This year is the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, the high point for the Star Wars franchise and low-point for Luke’s right hand (which I like to imagine went on to picaresque adventures upon getting its freedom). To commemorate the moment this weekend Lucasfilm is staging Star Wars Celebration V, a lovingly massive nerd orgy in Orlando, FL, where the surprise big speaker will be Empire producer Gary Kurtz. I say surprise because Kurtz, who also produced American Graffiti, the first Star Wars, and stoner epic The Dark Crystal, parted ways with Lucas during pre-production on Jedi when the two passionately disagreed over the direction of the series. And if the interview Kurtz gave over at the LA Times is any indication, the panel at the Celebration should prove quite, uh, lively.
A few choice tidbits:
On the break up…
“I could see where things were headed,” Kurtz said. “The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.”
“We had an outline [for Jedi] and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”
He was especially disdainful of the Lucas idea of a second Death Star, which he felt would be too derivative of the 1977 film. “So we agreed that I should probably leave.”
On the prequels…
“I don’t like the idea of prequels, they make the filmmakers back in to material they’ve already covered and it boxes in the story,” Kurtz said. “I think they did a pretty good job with them although I have to admit I never liked Hayden Christensen in the role of Anakin Skywalker. I just wished the stories had been stronger and that the dialogue had been stronger. It gets meek. I’m not sure the characters ever felt real like they did in ‘Empire.’”
A spokeswoman for George Lucas said he was unavailable for comment… because he was busy punching his pillow and screaming “I don’t need you Gary!”
Awwwwkward.
16 comments
Well, yes. I've been a Star Wars fan since the first one came out, I even kind of enjoyed parts 2 and 3 – but when it comes down to it Episodes 4 and 5 are great, great films. And the others just aren't. That said, I don't know of any other popular franchise that has two films as quite as great as A NEW HOPE and EMPIRE.
Empire is the best of the films. Episode 4–or the first one is the second best/ Return started strong, but those damn Ewoks sucked. If the Ewoks were Wookies it would have been good. As for killing off characters, why Han Solo? The coolest character in the series? Kurtz is right about the prequels too. Part 3 was good-part 2 was alright in some things–the romance was awful, part 1 sucked because Jar Jar was there most of the film, and the lead was a bratty 10 year old know it all. The dialogue was the worst part, Lucas cannot write dialogue to save his life. And Hayden Christensen–he can't act with good dialogue.
Over the years, I've read enough things about Star Wars to come to realize that Kurtz was The Man Who Told George No. Kurtz was the guy who kept George's dumber ideas in check…until George got rid of him. And we've seen what happened to Star Wars since. George–it's in your best interest to not have your every flight of fancy indulged. It makes a better product.
Well then, I'd suggest watching The Godfather and The Godfather II.
I always like to point out that Kurtz absolutely hates Raiders of the Lost Ark, and thinks that it shouldn't have been such a "lightweight rollercoaster." Geeks should keep that in mind when they use him as their totem for Lucas-hate.
Kurtz is definitely the opposite of Luca$' current yes man. If Gary Kurtz and Rick McCallum put old Georgie boy on the man-love rotisserie, I know who would be on what end if you know what I mean.
good article, basically confirms what I've thought for sometime. That Lucas hates SW and just sees it as a cash cow. Despite his other movies Lucas will forever be known as a one hit wonder with the SW franchise and he know it; hence the hate.
I've always thought of Raiders as a Kasdan/Spielberg joint, so it has no bearing vis a vis Kurtz's opinion of Lucas.
(And I don't hate any of them. The SW prequels are so inconsequential they aren't worth hating.)
Gary Kurtz can stick it. A darker ending to the original Star Wars trilogy where Han Solo gets killed off? Fuck that noise. And, for the record, "Star War" is still better than "Empire".
Han Solo getting killed? All I could say is awesome! That would have made the character much more tragic and epic and added a dose of reality to an overly cheery finale. It would also reflect how potent the dark side really is by nailing one of their closest allies. I heard that they were considering pulling the stunt on Lando, where the Falcon would blow up with the Death Star "We're not gonna make it!" But Han I didn't realize. That would have been sooo much better than the gushy Han with the ewoks we got in the finale.
Blerg Meert, my point about Raiders is that Kurtz claims that the first Indy should have had gone with a darker, more sophisticated script that apparently existed, but he feels that George went for a rollercoaster instead. I think we all agree that we're grateful he didn't.
As for ROTJ, I think Lucas knew exactly what he wanted, and he got it. He loved his characters, and didn't want to see them suffer.
Harrison Ford and Lawrence Kasden both said they thought Han Solo would get killed off. He had no family, or anything they said, plus they thought the audience would be shocked. For the record Ford said the ,"teddy bear picknic" didn't really work for him. I agree with him on the Ewoks, but am glad Han Solo wasn't killed off as he was my favorite character in the whole series. But the toy comment makes no sense to me. After Jedi there weren't many toys that came out for years. I recall it as I was a kid at the time. After Jedi the toys were around for a year or two and then the Droids Ewoks cartoons came around 1986 or so.
Damn. If Han Solo had died in Jedi, he could have NOT died in the Special Edition. I would have loved to have seen how Lucas would have pulled that off.
Killing Han sounds like it would have just been a cheap stunt, and it's not like he hadn't already suffered. Between that and all the disdain for the Ewoks, Gary (among others) seems to have forgotten it was a children's series to begin with. But maybe I'm just ragging on him because it appears he has more complaints about Jedi than the prequels, in which case he has zero credibility.
Jedi should have been exactly what Kurtz was talking about. That's been the big discussion in geekdom for 30 years now. Why the fuck was Jedi changed?
Killing Han, would have destroyed kids watching Jedi at the time, absolutely destroyed them – and totally over-shadowed the drama of Luke/Vader/Emperor. No, the trilogy was dead right to go with a feel-good ending – just as A New Hope had done so before. And I've never had a big issue with the Ewoks – I guess if I had been a few years older when I first saw it maybe I would. Heck, I even enjoyed the two Ewok TV movies (koff still do koff). And although they have this cute label, a lot of those furry feckers are ugly munters – AND lest we forget their first action is to roast and eat our heroes! Hmm, maybe in Han had died that way…
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