My first proper timeline. I've written the first two updates and planned ahead for several more: here's the first one now. I hope it goes well...
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The main reason why George Lucas took the job of directing Apocalypse Now was as a distraction.
At the time, he had been working on his dream project, The Star Wars, for almost a year and a half. After the surprise success of his coming-of-age period film American Graffiti, Lucas had been paid a significant advance by Twentieth Century Fox to develop his concept of a modern space-fantasy epic into a real film. Alan Ladd Jr., the head of Twentieth Century Fox, hadn’t been entirely taken by the concept of The Star Wars itself but he had believed in Lucas, and Lucas didn’t want to disappoint.
But after a year of writing the first draft script (and then a revision a month later which changed all the names), the feedback he received was nearly unanimous: “There’s some great ideas in here, George, but it needs a lot of work.” It’s too long. There’s too many subplots and side characters. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural, and the lead characters are unsympathetic. The tone is too dark and grim – for a film that is meant to be heavily influenced by the old adventure serials of the 1940s, there’s not enough fun.
What followed was months of brainstorming and restructuring, as Lucas rebuilt the story from the ground up. The plot was heavily modified, to the point of becoming an entirely different story. Characters were altered, combined and renamed. An entirely new spiritual component was added to the film. But when the time came for Lucas to actually begin writing his second draft… he realised he was still nowhere. It was an improvement, but it still wasn’t good enough.
Actually sitting down at the typewriter and putting everything down in black and white was without a doubt the one part of the writing process that he hated – while he loved being able to dream up the broad ideas and the big picture, when it came down to the details it always seemed to fall flat and something of the magic of the original idea would be lost.
He felt utterly snowed under. He needed something to do – something else to occupy him so that he would be able to revisit The Star Wars with fresh eyes. Something that would itself be interesting and push him out of his comfort zone, so that he could carry that attitude with him to the typewriter.
Some months earlier, his friend Francis Ford Coppola had brought up John Milius’s unproduced script Apocalypse Now again, asking him if he’d be interested in directing. Apocalypse Now had been floating around for a few years now, and Lucas had in fact been ready and willing to direct after the release of THX-1138 several years before – he’d even gone so far as to scout for filming locations in California while his friend Gary Kurtz did the same in the Philippines – but he’d ultimately dropped out of the project to make American Graffiti. When Coppola had again asked him if he still wanted to direct, Lucas had declined in order to focus on The Star Wars. Coppola, who was in the middle of making The Godfather Part II and feeling a little on edge, hadn’t taken the rejection well and a frosty silence had since developed between the two.
It was consequently a bit of a surprise to Coppola when Lucas called him at home and sheepishly asked if the position of director for Apocalypse Now was still open. Of course, it was.
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Notes: almost everything in this update, except for Lucas's decision, is OTL. Well, I don't know if he really did feel so snowed under in September 1974 but it seems like he might have done. Anyway, there it is.
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The main reason why George Lucas took the job of directing Apocalypse Now was as a distraction.
At the time, he had been working on his dream project, The Star Wars, for almost a year and a half. After the surprise success of his coming-of-age period film American Graffiti, Lucas had been paid a significant advance by Twentieth Century Fox to develop his concept of a modern space-fantasy epic into a real film. Alan Ladd Jr., the head of Twentieth Century Fox, hadn’t been entirely taken by the concept of The Star Wars itself but he had believed in Lucas, and Lucas didn’t want to disappoint.
But after a year of writing the first draft script (and then a revision a month later which changed all the names), the feedback he received was nearly unanimous: “There’s some great ideas in here, George, but it needs a lot of work.” It’s too long. There’s too many subplots and side characters. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural, and the lead characters are unsympathetic. The tone is too dark and grim – for a film that is meant to be heavily influenced by the old adventure serials of the 1940s, there’s not enough fun.
What followed was months of brainstorming and restructuring, as Lucas rebuilt the story from the ground up. The plot was heavily modified, to the point of becoming an entirely different story. Characters were altered, combined and renamed. An entirely new spiritual component was added to the film. But when the time came for Lucas to actually begin writing his second draft… he realised he was still nowhere. It was an improvement, but it still wasn’t good enough.
Actually sitting down at the typewriter and putting everything down in black and white was without a doubt the one part of the writing process that he hated – while he loved being able to dream up the broad ideas and the big picture, when it came down to the details it always seemed to fall flat and something of the magic of the original idea would be lost.
He felt utterly snowed under. He needed something to do – something else to occupy him so that he would be able to revisit The Star Wars with fresh eyes. Something that would itself be interesting and push him out of his comfort zone, so that he could carry that attitude with him to the typewriter.
Some months earlier, his friend Francis Ford Coppola had brought up John Milius’s unproduced script Apocalypse Now again, asking him if he’d be interested in directing. Apocalypse Now had been floating around for a few years now, and Lucas had in fact been ready and willing to direct after the release of THX-1138 several years before – he’d even gone so far as to scout for filming locations in California while his friend Gary Kurtz did the same in the Philippines – but he’d ultimately dropped out of the project to make American Graffiti. When Coppola had again asked him if he still wanted to direct, Lucas had declined in order to focus on The Star Wars. Coppola, who was in the middle of making The Godfather Part II and feeling a little on edge, hadn’t taken the rejection well and a frosty silence had since developed between the two.
It was consequently a bit of a surprise to Coppola when Lucas called him at home and sheepishly asked if the position of director for Apocalypse Now was still open. Of course, it was.
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Notes: almost everything in this update, except for Lucas's decision, is OTL. Well, I don't know if he really did feel so snowed under in September 1974 but it seems like he might have done. Anyway, there it is.