Darth Venal said:Darth Plagueis:o other installment of the series would be able to top the genius of the tandem that was George Lucas - Lawrence Kasdan - Irvin Kershner.
Actually, Leigh Brackett was responsible for most of the writing on Empire. She wrote virtually all the first draft of the screenplay before she died and Kasdan came in to work on it later because Brackett didn't have time to rewrite or polish
I don't have much faith in George Lucas' words either but seemingly - according to various sources, most notably the Secret History of Star Wars and the Starkiller website's list of draft variations almost everything Leigh wrote was discarded by Lucas.
The following basicly happened: Lucas sat down with Leigh and discussed the story. Leigh went of to write a first draft, although being terminally ill. Lucas didn't like it at all and decided to write the second draft himself. Facing the issue that Ben and Anakin were actually serving the same plot purposes and driven by the discovery that Vader and Anakin had a lot in common Lucas decided to merge both characters. Resulting in Vader becoming Luke's dad.
Then Kasdan came in and worked on the next drafts. Say about Kasdan what you want, but he did hell of a job, just check the screenplay for yourself.
Darth Venal said:But if you read all the drafts, the great writing on Empire is largely down to her, not Kasdan.
Again, not intending any offence against Leigh Brackett, but... my mother suffered from cancer this year (for the second time) and knowing what she gone through - and she thankfully recovered - and judging from my limited experience as a aspiring screenwriter myself I seriously doubt that she could have pulled off something really good in those conditions. And both Lucas (still had some credibility in those days, the source I read quote from the early days, not now) and keeping in mind screenwriter John August's words on screenwriting: "It's hard to do on a good day and unbearable on a bad day" I seriously doubt that the greatness of Empire can be attributed to her... because of the pittyful circumstances and what I've read from the script variations online rather than her personal abilities.
Darth Venal said:And remember what he and Lucas managed to do with Jedi's script...
Remeber what he and Lucas managed to do on Raiders? And remember what Gary Kurtz had to say about this. He said that he thought that Raiders could've even been a better movie if Spielberg wouldn't have messed around with Kasdan's brilliant script. Spielberg and Lucas decided on doing a rollercoaster ride... this was agreed always the original intention but according to Kurtz they cut out some very important character scenes (which were in the screenplay but never shot) that made the movie even better.
And about Kasdan messing up the ROTJ script... I wholehartedly disagree. Remember that Kasdan has to work with what he gets offered. On Empire this was a pretty good draft on Lucas' account (the man had a vision, don't forget that although he got lots of help from his industry friends he still came up with the concept and story ideas), but this time Lucas seemed to have become as we know him now.
Kurtz said in that same interview that Lucas wanted a rollercoaster ride. He said "the movie will make as much money as it would even if the story isn't that good." That is unfortunately the GL we know today. Kurtz did however go on to praise the first rough draft (not the one you can find online today, which is a revised version of a rough draft that Lucas wrote after trashing this first rough draft) that never saw the light of day in finished form.
Also don't forget that because Kasdan also wasn't too happy with what Lucas came up with for ROTJ he disagreed on doing a script polish on the prequels. (And probably also because he didn't have much time to do it, but nonetheless he didn't hold ROTJ in very high esteem too)
Here's the link to the interview. It's very interesting to say the least.
Darth Venal said:You also forget Gary Kurtz, who produced both Star Wars and Empire, but not Jedi. He might have had differences with Lucas, but he did a hell of a job on both Star Wars movies - the best two - that he produced.
AMEN to that. I've had a pretty rough day yesterday and today doesn't seem to be much better. Forgive me.
And his differences with Lucas were only for the better, trust me. Kurtz is indeed another of the factors that made Empire in what it is today.
~ Darth Plagueis
EDIT: I seem to have missed reading the other comments that came after yours, Darth Venal. Most of what I said has already being said. I'm very sorry for that.
On the WGA checking these things... That wasn't exactly the case back then. You might've heard of the current issue of Jonathan Nolan's work on Terminator Salvation that didn't change the screenplay in such a way that he could receive credit for it. Well, in those days if I recall correctly that wasn't the case. And I don't think Jonah really wanted any credit on Terminator Salvation...
Plus as you will probably wholeheartedly agree on, post-mortem credit is an exception on its own and if Lucas wanted to do this as a tribute, the WGA wasn't going to stop him for any reason.
And of course, there is the fact that the she shaped the screenplay by writing the first draft, even if that means that it mostly was discarded, there was enough material that came directly from Lucas to remain in later drafts... So this indirectly could be attributed to Leigh Brackett, if you're still following me... I can be a little unclear on these matters I'm afraid. Especially when I'm in a hurry...