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Official Star Wars newsletter from 1978

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From the Official Star Wars Fan Club newsletter of May 1978;
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"Star Wars Sequel
On February 23rd, it was announced that Star Wars Corporation will begin production on the sequel to Star Wars this summer. The title has not been selected yet, but it will not be Star Wars II.

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."
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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.

That's odd - mid 1978 and still no mention of Episode 4. You'd think that having decided against putting Episode 4 on the opening titles of Star Wars - err, uh, I mean - having been forced by the studio to leave it off of the opening titles, that he would have at least mentioned it in his sequel announcement.
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He wasn't forced, in the end he agreed, also he didn't write this newsletter himself.
Your focus determines your reality.
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Agreed. Why would you put an episode number on something you don't know will be a hit or not? Sometimes studios make sense.
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Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
He wasn't forced, in the end he agreed, also he didn't write this newsletter himself.


But it's the official Star Wars newsletter, so either way, it makes George look bad. If you go with the opinion that these are facts from George himself, then it contradicts things he says now and things he said in the slightly less distant past. If we go with your opinion that this is just made up garbage, then George should have caught this publication and refuted it or kept it from print. It's a bad reflection on him if he can't even control what comes out of his company's official newsletter.

1 of 12, huh? I don't think I'd heard that one before. Nice find. Certainly refutes Episode IV, huh? Well, I'm sure Go-Mer will need much more proof than this absolute proof, though.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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Clairfying a misunderstanding about things he or people from his own organization said in the past makes him look bad?

There was at least one interview where Lucas was talking about how he was thinking about doing 9 films, and the interviewer offered something to the effect of: You could probably even do 12 films, and Lucas agreed to that possiblity.

Again I don't think Lucas is actually denying talking about doing more than 6, I think he's just saying he never came up with more story than what we now have in the 6 film cycle.
Your focus determines your reality.
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Where do you get that from? More importantly, how stupid would you have to be to be this newsletter and "misunderstand" four out of six as being one out of twelve? I know some people are bad at math, but come on!

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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Again, I don't think Lucas is denying -ever- contemplating 9 or even 12 films. Obviously he was talking about 9 or even 12 films, but settled on 6.

His plan changed, and so it's not so hard to see how someone writing a fan newsletter, going on these various interviews from back then, could think that whatever he had last read was the "plan".
Your focus determines your reality.
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My real point with posting this was to point out how the whole "I started at episode four" crap was just more revisionist history on George's part. He makes up elaborate back stories about stuff that never even happened. The crap about he decided to leave episode four off of the opening title - then in a different interview, it was the studio that wanted it off. All the while, here's his official newsletter stating Star Wars was the first in the series - not number four. Even after the sequel was announced, it still isn't number four, nor is Empire number five.

He makes up so many different versions of the past and insists that they are the truth - often times when they aren't even the same versions - and when there's documented proof of what really happened. Yet, his followers will just drink up anything he says. They even defend his lies - while there's documented, published evidence that he's a liar.

His ability to manipulate his fans - as well as their unwillingness to think for themselves - is disturbing. He has them so brainwashed that they even imagine their own versions of what must have happened, just so it matches whatever he's gagged up in his latest interview.

Sad.
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But he -did- start with Episode IV.

Isn't it possible the stuido wanted to keep the subtitle off and Lucas agreed with that?

I don't see any reason to take your word over his in these matters. He was there, you are just assuming you know exactly what really went on, when really you don't have a whole lot to go on in the first place.
Your focus determines your reality.
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Originally published by: George Lucas's corporation in 1978
Star Wars Corporation will begin production on the sequel to Star Wars... the second of twelve stories

Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
But he -did- start with Episode IV.

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I'm sorry I thought you were making a point of some kind.
Your focus determines your reality.
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Oh, my gosh!

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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If you are trying to prove that he had a lot of ideas about what he would do before he settled on what he did, then mission accomplished.

I was just saying that doesn't make him a liar.
Your focus determines your reality.
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If he claims that the current plan was the only plan, which he does, then it does make him a liar. I have no problem with him changing his plan.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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When has he ever said the current plan was the "only" plan?
Your focus determines your reality.
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Why do you guys give him the time of day? No matter what happens, Gomer will defend Lucas till the day he dies.

Look, Lucas never wrote complete and full stories to cover this alleged grand saga, bottom line. He doesn't know what he's talking about when explaining Star Wars most of the time. That's why he has the EU writers and people at LFL like Pablo Hidalgo to fill in the blanks. I don't particularly hate him, but he struck gold with Star Wars and has been going to the same well for for ages He needs to move on from his monstrous creation. I'm sure that he never intended this thing to consume his life the way it has too.
There's good in the Original Trilogy, and it's worth fighting for.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
http://www.myspace.com/harlock415
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Gomer, stop defending Lucas. It's pointless.

Thing is, I don't think any less of Lucas because he had no master plan. That's fact. He had no master plan. He had a script called The Star Wars, and when it while it was being written and filmed, he got ideas for a possible sequel, but no master plan. I think no less of him for this. It's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Why do Lucas and Gomer think it is?

What I hate Lucas for is lying through his teeth about it. He's lost all my respect for trying to glorify himself so much.
Watch DarthEvil's Who Framed Darth Vader? video on YouTube!

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Exactly. There's nothing wrote with not having a grand scheme. He honestly did not tink it was going to be this huge.

The man is not like Tolkien who had enough notes to fill 12 volumes of material publlished after his death. Nobody sets out to make a movie with a grand universe like Star Wars already mapped out. What I object to is him hemmin, hawing and outright not admitting that fact. Why can't he say "I don't know, I had no idea where it would go from there, except for a couple of pages of outline."
There's good in the Original Trilogy, and it's worth fighting for.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
http://www.myspace.com/harlock415
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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."
Your focus determines your reality.
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Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
Excerpt from Vanity Fair February 1999:
"That's really not part of the plan at this point, " he [Lucas] says. (emphasis added)


So how is it not being part of the plan in 1999 any indication of it also not being part of the plan in 1979, when he said it was part of the plan?

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Beats the hell out of me. I don't know why anyone would even suggest that.

You guys were saying that he said they were never part of the plan, I am saying he wasn't saying that at all.

Here, Lucas is saying that it's no longer the plan at that point. That the story was instead designed to end with ROTJ.

He is aknowledging that he had changed his mind, not that he always intended to do 6 films.
Your focus determines your reality.
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Premiere magazine May 1999 page 77

[Anne Thompson] Are you planning to do the final trilogy as well? To make it a saga of nine films?
[George Lucas] No, no. [After Star Wars came out] somebody asked me if I was going to do a sequel. And I said, “I’m doing the other two parts to this one.” And they said, “You’re doing this trilogy – do you have any more?” And I said, “I’ve got a backstory, which I’ve got laid out. I could probably do that.” And they said, “But are you going to do a sequel?” And I said, “I guess maybe I could do a sequel at some point.” And that got turned into doing nine films.

So it’s really six films.
It’s six films. It’s really not nine films. It’s extremely unlikely that I will go on and do any more.
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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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