ATMachine

RIP Darwyn Cooke.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/darwyn-cooke-celebrated-comics-artist-and-writer-passes-away

Goddamn cancer.

The original opening for ESB had the crawl as black letters on a white ground, which was then revealed to be the snowy plains of Hoth seen from a bird’s eye view.

In post-production this was revised so that the opening scene of the film took place in space, with Vader’s fleet dispatching probes to look for the Rebels. This kind of accidentally cemented the idea that a SW movie must have its opening crawl take place against a backdrop of stars.

Ironic that the PG-13 rating was spawned by the surprisingly overt violence of Temple of Doom, and now it’s the go-to rating for films that don’t want to upset anyone.

Lord Haseo said:

The Sith ended up ruling the Galaxy for over 20 years the last time I checked…

Yeah, but their succession plan was extremely hare-brained.

Indeed. I’m glad SW writers don’t all share the fanbase’s fixation on this group of incompetent, chronically backstabbing comic-book supervillains.

flametitan said:

ATMachine said:
So – although the idea was likely abandoned during the production of ESB, and then hastily resurrected for ROTJ

I would assume it was cut out earlier than that, considering the good luck kisses Leia gives Luke in The Death Star and before he Departs to his X-wing.

Did you read my post all the way through?

MouthFullOfSaliva said:

I find it curious that this stormtrooper is known as “the ‘Traitor!’ guy” when he in fact defines himself in opposition to Finn’s perceived treachery.

A proposition submitted for consideration:

George Lucas said in 2007 (when interviewed for The Making of Star Wars), “It was at that moment [while writing the third-draft script in 1975] that I came up with the idea that Luke and the princess are twins. I simply divided the character in two.”

For once he wasn’t exaggerating or stretching the truth. He was simply being honest - after all, the 1975 second-draft script of The Star Wars featured Luke Starkiller rescuing his brother Deak from an Imperial prison, with Deak essentially playing the Princess Leia role. And Ralph McQuarrie’s sketches of Luke and Leia from 1975 show the two characters as both blonde with identical bowl cuts.

So – although the idea was likely abandoned during the production of ESB, and then hastily resurrected for ROTJ – I think GL might actually be telling the truth when he suggests that he considered having Luke and Leia be siblings (well, half-siblings at least) from the very beginning.

With all the incest that implies.

You’re right. Sorry, my mistake.

Obviously it’s Superfellow, Not To Be Confused With A Certain Super-Man. ;D

I’m amused by the Playboy Bunny and Superman standing next to our heroes. Also by Ben Kenobi’s mustache.

~touches Staff of Erana to the crystal~

“Ensue. Ensue. I don’t think that’s a word, Sam.”

(The classic adventure-game jokes are here on the MST3k principle.)

Tobar said:

I look at it the same way young George Lucas looked at it:

George Lucas said:

A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history.
People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society.
…
It will soon be possible to create a new “original” negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires. The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control. In order to reconstruct old negatives, many archivists have had to go to Eastern bloc countries where American films have been better preserved.
In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.
…
The public’s interest is ultimately dominant over all other interests. And the proof of that is that even a copyright law only permits the creators and their estate a limited amount of time to enjoy the economic fruits of that work.
…
Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.

The original Star Wars trilogy is an incredibly important part of cinematic history and it most certainly deserves to be preserved in its original form. To alter the films and then intentionally suppress them in their original form is not only selfish but an insult to the many, many craftsman that all worked hard to create these treasured pieces of history. They’re what won all of those Academy Awards, not the Special Editions. The SEs have their place but even more so do the original theatrical versions.

^ Citizen Kane clap.

Nice puttees. 😃

The belt is a bit oversize for the costume though I think.

Should we make a Guess the Titles in the SW Anthology Films thread?

SilverWook said:

They used a crane in Star Wars, and actually had to open up the roof of the soundstage to do it. (One of my favorite practical shots in the movie.) They did use forklifts for the snowspeeders lifting off in ESB.

I’m sure the launch tube was invented in post production, so probably no art. Surprised Lucas didn’t invent a new shot for the SE of the ships coming out of the temple. Instead, they pasted on CGI ships passing way too close to rebel scout guy on a stick, who doesn’t react to they are buzzing him.

“Launch tube” = no money for showing the ships actually flying out of the open hangar doors.

Which is also why there was a hangar in the first place. Ralph McQuarrie’s initial designs featured the Rebels having an open-air landing strip in the jungle clearing, but GL cut it for budget reasons before shooting.

Further evidence of the way American movies have gotten more buttoned-down since the 80s. After all, THX 1138 was a PG film on its first release, but an R in 2004 - for the exact same nudity!

Somebody making a Star Wars type film today probably wouldn’t even consider having bare breasts on screen. For which state of affairs the huge success of SW itself - and its co-option by the US political right-wing - bears a large share of blame.

Captain Phasma is pretty much the Boba Fett of TFA, and with exactly as much screen time out of her armor.

emanswfan said:

Wait, Star Wars was at one point going to be R-rated? Was it just that Leia scene, or were there other brutal aspects that got toned down? Apparently I’m Jon Snow in the world of Star Wars script drafts.

That was indeed the idea. Leia was going to be running around with some nasty facial bruises, and possibly no clothing above the waist, from the moment Luke enters her prison cell to the arrival at the Rebel base.

Leia’s injuries are mentioned in the text of the 3rd draft, and several sketches by McQuarrie and John Mollo show her in various states of clothing damage.

There was also some additional violence that was cut – for instance, Alex Tavoularis’ storyboards show Vader literally ripping a Rebel soldier’s arm off during the opening battle.

Density said:
I don’t know if it’s true, but I actually heard once it would have been rated G if not for the graphic image of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s corpses.

Which just shows how far GL went in the other direction in his quest to get a PG rating so as to maximize the profit margins.

TV’s Frink said:

My daughter keeps calling the big harry guy “Chewbaccra” and it’s too fun to correct.

Other mispronunciations:

-Lifesaver
-Dark Vader
-Kyro Ren
-Mallenium Falcon

WRONG THREAD?

If you must say things like that, please keep them in Greek. We don’t want anybody who isn’t a gentleman knowing about them, after all.

– Signed, Vivian Adrianus Barlow Smith-Wensleydale-Smith Thompson (Sir) (Mrs)

And the pacing in the extended DVD version of TPM is somehow faster? Not sure how that works, honestly.

Killing off Obi-Wan in SW 1977 also meant that GL had to find a way to get Luke to his new mentor Yoda in ESB. He decided to bring back Obi-Wan as a Force ghost – a decision that had its own plot complications, which culminated in the Father Vader storyline.

Actually, from the 1975 third draft in which he was introduced, until the actual shooting script, Ben Kenobi survived to the end of the film. GL knew Luke would still need a Jedi mentor in future films - after all, the hero hadn’t even used his magic sword yet!

The decision to kill Obi-Wan came about during shooting in Tunisia, when GL realized that the Death Star sequences didn’t feel dangerous enough. The original plan had been to convey the brutality of the Imperials by having Leia be badly beaten up (and possibly also with a wardrobe malfunction) after she was tortured.

However, by the fourth draft in January 1976, GL backed away from open violence and nudity on screen, fearing that an R rating would further damage what he saw as the already precarious box-office take from SW.

The result was that the Death Star felt too safe in the script that went before the cameras. GL eventually recognized this and decided to rectify the problem by killing off Obi-Wan in his duel with Vader.

He had to break the news to Alec Guinness during the shooting in Tunisia. As I understand it, Guinness didn’t take it well at first, especially because he thought making such a major plot change during mid-shoot was very unprofessional. In fact Guinness initially threatened to walk off the film, before deciding that the change was an improvement (not least in apparently getting him out of the franchise).

MalàStrana said:

Topo said:
I don’t necessarily think that he is a grand admiral. Maybe a fleet or a vice admiral. That would make more sense to me.

Why would it make more sense ? Real question, not nagging. The insigna he’s wearing (http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2016/04/speculation-ben-mendelsohns-character-in-rogueone.html) ?

If they begin to make a “Rogue” franchise, I would love to see Benedict Cumberbatch as an Imperial officer. Good actor with an interesting face, could be great.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s neck was born to fill a mandarin collar tunic.

So is Rogue One really a loose adaptation of LucasArts’ 1990s SW Dark Forces computer game series starring Kyle Katarn? Well… maybe.

We have Felicity Jones as Rebel spy, Jan Ors “Jyn Erso”:

And Diego Luna as a scruffy, unsmiling Rebel in a brown jacket:

Not to mention some seriously Dark Trooper armor for Imperial soldiers.

And then there’s Donnie Yen as a blind swordsman, who clearly seems inspired by Jerec from Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.

So who is Ben Mendelsohn playing, then? It’s likely he’s not Grand Moff Tarkin, given his white uniform. But who else could he be… except maybe General Grand Admiral Rohm Mohc, architect of the Dark Trooper program?

Imagine a scenario where an offscreen Tarkin and Admiral Mohc are each backing rival projects to project Imperial power across the galaxy: Tarkin proposes bulding the Death Star, while Mohc favors an army of Dark Trooper power-suits with robotic brains. Interservice rivalry has never looked so deadly.