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Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck's work on SW

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So it's fairly well known to nerds in the know that Lucas' friends and colleagues Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck did an uncredited dialogue polish on the final draft of Star Wars prior to the film going into production.

I'm not familiar with the many drafts of SW, shooting scripts and what has been made available for the public to read.

Can anyone here give me a bit of detail in regards to this? What was the draft they contributed to (obviously the final one)? Are there versions available that can be read pre and post Katz and Huyck polish?

I do know that SW evolved a lot from drafts to screen and I'm curious as to what the difference is between Lucas' final draft, the script that was given to crew and actors in pre-production, to what was shot on the day. If it's very little or simply that material has not been made available I won't bother looking any further.

 

 

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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 (Edited)

Almost all the public versions of the scripts can be found here:

http://starwarz.com/starkiller/

and they have several articles:

http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/03/the-connoisseurs-guide-to-the-scripts-of-the-star-wars-saga/

With passages like these which document the Katz/Huyck contributions:

March 15, 1976.
The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from “The Journal of the Whills” (Saga 1) Star Wars.
Revised Fourth Draft Screenplay. 156 pages. 252 scenes.
With circa 30 percent dialogue additions by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. (The actual shooting script: Ben Kenobi dies.)
Source: Bouzereau: p. 3; Pollock: p. 20; Flynn: p. 13.

SW.SE. 1997.
Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope (Special Edition).
Public Version of Fourth Draft with Special Edition changes. No scene numbers. No dates. Annotated by Laurent Bouzereau, including interview snippets from George Lucas etc. Asterisks (*) indicate the most significant dialogue contributions from Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz for the revised Fourth Draft. Printed in Laurent Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays, Del Rey 1997.

and

http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/05/the-development-of-star-wars-as-seen-through-the-scripts-by-george-lucas/

Lucas had consulted his co-writers from American Graffiti (Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz) to sharpen the dialogue, which he felt lacked humour and bounce, and although he rejected most of what they came up with, their new ideas gave Lucas renewed confidence in his work

 

From what I remember the 'Star Wars - The Annotated Screenplays' by Laurent Bouzereau, is the place to start.  They notate each Katz/Huyck dialog with a '*'

The book is in google.books so you can search through it from here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=eQ7ct2r14w0C&q=%22star+wars%22+%22annotated+screenplays%22+katz&dq=%22star+wars%22+%22annotated+screenplays%22+katz&hl=en&ei=d5I3TZaJK4S8lQf0x731Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA

 

*EDIT*

Poking through my copy the first significant contribution I find is the Luke/3po bit:

http://books.google.com/books?ei=d5I3TZaJK4S8lQf0x731Bg&ct=result&id=eQ7ct2r14w0C&dq=%22star+wars%22+%22annotated+screenplays%22+katz&q=alter+time#search_anchor

LUKE
Well, not unless you can alter
time, speed up the harvest, or
teleport me off this rock!

THREEPIO
I don’t think so, sir. I’m only
a droid and not very knowledgeable
about such things. Not on this
planet, anyways. As a matter of
fact, I’m not even sure which
planet I’m on.

LUKE
Well, if there’s a bright center
to the universe, you’re on the
planet that it’s farthest from.

THREEPIO
I see, sir.

LUKE
Uh, you can call me Luke.

THREEPIO
I see, sir Luke.

LUKE
(laughing)
Just Luke.

THREEPIO
And I am See-Threepio, human-cyborg
relations, and this is my counterpart,
Artoo-Detoo.

All that is accredited to Katz/Huyck.

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Woah that's awesome none. Much appreciated.

 

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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none said:

Poking through my copy the first significant contribution I find is the Luke/3po bit:

LUKE
Well, not unless you can alter
time, speed up the harvest, or
teleport me off this rock!

THREEPIO
I don’t think so, sir. I’m only
a droid and not very knowledgeable
about such things. Not on this
planet, anyways. As a matter of
fact, I’m not even sure which
planet I’m on.

LUKE
Well, if there’s a bright center
to the universe, you’re on the
planet that it’s farthest from.

THREEPIO
I see, sir.

LUKE
Uh, you can call me Luke.

THREEPIO
I see, sir Luke.

LUKE
(laughing)
Just Luke.

THREEPIO
And I am See-Threepio, human-cyborg
relations, and this is my counterpart,
Artoo-Detoo.

All that is accredited to Katz/Huyck.

Without a doubt, one of my absolute favorite passages from the film.  It really grabbed me when I was a kid, really reinforced that I was on the adventure of a lifetime.  It felt a million miles from home, yet strangely comfortable at the same time.  A  fantastic part of the film for me.

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I always wondered if they were the ones behind Han's ribbing of Luke about Leia. Thinking about it, I also wouldn't be surprised if they were behind, "Let the Wookiee win!"

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 (Edited)

Here's my recreation of my copy of the book.  Remember the asterisk indicates work by Huyck and Katz:

Luke sits in the co-pilot's seat.  He and Han stare out at the vast blackness of space.

*LUKE:  So...What do you think of her, Han?

*HAN:  I'm trying not to, kid.

*LUKE:  (Under his breath)  Good ...

HAN:  Still, she's got a lot of spirit.  I don't know, do you think it's possible for a princess and a guy like me ...

LUKE:  No.

Luke says it with finality and looks away.  Han smiles at young Luke's jealousy.  They both stare at the stars and think about it.

 

 

...Threepio intercedes on behalf of his small companion and begins to argue with the huge wookiee.

THREEPIO:  (To Chewie)  He made a fair move.  Screaming about it can't help you.

HAN:  (To Threepio)  Let him have it.  It's not wise to upset a wookiee.

THREEPIO:  But, sir, no one worries about upsetting a droid.

*HAN:  That's because a droid doesn't rip peoples arms out of their sockets when they lose ... wookiees have been known to do that.

*THREEPIO:  I see your point.  (To Artoo)  I suggest a new strategy, Artoo.  Let ...the wookiee ... win.

Tobar, I think you are cheating!

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see you auntie said:

Yes I think Tobar is cheating also ;)

Maybe you ought to take Han's advice... ;)

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see you auntie said:

So it's fairly well known to nerds in the know that Lucas' friends and colleagues Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck did an uncredited dialogue polish on the final draft of Star Wars prior to the film going into production.

Seems to me those two contributed quite a lot more to the script than is often mentioned. George just can't write dialogue as good as that attributed to Katz and Huyck (and probably there are many other examples in Star Wars not credited to them).

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The annotated scripts tells us which lines they wrote i think.

30% of the final script and dialog.  The snappy lines and such.

 

Funny that they wrote great scripts in star wars and graffiti, but Temple of Doom and Radioland Murders were Turkey's.

 

Didn't they also write Howard the Duck, talk about ouch in terms of your career.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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In what parallel universe is TOD a turkey? ;)

I have to wonder what Lucas' relationship with Katz, Hyuck, and Kasdan is like these days. You'd think somebody who had admitted how much he hates writing in the past would have had all three of them helping out on the prequels. The lines Kasdan wrote for Crystal Skull are easy to spot.

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Where were you in '77?

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TOD isn't a turkey but it a very ugly and flawed film in places (much like ROTJ).

The effects are sometimes below what would be expected in the films it's paying homage to, deleted sequences are edited out with very little care and the whole idea of the British being the good guys and the Indians being either childlike and helpless without a pale face or evil heart ripping monkey brain eating savages is rather racy.

It's certainly no Raiders but TLC isn't much of an improvement.

The only entirely successful Indiana Jones film is Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

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Silly people talking about Indiana Jones movies that don't exist ...

Indiana Jones is called a "trilogy" but there are only two movies in it: Raiders of the Lost Ark. and The Last Crusade. There are no other movies. Period. I won't listen to any nonsense about it being otherwise ...

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The Last Crusade is just a watered down remake.

With Sallah the comedy Arab, Brody the comedy English buffoon and Jones Snr the comedy....it's Sean Connery, it's always Sean Connery.

The well rounded, developed characters of the first films are gone, the awe is awful, the Nazis are full on comedy Nazis (Toht might have been played for laughs at times but you know he would really use that poker if he got the chance and the rest of them were appropriately evil little schitz).

At least TOD was exciting.

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They are both interviewed in GEORGE LUCAS FLYING SOLO BBC STORY OF STAR WARS BBC documentary.

 

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
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