WI: Star Wars just an obscure 1977 film
- Thread starter KJM
- Start date
NapoleonXIV
Banned
Star Wars started as an "underground" hit. It was released with fairly little publicity and its popularity was a grassroots phenomena spread by word of mouth, mainly among college students.
If the Arts crowd had got to it earlier, it might have been doomed forever. With Rex Reed comparing it to Bergman people would have stayed away in droves.
It would be seen as a minor hiccup in the career of a still fairly successful filmaker, but nowhere near as successful as in OTL. The Indiana Jones films (done by Spielberg and Cronenberg) would be seen as the major cultural statement of the 80's. The stories of Frank Buck and Ernest Thompson Seton would enjoy a revival and be endlessly imitated. A seemingly insane South African zookeeper would have a major hit tv show where he handled the most poisonous snakes and dangerous animals with little protection.
SF stories (except for the ST series) would continue to languish in remainder bins until the first of Turtledove's screen adaptations revive the genre with megahits in the early 1990's.
If the Arts crowd had got to it earlier, it might have been doomed forever. With Rex Reed comparing it to Bergman people would have stayed away in droves.
It would be seen as a minor hiccup in the career of a still fairly successful filmaker, but nowhere near as successful as in OTL. The Indiana Jones films (done by Spielberg and Cronenberg) would be seen as the major cultural statement of the 80's. The stories of Frank Buck and Ernest Thompson Seton would enjoy a revival and be endlessly imitated. A seemingly insane South African zookeeper would have a major hit tv show where he handled the most poisonous snakes and dangerous animals with little protection.
SF stories (except for the ST series) would continue to languish in remainder bins until the first of Turtledove's screen adaptations revive the genre with megahits in the early 1990's.
Xen
Banned
NapoleonXIV said:
Would Star Trek still get the movie deals? I seem to remember reading Leonard Nimoy saying the studio was very jealous of the success of Star Wars and was looking to come up with a sci-fi movie of its own when they were reminded they still had the rights to Star Trek.
You know its too bad George Lucas has lost touch with the original SW story and feel and Gene Rodenberry died. It would have been awesome for those two to collaborate in writing a SW meets ST movie. Nevermind Star Trek takes place in the future and Star Wars takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Back to the original question, I doubt that the whole notion of the big-budget science fiction/fantasy film as a staple of Hollywood would ever have developed. Before SW, "big budget" SF films like Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, Logans Run, 2001,etc., all had to have "serious" philosophical or topical issues...only small "B" movies were done just for fun. SF was considered a big risk for major studios. Without SW there would be no Star Trek movies (at least not done to the technical level they were in OTL), no Terminators, Predators, Aliens, ID4s, - or for that matter, probably no new Star Trek TV series and others, like B5. The model for the"Big Budget" SF movie might have been "Close Encounters", leading to more "realistic" psychodrama SF, not simple fantasy stuff.
Lucas cleverly tapped into an aching need among the American publc for optimistic, "patriotic", morally unambiguous action movies...in essence he made the Lord of the Rings before Hollywood was ready for it and set the stage for the real LOTR thirty years later.
Lucas cleverly tapped into an aching need among the American publc for optimistic, "patriotic", morally unambiguous action movies...in essence he made the Lord of the Rings before Hollywood was ready for it and set the stage for the real LOTR thirty years later.
None of these TV shows would have ever been made:
Battlestar Galactica (both versions)
Star Trek: TNG
Star Trek: DS9
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Andromeda
Babylon 5
Battlestar Galactica (both versions)
Star Trek: TNG
Star Trek: DS9
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Andromeda
Babylon 5
Some Lost Film...
-You lose Harrison Ford as a leading man in Hollywood. This was certainly the case when you consider the fact that it took The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark to give Harrison Ford the "marquee power" to be considered seriously as an actor (Remember Blade Runner and Mosquito Coast came after the two films). According to his biographies, he was planning to set up shop as a carpenter or a rancher in Wyoming...
- You lose Kevin Smith...This actually has some major influences. Besides the obvious Clerks references, it was Miramax Studios that became a legitimate independent film distributor after Kevin Smith had his initial success with the movie Clerks. The other films that it had distributed that year failed commercially. Without the success of Miramax, you certainly wouldn't have the strong independent film movement of the 1990s...
-You also lose Carrie Fisher...At the time Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher was combatting a major substance abuse problem (see Postcards From The Edge ). Without the steady work of the Star Wars trilogy, she probably would have died an anonymous death of cocaine or heroin with friend John Belushi...
-You lose Harrison Ford as a leading man in Hollywood. This was certainly the case when you consider the fact that it took The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark to give Harrison Ford the "marquee power" to be considered seriously as an actor (Remember Blade Runner and Mosquito Coast came after the two films). According to his biographies, he was planning to set up shop as a carpenter or a rancher in Wyoming...
- You lose Kevin Smith...This actually has some major influences. Besides the obvious Clerks references, it was Miramax Studios that became a legitimate independent film distributor after Kevin Smith had his initial success with the movie Clerks. The other films that it had distributed that year failed commercially. Without the success of Miramax, you certainly wouldn't have the strong independent film movement of the 1990s...
-You also lose Carrie Fisher...At the time Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher was combatting a major substance abuse problem (see Postcards From The Edge ). Without the steady work of the Star Wars trilogy, she probably would have died an anonymous death of cocaine or heroin with friend John Belushi...
Not sure if I'm thinking of empire strikes back here but I know one of them was always destined to be a big hit. Lucas invented the modern phenomena of film merchandicing, its thanks to star wars that action figures are the size they are, prior to SW they were all Action Man sized.
If it didn't happen though.... Star Trek Phase 2 gets made as a actual TV series and not a bunch of films?
If it didn't happen though.... Star Trek Phase 2 gets made as a actual TV series and not a bunch of films?
Count Deerborn said:
You're probably right and I think I'd add Stargate to that list since its essentially Star Trek but with a teleportation device instead of a starship.
You can probably say goodbye to the whole Gundam franchise as well...and with that quite a whole lot else as well. Will ripple effects have implications in global politics, by the way?
Well, there were plans to make a Star Trek TV movie in the early 1970's that, due to disputes with writers, the executives at Paramount, and Rodenberry, never came of anything. Star Trek: Phase II would still have appeared in 1977, but without Star Wars, it's hard to tell if ST:TMP would be made after Paramount got cold feet on the whole "new fourth network" idea, of which ST
2 would've been the flagship show. However, even without Star Wars, Star Trek would still have a large fan base that could be tapped in to.
Though if Close Encounters of the Third Kind gets made, the odds would look better.
2 would've been the flagship show. However, even without Star Wars, Star Trek would still have a large fan base that could be tapped in to.Though if Close Encounters of the Third Kind gets made, the odds would look better.
Leej said:
Sorry to say he didn't, but he did refine it. The original Planet of the Apes movie series was the first franchise with the type of media tie-ins that we see today.