New interview with JEDI Producer Howard Kazanjian (includes discussion of a deleted scene).

Author: starwarsmania
Date: 4-Jul-2009, 6:38 AM

Author: starwarsmania
Time: 4-Jul-2009 6:38 AM
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Hello,

Happy 4th July to everyone in the US!!

Just to let you know that STAR WARS AFICIONADO has an exclusive new interview with RETURN OF THE JEDI Producer Howard Kazanjian, who talks about his career and his involvement in our favourite iconic films.

The interview contains lots of fascinating new information and includes a discussion on one of JEDI's famous lost scenes-Luke building his lightsaber on Tatooine, that I think you guys will find very interesting.

Head over to: http://www.starwarsaficionado.com/howardkazanjianinterview.html

Happy reading,

SCOTT

Author: Gaffer Tape
Time: 4-Jul-2009 1:29 PM
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Wow, good interview. Nice to know he's not fond of the SEs. Interesting how he was blatantly candid at some points but deeply reserved at others.

There is no lingerie in space…

Author: auraloffalwaffle
Time: 4-Jul-2009 5:09 PM
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Awesomeness! Thanks, starwarsmania!

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!

Author: SilverWook
Time: 4-Jul-2009 5:40 PM
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Great interview! Thanks for the link!

I've long believed that lightsaber building sequence was fully shot, or else why would ILM create a matte painting of the cave exterior?

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Where were you in '77?

Author: Anchorhead
Time: 4-Jul-2009 8:46 PM (Edited)
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The cave scene with Luke preparing his lightsaber while 3PO & R2 look on would have been an excellent bookend to the Star Wars scene where they're all introducing themselves to each other the day the droids were purchased from the Jawas.

A cerebral passage, a reflection if you will, of all they'd been through together. A sort of once more unto the breech moment as closure to that initial meeting all those years ago.

Too bad it wasn't part of the film. Lucas had long since lost his way telling the story of Star Wars anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter. That storyboard shot looks fantastic. What a lost moment.

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Author: Gaffer Tape
Time: 4-Jul-2009 9:36 PM
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Something I've always wondered about including that scene, though, would have been pacing. Where would it fit in the film? As much crap as I give the rescue plan in this movie, it does give the characters INTERESTING introductions into the film. Luke building his lightsaber, while being cool to see on its own, would probably ruin his introduction into that film.

There is no lingerie in space…

Author: CO
Time: 4-Jul-2009 11:14 PM (Edited)
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I agree. The one great thing the OT did was give a great introduction in all 3 movies to each character, something Lucas totally failed on in the PT movies. Now as a SW fan that has seen the OT films thousands of times, seeing deleted scenes of this stuff years later would still be cool too.

Author: Gaffer Tape
Time: 4-Jul-2009 11:15 PM
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Yeah, just like all the stuff on Tatooine with Luke and his friends. I would LOVE to see all that... in a deleted scenes feature. There were reasons these were cut out in the first place.

There is no lingerie in space…

Author: SilverWook
Time: 4-Jul-2009 11:56 PM
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And yet Lucas puts the meeting up with Biggs on Yavin scene in the Special Edition, and everybody is supposed to know who the heck this guy is. ;)

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Where were you in '77?

Author: Gaffer Tape
Time: 5-Jul-2009 12:17 AM
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I have to admit that, of all the shit added in for the SE, that one bothers me the least. Sure, it doesn't have the context of the rest of the movie (unless you pay attention to the dialogue earlier in the film), and it's not really necessary, but it is a nice scene and helps establish that at least a little bit.

There is no lingerie in space…

Author: SilverWook
Time: 5-Jul-2009 1:21 AM (Edited)
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It doesn't bother me, either. Except for the obvious foreground guy walking though they added to cover the dialog about Luke's father that was cut. Nothing about what Red Leader said actually contradicts the prequels. (And it stands to reason Anakin was a popular "war hero" who simply vanished from average citizen's point of view.)

Of course, if the early Biggs scenes had been put in, we'd all be nitpicking about how he managed to find and join the Rebel Alliance in less than a week. ;)

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Where were you in '77?

Author: Gaffer Tape
Time: 5-Jul-2009 1:27 AM
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Well, it DOES bother me, on the principle that it's a change to the film. It's just one that I subjectively don't dislike because it's less invasive and serves more of a purpose than most of the other changes. There's a subtle difference. ^_~

There is no lingerie in space…

Author: SilverWook
Time: 5-Jul-2009 5:41 AM
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Guess I should have said it doesn't bother me that much. It's original footage, and no CGI schenanigans in sight. ;)

Had the special edition simply been a cleaned up restored longer cut, things might be different now.

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Where were you in '77?

Author: CO
Time: 6-Jul-2009 7:58 PM
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Interesting to read that the reason Han was put in carbonite was because they didn't know if he would do the 3rd movie. A great moment in the OT simply because Ford wasn't contractually obligated for another movie!

Author: Mielr
Time: 6-Jul-2009 8:13 PM (Edited)
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Interesting interview. I always believed that the lightsaber scene was shot, mainly because of the music that was composed for the scene.

Well, except for that guy that they digitally inserted to walk across the screen. ;-) I liked that addition very much (the ONLY thing I liked about the SEs), but I would have liked it a whole lot more if they'd left it uncut. :-/

Author: CO
Time: 6-Jul-2009 8:21 PM (Edited)
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Isn't the Biggs/Luke dialogue changed in that scene too? I think when it was shot in 1977, Biggs talks about remembering Lukes dad (when he was not Darth Vader). I have to watch that scene again, but Biggs's mouth moves to different dialogue!

Author: Mielr
Time: 6-Jul-2009 8:28 PM (Edited)
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It was Red Leader that talked about Luke's Dad (Biggs wouldn't have been old enough to have known Anakin), and that's the portion that was cut and replaced with the guy walking across the screen. Like SilverWook said, there's nothing that he said that contradicted anything so the cut was really unneccesary.

Author: Gaffer Tape
Time: 6-Jul-2009 8:38 PM
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Wow, I'm amazed you didn't know that, CO! I thought that was extremely common knowledge in the fandom.

There is no lingerie in space…

Author: CO
Time: 6-Jul-2009 9:22 PM (Edited)
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Gaffer,

For some reason I never heard that about Han and Carbonite, although I did know he only had a 2 picture deal.

For some reason, I know the least about ESB when it comes to behind the scenes material, probably cause it was my least favorite as a kid. I remember the summer of '83 reading anything I can about ROTJ, watching all the documentaries, etc. Of course there are so many docs about SW'77, so we all know everything about that movie. I would love to find more behind the scenes stuff on ESB.

Author: Gaffer Tape
Time: 6-Jul-2009 9:29 PM
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Well, check out the thread I just made about the '04 commentaries! I posted a link to a page on zombie's site that has an awesome transcription of what was going on the day of filming the carbon freeze scene. Simply amazing.

There is no lingerie in space…

Author: SilverWook
Time: 6-Jul-2009 10:23 PM
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"Once Upon a Galaxy" has probably the best behind the scenes info on Empire. It was written journal style by the publicist on the set, literally from the beginning of production and into post production. Whether it ever gets reprinted is anyone's guess. If the recorded audio interviews still survive, they would make for great Blu Ray extras someday!

I've toyed with the idea of scanning the entire book, as I fear it would be edited to reflect George's current take on things.

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Where were you in '77?

Author: xhonzi
Time: 7-Jul-2009 12:14 PM (Edited)
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There's also a video called "State of the Art, the SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back" that is pretty good and one of the only ESB focused docos. Available where ever you find the rest of that stuff.

On a completely different note, does anyone have a high quality picture of the birds eye shot of the Sail Barge set (as seen in the interview in the first post of this thread)? I hadn't seen that picture before and I would like to use it as wallpaper for a bit. Thanks

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!

Author: SpaceOddity
Time: 23-Jul-2009 2:07 AM
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I agree... I think it's an interesting interview but disappointing at the same time. He refused to answer a lot of the things - aka the "juicy bits" lol - that I would love to know more about. Like the cast... how involved Richard Marquand was with ROTJ... etc.

Author: Mielr
Time: 30-Jul-2009 2:09 AM (Edited)
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I was going to start a new topic, but it sort of related to this one so I'll just post it here......

Mark Hamill says he never shot lightsaber construction scene (he didn't say it wasn't shot, just that HE didn't shoot it):

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

Author: SilverWook
Time: 30-Jul-2009 4:36 PM
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Next thing you know, Hamill will claim that the Bacta tank love scene in Empire was never shot. ;)

Seriously though, in the storyboard Luke and Artoo are in the shadows of the cave, so they could have shot a double in silhouette building the saber.

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Where were you in '77?