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I'm sure you get the gist however.Once again, this is from the Star-Ledger Friday, May 20, 2005.
Headline: SIX IS ENOUGH
or is it? Lucas denies ever planning 9 episodes.
by Lisa Rose
Call them the Phantom Movies. During the prerelease hullaboo for TESB in 1980, Lucas suggested that the Skywalker saga would not be complete after 3 films or even 6 films. He spoke of intentions to make SW a 9-installment franchise.
It was widely reported in print throughout the 80s that he would create 2 follow-up trilogies, one going back in time to explore Vader's roots and another turing the clock ahead to revisit the further adventures of his heroic son Luke.
Yet it looks like that 3rd set of films has vanished from radar like a starship locked into lightspeed.
According to Lucas, the new jedi epic RotS is the swan song for the series. He believes the third prequel which follows Anakin's devolution into Vader, provides the closure fans seek.
"The (series) starts with Vader as a young lad and ends with him dying so I don't know where else I can take it," says Lucas. "It's what I wanted it to be."
The director denies ever stating that he'd make Ep 7-9, blaming the media for reporting rumors as fact in the early days of "Star Wars."
He said the hype was "created by you guys, not by me," while speaking to journalists during press day earlier this month at his Skywalker Ranch headquarters in Marin County, CA.
Technically, he never promised 9 movies, but the news stories of Luke redux weren't pure fiction.
"We made an announcement to the press, 'There's enough material for 3 trilogies,'" says Kurtz. "It wasn't 9 films were going to be made. It was to give you an idea of how much material was there."
Before Lucas wrote the script for "Star Wars", he put together a novel-length treatment tracing the intergalactic exploits of Skywalker and son. In the blueprint, the plot spanned beyond Luke's young adult years to portray him as an elder Jedi.
"He went on to become the master and pass on his training to someone else," Kurtz says.
Kurtz adds that at one point, there was even talk of expanding the chronicle to 12 chapters.
"There were a lot of things bandied about. There were people who wanted to do novels, tangential stories that have nothing to do with the main story of the films. Everyone one of those could be turned into a film. There was an idea about using R2-D2 and C3PO in a feature, or Han Solo's adventures. I suppose you could invent things forever, but I don't think anything concrete was too seriously considered."
According to Kurtz, the possibility of a 3rd trilogy diminished when Lucas veered from his treatment to create RotJ. The original tale he mapped out didn't feature Ewoks or a 2nd Death Star, and it culminated in the death of Han Solo. Leia parted ways with Luke to lead those who survived her home planet's destruction.
The most critical change, however, was incorporating what would have been the climax of Ep 9, a showdown between Luke and the Emperor.
"The idea was that the Emperor would be hinted at and maybe seen occasionally but there wouldn't be a final confrontation with him until the 9th story." says Kurtz, who ended his association with Lucas after Empire, patrially because he was displeased with the aforementioned revisions.
The Skywalkers are only going into semiretirement. They'll continue to cross lightsabers and pilot spaceships in othe mediums, including books, video games, comics, and a planned live-action TV series. There will be a 3d rerelease of all 6 movies starting in 07. Lucas authorizes these projects but has no creative involvement with them, content to let others run with his ideas.
"The TV shows and all that stuff, they're different from the saga, which is the 6 films." says Lucas. "I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that part of the world. It's a different world than my world."
In Lucas' world, the SW circle is complete. He plans to lower his directiorial profile and work on smaller, more personal pictures, he says. "I would lay money down that his heirs 20 years from now decide to continue the saga." says Anthony Ferrante, editor-in chief of Cinescape. "You can never say never. For the longest time, I thought, 'No, he'll never do more SW movies after Jedi. Its the 9-s., he's never gonna get around to it.' But he did."
(end)
There you have it. I think Lucas is full of it. But that's just me. This article irks me a bit, though.
