The Empire Strikes Back Panic Attack Cut

It's probably not too controversial to say most Star Wars fans love The Empire Strikes Back and for a large number it's their favorite of the series.

But at one point in the production George Lucas (with a self financed sequel, over budget, over schedule) took the existing footage into an editing bay and cut together a fast paced, action centred version of the first part of the film (something he later admitted was a bad idea).

Imagining that this had been done to the whole film what would the Panic Attack Cut have looked like?

What would have stayed the same and what would have vanished?

Would we still be here talking Star Wars if he had done it?

I'm trying to remember the source of this info.

Skywalking.

Also, subsequent interviews with Kurtz, Kershner, etc.

The book doesn't cover any details of the editing. Alan Arnold was an embedded journalist for the production shoot, with a couple of supplemental interviews/reporting done before and afterwards, but he wasn't really around for any of that.

Ah, zombie to the rescue.  Thanks!

I'm wondering if any of the famous cut scenes (maybe like the wampa subplot) would have still been in the cue.

The wampa scenes were never in any cut. For the simple reason that they were never completed. There was nothing to cut out in the first place because they never had a scene, just a few isolated shots and inserts. I don't even think they could "finish" the sequences with CG today, because when they realized it wasn't working they abandoned it, so they left out more than just a couple of Wampa inserts, there is significant live-action portions as well.

Regarding the assembly cut, there actually are a few references to cutting in Once Upon a Galaxy, now that I think about it, nothing too detailed but a few asides. Towards the end, Kershner started cutting the footage he had shot. He says that at first he didn't even want to show Lucas dailies and wanted him to wait for the rough cut before he saw anything; but then (and probably hastened by all the production delays, in truth) he decided to send Lucas dailies and also allow him editorial input as they cut it. I'm not sure if this was after or during shooting though, you might find out if you skim through the second half of Once Upon a Galaxy.

Interesting ideas to kick around. I'd imagine a lot less Han/Leia scenes. Or at least shorter ones. Get to the action faster. Cut back some of Yoda's talking maybe?

I only knew about Star Wars: the Lost Cut! This sounds interesting... I can imagine ESB having a lot less emotional depth. Sorry for bumping an old thread but has any more information been discovered about this? I'd be fascinated with a reconstruction. Like TheBoost, I can imagine more action scenes and much less romance/talking. Perhaps more training on Dagobah.

Does anyone have a shooting schedule for ESB? It might help to know what scenes were already shot when this edit was made.

Jedi Temple34 said:

I think this is better than the Empire Strikes Carp. I think picture belongs to you! Okay! Good!

good old j t34.......