Heartland

Today I bought the dvds of the original Star Wars trilogy (the ones with the original theatrical versions as the bonuses).

This is probably a bit of a stupid question but I noticed that Ep.4 is simply called "Star Wars" on the original. When was it decided that sequels would be made? And when was the change made to make "Star Wars" into "A New Hope"?

People must've been pretty confused when they saw Empire Strikes Back billed as "Episode 5", I would've thought "where did all the others go?!"

robertzombie wrote:Today I bought the dvds of the original Star Wars trilogy (the ones with the original theatrical versions as the bonuses).

This is probably a bit of a stupid question but I noticed that Ep.4 is simply called "Star Wars" on the original. When was it decided that sequels would be made? And when was the change made to make "Star Wars" into "A New Hope"?

People must've been pretty confused when they saw Empire Strikes Back billed as "Episode 5", I would've thought "where did all the others go?!"

IIRC at the start of Star Wars, when you have the text scroll up the screen, it starts with "Episode IV: A New Hope". This was on the original theatrical release, so presumably they called it Star Wars but hoped people wouldn't read the text too carefully...

I think that George Lucas has 9 Star Wars stories altogether, and could only get enough money to film three, so he chose the "best" three to make - IIRC

Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Fcuk the Ewoks!!!!


no, not like that

In 1983, Lucas promised he'd release one movie every three years until 2001. He was supposed to make, not just six, but nine Star Wars movies. He didn't keep his promise and I hate him for that. And Jar Jar Binks.

The 1977 film was called A new hope right from the very beginning, but this title wasn't commonly used until way into the 80s. Even then, it was used mainly by Star Wars fans, and not the general public.

Edit : the first Star Wars RPG was released in 1987 by West End Games. By then, we already knew about the Old Republic, Palpatine's rise to power, the Clone War, etc.

Actually, when Star Wars was originally released, it wasn't called "A New Hope", there was no mention of an episode number, and the subtitle wasn't there. It was only after it was successful that the possibility of sequels became realistic, and the subtitle was added on a subsequent reissue around the time of Empire.

So yes, a lot of people were pretty bamboozled by the episode numbering back then. As a loyal purchaser of the official Star Wars magazine in my pre-teens, I remember a letter being written asking all about that stuff.

Oh God, I'm going to have to go into hiding for this, ain't I?

one word about Star Wars:

BORING!



coat

mh wrote:Actually, when Star Wars was originally released, it wasn't called "A New Hope", there was no mention of an episode number, and the subtitle wasn't there. It was only after it was successful that the possibility of sequels became realistic, and the subtitle was added on a subsequent reissue around the time of Empire.

That's what I was getting at

Ah, found it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiNQc4RomWE

mh wrote:Oh God, I'm going to have to go into hiding for this, ain't I?

Nope. Having seen the original at the cinema in '77, I'm right there with you, man! \m/

None of these "episode" shenanigans for me, thanks. There are only 3 Star Wars films, as far as I'm concerned...

Fcuk Jar Jar!!!!


no, not like that

SINsister wrote:

mh wrote:Oh God, I'm going to have to go into hiding for this, ain't I?

Nope. Having seen the original at the cinema in '77, I'm right there with you, man! \m/

None of these "episode" shenanigans for me, thanks. There are only 3 Star Wars films, as far as I'm concerned...

Actually there's only 2 - Star Wars and Empire. ROTJ doesn't count because there are ewoks in it.
But we can argue about this over dinner

If anybody wants to have a look at the trailer fot the new Star Wars TV show then do the clicky thing below.
http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000478.html

EvilBastard wrote:ROTJ doesn't count because there are ewoks in it.
But we can argue about this over dinner

Incidentally, wasn't its working title Revenge of the Jedi?

Pffffft. I'm not arguing about Ewoks.

weebleswobble wrote:Fcuk Jar Jar!!!!


no, not like that

*Vomits* Thanks, weebs!

I watched Clerks II last night

Oh, and you gotta watch this

SINsister wrote:

EvilBastard wrote:ROTJ doesn't count because there are ewoks in it.
But we can argue about this over dinner

Incidentally, wasn't its working title Revenge of the Jedi?

It indeed originally was Revenge, but later changed to Return.

If I recall correctly, the original idea was to have not Ewoks, but Wookies. A much better scenario in my opinion, but Lucas went with what he thought was the more marketable approach. Episode 3 does have a few moments of Wookie battle, so you can imagine what Jedi would have been like had they stuck to the Wookie idea.

What mh described above is what I recall about the Star Wars title in 1977. The title A New Hope appeared once the sequals became reality. I do not recall much confusion about it being Episode 4, though. I thought that it was widely known that three trilogies were planned, with Star Wars being the start of the second one.

Purely speculation on my part, but I would not be surprised if there was work on a third triolgy at some point, in a few years. One advantage to it over the most recent batch would be that the mythology can go afresh without having to fill in gaps which need to be addressed. In Episode 3, muych of what needed to transpire was already known because of the original film, but a new triology would be more open-ended. (albeit still touched by the hand of Lucas.)

How would you feel if you were the actor who originally played Jabba the Hut in the first film, only to have the scenes deleted, and then have them reinserted with a cgi Jabba over your performance nearly 20 years later?

For those who keep up with the mythology, how is the book Splinter of the Mind's Eye treated? Originally canon, but some plot elements no longer fit with the developments later in the triology. Does anyone want to bring up the Christmas special?

SINsister wrote:

weebleswobble wrote:Fcuk Jar Jar!!!!


no, not like that

*Vomits* Thanks, weebs!

I used to tell people that the last film would have Darth Binks.

I saw Return when it came out.
The Rancor scared the sh!t outta me.
I was 6.

Petseri wrote: Does anyone want to bring up the Christmas special?

Like vomit?

I downloaded it ages ago. I managed to get through the first 10 minutes before I had to turn it off. I tried again a few months later and it was just so awful I got to about the same point.

I don't have a copy of it any more unfortunately. It got lost in a reformat about 3 years ago.

It was the final nail in the coffin after cringing through TPM anyway.

Jedi was always my favourite film as I saw it at the cinema when I was about 7 or 8 and I'd heard about it before, but I hadn't seen Star Wars or Empire by then.
They ruined the DVD version with that stupid song in Jabba's Palace.

I had a copy of Splinter Of The Minds Eye. Was that an offical book then? i think it was set between SW and Empire if I remember. I haven't read it for years, so I can't comment unfortunately. I seem to remember a forest world, big vehicles running on one wheel (I always pictured a cut down Jawa Transport on a gyroscope), Luke and Leia and that's about all I remember...

I have a star wars nut that comes to my studio.
I did this for him last time, he's having a stormtrooper next.

That's frightening!

SINsister wrote:
There are only 3 Star Wars films, as far as I'm concerned...

Agreed. Completely lost interest after watching the first new one...

robertzombie: No you're not imagining things. Lucas has been tinkering with them ever since they were released. The crawl was adjusted at several points during a re-release in theaters prior to TESB

Petseri: Correct and it was the FANS that pointed out to Lucas that a Jedi can't have revenge. However I never heard the wookie angle before and it was always about the $%#%$ ewoks and how to market them.

The whole 9 Episodes comes from the rough "treatment" he had whilst attending UCLA and to the best of my knowledge it is still there.

As far as the continuity goes for Splinter it doesn't count as cannon, has some nice ideas but it's Alan Dean (movie novelization king) Foster

AS far the documentary that Ken Burns did with the box set take it with a LARGE grain of salt a LOT of Lucas's answers are BS and contradict various statements in interviews and books through out the years.

I don't forsee another trilogy coming out. The two TV shows will take of that.

Anyone who wants Splinter in a .txt file PM me.

Star Wars
Where do I begin…?
First of all, A New Hope was changed into Episode IV A new Hope during the time it was in cinema’s.
Indeed because it was only then possible to make sequels, George always intended to make 3 movies, he started at 4 to make clear that this was no the beginning but only a part of a larger story (not to actually make 1,2 and 3 years later )
But the studiobosses didn’t like the idea of 3 movies so George had to rewrite his 3 movies script into one movie -> the destruction of the deathstar 1 was supposed to be in Jedy
-> obi one was supposed to live in episode 5 so he could train Luke ….. enz …..

My thoughts about the prequels, if you are a bit openminden (what starwars fan isn’t? ) you can like the idea of it.
All of the episodes have good moments but indeed the overall feel is not as ‘real’ as the original trilogy. One of the things that made star Wars so fascinating in the firs place was because we didn’t know what the clone wars was all about, or how Palpatine came to power. …

I’m curious about the upcoming Live action TV show it should span the time between 3 and 4 and will be focusing on characters that didn’t have a large roll in the movies.




Ps, I liked my own Epi 3 script better, it had Anakin killing Jar Jar Binks