I hope they undo all the tinkering changes he made. But he knows that the fan base looks down on what he's been doing, which may be why he gave it up.
The truth is that Episodes 7, 8 and 9 were written before the first frame of film was exposed for Episode 4.
Sulaco said:with Australia being so far behind the States sometimes (and I suspect more so at that time) it is possible they were added on after for the AU release.
There are rough ideas, story fragments, dreamed-up & unused characters, and a universe of backstory & fill - certainly not scripts, nor even a solid story.
December 1978:
The film, for instance, is never referred to in Lucas-Kurtz circles as "Star Wars II." "I would never call it that," Kurtz winces. "Our working title is 'The Empire Strikes Back.' And as I said, it's part of a plan that George and I had from the inception of the original film. What we wanted to do was relate every subsequent 'Star Wars' adventure as an episode of a continuing story, like the old serials used to do. We were going to call this movie 'Star Wars Episode Two: The Empire Strikes Back,' but we ran into some problems. You see, although this story is a direct sequel to the first movie, we have three more stories that we eventually want to film that actually occur before the point where the first 'Star Wars' begins.
"So, we've been toying with the idea of ignoring the numbers completely. Instead, we'll give each movie episode a unique title. I mean, if we had to give each film its true number in the series, this movie would be called 'Episode Five: The Empire Strikes Back.' The first film would be called 'Episode Four'! Can you imagine how complicated it would get? If we released a story like that publicly through a press release, thousands of people would be totally confused. Everyone would want to know what happened to the other three movies."
Is it also true that Fox actually owns the rights to 4?
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So, if they make new Indiana Jones films, who would you like to see cast as Indie?
Man, I've been having a tough time coming up with even one actor that seems to fit right, so far.
The best I've come up with so far:
Hugh Jackman?
Clive Owen? The British accent wouldn't do. Don't know how he is at affecting a Yank accent.
Who the heck would be right to take over for Harrison Ford?
Personally, I'd much prefer to see a direct sequel/spinoff. I know Shia isn't super popular, but his Mutt Jones is cool with me. I'd love to see Harrison come back one more time, and pass the baton.
As far as Star Wars is concerned, it just dawned on me that Lucasfilm will likely maintain a certain level of creative autonomy, much like Pixar and Marvel do, and gives me hope.