- Post
- #266329
- Topic
- Info Wanted: Question about 1980 uncut Empire
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/266329/action/topic#266329
- Time
Here is the thing--whenever you see these scripts being sold by collectors, they are not fascimiles from the studio vault. These scripts are available online and sellers just print them off. You pay for the paper, the ink and the binding, but these are not some secret rare thing, otherwise they would sell for hundreds of dollars. The fifth draft has been available for years--Lucasfilm published it in the 1980 ESB Notebook, in the Empire Strikes Back Illustrated Screenplay, as a stand-alone script, and as part of The Annotated Screenplays. Same goes for ANH and ROTJ. The problem is that these official releases by Lucasfilm are not the true final drafts, they are the final draft edited to the film edit, so you just get what is on screen and not the unfilmed material. The only true final draft we have is for Star Wars because in the late 70's, every single draft of the script, from the 1973 treatment to the 1976 shooting script was leaked and has been circulating on the collectors circuit. Since then Lucasfilm security has been very tight, though luckily a fourth draft of ESB managed to get out, as well as a revised rough draft of ROTJ (which is missing a page or two at the end).
Its not likely that any of the unaccounted for drafts will ever be let out, and because an edited version of the final drafts have been released by Lucasfilm there is not even much demand for them. Supposedly, Leigh Brackett's first draft is available to read at an archival library of some kind, i think at a University somewhere in the southern US. I'm suspicious that this is merely an internet rumour however, and regardless the rumour is that it cannot leave the library grounds so you can't photocopy it or anything. This is the real Holy Grail of star wars scripts, the draft of ESB where Darth Vader was still a seperate character from Father Skywalker. But anyway. The only way to obtain any of the unreleased drafts is if rare personal copies from crew members are auctioned off--i.e. Gary Kurtz' auction from a while back, which i am still fuming that i happened to be broke at that time.