I realize that this is a somewhat bizarre thing to ask about, but it is technically SW related and I don’t really know of anywhere else to ask about this sort of thing.
So I just started reading J. W. Rinzler’s ‘The Making of Star Wars’, mostly with the intent of learning as much as I could about the early script drafts (I’ve been strangely obsessed with these lately) and I came across something interesting.
When describing Lucas’ creative process in writing the first two of drafts Rinzler mentions several pictures being attached to the scripts. Keep in mind that this is before Lucas had hired McQuarrie or any of the other artists to illustrate his ideas, so these images were not made for Star Wars.
The thing that’s bothering me is that Rinzler has decided to not show any of these photos in the book, and instead merely opted to describe them. (I guess this might be due to some copyright issues, but the book has several Flash Gordon pictures, old movie posters, etc.)
Here’s his descriptions of the photos;
-In reference to the story treatment, in May 1973
“To give United Artists an idea of what kind of visuals he had in mind, Lucas had attached ten images to the treatment:
four NASA photos (astronauts in space, sattelites, spaceships with peculiarly shaped wings); a photo of US army amphibious tanks; and five fantasy illustrations, consisting of a skull-faced , muscular man holding a dead woman, pietà-like; a sci-fantasy hero, crouching and holding a blaster; a swarm of warriors fighting a giant furry creature; another sci-fi hero standing next to a futuristic vehicle; and a goggle-faced alien staring out at the viewer.”
-In reference to the rough draft, May 1974
“Lucas’s bound copy of this draft has a mock-up cover with Flash Gordon-like characters blasting each other;
one is on a jet hover-pad, while the other protects a girl.
Interspersed in the pages are occasional illustrations pulled from comic books:
Han Solo resembles a swamp creature, while 'Captain Starkiller* (Annikin) is clearly a Buck Rogers type.”
(This “swamp creature” is probably a reference to The Swamp Thing comic series which was first published in 1972. It’s also worth noting that the Dark Horse comics adaptation of the rough draft has an alien Han Solo that looks almost identical to the Swamp Thing.)
-In reference to the second draft, January 28 1975
“A copy in the Lucasfilm Archives features a red cover with a Frank Frazetta-like illustration of a man holding a sword with an adoring, voluptuous woman wrapped around his leg.”
(I’m guessing this was the inspiration for the Jung/Hildebrant posters.)
EDIT: I actually found this one (image posted below).
Does anyone know if any of these pictures have ever been published in relation to Star Wars?
Maybe there’s some other BTS books that choose to include these pictures.
(I highly doubt that it would be possible to find these pictures simply based on these descriptions.)
EDIT:
Second draft (January 28, 1975) cover.
