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The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

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Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#91

Post by UberFly »

13of40 wrote: post #66
JKCalhoun wrote: post #19

Warning, a kind of fucked up story: I remember Sci-Fi conventions in the late 70's and there was this one character who was always around that gave off a hint of illegal activity. For example, he had plenty of 35mm trailers to sell at the convention that someone along the supply chain must have pinched from a local movie theater. But I remember he claimed to have a script of, as I recall, the not-yet-released sequel…

When I was in high school (early 90s) my friend's dad had an original script for Star Wars, and it looked basically like the linked one and what you described - a stack of xeroxed, typed, 8.5x11 pages stapled together. One thing that makes me think the one I saw was authentic was that Jabba the Hutt made an appearance when Han Solo and the gang were leaving Luke's home planet, except instead of being a space slug he…

Here he is fresh out of the pub to collect a few bounties:

https://i.redd.it/qdut4kswbpga1.jpg

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#92

Post by ggm »

MrVandemar wrote: post #90
ggm wrote: post #83

I was given Alan Dean Foster's film tie-in book of a new hope before getting to see the film in 1976. Overall I think he did a fair job. Contrast with Orson Scott Card's novelisation of "the deep" which was frankly more Card's than the film.

Do you mean "The Abyss" perhaps?

Yes. Well done. Bad memory, now can't edit. Ed Harris was surprisingly good in this. From memory it was a difficult shoot with a lot of "how do we do this" going on around underwater photography and some for the time good 3D effects (the face made in water at the end of the water tentacle)

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#93

Post by djur »

pests wrote: post #34
dudinax wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This script is good evidence they made up the connection part way through Empire. Also, if Lucas already had it in mind for Star Wars, I doubt he'd have Obiwan straight up lie about it.

I don't even consider it a straight up lie. I know we have decades of this built into our culture, and its been basically ret-conned, but... "A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father" I could still see Ben making this metaphor for the internal struggle Anakin dealt with, not wanting t…

And he's "named" Darth Vader; "Darth" being a title also didn't come until later. Obi-Wan calls him "Darth" like it's his given name.

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#94

Post by djur »

WalterBright wrote: post #79
throw_m239339 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Vader" actually means "father" In what language? Isn't it "Vater" in German?

Dutch is Vader. In German, it's Vater.

Not with that pronunciation. The prequels (with "Darth Sidious") make the "invader" source clear.

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#95

Post by WalterBright »

djur wrote: post #94
WalterBright wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dutch is Vader. In German, it's Vater.

Not with that pronunciation. The prequels (with "Darth Sidious") make the "invader" source clear.

Americans pronounce a lot of foreign words wrongly.

Making up something 20 years after the fact is not compelling :-/

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#96

Post by cocacola1 »

fbdab103 wrote: post #73
PotatoPancakes wrote: post #4

Look on page 117 of the PDF (the paper says 113): > Vader: You're very good, Luke. But I'm twenty years older and stronger than you in the use of the Force. You haven't a chance with me... any more than your father had. This draft was written before they came up with the idea that Vader could actually be Luke's father!

How much of an original script survives to filming? I assume that huge swaths of dialog gets reworked as more people can workshop the scene and get a sense of characters/timing/whatever.

It depends on the film. George Lucas was reworking dialogue and scenes daily while filming the original Star Wars but the overall movie should mostly be set in stone by that time. But big changes can happen. For example, Ben Kenobi was initially supposed to survive the battle with Vader. It wasn’t until filming was already underway that Lucas, at Marcia Lucas’s suggestion, decided to kill him off.

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#98

Post by pvaldes »

dylan604 wrote: post #29
slamus wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also no sign of "I am your father"

try searching for "soy tu padre, mijo"

"This is not what my mother says"

Yup, they did it again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK6m2zuICRE

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#99

Post by djur »

WalterBright wrote: post #95
djur wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not with that pronunciation. The prequels (with "Darth Sidious") make the "invader" source clear.

Americans pronounce a lot of foreign words wrongly. Making up something 20 years after the fact is not compelling :-/

"Vader" = "father" is equally made up, considering that the character was not originally anyone's father. It's a fun coincidence, nothing more.

Re: The Empire Strikes Back First Draft by Leigh Brackett (1978) [pdf]

#100

Post by hef19898 »

cocacola1 wrote: post #9

A bit of context: Leigh Brackett was a sci-fi author and screenwriter that George Lucas hired to write the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back in 1977. She wrote it based on a story conference the two had but unfortunately passed away from cancer a month after submitting it in 1978. Lucas then wrote a few drafts himself but wasn't satisfied. Eventually, he brought on Lawrence Kasdan, who would also write Raiders o…

Giving Leigh Brackett wroter credits is a nice touch, didn't know that!

Stuff like that is why HN is still a great place in today's online world.

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