot for Force Awakens but that’s where it ends for me. Still love the overall franchise though.
@@wet-read Agreed. Empire is so much better than every other Star Wars movie (including the original) it's laughable. The only reason the franchise has endured so long is the strength of this film.
3:09 The EU will always be canon to Star Wars for me, especially with how poorly Disney has treated the franchise. Honestly he should've sold it to Fox.
Credit to Irvin Kershner who directed Empire. In the wrong hands the film could have been a disaster. Star Wars and Return of the Jedi are not without their problems but Empire is damn near perfect.
The whole thing with Leia as his sister is really weird considering it started off as a love triangle. It's the really icky part of SW. Never knew how Lucas could reconcile that in his own mind lo!! The best part of Empire was hiring a Irvin Kershner to direct who did a truly magnificent job!
Awesome video! I learned a lot of stuff that I didn’t previously know about ESB. One thing that you mentioned at the end was how we never got to see what Lucas would have done with the sequel trilogy, but there is a book by Paul Duncan that goes into that.
Man, Prowse got ready for a life of conventions before the movies were even finished. He's a trailblazer, when it comes to stretching out his 15 minutes, turning it in to 35 plus years! Good for him but I did meet him at a few conventions and he was not exactly Santa Clause! He spent the whole convention, signing his name as, 'David Prowse IS Darth Vader.' lol Rumor was, he took insult to someone asking him to sign a photo that had James Earl Jones' signature on it!!!! Bit of a Diva, he was :)
No offense to Brackett, but the film would've been an absolute disaster had Lucas not-re-written the script. She really didn't understand what made Star Wars work and it truly showed that without Lucas at the helm (be it a director or producer) it'll never feel like Star Wars (take note, Disney).
I actually have the script but only read nearly half of it and the rest of the story I got from a synopsis from Rinzler's making of book. Even with that, it was enough for me to think that the myth that Brackett and Kurtz saved the story from George was total BS. Also, I wouldn't have been surprised if Abrams, Johnson, or Disney read that draft because it felt like something they would've written. I mean, you even have emperor being described as someone wearing golden robes. Remind you of anyone?@@Bulletsandblockbusters
The more I learn about him the more Lucas seems like a guy who has a lot of great ideas but needs a lot of help incorporating them into a story, ideas are all well and good but they should be in service of a good story, even if the story is a bit basic. That said, for my money the original Star Wars trilogy as it was first presented works.
Great stuff! Another note: Rio Bravo was also directed by Howard Hawks. Yes, John Wayne was in it, but Leigh Brackett was working for Hawks again, in that instance.
Very fascinating background information. Just as interesting as the film itself. Hard to believe there was so much tension and stress behind the scenes.
Ideas that would have contributed to Lucas's originally planned 9-12 episode saga. Of course he would have been stressed like hell (but having Vader not being Luke's father and Leia not being his sister thus her being revealed later would have been awesome)!
Have you seen the documentary "Empire of Dreams"? It was included as part of the original trilogy dvd box set back in the early 2000's. I beleve it mententions something about Lucas coming up with the whole "I am your father" during the production, as if he hadn't originally planned it. I can't remember exactly what was said, its been years
The Empire Strikes Back is a classic. It's a masterpiece. I own "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" by Alan Dean Foster. I became a Star Wars fan thanks to ESB.
I'd heard of Leigh brackett But until now I didn't know about all her contributions to that first draft. this was very interesting and really fills out that alternate history I'd wondered about. ultimately I think the revisions to Bracketts screenplay were for the best, But I think my one regret from how it all panned out is they never followed through with Luke's sister on the other side of the Galaxy. that would have been an amazing trilogy if he'd made it in the '80s, And while I don't think return of the Jedi is a bad movie, I think the whole thing with Leia and Luke being siblings was pretty unsatisfying, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that
That crystal map read like something Abrams would conceive. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Abrams or Disney read Brackett's draft because that's what it felt like.
Alot of ppl give him shit for selling to disney but the truth is he had just had a child, and knew that the sequel trilogy would take 10yrs and didnt want to potentially ruin a marriage and miss that much time, and so he believed that disney would respect his vision and be able to complete it, but we all know how that turned out. And dont forget the massive betrayal of kennedy also didnt help and was the main issue. Im sure we all know he regrets it, but alas, we have the 6 star wars movies to go back to.
The original trilogy is one of the greatest trilogies ever. It's strange to hear how different Empire might have been . I still wish Lucas had finished the star wars movies instead of selling to Disney and letting them mess it up .
I don't think he told Leigh Bracket about Vader being Luke's father because he hadn't invented it yet! Despite his revisionist histories, there's no evidence that he came up with it before having to revise Bracket's script. A few months later Prowse guessed it in an interview for a San Francisco paper, saying the story could then continue because son cannot kill father and father cannot kill son. There are videos suggesting what George's sequels would have been like; one saying it was mostly the same to Disney's, but he would have brought Darth Maul back instead of Snoke. (Why would he kill off Maul in 1, when it was considered brilliant that he kept Vader alive at the end of IV, such that later imitators like _Flash Gordon_ and _The Last Starfighter_ did the same?) Other videos suggest that Marcia Lucas brought heart to the OT, and had she been around might have done so for the prequels. One series has exclusive video interviews with her. Despite getting an Academy Award for editing (along with two others) she's been mostly written out of the George Lucas-approved histories of _Star Wars._
@@petriivalosinda7411 Lucas was inspired by _Flash Gordon_ serials, but couldn't get the rights to make a movie, so did his own thing. Then at the end of _Flash Gordon (1980)_ Ming disappeared into his ring, which someone picked up, suggesting he'd be back for a sequel, like Darth Vader escaping the destruction of the Death Star.
3:30 I heard they spent half the budget and had 1 FX shot. That shot was the escape pod, being released with the droids inside. Please Correct me if need be. Cheers
Yes. ILM had spent about $1 million developing the cameras, testing them, shooting, etc. and Lucas only found one FX shot acceptable. even that had to be redone. he had to bring in a new manager to get the FX work completed. He was not happy with John Dyskstra and didn't use him, or most of his crew, for Empire of jedi. under the "new" management the first FX shot Lucas signed-off as it were, was a shot of one of the Death Star laser towers
How would the aqua planet have figured in "Empire"? It's been a while since I've read Brackett's treatment and J.W. Rinzler's "Making of Empire." ...... I do recall that one page of Brackett's treatment had "Nellith" written and crossed out on a page margin as a possible name for Luke's lost sister.
Additional fact. The president of Fox lost his job for the deal with Lucas giving him more money for a better percentage of the take. Fox wanted the sequel rights back. In retaliation for the firing, Lucas took Raiders to Paramount instead of Fox as he originally intended.
Glad to hear switch production companies because the Indiana Jones trilogy would have been a disaster under fox
He wrote the back stories for everything but things change
Alan Ladd Jr, a good friend of George he believed in Star Wars from the beginning.
I have a ton of Respect for George, but the prequels proved that the people who would stand up to him are how the original trilogy was so successful. His wife especially, on New Hope.
The video about how it was saved in the edit is really a great watch if you're a Star Wars fan. As someone who edits video it gave me a lot of perspective. George's constant changing of the Special Editions show how incompetent he is about Star Wars. ILM is a true marvel though.
“The coordinates, man, the coordinates!”
-Jake Vader
Darth Vader is a Sith name only.
The numbers, mason
Sounds like Joe Biden
For those who know, that's a Dennis Hopper thing. 😅
“Now THIS is interrogating!!” 😅
Man, that was a lot of stressful bts for Lucas at the time. Being a creator of the IP was really hard work. No wonder he had stress related chest pains, I mean who wouldnt
Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie because George Lucas delegated a lot of the production to others instead of trying to do it all by himself and yet when people talk about the creator of Star Wars only his name comes up
@@stellviahohenheim without him, there's no Star Wars. Period.
It honestly changed his entire outlook. Until 1980, Lucas is a bold, visionary filmmaker (and that includes writing and production work on Raiders of the Lost Ark). After 1980, he becomes a much more conservative filmmaker, and also decides to bring Star Wars to a close in 1983 (he had previously planned to keep the story going with the Luke/Leia/Solo group for several more movies).
@@KaitainCPS Lucas in 1977-1981 was a beast and then work overload, divorce, and being nearly bankrupt changed him and that caused temple of doom being kinda shit then later 1-2 being completely cg, race cars, kid actors, symbiotic relationships, and other garble as lucas was a different man. Episode 3 was the only time after Raiders that lucas kinda gave a shit again.
@@stellviahohenheimBest sequel
That was a great insight. One thing, be careful when you say ILM had “nothing to show for it”. They did. They had built two, advanced, complicated computerized motion control cameras and most of the models. They had no footage to show, however.
Yep. Star Wars was one of the biggest R&D projects of all time.
Nothing to show for it other than revolutionizing sci-fi movies and changing the world!!! Looks like you have nothing to show for it when it's a camera, a motorized rail system and this wall of lights and film stuff. A computer doesn't look like much, but it does so much.
I'm pretty sure when they nothing to show for it, they mean literally no footage to show for it. So, it's just true.
@@toddnolastname4485 They had two shots, but thats not what he said
@@SaturnCanuckneither of the first two shots required the dykstraflex they had spent all the time and money on. They shot them quickly as they had nothing to show and thought it might help
I like that you refer to Vader’s communication with the Emperor as “FaceTiming” lol
You’re not even wrong 😂
Haha was waiting for someone to point this out
Holo-time.
Those Sith are such Apple hipsters.
On a Star Destroyer capable of hyperspace, you'd think they'd have a better communication array. All I'm sayin'.@@Bulletsandblockbusters
@@KevinWhite-zb5os they had to move out of the asteroid field first.
The Empire STrikes back really is a great film. I love the openning of the droids launching, something about that is so subtle yet fun
Imagine if the 48 minutes were readded to the film. Because George Lucas didn't want them
Forgot to mention the rights to the toys George brokered. As a 70's kid, this was part of it, for sure.
Moichandising - where the real money from the movie is made!
I never would have thought how completely different Empire strikes back would have been. The original storyboard has a lot of cool concepts and ideas but I’m glad with what we ended up with. I’m also glad that there were people that challenged George with his ideas and told him “No” when things got too extreme. That is something the prequels needed.
Most of you misunderstood my comment so I’ll preface that I LOVE the Prequels as much as I love the Orginal trilogy. But looking back now as an adult you can see the flaws and how things could have been done better or different.
I think the prequels are better off without that. Perhaps they would've been better if people gave Lucas more push-back, but as it stands, I and many other still like them more than the OT.
@@KidPrarchord95 don’t get me wrong I absolutely love the prequels and think they are better than Disney Star Wars. But I think George went to far in a few places and would have been better if he had people challenge some of his ideas when things went to extreme. Like with Jar Jar Binks. I think if he didn’t try to make his character to comical people would have liked him better . But I’ll always love the Prequels as much as I love the orginals
Prequels are good as they are, they are different. There was a 20 year gap in technology, movie making techniques and other things.
The prequels were never meant to be and feel like the OT because they were also set in a different time too.
Who is Never?
@@John-ns5se Here's a controversial take: Perhaps the problem was that there wasn't enough Jar Jar. Binks should have been a central hero rather than a redundant clown, like the droids in Star Wars IV and the hobbits in Fellowship---we see events of galactic importance unfold from the perspective of the little people. Jar Jar really could have been the key to everything.
People in my generation (Gen Z) love the prequels, and while I appreciate certain things about them, Empire Strikes Back is, for me, the definitive Star Wars movie.
One of the greatest movies in cinema, period.
I like the prequels as "Star Wars" movies, they're not great movies by a writing perspective but the way they influenced and shaped the entire way we view star wars cannot be understated, Empire however transcends being a good star wars movie, Its an amazing movie in general in terms of acting, writing, effects.
@@nigelpisswater484their will be good star wars movies again. it is only a matter of time. but yes, i too like the prequels. I actually wouldnt mind if someone built up a good script to work with the best ideas for the prequels and clone wars, to create a new prequel reboot someday, decades later perhaps, as long as everyone was good at what they were doing. I always prefer the classics, but sometimes a really good reboot that takes all the lessons from previous films and puts heart into it, well, theres room to always do or do not.
@@aurorauplinksNo.... that ship has sailed... 1-6 is good and we are lucky we got them.
RotS is still the best.
To me.
The prequels influence on the expanded universe is also something to appreciate; both of Matthew Stover's PT novels are excellent (for instance)
Let us all take a moment of silence to honor Bracken!! She paved the way for one of the greatest sequels of all time!!!
Brackett
not really, because her draft was re-written many times.
@@sjdrifter72 Oops, a typo
No she didn't, her version was terrible
@@dws84 That's your opinion
Remember: Chewbacca died on Sernpidal while saving the life of Anakin Solo, the third child of Leia and Han. This occurred in the first year of the Yuuzhan Vong War.
That's from the series of books which is NOW non-canonical. Thanks to Disney. I have many years of books from the Star Wars series that WERE canonical at the time. When Disney took over, they decided they wanted to take the story in a different direction, rendering those books non-canonical.
And tons of people celebrated the obliteration of the EU, as doubtless what Disney made would be better.
Uh Huh. Sure it was.
Wat. Nothing that Disney has made is canonical. Why do you even recognize Disney? They're not legitimate.
The Empire Strikes Back is a perfect cinematic masterpiece
And the darker middle movie of a triple series.
No, that's what Kevin Smith said.
In reality the new hope is the best one
@@Lbf5677 Nah. Empire all day.
@@goldman77700 it's mostly just running away.
The fights in the bespin corridors are lame.
When Han solo gets frozen it's mostly chewbaccas noises and cheesy dialogue. It ain't bad overall but nowhere near new hope
@@Lbf5677 Bah, Yoda is awesome. And Lando. Vader and Luke duel is iconic. So is the father reveal. World-building is amazing. Character development of the main trio is waaayy better. New hope they felt chars in a story, and Empire they felt like human beings. The less Lucas is involved creatively the better, the opposite is how we got the Prequels.
Just like how they took George Lucas's original Star Wars script and turned it into a comic, I love to see them take the original Empire Strikes Back script and turn it into a comic, that be interesting… The movie we got is one of the best of all time, so it all worked out
I have the Annotated Screenplays they put out in 97 to promote the special edition, it has cool first draft stuff and all the Special Edition changes on the sides of the dialogue. I always imagined the "Alternate" versions in my head when I read them.
Also I'd like to see Lucas's original sequel trilogy adapted into a comic too. It'll probably never happen, but I think everyone would be really interested in reading it
A comic adaptation of Bracket's "Empire" treatment would be amazing! She had one scene of Chewbacca fighting a wampa (which makes Chewie look small). Lots of other interesting stuff, too.
What was the comic?
@@IAMYAMAMA It was adapted by Marvel Comics and became an ongoing series.
9:30 Mark Hamill has stated on multiple occaisions that his injury from the car accident and the wampa attack trom Empire are completely unrelated. He has also stated that the injuries incurred during the accident were greatly exaggerated in the years following ESB's release.
It's rare to learn new interesting facts about star wars, you delivered many.
I remember the old theories about what the Clone Wars was. Such as Obi-Wan (OB-1) and Owen (O-1) being clones.
Pet gargoyles?
Pet gargoyles sound rad, so it's no surprise Disney cut them out when they finally showed us the lava castle.
Mimban is actually reused in the Expanded Universe as the location of one first major sites of the Clone Wars. Mimbanese natives and mining guild special interests engage in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Clone Wars, with the Republic and the Separatists aiding each respectively. Originally in the EU content, Mimban was completely Separatist.
It is hinted in Solo that eventually, the Empire turns on the Mimbanese natives to make sure that the mining continues unabated, and the natives are none-too-happy about it, which is confirmed in later expanded media.
I've read some of Brackett's script, and have come to realize that Disney might've read it. I know that sounds crazy, but it truly feels like one of the Disney-Wars (I refuse to call them sequels) films. The whole sub-plot of Luke finding a crystal in his lightsaber that contains a map containing the location of his father is very similar to TFA's map to Luke sub-plot. Also, the Emperor is described as wearing "a robe of gold cloth." Remind you of anyone?
So you read Star Wars material written under Lucas supervision (in the time period where the movies you consider canonic were made), found it underwhelming and you somehow manage to tie it into a Sequel tirade? If anything, it should make you realize in how many directions a SW sequel can go in, instead you're folding it into your irrational hatred of, yes, the Star Wars sequels that got made. Your brain is melting
@@almendraman While the script was written under Lucas' supervision, he didn't oversee Leigh writing it. He looked over it after she delivered it, and made notes on some of the stuff he didn't approve of. She passed away before he could talk to her about doing a re-write.
I also understand the different directions the OT could've gone in, it's just that some of the stuff in Leigh's script reminded me of the Disney trilogy at the time I read most of it.
Love empire strikes back
Wow! Another great job!! I'm SO glad none of this happens, as Empire is still one of my all time favorite films.
I read Splinters of the Minds Eye in high school. A fun story that made an impact of me. Today, I love just about everything sci-fi. Star Wars and Clifford Simak helped me to embrace sci-fi.
Sorry, I heard nothing after, "Vader lives with his pet gargoyles." That's some crazy shit. I did hear the facetime joke though, that was amazing.
this is your best work! i knew so much of this going into this but still learned a couple new things and you laid it out so well. it’s amazing how many pitfalls happened during SW and ESB and how close they were to being sloppy messes and yet they both redefined what movies are and could be and ESB ends up being the best sequel of all time (followed closely by Aliens). that reason and how many different crew all simultaneously hit home runs, is what makes SW and ESB two of my all time fav movies.
Vader, kills a rebel, then walks past Leia and tilts his helmet...
Vader to Leia: Good day ma'am...
I would pay to see this
This is incredibly well done. Most people who put these kind of videos together do shoddy research and rely on a lot of hearsay but this one is spot on.
Impressive... Most impressive.
he left out a lot, and left in some errors.
@@agfagaevart Oh? Such as?
@@agfagaevart Comments like these are useless. Tell us what then, ffs.
@@deagor4578
obviously...you did not bother to read my other comments, as you're just plain stupid!
When Star Wars was Star Wars.
Although I love what we got, having Lando be a clone from the original clone wars concept from pre-2002 would have been very interesting
What was the "original" clones concept?
@@dugroznostalgia it was where the galaxy came under attack from mad clones who unleashed the clone army on the Republic. Primarily it was alluded to in many EU Star Wars media in the 90s such as novels and comics, but never actually shown.
@@indianajones4321 I read some of those a LONG time ago! I believe there was also a clone of Luke named “Luuke “ 🤓
@@dugroznostalgia yes there was created by Joruus C’Baoth in the Thrawn trilogy
I read Splinter of the Mind's Eye as a kid. I remember actually feeling cheated reading it as Han Solo was absent. How could it be 'Star Wars' without Han Solo? Made no sense to me (let's face it, still doesn't).
I had no idea that Gilbert Taylor (cinematographer for the first film) gave Lucas any trouble, but I'm not entirely surprised. He'd been working as a cinematographer for nearly 30 years before he worked on Star Wars. He was the cinematographer for such classics as Dr. Strangelove, A Hard Day's Night as well as Hitchcock's Frenzy. I would imagine that Taylor's resistance to Lucas's ideas resulted in better results than they would have gotten had he always listened to Lucas.
Whatever a person achieves in their life, however successful they may be, one should never blindly follow what they say - particularly if it contradicts your own understanding. Brilliant people can still be wrong, however big their ego might be, whether they can comprehend they could be wrong or not. Lucas wasn't always right, even back then. His greatest works were when he listened to the experts he hired, his biggest failures were when he didn't.
Gil was right about how soft looking Star Wars was being shot, considering Lucas went back years later with digital tools and sharpened those scenes. He didn't like shooting anamorphic either he thought the distortion was garbage.
@@matthewgaudet4064 That's interesting. I actually like the soft scenes (I only watch the 4K77 version), I think the softness adds a kind of timeless ethereal quality.
Well stated.
Taylor was wrong, as someone has mentioned, the softness gives SW an ethereal and mythical look which Lucas was after;
a kind of "knights of the round table" effect as seen in paintings by the Pre Raphaelites and their ilk.
When Lucas was filming SW most of the British crews were condescending towards him, (saying things like "Wanker!" after / before takes) refusing to work overtime even a few minutes, in order to finish scenes. Constant tea breaks, etc. Taylor looked upon him as some young upstart from America, who didn't know what he was doing. When he should've respected the director's vision.
@@agfagaevart Hey, do you know that every time a film is made in the UK by Americans, the UK crew get a base wage, whatever their role? They don't get any percentage share, they get whatever the going BECTU rate is at the time for their work. They don't work overtime for a few minutes because they're invariably not paid for those minutes. US filmmakers come over here, taking advantage of our tax breaks, then f*** off back across the pond where they bask in the glory and the fortune enabled them by our base paid film crews.
They should have respected his vision? They didn't know his vision. Did you not hear Mark Hamill speak about the fact that not a single extra understood what was going on in the scenes where they all got medals in the end? He had to explain to it them. What's more, with all the studios who passed on Lucas's vision, were they any different in not respecting his vision? Few did at the time.
If he wanted his crew to 'respect his vision' he should have shared his vision instead of just telling people to stand there and do that.
2:39 (Splinter of the mind's eye)
I listened to an audiobook verison of this floating around on RUclips a year ago.
i've heard the title and i think seen the cover for years, but never read it.
I think the audiobook was made with Ai or something as far as voicework. I forget the exact details. But I mainly sought it out becasue i couldn't find an official audiobook/drama of it at the time. So this was a relief and really accessible.
book itself, I really liked it. Felt a lot like what the other Extended Universe would end up becoming. Thought it was a nice scaled down adventure story. Also, i didn't catch that Vader's hand got cut off in the book. I guess i must've missed that detail.
still, had a good time with it.
Vader's arm was cut off by Luke.
Splinter of a minds eye, read it from my local library when I was pretty young. My growing nerd noticed many inconsistencies from the films.
Easy to notice, it wasn't canon in our universe.
Did you remember Luke spooning Leia and having naughty thoughts even though they weren't spelled out?
I remember Dave prowse saying Darth Vader was gonna be revealed to be Luke Skywalker's father in 'Star Wars 2' on either Swap Shop or Blue Peter (BBC1) in 1978.
"The coordinates, man" makes sense if you read it as old school English military man and not as an Americam teenager/The Big Lebowski
Exactly. And even more sense when you imagine David Prowse saying it!
Haha.
That's just like your coordinates, man
What we got is still the best Star Wars movie ever made. The only problem I have is the cliffhanger ending, but it’s more of a pet peeve as I prefer movies have proper conclusions
Han Solo should have been killed off instead of frozen to be honest. His character arc was already complete.
@@TheSuperQuail How was it?
It was a looong 3 year wait!
That’s an interesting take. I honestly really like a proper cliffhanger like this one where there is a complete journey so it feels like a full movie but also has more story to be told, leaving you excited for the next one. Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest, Back to the Future part II, and Avengers Infinity War also have great cliffhangers.
Well we finally got the perfect ending with rise of skywalker the best star wars movie ever made
Seems like Empire is a much simpler movie, which is probably one of the reasons it's so damn good.
Not sure if anyone already mentioned it, but the scars on Hamill could've been explained by fighting with rebellion off-screen. The Wampa scene wasn't written to cover for that.
Cheers from France! 🍻
great video man, i'm enjoying it a lot! one thing i would humbly bring to your attention: it was Marcia Lucas, his wife, who got the idea to kill off Obiwan because the plot needed some more dramatic weight and they were editing the film together and George decided that was actually a pretty great idea... before anyone sheds tears, Sir McGuinness was certainly not sorry about it as he reportedly hated his role as much as Harrison Ford hated his own... geez, actors can be such entitled drama queens lol
Alec then also hated his cca 1% from film's earnings, I suppose....
@@maricallo6143 regrettably i have no data on the late Sir's financials, however i do recall reading that both he and Ford felt the characters and script were too amateur and provencial for their artistic ambitions, i'm a huge fan of star wars just for the record
@@Nefylym that's exaggeration that he hated his role.
The reason Gary Kurtz let the film go over budget was because he liked the way Irvin Kershner directed. I don't think Gary Kurtz should have spoken freely with George Lucas's money, but at the same time, Gary Kurtz helped give us one of, if not the best, film of all time. It's also the highest-grossing Star Wars sequel, so it definetly paid off.
Wish they would have kept the clone idea in there. It makes the "I had no choice" line perfect.
I have an original copy of, "Splinter of the MInd's Eye, from 1978. the pages are antiquated, and the type is definitely from the 1970's. It makes a good interlude between A new Hope, and, Empire Strikes Back. Spoiler alert, Luke and Leia are siblings.Who would of thought? But you never know... Darth Vader, just might be Luke, and Leia's father. But I'll have to explore that a bit more before I am convinced.
George didn't withhold the Vader secret from Bracket. He hadn't come up with it yet. It wasn't part of his original plan.
It wasn't part of the big plan, but it was floating around in his head. It was an idea at least.
@@MeanMrMustard1if it was floating around in his head, the proof seems to heavily indicate at the time he made ep 4 and sometime after its release his official canon was that the two characters were completely separate
@@jacobwest7 The earlier drafts are the proof that the idea that Vader (father in Dutch), who ended up being Anakin Skywalker, formally named Annikin Starkiller in these earlier drafts, sometimes the hero of the story (first draft) and sometimes the father (of Luke in the 3rd draft), that the seed was planted in Lucas' head as a possible idea. I'm just saying it was there as a possibility. He changed his mind several times during each draft on who the hero was and what his name was. Vader=Father. Annikin=Luke's father. Lucas just combined the ideas for when he finally decided who Luke's father was gonna be. It was always there in his head waiting to happen. It just wasn't planned.
@@MeanMrMustard1The Vader=father thing is obviously coincidence. The earliest version of Vader is an Imperial General who dies at the end of the first film.
Awesome video. 🔥 but Empire wound up exponentially better than the “what could have been” version. It’s a shame Lucas had such a bad experience with it, because it led to a rushed Episode VI and no more SW movies for 16 years.
Agreed
@bullets would love to see “what could have been” a ROTJ that didn’t suffer from these setbacks!
No muppets or ewoks? 😃
Just wish he managed to get someone else to direct the prequels and to get someone to bounce story ideas off of. They're so close to being good movies
@@timewarpdrive77They’re fine as they are. He had plenty of help with the PT and he asked other directors to make them but they said no. In the end it’s good he did, because he told the story he wanted.
I was blithely unaware of these details. Thank you for providing such exhaustive elucidation on my favorite movie of the original trilogy!
Vader lava castle sounds so cool, and in line with Mustafar.
The Empire Strikes Back 1980 is one of mankind's masterpieces in Art.
George deserves so much more credit for navigating creative freedom, seeing his vision, and dealing with the mechanics of business.
The empire strikes Back is the most perfect STAR WARS movie,
in the entire SW Universe. PERIOD.
Awesome video with good insights on the behind the scenes process of the film. I had read about Lucas' near heart attack during filming of a New Hope and was glad to see it talked about here
I remember reading "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" when I was a teen.
ESB is my favorite of all six (6) movies. Lando Calrissian, being a clone, would have been a clever idea.
Respect for Lucas not planning to recast Luke if Hamil couldn't film anymore from the accident.
Amazing how much the OT was a collaborative tightrope walk. A bunch of people who really cared about storytelling, all trying to see the project through
Empire is THE best Star Wars movie. No changes need to be made.
Best Star Wars movie made and one of the best movies ever made!!!!
I remember reading Splinter of the Mind’s Eye in the 90’s. It surprised me how different it was than how Star Wars would eventually develop.
Love the thumbnail for this video. I never got the true sense of the sheer size of the Wampa as nothing in his scenes really gave it any scale. But standing next to these rebel soldiers, the Wampa is truly a fearsome creature along the lines of a rancor.
Great story! This is definitely one of my favorite movies ever made and it’s always cool to learn more about it. It’s definitely interesting to learn about the struggles that Lucas, and others went through. Good work on this project! I love all 6 classic Star Wars movies and I also have a soft spot for Force Awakens but that’s where it ends for me. Still love the overall franchise though.
Thanks for the amazing video. Big Star wars fan ❤
ESB is my favorite star wars movie!
It is the best one, easily.
@@wet-read Agreed. Empire is so much better than every other Star Wars movie (including the original) it's laughable. The only reason the franchise has endured so long is the strength of this film.
Still the greatest movie of all time
Wrong
@@theantone7476 what's right then?
@@FriendZone75 It's not THE greatest. Maybe one but not the only greatest
'...with both men challenging Lucas when his ideas didn't work or didn't make any sense' THIS. This is what the prequels needed.
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯🎯
The prequels are by FAR the best films. OG Star Wars needs rebooting. It's aged HORRIBLY!
@@josephforrest3713what an L take
100% disagree. How would you update them, with a bunch if CGI? There are already too many CGI heavy movies today, and it gets tiresome.
@@jimmyboy131 I never suggested updating them. They exist and were largely bad but they can’t be undone
3:09 The EU will always be canon to Star Wars for me, especially with how poorly Disney has treated the franchise. Honestly he should've sold it to Fox.
Credit to Irvin Kershner who directed Empire. In the wrong hands the film could have been a disaster. Star Wars and Return of the Jedi are not without their problems but Empire is damn near perfect.
The whole thing with Leia as his sister is really weird considering it started off as a love triangle. It's the really icky part of SW. Never knew how Lucas could reconcile that in his own mind lo!!
The best part of Empire was hiring a Irvin Kershner to direct who did a truly magnificent job!
Awesome video! I learned a lot of stuff that I didn’t previously know about ESB. One thing that you mentioned at the end was how we never got to see what Lucas would have done with the sequel trilogy, but there is a book by Paul Duncan that goes into that.
Man, Prowse got ready for a life of conventions before the movies were even finished.
He's a trailblazer, when it comes to stretching out his 15 minutes, turning it in to 35 plus years!
Good for him but I did meet him at a few conventions and he was not exactly Santa Clause!
He spent the whole convention, signing his name as, 'David Prowse IS Darth Vader.' lol
Rumor was, he took insult to someone asking him to sign a photo that had James Earl Jones' signature on it!!!!
Bit of a Diva, he was :)
I am guessing that a Santa Phrase with a verb in it becomes a Santa Clause.
He certainly made the right decisions here. Couldn't imagine Empire being like the first script.
Loving these videos man, keep it up 🔥🔥🔥
No offense to Brackett, but the film would've been an absolute disaster had Lucas not-re-written the script. She really didn't understand what made Star Wars work and it truly showed that without Lucas at the helm (be it a director or producer) it'll never feel like Star Wars (take note, Disney).
Agreed. Her script was pretty old fashioned and anti climatic
I actually have the script but only read nearly half of it and the rest of the story I got from a synopsis from Rinzler's making of book. Even with that, it was enough for me to think that the myth that Brackett and Kurtz saved the story from George was total BS.
Also, I wouldn't have been surprised if Abrams, Johnson, or Disney read that draft because it felt like something they would've written. I mean, you even have emperor being described as someone wearing golden robes. Remind you of anyone?@@Bulletsandblockbusters
@@Bulletsandblockbusters I don't think her script was against the climate
The more I learn about him the more Lucas seems like a guy who has a lot of great ideas but needs a lot of help incorporating them into a story, ideas are all well and good but they should be in service of a good story, even if the story is a bit basic. That said, for my money the original Star Wars trilogy as it was first presented works.
"The Legends are canon, always."
Funnily enough, this vid dropped on my birthday! And ESB is one of my fave movies of all time!
Happy birthday 🎂
@@Bulletsandblockbusters Thanks man!
btw; the flying mantas in the early draft are more comparable to the manta things the kaminoins use in EP 2
Great stuff! Another note: Rio Bravo was also directed by Howard Hawks. Yes, John Wayne was in it, but Leigh Brackett was working for Hawks again, in that instance.
Exceptional. Thank you
Very fascinating background information. Just as interesting as the film itself. Hard to believe there was so much tension and stress behind the scenes.
Ideas that would have contributed to Lucas's originally planned 9-12 episode saga. Of course he would have been stressed like hell (but having Vader not being Luke's father and Leia not being his sister thus her being revealed later would have been awesome)!
I’ve seen ALOT of these videos and all about empire before. I did not know most of what you covered here. You got me 🤟
Glad you enjoyed!
Have you seen the documentary "Empire of Dreams"? It was included as part of the original trilogy dvd box set back in the early 2000's. I beleve it mententions something about Lucas coming up with the whole "I am your father" during the production, as if he hadn't originally planned it. I can't remember exactly what was said, its been years
Hey. That's a neat-lookin Sailor Moon Lightsaber in the ad at the beginning of the video. I didn't know they made those.
The crescent moon is pretty cool. If I had the money I'd get it, being a fan of both series.
Thank you for this great video! 🙏
Wow, so interesting. Keep up the great work man!
Chewbacca vs the Wampa won't have been a good fight. Also Chad Vader showing up and joining the rebels would be cool too.
The Empire Strikes Back is a classic. It's a masterpiece. I own "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" by Alan Dean Foster. I became a Star Wars fan thanks to ESB.
Always so much more to learn about the history of Star Wars and what could have and might have been.
I'd heard of Leigh brackett But until now I didn't know about all her contributions to that first draft. this was very interesting and really fills out that alternate history I'd wondered about. ultimately I think the revisions to Bracketts screenplay were for the best, But I think my one regret from how it all panned out is they never followed through with Luke's sister on the other side of the Galaxy. that would have been an amazing trilogy if he'd made it in the '80s, And while I don't think return of the Jedi is a bad movie, I think the whole thing with Leia and Luke being siblings was pretty unsatisfying, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that
💯
That was very interesting ... I was not aware about the financial difficulties that G. Kurtz and I. Kershner have caused :)
This is by far my favorite Star Wars sequel
I wish mr lucus would buy back his movie from Disney theres still alot of stories to tell the fans and the audience ❤😊thank u😊
Awesome vid! I much prefer the released version to the Crystal MacGuffin plot!
That crystal map read like something Abrams would conceive. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Abrams or Disney read Brackett's draft because that's what it felt like.
Saw this last year in theaters, one of greatest films I ever seen
Alot of ppl give him shit for selling to disney but the truth is he had just had a child, and knew that the sequel trilogy would take 10yrs and didnt want to potentially ruin a marriage and miss that much time, and so he believed that disney would respect his vision and be able to complete it, but we all know how that turned out. And dont forget the massive betrayal of kennedy also didnt help and was the main issue. Im sure we all know he regrets it, but alas, we have the 6 star wars movies to go back to.
The original trilogy is one of the greatest trilogies ever. It's strange to hear how different Empire might have been . I still wish Lucas had finished the star wars movies instead of selling to Disney and letting them mess it up .
I don't think he told Leigh Bracket about Vader being Luke's father because he hadn't invented it yet! Despite his revisionist histories, there's no evidence that he came up with it before having to revise Bracket's script. A few months later Prowse guessed it in an interview for a San Francisco paper, saying the story could then continue because son cannot kill father and father cannot kill son.
There are videos suggesting what George's sequels would have been like; one saying it was mostly the same to Disney's, but he would have brought Darth Maul back instead of Snoke. (Why would he kill off Maul in 1, when it was considered brilliant that he kept Vader alive at the end of IV, such that later imitators like _Flash Gordon_ and _The Last Starfighter_ did the same?)
Other videos suggest that Marcia Lucas brought heart to the OT, and had she been around might have done so for the prequels. One series has exclusive video interviews with her. Despite getting an Academy Award for editing (along with two others) she's been mostly written out of the George Lucas-approved histories of _Star Wars._
O the Irony of you referring to *Flash Gordon* as an imitator ... you must be a Millennial.
@@petriivalosinda7411 Lucas was inspired by _Flash Gordon_ serials, but couldn't get the rights to make a movie, so did his own thing. Then at the end of _Flash Gordon (1980)_ Ming disappeared into his ring, which someone picked up, suggesting he'd be back for a sequel, like Darth Vader escaping the destruction of the Death Star.
@@petriivalosinda7411reading comprehension is important
Still my favorite starwars movie of All time ❤😊
Welcome back BB. Hope you had a great break. 🙂👍
Thanks! 😃
3:30
I heard they spent half the budget and had 1 FX shot. That shot was the escape pod, being released with the droids inside.
Please Correct me if need be.
Cheers
Yes.
ILM had spent about $1 million developing the cameras, testing them, shooting, etc. and Lucas only found one FX shot acceptable. even that had to be redone.
he had to bring in a new manager to get the FX work completed. He was not happy with John Dyskstra and didn't use him, or most of his crew, for Empire of jedi.
under the "new" management the first FX shot Lucas signed-off as it were, was a shot of one of the Death Star laser towers
Still, Kurtz helped Lucas reign in his vision from going too far.
If empire had failed and fox took over can you imagine what would happen to the franchise if it had been treated like Aliens vs Predator?
I really appreciate that this wasn't just another hit piece against Lucas, and showed that he really is the reason we have the great Star Wars movies
Star Wars without George Lucas sucks
How would the aqua planet have figured in "Empire"? It's been a while since I've read Brackett's treatment and J.W. Rinzler's "Making of Empire." ...... I do recall that one page of Brackett's treatment had "Nellith" written and crossed out on a page margin as a possible name for Luke's lost sister.