Irvin Kershner died (director of Empire Strikes Back)
mod
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/11/29/131667697/-empire-strikes-back-director-irvin-kershner-has-died?ft=1&f=1001
For me he will always be the man that put Lucas where he belonged or... rather creatively channeled his vision into something truly amazing that has yet to be matched in any of the series since.
For me he will always be the man that put Lucas where he belonged or... rather creatively channeled his vision into something truly amazing that has yet to be matched in any of the series since.
Replies
how Kershner wanted to end Return of the Jedi was brilliant...too bad Lucas got in the way...
too many good ones leaving us this week...wonder who is next?
RIP
Edit: @low odor: How did he want to end ROTJ?
Goraaz,
"We had an outline 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.”
The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.
Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau."
I don't know how much of it is true but apparently he wanted C3-PO to talk like a used car salesman etc. Think i heard this in the "crazy guy" reviews episode 2.
Anyway. Thanks Irvin for making one of my top 3 movies of all time. Empire is the best out of the whole lot of them.
@Wahlgren: I've read that Lucas was another person back then. During making of the first movie he was very unsure of his abilities as a writer and checked with bigger directors and writers for help, among these Francis Ford Coppola who was a big reason to why the first movie's story got so good(it was terrible at first). It wasn't until he saw Kershner's version of ESB that he got all crazy and desperately tried to re-cut it because he found it to be too slow among other things. He then started to want more control and finally he turned out to be the Lucas he is today. I don't think it was Kershner's fault in any way but yeah, he had less power back then and that's what probably held him back from ruining the movies more. Lucas is a good producer though so I can give him that.
It's funny because ESB is the one that Lucas was the least creatively involved in.