Originally posted by: zombie84

Originally posted by: rancher

Originally posted by: Jambe Davdar

Originally posted by: Sluggo
I don't trust the wiki.

Neither do I, but this Movie Score magazine articles preceeds it. The Wiki entry is taken almost word for word from this article, not the other way around.

Lets face it, we won't know unless one of us tracks down a 70mm print and takes a look. But this is the next best thing.

Thanks everyone for looking into this further.

70mm versions:

#1 - THE ADVANCE CUT (The likely intended sneak preview/extended & different test cut - low # of prints)

Edmonton, AB (Canada) Start of this thread.
Chicago, IL (U.S.A.) Maybe. Amazon claim provided by Laserman.
Germany Claim provided by Laserman.

This Advance Cut might be the same as the one shown May 6th, 1980 @ Fox Studios.

#2 - THE UNFINISHED CUT (The majorty of the first-wave engagements & the "less complete" version)

#3 - THE EXPANSION CUT (The second-wave engagements released on June 18, 1980 & June 27, 1980. Likely used for all future re-releases)

I'm sure many here have given this a glance or two. This was a fun read for me. I'm convinced that this is one of the shooting scripts & pretty much the the 1st. key to advance cut of the film without a doubt.

The 1st. 4th Draft of TESB

That script is the fourth draft, written way back in November of 1978 i believe. There was another revision done, then a fifth draft written in february of 1979 in preparation for shooting in March. The script itself underwent some fairly extensive changes even from the shooting script however (the real shooting script that is, dont know why the fourth draft is mislabelled as such).

The beginning right up to leaving Hoth seems to be pretty much dead on in the 4th draft from 10/24/1978, but some of the Bespin stuff is right out there. I am thinking that this or maybe the 4.R draft script was used to shoot the first part of the film. I will say that almost everything up to the end of Hoth was filmed. Minor dialogue changes from what I read in this 1st. 4th draft. Reading this was the next best thing to actually seeing this cut again.

Here is the list of the shooting scripts:

TESB.4.
October 24, 1978.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Fourth Draft by Lawrence Kasdan. Shooting Script.
Source: Bouzereau: p. 123.
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Starlog # 51 (October 1981): "[When he accepted the Empire assignment, Kasdan was handed a second draft script to work from that George Lucas had written.] George's draft was something that he wrote very quickly, when Leigh passed away. George had the story very well outlined […]"
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Cinefantastique Vol. 28, No. 28 (February 1997): "What I worked on was a draft of the script George had written, based on the story George had given to Leigh [Brackett]. I don't know what of Leigh's draft survived into the draft George wrote. What George handed me was a very rough first draft, really somewhere between an outline and a first draft. The structure of the story was all there - it was the skeleton for a movie. What was needed was the flesh and the muscle."

November 1978.
Script Conference for two weeks between George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, Irvin Kershner & Gary Kurtz. (Apparently, no transcript exists since Bouzereau does not mention this conference.)
Source: Pollock: p. 229.

TESB.4.R.
December 5, 1978-January 1 & 4, 1979.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Revised Fourth Draft by Lawrence Kasdan. 163 pages. 435 scenes. Shooting script.

February 19, 1979
Correspondence from Irvin Kershner to George Lucas, regarding revisions to pages 143-160.
Source: Bouzereau: p. 123.

TESB.5.
February 20, 1979.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Fifth Draft by Lawrence Kasdan. Shooting Script.

TESB.5.R.
March 19, July 23, August 24 1979.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Revised Fifth Draft by Lawrence Kasdan. 157 pages. 435 scenes. Shooting Script.

All through 1979-1980.
Subsequent revisions from director Irvin Kershner and actors. Many of these dialogue changes were not to the liking of screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.

Published Scripts:

TESB.PV.
November 1980.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Public Version of Revised Fifth Draft. No dates. No scene numbers. Edited to fit the finished film.
Printed in The Empire Strikes Back Notebook, Ballantine Books 1980. Edited by Diana Attias & Lindsay Smith.

List from:
The Connoisseur's Guide to the Scripts of the Star Wars Saga

I am unable to find any others & I would like to compare these scripts. Anybody know the links?

BTW thanks zombie84. I wouldn't have looked at these without your persistent technical readouts.