"Triumph of the Whills* *It requires being both a major Star Wars geek and someone with a knowledge of somewhat obscure film history to get it. Explanations available upon request for those of you with real lives."
<raises hand rather somewhat sheepishly knowing he's a SW Geek> Whills = Yoda's Species. Mark Price [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Make something idiot proof...someone will build a better idiot." -----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Craig Miller Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 9:32 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [MOPO] Star Wars Episode III Trailer At 12:44 PM 11/07/2004 +1100, Phil Edwards wrote: >but, but, but.... A NEW HOPE is the reissue title... the original release title in 1977 was STAR WARS... and first time around wasn't it just one film, written because George Lucas couldn't get remake rights to FLASH GORDON? > >It was later revised to be 3 films... when it and its merchandising component went ballistic....and then later revised to 9 films and then later revised again down to 6 films when either ideas were in short supply or the merchandising was providing a law of diminishing returns. >Phil > Er, no. Star Wars *did* originally come up because George couldn't get the rights/permission to do Flash Gordon. He had a three-picture deal at Universal -- the first of which was American Grafitti -- and wanted Flash Gordon to be the second but the studio wasn't interested. They also passed on Star Wars, which George offered them first (albeit with a much earlier and different draft of the script than was ultimately used to shoot the film). The expectation held by George and everyone else was that he'd make only the one film but he did have an idea for not one, three, six, or nine films but for twelve; four three-picture arcs (or trilogies). The cumulative films would effectively be the story of R2-D2 and C-3PO, the only characters who would be in all twelve films. Within a couple years, George revised history to say that the Star Wars saga was always to be just nine films (three trilogies) and never twelve. After Raiders of the Lost Ark, he started saying that people had confused the three proposed Indiana Jones films as being part of it, which is where twelve came from. Of course, when we made Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark wasn't on the horizon and it wasn't contemplated, even when it was, that it would be a trilogy (as an aside, once it was decided that there would be sequels, the idea was that they'd all be called Raiders of the _____ with the blank changing each time but marketing heads decided that calling them Indiana Jones and the _____ made better business sense because you can't trademark the word "raiders"). While we were doing post on The Empire Strikes Back, George told me he intended to do the third and-as-yet untitled film in that trilogy but that after that was done; he wasn't going to do anymore Star Wars films. He was going to retire to the ranch and only make experimental and art films. For that reason, a lot of what was to be in the third film got cut or truncated (Boba Fett was to be a major character in it; that's why he was introduced in the second film) and things intended to happen in the third (and by then final) trilogy got moved into Revenge (later Return) of the Jedi. For example, the death of Darth Vader was not to have been in Jedi originally. That was for a later film but got moved forward. Eventually, of course, George decided to make the first trilogy. But he says he won't be making the third. Ten years ago, I would have bet he wouldn't make the first so you never know. (By the way, before Empire came out, I made a suggestion to George and Gary Kurtz -- producer of the first two films -- as to what we should call the third film. My suggestion: Triumph of the Whills*. They both cracked up then looked at me and said "no". Oh, well. I'm immortalized in other parts of the films, though few will ever know.) Craig. Star Wars Corporation (later Lucasfilm Ltd.) 1977-1980 *It requires being both a major Star Wars geek and someone with a knowledge of somewhat obscure film history to get it. Explanations available upon request for those of you with real lives. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Craig Miller Wolfmill Entertainment [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
