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Star Wars

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Following the release of his first full-length film “THX 1138”, George Lucas of Starwars fame decided he wanted to make a “space opera”, (a novel, film, or television programme set in outer space, typically of a simplistic and melodramatic nature). He first wanted to make a feature-length adaptation of the popular flash gordon tv series, however, he was unable to attain the rights. Begrudgingly he decided to write his own original script…      STAR WARS; a space opera. (he was also depressed).

 

George was later granted a two-film development deal with United artists. These two films were ultimately star wars and American Graffiti; a space opera. Having been denied Flash Gordon, Geroger sought for inspiration. His findings included but were not limited to;

 

  1. Flash gordon (of course)

  2. Alex Raymond (creator of the original flash gordon comic strip)

  3. Edgar Rice Burroughs (author of Tarzan)

  4. John Carter of Mars (Book Series)

 

After his two years on American Graffiti, George began writing. He was inspired by politics and the vietnamese war. In January 1973, Lucas Spent ““eight hours a day, five days a week” coming up with funny names” and linking them to potential characteristics. He later discarded a large majority of these and started over. From these names he wrote a two page synopsis of the “Journal of Whillis”, the tale of the training of apprentice CJ Thorpe as a "Jedi-Bendu" space commando by the legendary Mace Windy. Geroge struggled to understand his own masterpiece and so decided to rewrite it, dumbing it down and simultaneously extending it by 11 pages. At this point it was also renamed to Star Wars, which in retrospect was considered a poor decision and a subtitle was added.

 

Long story short, United Artists baled on their deal, Lucas and his mate Gary Presented their short story to universal, they thought it was “ a little strange” and ultimately dropped it. Disney also turned it down until buying it again in 2014, George felt Quirky and so Complained that sci-fi wasn’t popular in the 70’s for so long that it ended up becoming the 80’s at which point they budgeted the film at 8 million, harassed 20th Century Fox until they made a deal M̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶l̶m̶ and called it a day.

 

They then started Writing. And did.

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