SilverWook

Wanting someone and actually asking them to direct are two different things. With Lucas' tussle with the DGA it wasn't about to happen, unless Speilberg left the guild, which would have likely caused problems down the line for Steven and several other projects.

Between directing Raiders, E.T., and Temple of Doom in that time frame, not to mention being executive producer on Gremlins and Poltergeist, (which some people believe he ghost directed to this day) I don't see how he could have ever slotted Jedi in.

"Screener" copies will probably turn up as well. There was a VHS and DVD of the tv cut of Empire of Dreams A&E put out for the Emmys.

The late Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan deserve some kudos for crafting a great script to begin with.

Gary Kurtz for being a good producer and not a yes man.

Mark, Carrie, and Harrison, who in spite of their personal problems public and private at the time, gave it 110%, and didn't phone it in.

Frank Oz, for making us believe a little green rubber puppet was a living creature.

And the rest of a great cast, who made you believe in those characters even if you never saw their faces or heard their real voices.

This could potentially be a really long list. Just watch the closing credits of the film instead. ;)

TheBoost said:

 "Their territory" is a tricky concept if the Sandpeople are a nomadic people. "Dangerous areas" for settlers tends to mean places they haven't managed to kill off enough of the local nomads yet. I doubt there's a sign that says "NO TUSKENS" that the Sandpeople stop at. And since AOTC is 20 years before Star Wars I think it's a possibility that there were more Tuskens and less settlers, meaning more danger.

 

So Shmi was picking mushrooms, normally safe, but a group of Tusken Raiders picked that morning to go raiding (it's what they do) and she was unlucky enough to be caught. It's a risk people take settling in dangerous territory. No reason to assume she was 'dumb' at all or that it had to be dark.

Since Sand People, every time we see them do anything are in a state of active agression against the settled people of Tattooine, I don't see why its unlikely they would kidnap a settler if the oppurtunity arose. If they then beat/tortured/raped her (never made clear in the film) that plays right into their normal pattern.

Since 2 of the 3 times we see Sandpeople they are taking hostages, I disagree that they must lack the resources to take hostages. Instead I would say clearly they do have the resources, because they do it.

Nomadic people can claim ownership of lands with important things like wells on them. It comes up a few times in Lawrence of Arabia.

In the only other pre-SW story Marvel ever did, (and presumably with Lucasfilm's ok on it) Tuskens went on the attack as mineral prospectors accidentally poisoned a sacred well.

Based on the movies, the Tuskens seem to be in the hills/mountains and canyons. We don't see them out on the flat open desert where Luke is out daily fixing vaporators. At least not in the daytime.

I didn't say Shmi was dumb. She did a dumb thing because Lucas required it for her to die. In that instance, Tuskens were handy monsters.

I didn't say they didn't have the resources to take hostages, just that you don't waste them on someone you intend to kill. Put them to work for you, otherwise it's a waste of water. Why do I have the sudden urge to go watch Dune? ;)

http://www.fox75th.com/

http://www.foxconnect.com/fox-75th-anniversary-giftset-dvd-fullscreen-widescreen.html

I know we shouldn't get our hopes up or anything, but it would be false advertising to stick the SE in the volume covering Fox films from 1961-1985, right? ;)

Nice find. But that one comment about THX being too similar to Logan's Run, which didn't come out until five years later? (Unless they refer to the novel?) My head hurts. ;)

There's a stutter or glitch at the point THX is standing up on the youtube clip and erri_wan's version. Both could be from the same broadcast?

I've been thinking I should ask the seller of that 16mm print if they're going to re-list the auction anytime soon. I didn't want to ask too many questions about it for fear the price would go up again. Pretty sure the asking price went up after I inquired about the Warner logo.

There's also an old betamax tape of THX I'm curious about.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-THX-1138-BETAMAX-Tape-George-Lucas-/370455404600?pt=US_Movies_Other_Formats&hash=item5640dce038

Alas, my old Sony beta doesn't work so good these days.

Didn't the pod race course cross their territory? And the first time we see them in Star Wars, one is about to shoot at Luke's landspeeder. It's implied he's going out into a dangerous area looking for Artoo.

Luke tells Threepio it's too dangerous to go out at night because of Sand People. IIRC, Ani's mom gets grabbed in the morning, presumably when the sun is up, because nobody who's spent a lifetime living on Tatooine would be going mushroom hunting at night. If it was still dark out, then she did a dumb thing in service of the plot.

A simple kidnapping to gain a wife or slave might be in character. (Right out of old westerns.) The torture part makes no sense, other than to have Shmi croak the minute Anakin gets there, so he can go nuts right on cue. A nomadic tribe with limited sources of water can't afford to waste anything on keeping someone alive just to beat them.

I've probably just given the whole kidnap scenario more thought than George did! ;)

I can only recall the it being called "Captain Nemo in outer space" at the time. I've seen production art dated '74 or '75 with a robot that eventually became Vincent.

At least Maximillian doesn't smoke four packs a day.

If you've seen the Tron Legacy trailer, there's a little hint about Disney's next remake project. ;)

Whatever Galactica's true origins, it's a no brainer every studio that turned Lucas down would try to come up with something of their own. Star Wars even played a part in Star Trek's transformation into a big screen movie.

And wasn't it Lucas himself who was quoted saying how he knew people would copy Star Wars, and he would sit down and enjoy the copies?

If the Space Battleship Yamato live action film comes out in the states, you just know some clueless idiot is going to call it an SW rip.

Mace sounds pretty close to Samuel Jackson. Anakin and Obi Wan also sound pretty close. If I didn't know any better, I'd suspect whoever did this somehow got the voice talent from the video games to record dialogue.

Yoda apparently being voiced by an old woman is the head scratcher though.

I really want to hear Vader in the final scenes now!

Battle Beyond the Stars is more like Seven Samurai in space, and we'll have it on Blu Ray before the OT.

It's a little unfair to lump Galactica and The Black Hole in with the obvious rip offs, as both were being developed long before Star Wars even came out. Of course, SW is what got them finally greenlighted.

And Fox was so lawsuit happy at the time, they wanted to even go after Hardware Wars, but Lucas liked it. I'm surprised the owners of Flash Gordon didn't think about suing Fox. After all, Lucas pursued the movie rights before making up his own space opera!

The mother of all rip offs has to be The War in Space. Quickly conceived after some Toho studio people saw Star Wars in Hollywood, and released in Japanese cinemas before Star Wars! The horned Wookiee ripoff with the battle axe still cracks me up to this day.

As it's a recycle of the Japanese Special Collection CAV set transfer anyway, (sans aspect ratio screwup) why not get your hands on that?

The impression I got of Sand people in the original was scary territorial nomads who are best avoided. The novel pretty much says this in the photo insert. The snipers on the pod race course are consistent with that. It's interesting we never saw them (or at least heard them) in Jedi. Jabba's palace isn't exactly in a nice neighborhood!

If you follow the old school of thought about how Star Wars is a "space western", the sand people fill the same plot function as hostile indian tribes would. This would also make the Jawas the friendly tribes settlers could do business with.

Kidnapping Anakin's mom, and basically torturing her seems needlessly sadistic, even for them. Unless it's yet another component of Palpy's decades long plan of improbable events helping his rise to power...

The old "you're only as good as your last movie" argument, eh? ;)

Kershner made a little thriller called "Eyes Of Laura Mars" which probably got him the Empire gig. He also directed what is probably one of the best episodes of Speilberg's "Amazing Stories", the side splitting "Hell Toupee".

There's a persistent illusion that a film director is lord of all they survey. They are often simply a gun for hire. One can be saddled with an oft rewritten script, and micromanaging producers breathing down your neck. (Not to mention prima donna actors!) And then there's the issue of whether you get "final cut".

Kershner got an amazing free rein on Empire, that Marquand probably never had on Jedi. It's accepted by many fans Lucas was backseat directing on that, so it's likely to have happened to Kersh in his long career on other films.

Based on what I've read in "Once Upon A Galaxy", the guy knows how to make a movie, given the right circumstances. The fact we're still marvelling over Empire 30 years later is proof.

Talk about resurrecting the dead! ;)

The "fixed" version is supposed to have the modern "Fox Video" logo to distinguish it from the CBS/Fox version. This may only be on the jacket and disc labels though.

You mean the Gorax. Since the Ewok movies allegedly take place before Jedi now, he was long dead before the Empire showed up. ;)

What blows my mind is how spot on some of the voices are. Even bit parts like the alien with the "surfer dude" voice on the bridge of Grievous' ship.

If the opening scroll isn't narrated somebody needs to make a proper Backstroke version. ;)

Do you happen to know if the soundtrack on the DVD is 5.1 or not?

Leave it to Beaver?

The song "Leave it" by Yes?

What are you trying to tell us, George?

Did what to cinema exactly? Ruining the market for dreary depressing films that people used to blame Spielberg for after Jaws? I'm surprised people aren't throwing that same crap at Cameron these days.

Given Lucas' issues with the Director's Guild, that might have been difficult to pull off.

Welcome aboard, TheThirdGathers! Thank you so much for not giving up on this.

If the complete audio can be extracted, it will be a cinch for one of our resident Jedi masters to marry this up with video from the official DVD. :)

Given the horrid upload speeds in my area, it might be easier if I sent you some copies of both versions the old fashioned way.

If someone doesn't volunteer their services pretty soon, somebody is going to have to walk me though all the really technical stuff!

As gruesome as that controversial scene is, it's always been bloodless. I'm pretty sure it's unchanged as I saw an fairly old print a few years back.

Spielberg did tone the lava dip scene in post production, because he found it too gruesome watching the footage ILM created with a realistic puppet of the sacraficial victim writhing in agony. ILM added more flames in the foreground to obscure it.

There's a Last Crusade screening coming up near me. I may have to go and find out if that line of dialog is there.

This footage is getting more analysis and scrutiny than the Patterson film! :P

Once the Blu Rays are are out, we'll be in a better position to judge it's authenticity. If it really is an incredible simulation, it would have been a heck of a lot cheaper for Lucasfilm to simply show the sandstorm scene to get fans all twitterpated...

More like moderately successful, which is what Lucas once said he thought was going to happen. If SW had really bombed, nobody was going to want to see another one. It's interesting to look at it now, in light of how it was designed to make use of leftover props and costumes, and the fact Harrison Ford wasn't signed up for any sequels.

I have wondered if any pre-production art or storyboards were ever done?

Both books are well worth reading, and are as close to vintage unfiltered Star Wars as you can get these days. That, and the Brian Daley Han Solo books.

ThiefCobbler4ever said:

As an Lucasfilm DVD/Blu expert, I know this:

-Ewok Movies (Caravan just features the international title "Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. Battle For Endor features a line alteration and a line subtraction near the end.)

I don't have the DVD, but the Laserdisc of Battle For Endor has the closing credits play out over black. In the tv version I have, the credits play out over the final shot of the sky the spaceship flies off into.