The next day Marquand sent a memo to Lucas per the tests, noting that they were planning to fine-tune the prototype costumes. With choreographer Gillian Gregory, Marquand also planned on giving the Ewok extras two to three days of movement classes.
“Creatures are terribly difficult because you are breaking new ground each time on each new creation,” says Watts. “We never did get the articulated Ewoks when we should have had them.”
At Elstree, carpenters and craftsmen at work on the rebel briefing set on Stage 5, circa November 1981.
“Rebel technician (war room)” costume concepts by Rodis-Jamero, October 1981.
Creating the mold and mask of Nien Nunb in the ILM Monster Shop are Tippett and company, based on the approved sculpted maquette.
Stuart Freeborn’s wife, makeup artist Kay Freeborn, takes inventory of a room full of Ewok heads on shelves, at Elstree.
SHOOTING SCRIPT
Kasdan turned in his polish (at 107 typed pages, see sidebar) of Lucas’s hybrid on December 1, much to the relief of the producer and his co-producers. Marquand had also been involved, calling from England with opinions that stimulated more ideas from Lucas. “He keeps the whole Star Wars mythology in his head—interrelationships, attitudes, everything—the whole visual cascade,” says the director.
“The final script did come very, very late,” says Watts. “When you get the go-ahead on a late script, you incur an immense amount of overtime, which is expensive, but somehow you make it. It did happen this time, but not to an enormous extent.”
“One of the advantages to doing the third one is you get to tie up all the loose ends, but one of the disadvantages of doing the final chapter is that you have to tie up all the loose ends,” says Lucas. “You have too many things you have to solve and not enough time to really do it in.”
For secrecy’s sake the distributed version of the third draft omitted all mention of Leia as Luke’s sister and of the death of Vader; indeed, it contained fake scenes, such as Luke killing the Emperor, written to avoid any genuine leaks.
* * *
STAR WARS: EPISODE SIX REVENGE OF THE JEDI, SCREENPLAY BY LAWRENCE KASDAN AND GEORGE LUCAS; STORY BY GEORGE LUCAS, DECEMBER 1, 1981—THIRD DRAFT SUMMARY
Early Ewok reference photo of actors with heads off, according to little people recruiter Pat Carr: Trevor Jones, Debbie Dixon, Mike Cottrell (warrior Ewok), and Malcolm Dixon (warrior Ewok).
Kazanjian and Marquand look on, anxiously, as makeup artist Alan Brownie helps an Ewok into his costume during the test shoot during a cold day in Black Park, on November 25, 1981 (unit driver Vic Minay is in the background, on the left).
Two more approved Ewok concepts by Johnston, May 1981.
Note: The version outlined here contains one of the actual plot fallacies intended to confuse and confound any leaks to the press at the time.
Now the roll-up reads:
Rebel Commanders are planning their next move against the Evil Galactic Empire. For the first time, all warships in the rebel fleet are being brought together to form a single, giant Armada.
Commander Skywalker and Princess Leia have made their way to Tatooine, in an attempt to rescue their friend, Han Solo, from the clutches of the vile gangster, Jabba the Hutt.
Little do they know the rebellion is doomed. The Emperor has ordered construction to begin on a new armored Space Station more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star …
The script then proceeds much as in the revised second draft, with “giant” pig guards now named “Gammorian Guards.” At the Sarlacc pit, Fett tries to get a bead on Luke, but Han is in the way: “Get out of my way, you blind gawk.” Fett is then killed accidentally as before. When the heroes reunite by the Falcon, Kasdan rewrote the scene:
Han stops him, and his manner is different, quieter.
HAN
Thanks for coming after me, Luke.
LUKE
Think nothing of it.
HAN
No, I’m thinkin’ a lot about it. That carbon freeze was the closest thing to dead there is. Now, coming back … well, my eyes aren’t the only thing seeing different, buddy.
Luke senses the change in Han, and nods. Chewie barks and musses Luke’s hair. Leia hugs him warmly.
On Endor, C-3PO’s quip was slightly modified to: “No, I don’t think it’s pretty here. With our luck, it’s inhabited solely with droid-eating monsters.” When Vader wants to take the elevator to see the Emperor, Kasdan has introduced more conflict:
Vader strides down the hall to the elevator, which is flanked by heavily armed Royal Guards. An OFFICER awaits Vader.
OFFICER
You may not enter.
Vader raises his hand and the Officer begins to choke.
OFFICER
(gasping)
It is the … Emperor’s command.
Vader releases him.
VADER
I will await his convenience.
The Officer, breathing again, stumbles into the elevator. It closes with a WHOOSH and shoots upward.
Costume concept art for “squid face” by Rodis-Jamero, circa December 1981.
Concept art of the Imperial landing platform by Reynolds, December 1981.
UK art department maquette of same, with typed notes indicating how scenic painting would work with the live-action filming.
Lando’s copilot in the Falcon was named NIEN NUNB; Ackbar’s command ship, Home-one.
The land battle on Endor has numerous changes, including a failed attempt by R2 to open the bunker’s blaster doors and comical action, with a chase around a tree involving an Ewok, a rat robot, a stormtrooper, and Chewbacca à la the Three Stooges. The Ewoks also construct a giant tiger-trap-like pit to destroy a walker. When Leia and Han are surrounded by stormtroopers, Han says, “You know I love you” and they both “whirl around drawing their pistols gunfighter-style” mowing them down, though Leia is injured in the leg.
In space, the combat is described as “two armadas” slugging it out in a point-blank confrontation. In the throne room, a fake scene has been written: It is now Luke who kills the Emperor, after defeating his father and being zapped with Force lightning:
Luke’s body stops moving; it appears lifeless.
At this instant, Luke springs to life and grabs the Emperor from behind, fighting for control of the robed figure despite the young Jedi’s weakened body. The Emperor struggles, in his embrace, his bolt-shooting hands now lifted high, away from Luke.
Now the white lightning arcs back to strike at Vader. Luke stumbles with his load as the sparks rain off his father’s helmet and flow down over his black cape. Luke holds this evil despot high over his head and walks to the edge of the abyss at the central core of the throne room. With one final burst of his awesome strength, Luke Skywalker hurls the Emperor’s body into the bottomless shaft.
The Emperor’s body spins helplessly into the void, arcing as it bounces against the side of the abyss. Finally when the body is far down the shaft, it explodes, creating a rush of air through the room. Vader’s cape is whipped by the wind and he staggers, and collapses toward the bottomless hole. Luke crawls to his father’s side and pulls him away from edge of the abyss to safety. Both the young Jedi and the giant warrior are too weak to move.
Meanwhile Vader’s Super Star Destroyer crashes into the Death Star and explodes. In the main docking bay, Luke and Vader struggle to escape. “Slowly, hesitantly, Luke removes the mask from his father’s face. There beneath the scars is a horrible mutant, hardly recognizable as human. Luke is repulsed. He throws the mask down in disgust.”
VADER
It’s too late, Luke, it’s too late!
He dies. The Falcon has a short run through the superstructure and detonates the main reactor. At the celebration in the Ewok village, Luke is drawn by Leia back to the festivities, “back into the circle of warmth. And love.”
* * *
A DARK SIDE
After more than two years of strained negotiations,
Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation signed a final distribution agreement for Jedi on December 4. Weighing in at 224 pages, the text was prefaced by 20 pages of term definitions, covering everything from loan interest, consultation rights, film laboratory designation, gross receipt computation, advertising, and print costs, to third party participation, audit rights, trailer costs, insurance, litigation procedures, and inventory audits.
The gist of the legal document noted that Fox had agreed to loan Lucasfilm $10 million in two payments, at the beginning and end of principal photography; repayment of the loan would come out of gross receipts. Once the loan was reimbursed the remaining gross receipts would be split, with the distributor receiving 30 percent of the first $35 million; 35 percent up to $70 million; 37 percent to $105 million; beyond $105 million, Fox would receive 40 percent, hopefully ensuring the studio’s ongoing interest in the film’s earning power.
“Fox was greedy,” Greber would say. “Our attitude was, ‘Wait a minute. This is our picture. Just because you made a pile of money off the last two doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to make a pile of money off this one.’ So my job was to reduce their share, which we did. And we didn’t want to be a slave to their accounting. A lot of the work that I did working with George was to make sure that the types of accounting treatments that we got were what we thought were fair.”
As for the holdbacks, Fox would be able to release Star Wars on VHS after April 1, 1982, and to broadcast it on network television after February 1, 1984. The studio could release Empire on VHS after October 1, 1982, and broadcast it after February 1, 1985. While the agreement might have seemed like a triumph for Fox in terms of the holdbacks, the studio stumbled badly in one respect.
“Marvin Davis came in and gave George the bear hug,” Roffman would say. “They had this one-on-one meeting and Marvin said, ‘Georgie boy, you’re going to make me rich with movies and I’m going to make you rich with oil. I’m going to put you into good oil and gas investments.’ George was very suspicious of this guy, though he was willing to wheel and deal with him, because Davis had put a lot of very notable people into oil and gas investments.”
In other words, Davis was announcing that he was in the movie business for the long haul, an assessment not shared by the cannier minds at Lucasfilm. “We looked at the situation and said, ‘Who knows what’s going to happen to the studio under this guy,’ because we were not sold on Marvin Davis,” Roffman continues. “But since Marvin was positioning this as a personal relationship between him and George, we got Fox to agree to put a key-man clause in the distribution agreement, which basically said that they had continuing rights of first negotiation and first refusal on sequels—as long as Marvin Davis owned the studio. But if Davis no longer owned the studio, those rights would go away.”
“Most deals have to do with what happens later,” Greber adds. “Fox would’ve liked to hold us, so that we couldn’t do anything without them, not that we disliked Fox. But we wanted the freedom to be able to do what we wanted.”
Rodis-Jamero and Claudia Everett in the costume shop near ILM.
Costume, props, and other materials are crated up in the costume department before being shipped to Elstree Studios in the UK.
Costume concept by Rodis-Jamero of a Wooof, circa December 1981.
PRODUCTION WHIRLWIND
With principal photography only six weeks away, December was a madhouse on both sides of the Atlantic. Crates with delicate costumes were sent from ILM to the UK, with instructional telexes flying back and forth. The distribution deal signed, Lucasfilm received the first $3 million from Fox, followed by an additional $10 million, presumably from the Bank of Boston, on December 11, as funds poured in to pay for myriad costs.
“When we got closer to shooting, I would say, ‘You have to get it together,’ ” Rodgers would say. “I’m rather bossy but I’m also very nonthreatening, so it worked great. I would never want to hurt anybody’s feelings. We had around 26 people in the costume department before we left for England, led by Anne Polland and Michael Becker. They did all the trim on the props and stuff that were made here with Jim Schoppe, but we had a great team in England that really did all the Ewoks.”
Construction began in Yuma on December 13. The next day, Lucy Kroll, representing James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader), wrote to Lucas: “I know it is too early to inquire about James Earl Jones as the voice of Varda [sic], but it would be nice to know that we are part of that team for this sequel and the six others being planned.”
Overall, cast and crew were being assembled at a good pace, as sets, props, and hundreds of details were approved for shooting. “I feel that casting the crew is as important as casting the cast,” says Watts. “Because what you get is a variety of personalities who are thrown together under a degree of pressure for a comparatively short period of time to eventually emerge with an object that is, hopefully, crammed with emotion, which is then given to an audience. There is a lot of ego and personality on any film, so it’s important that we get on with each other.”
Peter Mayhew met with stunt coordinator Peter Diamond to examine new crossbows. After Empire, a film which he’d found “mediocre,” Mayhew hadn’t returned to his hospital job as he had after Star Wars. “I decided, I reckon I can make it now,” he says. “I was exhausted, so I thought, Sod it. I worked. I’m going to enjoy it. Having a fairly large bank balance at that time influenced me to no end.”
For his part, Marquand had spent “every day” for six months with two UK-based storyboard artists preparing live-action sequences, such as the climactic duel, only to be told that a lightsaber could not be held with only one hand. Lucas explained that a lazer sword became heavy and unwieldy once activated.
“I knew that I had to plan the duel in order to see what kind of set that I needed, before all of the heavies came over,” says Marquand. “We started off by saying, ‘The Emperor will probably be against a big window and it would be nice to have some steps and some pillars.’ And then it slowly started to build with Peter Diamond and me. Norman was in the room next door, so we’d grab him whenever he walked by, and the throne room began to take shape.”
A page from the costume “bible” featuring “forest Akbar,” complete with instructions and Polaroids on how to dress the extra.
“Human rancor keeper #55” costume concept by Rodis-Jamero, December 1981.
In Freeborn’s makeup and creature department, lab assistant Jeremy (Jez) Harris works on Jabba’s eyes.
The eyes in place within Jabba’s developing animatronic head.
“There is video content at this location that is not currently supported for your eReading device. The caption for this content is displayed below.”
A short excerpt from a 20-minute Jabba the Hutt test—eyes, hands, general movement, et cetera—shot at Elstree, fall 1981/early 1982. (With animatronics engineer John Coppinger; no audio) (0:26)
THE FOUNTAIN OF OLD
Dozens of Emperor and Mon Mothma hopefuls came in for 15-or 30-minute casting interviews. David Suchet was first to audition for the Emperor, Kate Harper for Mon Mothma. Ian McDiarmid came in at 10:45 and was noted as having a “good profile” and “reddish hair.” Ben Kingsley, who had just starred in the epic Gandhi (1982), also read and was considered “very English.” Up for a secret part, Sebastian Shaw was scheduled for 5 PM, but was ill and stayed home.
“One day, I got a phone call,” says Ian McDiarmid. “Someone said they were looking for an actor to play the ‘Emperor of the Universe.’ They thought of me, because the film’s casting director had seen me as Howard Hughes in Seduced, a play by Sam Shepard. In it, I played an older part under a lot of makeup. At that time, they were looking for somebody who was a bit younger to play older, because the special effects and makeup were going to be rather strenuous.”
“I had seen him play Howard Hughes in a play on television,” says Marquand. “I had also seen him in theater in England, where he is very well known. He i
s a weird actor, too. It’s a very stagey part, sort of a melodramatic bad guy part.”
McDiarmid had worked for a year before he could pay his way through school, attending the Royal Scottish Academy of Dramatic Art. After graduating, he played with various repertory theaters in England and Scotland. Progress led him to the Royal Shakespeare Company and, later, he got into movies, notably The Awakening (1980), starring Charlton Heston, and Dragonslayer; in both of them, his character met violent ends.
On Friday, December 11, at 1 PM the traditional big pre-shoot production meeting was held, with all hands on deck: Marquand, Kazanjian, Watts, Carr, Reynolds, Welch, property master Peter Hancock, mechanical effects supervisor Kit West, first assistant director David Tomblin, second assistant director Roy Button, art director Fred Hole, set dresser Michael Ford, wardrobe supervisor Ron Beck, and production supervisor Douglas Twiddy. Together, they went through the whole script scene by scene, with each department raising questions in the hope that every possible contingency could be addressed before the cameras rolled and the money pot drained.
The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Enhanced Edition) Page 24
