Revisionist Filmmaker.

If you know me, you know that I'm a big Star Wars fan. I remember as a child hearing people say things like, "That looks like it came from Star Wars," and I would take offense, because it looked nothing like anything in Star Wars. I was a bit of a snob, I suppose. Later on I would realize that Star Wars is a fantastic and wonderful thing - but it's also deeply personal. For me, Star Wars was so much more than what you saw on the screen. It was almost a lifestyle. 

In 1978, my mom cut out an article from the paper (Houston Chronicle?) about George Lucas and his plans for future movies. I still have it somewhere; I need to find it. From what I remember (there was a picture of Luke, Ben, Han, and Chewy in the cockpit of the Falcon), Lucas said that there were plans to make 9, possibly 12 movies. I can't be 100% on the 12 movies bit, but I'll look for that and scan it in to show everyone. 

I came across this article. It's an extended interview with Gary Kurtz, who played a major role in getting both Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back to the screen. It's an interesting article because Kurtz says that by the time Return of the Jedi came into production, the toys were making three times the money the movies were. Not only that, but the toys drove the movie itself. In Kurtz's words, Jedi would have been a lot different if he and Lucas hadn't split ways at that point.

The biggest thing about this article is that it implies that Lucas is definitely a revisionist filmmaker. In 1978, Lucas was planning to make multiple sequels. But this is only because of the immense success of Star Wars. In 1977, he was just hoping that the movie would break even.

Kurtz also says that a lot of the key elements revealed in Jedi were basically added during production, and that it was never the plan to have Leia and Luke as twins. 

Hopefully you were able to see the YouTube video that showed the 'deleted' scene that debuted at Celebration V in Orlando this past weekend. If not, good luck finding it now. I came across this video today: Mark Hamill @ Comic Con San Diego

Hmm. So in July, at Comic Con, Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill stated that there was never a scene shot in a cave where he put together a lightsaber. The first thing I thought was that maybe Hamill was just covering until they could do a reveal at Celebrtion V. That's what I would do - if I had a secret that I wanted to release to the public, I would do it at my own venue. 

But then again, it could be that Lucas got Hamill on board so that they could make it authentic. Lucas is known to do that. Remember how they got Hayden into the end of Return of the Jedi? Well, it's not that far fetched that they could piece together some shots and manipulate them to create this "deleted" scene. It would be very easy for them to do, actually.

So what's more believable? That the shot never existed? Or that they managed to hold onto that shot for 27 years without anyone ever seeing it? Hmmm....

Based on the interview with Kurtz, and the quick interview with Hamill, I would have to say that the "deleted" scene was fabricated recently to make the Blu-Ray release that more appealing. I get confused here - because the movies sell themselves. They have released the movies about three different times on DVD already, and the last time was nothing more than a re-release of the first issue on DVD. And except for the last release, I believe they've all sold really well. I know that I hardly ever see any Star Wars movies sitting on the shelves, and they are never on the discount rack.

The big question is, why is he putting all this time, effort, and money into this endeavor, when all the fans want is an original, uncut, theatrical version of the movie. Yes, the second DVD release gave us the unaltered theatrical release, but it was a slap in the face. That transfer was horrible, it was almost like those pirated movies where the guy has a camcorder in his bag. The only thing missing in those DVDs was the guy getting up to get popcorn in the middle. 

If you get the chance, be sure to catch a viewing of The People Vs. George Lucas. I was able to catch this at SXSW earlier this year. It was awesome. It was well done, and it poses the question, Why doesn't George release the original cut? 

If George really cared about the fans, he would spend the time and effort to release the original version. If he can put Hayden into Return of the Jedi, create a "deleted" scene for Blu-Ray, and make Greedo shoot first, then he could make the original cut transfer to Blu Ray. 

One more thing before I quit - A man in England who goes by the name Adywan spent time and effort to create a version of Star Wars (A New Hope, although it's never been ANH to me) called Star Wars: Revisited. The only time I've ever been this impressed with Star Wars was in the summer of 1977 (and then when it came on cable, but I knew what I was getting.) 

The work that Adywan did, using nothing more than Laserdisc versions and a home computer is PHENOMENAL. He trimmed the movie down, fixed things, added things, and put together what I would call the ultimate Star Wars - AT HIS HOUSE. So, if one man with minimal video editing and compositing could make Star Wars right again, then a multi-millionaire filmmaker should certainly be able to do the same. 

Unfortunately at some point, Lucas lost his marbles and became the evil giant he fought against when trying to make Star Wars. So sad, really.

At least we still have Howard the Duck.