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Making of Return of the Jedi (the book) Thread — Page 2

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J.W. Rinzler via Twitter: "In SR Archives, hit gold mine: original interviews of Richard Marquand and H. Kazanjian--gotta be over 200 pages. Huge for ROTJ book."

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Tobar said:


J.W. Rinzler via Twitter: "In SR Archives, hit gold mine: original interviews of Richard Marquand and H. Kazanjian--gotta be over 200 pages. Huge for ROTJ book."
I read that, such good news. Glad that there are so many untapped resources.

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What is the SR Archive?

EDIT: Nevermind...Skywalker Ranch. Doh!

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Tobar said:

J.W. Rinzler via Twitter: "In SR Archives, hit gold mine: original interviews of Richard Marquand and H. Kazanjian--gotta be over 200 pages. Huge for ROTJ book."

Maybe he should have kept it quiet til after the book was published so George couldn't revise these interviews in his own image ...... I hope none of it gets censored.

:)

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I have a feeling a lot of these are the ones that appeared in 1983's The Making of Return of the Jedi, by John Peecher. That was a good book. I bet Marcia Lucas' interview for that book won't be making the final cut for the new one.

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...and Marquand didn't seem like much of a fighter.  He knew his place.  Some of the TV interviews with him, Marquand makes fun of Kershner.  Explaining the difference between their directing style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmEGcSVW428

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zombie84 said:

I bet Marcia Lucas' interview for that book won't be making the final cut for the new one.

You know, I always wondered, if the ever changing Special Editions were due in some part to George's desire to push her percentage of credit back to zero.....I mean he is a bit.....errrr.....self-absorbed.

:)

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Nice find! I think there's some footage in there that's not in Classic Creatures or Making of a Saga.

Even in '83 they were fibbing over the title change. Note the "nine episodes" is mentioned though. Whoops!

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none said:  Some of the TV interviews with him, Marquand makes fun of Kershner.  Explaining the difference between their directing style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmEGcSVW428

He's not really making fun of him. It was a common sentiment back then (that Empire's sophistication wasn't automatically preferable to Star Wars' simplicity).

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Baronlando said:

none said:  Some of the TV interviews with him, Marquand makes fun of Kershner.  Explaining the difference between their directing style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmEGcSVW428

He's not really making fun of him. It was a common sentiment back then (that Empire's sophistication wasn't automatically preferable to Star Wars' simplicity).

I look at it this way.....there is a reason why most people consider Empire over Jedi as their favorite.  "Kersch" was ALL over it.

;)

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none said:

...and Marquand didn't seem like much of a fighter.  He knew his place.  Some of the TV interviews with him, Marquand makes fun of Kershner.  Explaining the difference between their directing style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmEGcSVW428

That's interesting. 'cos I really like Kershner's directing style, he sets up shots for the characters very well. He knows how to handle a scene.

 

If that makes sense

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Roj Blake said :

Another case of me 'not want'ing twinkle eyed Welshmen behind the camera of space fantasies.

In front of the camera they can work wonders.

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That is because Empire is much more a character piece.  Which really is where Kershner is good, and where Kasden's writing strength is when not limited by Lucas control.

Jedi is an action piece much more like star wars than Empire is.   A swashbuckler like star wars but even more juvenile than that first film was.

Jedi made more than Empire.  Empire almost cost Lucas everything because the film went three times over budget over time in shooting.

Marquand knew how to do quick and cheap set ups and coming from a documentary  background like Lucas, he was much more aligned to Lucas vision than Kersh was.

 

On Empire as beautiful as the photography is, and that the finished film was marvelous, Kersh almost went to Kubrick style levels in the filming and set ups, totally out of bounds in a Lucas production.

“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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skyjedi2005 said:

On Empire as beautiful as the photography is, and that the finished film was marvelous, Kersh almost went to Kubrick style levels in the filming and set ups, totally out of bounds in a Lucas production.

Really?

I know he went over time and budget and went through a flurry of multiple takes but is ESB any more 'arty' than Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind or Superman The Movie?

Raiders being the pertinent call, being a Lucas production and pretty close in terms of development to how the Star Wars sequels were made.

The simple truth is Return Of The Jedi is not that good a Star Wars film, it's not quite as bad as the PT (which is why it tends to get overlooked) but it's where the rot set in.

None of the Indiana Jones films even approach Raiders either.

After Raiders Lucas just plain lost any mojo he may have had (probably because of the Marcia thing).

From then on it was a case of knocking them out as infrequently as he could get away with and selling the toys, videos, video games, comics etc and not worrying about the quality or even the quantity of the films themselves.

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SilverWook said:

Are Max Rebo and Hooter long lost brothers? ;)

 W00t!  Captain EO reference!  AND I GOT IT!

There's a joke in here too...

Such as: One of them hangs out with a vile piece of worm ridden filth.  And the other one hangs out with Jabba the Hutt.

Maybe that's not fair.  Hooter was before the "crazy" days for MJ as far as I can tell.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Nice for Rinzler to document films that Lucas has made all but no longer in existence, unless you count the gout.

Nothing made me more angry than reading the making of star wars and empire and realizing the films themselves are not even being given the same deluxe treatment the books on them are.

“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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http://twitter.com/jwrinzler

Saw last five reels of Director's Cut of Jedi--some scenes different/longer. Saw Lucas's re-cut of sarlacc scene. Writing, up to page 40...

Watched the first seven reels of the director's cut of Revenge of the Jedi at SR this morning on a KEM; sound is really 50% of picture.

Yesterday started writing rough draft Making of Jedi. After 7 months, 530 pages, 218,000 words of research. More to do, but had to start...

Found elusive revised second draft of Jedi at SR--interesting collage script. Hit 150,000-word mark--still only research. Urk, as they say.

lots of other tidbits in his feed.

Sounds like the book is coming along with much info to be discovered.  Hope it's longer then the ESB book, which looks a little skimpy next to the SW making of book.

 

Sluggo's Expanded RotJ script: http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/05/revenge-of-the-jedi-expanded-script/

Wonder how close the revised second draft is this revised rough draft: http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/03/revenge-of-the-jedi-revised-rough-draft/

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Is this the first time a "Marquand Cut" has been acknowledged as actually existing?

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SilverWook wrote: Is this the first time a "Marquand Cut" has been acknowledged as actually existing?

The 'Director's Cut' terminology could play out different ways.  Hard to be accurate descriptive in a tweet.  But from the Preecher's book: (pg 268)

JUN 23   1st Rough Cut

JUL 7     2nd Rough Cut

JUL 28   3rd Rough Cut

AUG 6    4th Rough Cut and SCREENING

SEP 30   Director's Cut

OCT 22   Fine Cut

NOV 1    LOCK PICTURE

I think calling it a Marquand Cut is a stretch as Lucas seems to have been always around.  Speculating that Director's Cut is how they envision everything to be, but then you might have to sacrifice a scene here or there to fit the limitations of film reels and other realities of the medium.

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You're probably right.

I'm surprised nobody has ever done a fan film parody of the making of Jedi, where Richard Marquand can't escape George, no matter where he goes!

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Have any of you read the interview with Marquand I posted a while back? That thread seemed to get buried pretty quickly but it had a lot interesting tidbits from the man himself.

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Could you post a link back to it, Tobar? I can't seem to find it.

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