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Richard Marquand's effect on Return of the Jedi — Page 2

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Isn’t Cinefex more focused on the FX side of things? Marquand probably wouldn’t be shooting models at ILM.

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Haarspalter said:

Omni said:

Hoop28 said:

imperialscum said:

Hoop28 said:

So obviously Lucas had a much bigger presence during the making of Jedi than he did Empire, he was practically a Co-Director, but did Marquand leave any mark of his own on the film? I haven’t seen his other work so I can’t say, and I don’t know if Lucas has attempted to erase any sort of legacy Marquand had like he did so many others on the OT.

I think Marquand had pretty much the same role in ROTJ as Kershner had in ESB. In both cases Lucas led the creative part (story, characters, screenplay, world-building, etc.), while Kershner and Marquand led the implementation and contributed in various ways to the creative part. If you look at it like that, then Lucas was “practically a co-director” in both cases.

Like it was pointed out, Marquand had some important contributions to the creative part, besides directing the implementation. Like Kershner, I think he was a valuable part of the trilogy.

Well from what I heard, Lucas was annoyed with alot of the changes and alterations that Kershner made while directing Empire, so for Jedi he was on set way more than he was during Empire and reshot quite a few scenes, apparently the whole reason Jedi was filmed in the United States was so Lucas could be on set daily.

Lucas wanted to be as far away from the set as possible.

Nope. Not according to the Empire of Dreams documentary…

LUCAS:

I hadn’t realized that ultimately it’s probably easier for me to do these things than to farm them out. Because [ROTJ] was even more complex than the last one, I really did have to end up being there every day on the set, and working very closely with Richard, and shooting second unit, and there was really more work than I thought it was going to be.

He had to be there. He didn’t want to have to be there. But given his limited options for a director, he picked one that would do exactly what he would without the necessity of him being on set. It clearly wasn’t the case, and he basically had to co-direct the movie…

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SilverWook said:

Isn’t Cinefex more focused on the FX side of things? Marquand probably wouldn’t be shooting models at ILM.

Lucas is mentioned dozens of times. I can imagine Marquand may not have wanted to get deep into the effects, but I get the impression he didn’t even have an opinion.

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On one hand Lucas hated directing and that is why he gave it up. And on the other hand he hated to cede control of one of his films to anyone, except the exception being Steven Spielberg. He hated films going over budget, he hated the writing process and didn’t like the technological limitations in his way of achieving his vision.
Collaboration was a necessity but he didn’t like to do that either.

When it came to do the prequels he just decided the hell with it and wrote and directed them himself to avoid what happened on Empire and Jedi. Its his way or no way. It would have been the same for the sequels had he not sold to Disney.

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JadedSkywalker said:

On one hand Lucas hated directing and that is why he gave it up. And on the other hand he hated to cede control of one of his films to anyone, except the exception being Steven Spielberg. He hated films going over budget, he hated the writing process and didn’t like the technological limitations in his way of achieving his vision.
Collaboration was a necessity but he didn’t like to do that either.

When it came to do the prequels he just decided the hell with it and wrote and directed them himself to avoid what happened on Empire and Jedi. Its his way or no way. It would have been the same for the sequels had he not sold to Disney.

I do not think he hated directing per se. He probably just hated directing under time, budget and overwork pressure. During the filming of ANH he was under a huge pressure. During ESB and ROTJ he had to create and handle several films (OT + Indiana Jones) and had oversee a major expansion of his company. He just did not have time to also be physically on the set everyday working with the cast and crew. Around the time of PT, he was under no such pressure any more and he probably enjoyed it (the result being bad, but that is not the point).

Also, I do not think he ever expressed any major dissatisfaction with ESB and ROTJ (besides going over budget on ESB). In the end, Kershner and Marquand stuck to his vision and ideas very well during the filming process.

As for the writing, it is probably a similar case. For example, he said he enjoyed writing a screenplay for ESB. To my knowledge, he only complained about writing for ANH.

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Also keep in mind that George didn’t actually want to direct the prequels. He asked directors he was friends with (Spielberg in particular) but they told him he should direct them himself.

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JadedSkywalker said:

On one hand Lucas hated directing and that is why he gave it up. And on the other hand he hated to cede control of one of his films to anyone, except the exception being Steven Spielberg. He hated films going over budget, he hated the writing process and didn’t like the technological limitations in his way of achieving his vision.
Collaboration was a necessity but he didn’t like to do that either.

When it came to do the prequels he just decided the hell with it and wrote and directed them himself to avoid what happened on Empire and Jedi. Its his way or no way. It would have been the same for the sequels had he not sold to Disney.

That’s not accurate.

Dek mentioned Spielberg in the comment before mine.

Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Robert Zemeckis were all offered the chance to direct Episode I and turned Lucas down.

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SilverWook said:
Yoda dying off camera and never being seen again would have been pretty lame. In the original making of ESB book, Lucas laments he couldn’t shoot a scene for Jedi during production on ESB, as there was the issue of saving and storing the Dagobah set for the next film. What he had in mind either had not been written yet, or the need to finish ESB took precedence.

Found the quote. ‘Empire Building’ by Garry Jenkins, p. 262:

“Marquand was not entirely averse to expressing an opinion. It had been his idea that Yoda be re-introduced in the film. In the original draft, Luke had simply referred to a conversation he had with his master before he had died. ‘I insisted we put him back. I felt we needed to see the conversation’, Marquand said at the time.”

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I love reading about Richard Marquand, his story and involvement in ROTJ. A few of the other OT threads about him which, could be of interest others reading this?:

• Interview With Richard Marquand Director of Return of the Jedi (June 1983) - 2011 thread, by Tobar

• Audio Interview with Richard Marquand (May 1983) - 2012 thread, by Tobar

• Rinzler writes about Marquand in Blueprints - 2011 thread, by Heilemann

• What was the point of hiring Richard Marquand in the first place? - 2016 thread, by Density

Are there more threads about or featuring Marquand on here?
 

Some of my favourite informative articles & videos on Marquand:

• Richard Marquand And His Amazing Contribution To Star Wars - at The Bearded Trio
• Vintage Richard Marquand Interview - at The Bearded Trio
• Starlog interview with Richard Marquand (1983) - at Starlog, Issue 71 (via The Internet Archive website)
• Richard Marquand interview: Return Of The Jedi, Star Wars - at Den Of Geek (2013 - previously unpublished)
• A Tribute To Richard Marquand - You Tube video by Rob Wainfur
• Richard Marquand directing a scene, out loud, from Return of the Jedi - You Tube video by violistarevirtuoso
• Radio Archive: Richard Marquand interview Return of the Jedi review - You Tube video by palimpsest2011
• James Marquand: talks about growing up in the Jedi glow - at FanthaTracks
• James Marquand - Star Wars: Life growing up in the Jedi’s glow - at the BBC
• An Interview And A Box - at the official Star Wars website (with JW Rinzler talking about Marquand and the ROTJ ‘Making Of’ book)
• The Curious Case Of The ‘Return Of The Jedi‘ Director - at Uproxx
• Who is the Supreme Intellect that Lucas spoke of to Richard Marquand? - at In A Far Away Galaxy (a fantastic site)
• Gerald Home (aka Squid Face) - at Star Wars Interviews (talking about ROTJ & Marquand)

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Very grateful for Marquand for including Yoda again - although it is a little convenient that Yoda happens to die as soon as Luke shows up (I always found that quite funny - LUKE: “see, I returned for your guidance, just like I promised!” YODA: “too late you are, just about to die I was. Mmmm. Know what you, just go fight Vader again you should, THEN a Jedi you are!”) that’s a hell of a nitpick in light of how touching that scene is. I love ROTJ Yoda. It’s a shame my 2004 edition DVD has a scratch and refuses to play that particular scene.

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