Star Wars Mystery (the origins of the story)?

Question

For years i have heard a rumor that Lucas wrote a book (never published) in about 1975 or so. It consisted of 9-12 chapters. It was simply called Star Wars.

When he decided to make the movies, he seperated the chapters into the episodes. (i know for sure he wrote scripts for Ep 1-3 as early as 1983)

Does anyone know if this is true (about the book)?

Answer 1

"I know for sure he wrote scripts for Ep 1-3 as early as 1983"

Really ... is that more of the SuperShadow Goon Squad manual.  Must be because that is as false as all the other dribble you come on here with.  How you have the gall to act like a Star Wars fan after showing yourself to be a member of the SS goon squad by repeating a well known SS """ rumor """ almost word for word in a recent question is beyond me.  If you're wondering it's the "Man on the beach" one.

If you really want to learn about how the Star Wars story came to be and the many, many, many, many different changes it went through in it's history find the ebook titled:  "The Secret History Of Star Wars".  The guy who wrote it says straight up in the beginning of the book that some of his conclusions are not base on fact but theories but about 70 % of the book is an amazing journey into the mind and words of Lucas and tells how and why some of the changes were made.  You will also find your statement to be totally false about the scripts in 83 ... that's just a pathetic one ... why don't you go pick on some other movies series because your time is up with Star Wars.

May The Force Be With You ...

even though you are a fraud.

Answer 2

You should look for the 3-part interview Lucas did with Leonard Maltin for the 1995 or 1996 VHS release. Lucas talks about how he came up with Star Wars and then developed it into a movie. I looked for the interview on-line, but all I could find was a heavily edited version on YouTube which turns the interview into a joke.

The VHS release I'm talking about was the last time the movies were released in their original theatrical form. Every other release since then has been the Special Edition - with the exception of the 2004 (? year) DVD release which had the original theatrical editions. Unfortunately, Lucas didn't remaster the sound or enhance the picture because the DVD is hardly better than VHS resolution.

EDIT

Here's a different interview which covers much of the same information. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ1nmZ0BT...

Answer 3

Not to any of the detail the rumors have taken it to.

Lucas wanted to do a sci-fi serial like he saw as a kid, and at one point tried to get the rights to Buck Rogers. He ended up doing his own story. And to make it like a serial, he wanted to start in the middle of a story, as they were like a continuing TV show. To do so, he created the story, and had a backstory in mind for the characters so he'd know how they got there, and where they were going. The whole backstory, which was played out as the prequel trilogy, was pretty much Episode III, but he stretched it out to mirror the trilogy of the first series. He's suggested he had continuing adventures in mind, but there is no indication what they were, or if he ever formally wrote them down. As for having written the prequels back in 1983, there were some mentions of plot points, namely Kenobi's fight with Anakin on the lava planet, in the Return of the Jedi novel.

At best, he probably had 20 or so pages of the prequel in a notebook somewhere.

Answer 4

I know wikipedia isnt always the most accurate but I found this on there. It might help.