Star Wars Episode IX

[Tjm86]

You know, I think that scene was in the out-takes for ROTJ.  You know, just after Vader pitches up to get things back on track and the officer promises to redouble their efforts?

The guy from HSE stepped out with his clipboard and his list of infractions:

- open walkways
- easy access to power cores
- poorly regulated power systems
- deep pits that anyone could get thrown into

"Oh, and those pikes?  You'll have someone's eye out with those!  Tsk, have to mark you down for tha ... <gasp, choke>"

"I find your paperwork disturbing ...."

[JOE SOAP]

Though hiding Luke Skywalker in a home that Anakin Skywalker had been to before the fall to the darkside is also pretty stupid (though has been pointed out many, many times).

Using the name 'Skywalker' rather than that of his adoptive parents probably wasn't the cleverest thing to do when you're hiding a child from its now-evil father...

This wasn't always so much of a howler. Up until the late 1990s when The Phantom Menace was being prepped it was still the accepted 'canon' in published Lucasfilm material that Uncle Owen and Kenobi were brothers and the farm was their family homestead, which makes more sense and implies Anakin was not from Tatooine at all. This lengthy exposition was still included in scripts for Return of the Jedi less than a month before shooting began:




The Kenobi/Owen/Tatooine backstory was apparently something that came out of conversations between George Lucas and Return of the Kedi novelist James Kahn – as he later related to Star Wars Insider:

The novel mentions that Obi-Wan and Uncle Owen were brothers. Where did that come from?

It came out of a conversation I had with George early in the process. I asked him how Luke came to be living with Owen and Beru, with Obi-Wan just coincidentally living in the nearby desert. George shrugged and said it related to the backstory, but did I have something in mind? I said I thought the interaction at the kitchen table in Episode IV, when Uncle Owen snaps at Luke about staying away from that crazy old hermit, sounded to me like an old family fight – like old brothers refer to each other in those decades-long sibling rivalries. I thought there was a big blow-up when they were kids, and Obi-Wan ran off to be a Jedi, and Owen never forgave him for not staying on the farm, and thereby breaking their father's heart. Then, years later, Obi-Wan came back with baby Luke in tow, and prevailed on Owen out of old loyalties to adopt the boy, and Owen was reluctant, but probably Aunt Beau said they should do it, and then Obi-Wan settled down nearby to kind of keep an eye on Luke from afar. And George said that sounded about right.

[JOE SOAP]

In A New Hope it's Luke turning off the machinery of the X-Wing's guidance-system and 'letting go' of his feelings that lands the shot. In Empire, doing the opposite and impulsively going on the offensive against Vader results in Luke losing his hand and gaining a permanent prosthetic warning; and in Jedi, withdrawing his lightsaber —circling back to Kenobi in the docking bay— leads to Luke winning over his father.

And absolutely all this.  You can extend this leitmotif into Last Jedi if you like, but alas no further.

Indeed.

[Hawkmumbler]

The Force is a jerk.

[TordelBack]

The excision of the Ben/Owen sibling relationship doesn't bother me too much, as it really only appears in Kahn's so-so novelisation, but as I've said many, many times before, the single worst ret-con in the extensive catalogue of Star Wars ret-cons is Padme's death. That it directly contradicts one of the most powerful scenes in Return of the Jedi is just a railing-less bridge too far: and all for the most laughable, illogical scene in a movie replete with them.  As they say on Twitter, don't @CertainPointOfView me, that's too much head-canon gymnastics even for me.

[JOE SOAP]

The excision of the Ben/Owen sibling relationship doesn't bother me too much, as it really only appears in Kahn's so-so novelisation, but as I've said many, many times before, the single worst ret-con in the extensive catalogue of Star Wars ret-cons is Padme's death. That it directly contradicts one of the most powerful scenes in Return of the Jedi is just a railing-less bridge too far: and all for the most laughable, illogical scene in a movie replete with them.  As they say on Twitter, don't @CertainPointOfView me, that's too much head-canon gymnastics even for me.

It also killed the potential for more stories, even the possibility of stretching to Sequel era potential, but George wanted his tragedy and for the mother's death to 'rhyme' with Anakin's in ROTJ.

The game of twister I usually see is that Leia remembers her mother she never met through the force, but somehow Luke can't.

I do prefer the idea of Vader's origins offering different possibilities to Luke's and Tatooine not being part of the story until Episode IV.

[TordelBack]

I do prefer the idea of Vader's origins offering different possibilities to Luke's and Tatooine not being part of the story until Episode IV.

When the rough shape of Episode I first became apparent I just could not get my head around the idea of Anakin being from Tatooine*: it made no sense whatsoever.  Terry Brooks had a decent stab at selling it in the novelisation, describing how the currents of the Force were drawn to and flowed around he twin suns of this unusual inhabited binary system (something that The Last Jedi would sort-of allude to by setting the first Jedi Temple in the same stellar niche as the birthplace of the Chosen One), but still, nah.

And then when I finally copped (during my second viewing!) that this Padme character was somehow to become the twins' mother... e chu ta. I mean, I had some pretty babysitters too, but I never got round to knocking any of them up.



*Although note that the film itself makes no reference to where Anakin was born (or conceived) - Shmi merely reports that Gardulla the Hutt lost the two of them to Watto, and it seems unlikely that two Hutts call Tatooine home. Nor was Luke born there.

[radiator]

If you could go back in time and convince Lucas to be a bit more hands-off and delegate scriptwriting and direction of the prequels to contemporary filmmakers as he did on the originals, who would you choose?

I remember that there was a possibility that Spielberg and Ron Howard might have directed episodes 2 and 3(?). A Spielberg directed Episode 1 would have been amazing.

David Fincher would have been a good shout - didn't he get his start on Jedi?

[JOE SOAP]

David Fincher would have been a good shout - didn't he get his start on Jedi?

https://youtu.be/HQRcnQD-tHM?t=404

[JamesC]

Shane Meadows writing and directing a young working class Anakin.

[TordelBack]

Frank Darabont circa 1997/8 could have been fun. Makes a nice streamlined film with a good line in iconic scenes.

Although if I'm honest, George would still have to be cracking the whip in terms of design and imagery, just with someone else holding the script and pacing together. I'd also love to have seen Episodes II and especially III from a George that wasn't already bowed and broken by whiny fans.

[JOE SOAP]

Zemeckis, Spielberg and Howard were all approached but declined. At the time other possibles I suppose were Peter Jackson, Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston – probably the only one who'd realistically do it.


Darabont was of course asked would he be interested in writing The Phantom Menace: his answer gives another reason why others may not have been so keen on collaboration:

George Lucas approached me with the idea of my performing writing services on 'Phantom Menace.' (Please note that I'm being very specific and accurate when I say 'writing' services. At no time was there any discussion of my directing, because George was 'always' going to be the director of the film.) My agent, Robert Stein, contacted a British attorney representing George to see if a deal for my writing services could be negotiated. It was during this round of phone conversations that George's attorney made us aware that Lucasfilm did not intend to become a WGA signatory on the project. In other words, it was a non-guild job.

After realizing that George was not going to budge on this issue, my agent and I regretfully broke off further negotiations. I called George personally to explain my reasons. He, in turn, explained his. It is no secret that George has a long-standing enmity with both the WGA and DGA, which is why he renounced his membership in those guilds years ago, and why he now doesn't wish to become a signatory. I told him I understood that his feelings were deeply rooted, but that he couldn't expect me to take sides against my own guild for the sake of a writing assignment. He understood my position, we agreed my involvment on 'Phantom Menace' was not meant to be, and we parted friends. It's that simple.

http://www.theforce.net/episode1/story/Frank_Darabont_Refutes_TPM_Rumors_75332.asp

[Colin YNWA]

Shane Meadows writing and directing a young working class Anakin.

This would have been 'fun' but why not go the whole hog the obvious social inequalities of Tatooine is perfect fodder for Ken Loach. Now that would have been a movie!

[JamesC]

Shane Meadows writing and directing a young working class Anakin.
Thomas Turgoose as Anakin (he even looks a bit like Vader sans helmet in ROTJ).
Paddy Considine as Qui Gon.
Vicky McClure as Padme.
Joe Gilgun as Kenobi.
Stephen Graham as Darth Maul.

I'm only half joking.

[TordelBack]

Stephen Graham as Darth Maul.

Gold.