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Official Star Wars newsletter from 1978 — Page 2

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He is talking about not having thought anything up beyond the vanquishing of the Sith.

Originally, that would have taken place in Episode 9, but he ended up pushing that resolution up to episode 6.

Hence he never came up with sequels to follow ROTJ.

Notice when you put that quote you just took back into context, he is actually acknowledging that his plan did change.

The long-standing perception has been that the complete Star Wars saga is a 9 film cycle, and after Episodes I through III were finished Lucas would move on to Episodes VII, VIII, and IX, resuming where Return of the Jedi had left off. "That's really not part of the plan AT THIS POINT, " he says. "When you see it six parts, you'll understand. It really ends at part six."

Whereas the prequel plotlines have their basis in the original treatment for Star Wars that Lucas wrote in the early 1970's, "I never had a story for the sequels, for the later ones," he says.
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Originally posted by: George Lucas, October 1979

There are essentially nine films in a series of three trilogies.
I have story treatments on all nine.


Originally posted by: George Lucas, February 1999

"I never had a story for the sequels”
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So you just prefer to take it out of context then?
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From: George Lucas's newsletter to fans, May 1978

“Star Wars Corporation will begin production on the sequel to Star Wars …
Based on the second of twelve stories”

From: George Lucas, October 1979

“I then had material for six movies. After the success of Star Wars I added another trilogy but stopped there.”



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Are you even trying to make a point?

Or are you just broken now?
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Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
Excerpt from Vanity Fair February 1999:
The long-standing perception has been that the complete Star Wars saga is a 9 film cycle, and after Episodes I through III were finished Lucas would move on to Episodes VII, VIII, and IX, resuming where Return of the Jedi had left off. "That's really not part of the plan at this point, " he says. "When you see it six parts, you'll understand. It really ends at part six."

Whereas the prequel plotlines have their basis in the original treatment for Star Wars that Lucas wrote in the early 1970's, "I never had a story for the sequels, for the later ones," he says. As such, he'll move on after Episode III to non-Star Wars projects, "and also, I'll be to a point in my age where to do another trilogy would take 10 years." (Lucas will turn 55 in May.) Would he be amenable to letting someone else carry on making Star Wars movies, much as he has permitted other writers to carry on the lives of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia in authorized novels, comic books, and CD-ROMs? "Probably not, " Lucas says. "It's my thing."


So your proof is some article from the year of TPM...after Lucas began his revisionist history.

Bring me some better evidence troll.
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You guys were supposed to prove Lucas a liar.

I was pointing out that in this article, Lucas is not only -not- saying he never changed his plan from 9 to 6 films, he was aknowledging it.
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Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
Are you even trying to make a point?

Or are you just broken now?


In case you didn't notice, those were two brand new quotes, not the same two he'd posted before.

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They are also reposted. One is from a fan newsletter, the other is from Lucas. They both illustrate the fact that Lucas did indeed at one point entertain the possiblity of 12 movies, then he pared that down to 9, then finally 6.

I don't see why anyone would contest that.
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So is anyone going to come up with an explaination about how Lucas is still lying? Maybe admit you could have misintepreted what Lucas -did- actually say? Or are you guys just going to try and get me banned again?
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Originally posted by: Anchorhead
From the Official Star Wars Fan Club newsletter of May 1978;
_____

Based on the second of twelve stories in George Lucas’s Adventures of Luke Skywalker series, the first draft of the screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett."
_____


He claims to have started at episode number 4 of 6 - or - 4 of 9, depending on which interview he happened to give over the years. Yet, here in his official newsletter, it specifically states that Star Wars was number 1 of 12.

Star Wars was supposed to be inspired by Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and other science fiction serials of the 1930's and 1940's. Lucas is really into serials, and if you watch the Indiana Jones series and have seen serials, many of the stunts and sequences come almost directly from serials. Most serials ran for 12 chapters, some 15, and a few for 13. Maybe that is what Lucas originally had in mind, to do a long serial, but quickly decided that this was not realistic and quickly went down to 9, or 6.
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Originally posted by: Anchorhead
Lucas quotes.


That's cute. I might use that as my signature.

George Lucas, October 1979: There are essentially nine films in a series of three trilogies. I have story treatments on all nine.
George Lucas, February 1999: I never had a story for the sequels.
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You do realize you are taking them out of context right?

With the second quote, he is saying he never came up with anything beyond the resolution in ROTJ.

The original story treatments ended with the Emperor being vanquished in Episode 9, but he moved that to episode 6, hence no more story.
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That was awesome Anchorhead, you should keep it up.

1) It was funny
2) Go-mer thinks you're a broken record, which makes it even funnier.

If we all just keep posting Lucas quotes, we can probably get Go-mer to leave. That's really all we have to do to point out that there was never any "grand plan" to begin with, despite what Lucas and Go-mer say today.
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George Lucas in 1979 – “There are essentially nine films in a series of three trilogies… I have story treatments on all nine.”
.....
Recent interviewer – “Wasn't there talk at one time of three trilogies?”
George Lucas - “That was created by the media, not by me.”
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Originally posted by: lordjedi
If we all just keep posting Lucas quotes, we can probably get Go-mer to leave. That's really all we have to do to point out that there was never any "grand plan" to begin with, despite what Lucas and Go-mer say today.
I don't think there was a "grand plan", and Lucas said all he had was a small outline.
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Personally, I think it's fair to say that when George Lucas created Star Wars, he had a rough story idea, more or less with basis in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. He tosses in some Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and Star Wars was born. He thinks up a pretty rich (though not necessarily specific) backstory concerning the Jedi Bendu, the nature of the Force, mythical wizards, etc. Throughout the development of his script, he pares down all the backstory and we get what we know today as Star Wars (A New Hope). Lucas had intended the film to carry on in the tradition of old serials, so he envisioned a series of cliffhanger type entertainment. He tries a story treatment for the second film, perhaps bringing in more of the mythology he created (kyber crystals, etc). He eventually tosses this idea (Splinter of the Mind's Eye) and decides to continue the story in a more traditional means. The concept of The Empire Strikes Back is born. Lucas figures he could throw in a real twist and combined the Anakin and Vader characters. At this moment, he envisions a more detailed backstory (with Anakin & Obi Wan, the old Republic, plotpoints, and all, but still fairly rough) and figures he could make a prequel trilogy. He's also young and figures Star Wars could thrive as a James Bond type series, so he reasons that he could do more trilogies in the future. Around the time of Return of the Jedi, he probably gets tired of it and decides to make the third film the big finale. He ties up loose ends even if not according to the original plan for the sequels (like Leia and Luke being siblings) and puts a cap in the series for a while. Then his wife divorces him, takes half of his money, and he spends the next decade or so making it back with merchandising, producing movies, etc. He also keeps an eye on technology and when it's right (around the time of Jurassic Park), he decides to start on the prequel trilogy. While he has a rough idea of where things will go, it tortures him to write the scripts, but he eventually does it and attempts to once again wrap things up.

That's all conjecture, but I think it's reasonable considering what we know and what Lucas has said in the past.
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I think that sounds about right.
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Originally posted by: ShiftyEyes
Personally, I think it's fair to say that when George Lucas created Star Wars, he had a rough story idea, more or less with basis in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. He tosses in some Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and Star Wars was born. He thinks up a pretty rich (though not necessarily specific) backstory concerning the Jedi Bendu, the nature of the Force, mythical wizards, etc. Throughout the development of his script, he pares down all the backstory and we get what we know today as Star Wars (A New Hope). Lucas had intended the film to carry on in the tradition of old serials, so he envisioned a series of cliffhanger type entertainment. He tries a story treatment for the second film, perhaps bringing in more of the mythology he created (kyber crystals, etc). He eventually tosses this idea (Splinter of the Mind's Eye) and decides to continue the story in a more traditional means. The concept of The Empire Strikes Back is born. Lucas figures he could throw in a real twist and combined the Anakin and Vader characters. At this moment, he envisions a more detailed backstory (with Anakin & Obi Wan, the old Republic, plotpoints, and all, but still fairly rough) and figures he could make a prequel trilogy. He's also young and figures Star Wars could thrive as a James Bond type series, so he reasons that he could do more trilogies in the future. Around the time of Return of the Jedi, he probably gets tired of it and decides to make the third film the big finale. He ties up loose ends even if not according to the original plan for the sequels (like Leia and Luke being siblings) and puts a cap in the series for a while. Then his wife divorces him, takes half of his money, and he spends the next decade or so making it back with merchandising, producing movies, etc. He also keeps an eye on technology and when it's right (around the time of Jurassic Park), he decides to start on the prequel trilogy. While he has a rough idea of where things will go, it tortures him to write the scripts, but he eventually does it and attempts to once again wrap things up.

That's all conjecture, but I think it's reasonable considering what we know and what Lucas has said in the past.


Agreed. I believe we can surmise more beyond that, but that's still a good starting ground.

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In the forward to the Splinter of the Minds Eye book George is quoted in editions of the book as saying "That his story was too big to fit into one movie, and that he broke it up into three parts, The Original Trilogy, the further adventures, and the back story making a total of nine films"

I can well believe that there was more than 6 films planned back then, I just think he changed his mind, ran out of story or got fed up with SW at that point....
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Originally posted by: ShiftyEyes
Personally, I think it's fair to say that when George Lucas created Star Wars, he had a rough story idea, more or less with basis in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. He tosses in some Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and Star Wars was born. He thinks up a pretty rich (though not necessarily specific) backstory concerning the Jedi Bendu, the nature of the Force, mythical wizards, etc. Throughout the development of his script, he pares down all the backstory and we get what we know today as Star Wars (A New Hope). Lucas had intended the film to carry on in the tradition of old serials, so he envisioned a series of cliffhanger type entertainment. He tries a story treatment for the second film, perhaps bringing in more of the mythology he created (kyber crystals, etc). He eventually tosses this idea (Splinter of the Mind's Eye) and decides to continue the story in a more traditional means. The concept of The Empire Strikes Back is born. Lucas figures he could throw in a real twist and combined the Anakin and Vader characters. At this moment, he envisions a more detailed backstory (with Anakin & Obi Wan, the old Republic, plotpoints, and all, but still fairly rough) and figures he could make a prequel trilogy. He's also young and figures Star Wars could thrive as a James Bond type series, so he reasons that he could do more trilogies in the future. Around the time of Return of the Jedi, he probably gets tired of it and decides to make the third film the big finale. He ties up loose ends even if not according to the original plan for the sequels (like Leia and Luke being siblings) and puts a cap in the series for a while. Then his wife divorces him, takes half of his money, and he spends the next decade or so making it back with merchandising, producing movies, etc. He also keeps an eye on technology and when it's right (around the time of Jurassic Park), he decides to start on the prequel trilogy. While he has a rough idea of where things will go, it tortures him to write the scripts, but he eventually does it and attempts to once again wrap things up.

That's all conjecture, but I think it's reasonable considering what we know and what Lucas has said in the past.


Bingo. Thanks for the summation. Theres a lot more plans laid and plans unlaid in there (i.e in 1978 its a 12 film serial, in 1979 its a 9-episode saga, etc.) but this is the gist of what went on, as far as anyone can tell.

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But I think our problem is the fact that Lucas doesn't just say, "Hey, you know, I did have a 9/12 episode story, but I changed my mind and shortened it to 6."

I think that would be fair enough. Not claim he NEVER said any of the stuff he's been quoted and published in the past.
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Originally posted by: maddog00
I think that would be fair enough. Not claim he NEVER said any of the stuff he's been quoted and published in the past.

That's the only problem I have with the guy where the number of films is concerned. I don't care if it was 20 films whittled down to 2. Plans change on all films. That's part of the business.

So what if he altered his plans? Star Wars was number 1 of 12, according to his newsletter to fans. After a few years he decided it was better fit as number 4 of 9. Why not just say so? No one cares. Just put out a quality film. Why make the statement that it was that way all along? "I , uh, uh, I never said it was 1 of 12 - why, um, it was...it was actually number 4 of 9 - yeah - 4 of 9...in fact, I actually wrote the entire story back in college - 8 years before I gave the other interview - man, you media guys keep making stuff up"

Why lie about it? He could have called Empire Strikes Back number 8 of 5 and no one would have given a crap.

It's all the lying about what he said in the past that's so weird.

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I don't think Lucas is actually meaning to deny that he -ever- thought about doing more than 6 films, I think it's just the story he was originally planning to take 9 films, ended up taking 6. So anything he came up for beyond episode 6 while the plan was 9 films got rolled into the 6th chapter, hence now that the sith is destroyed, Lucas hasn't come up with what would happen next.

In that 1999 Vanity fair article, he actually says the plan is no longer 9 but 6, which means at least at that point he was being up front about it.

I think when he says he never came up with anything for a third trilogy, he just means he never came up with a storyline to follow ROTJ.
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