Very interesting. A bit long, but well-cited. I learned a lot about George from reading it. There’s too many tidbits I’d like to mention.
Just reading about the alternate directions they might have taken the movies was fascinating. Especially alternate ideas for Return of the Jedi and the prequels. One thing that was baffling to me is that originally Obi Wan was supposed to be the one that found Anakin, and Qui Gon didn’t show up in the movie until they got to Coruscant. That makes so much more sense, why would you change that?
Another idea I found interesting was the prequels were supposed to be structured differently. The first episode was about the history of the Jedi, the second was Obi Wan’s life story, and the third was Anakin’s life story. Maybe there was just too much material to cover in each of those, but that probably would have made the movies more focused.
There were also some telling quotes in there from George Lucas himself. At one point he mentions after making Return of the Jedi that he was thinking of selling Star Wars to someone else, almost 30 years before, you know. He comes across as very stressed and overworked in a lot of this.
There’s also the infamous quote from Harrison Ford criticizing George’s dialogue in the original movie. Apparently Ford regretted this comment after the movie came out. He said “I told George ‘you can’t say that stuff, you can only type it.’ But I was wrong. It worked.”
I’d put the screen shots in there, but I don’t know how.