A Return of the Jedi thing I saw...

MacCaulay

Banned
In 1980, during the aftermath of Empire, George Lucas was fined by the Writer's Guild and Director's Guild for not putting the credits at the beginning of the film but rather at the end so that the scrolling titles could be rolled up the screen.

He left them afterwards and paid the fines, but apparently this was a big factor in choosing Richard Marquand as the director for Jedi. His front-runner up to that point, it seems...was Steven fucking Spielberg.

So this brings up the question: how cool would a Return of the Jedi have been directed by Steven Spielberg?
 
So, wait... he wasn't fined for the original Star Wars, but was for the sequel?

(EDIT: Oh, I guess because he wrote & directed the original himself... so I'm guessing he wasn't a Guild member or something.)
 

MacCaulay

Banned
So, wait... he wasn't fined for the original Star Wars, but was for the sequel?

(EDIT: Oh, I guess because he wrote & directed the original himself... so I'm guessing he wasn't a Guild member or something.)

The documentary I watched said the Guild let it slide for the first one, then put the hammer down on the second one.
 

MrP

Banned
ISTR he's had some long-running feud with them about that whole thing. I don't know as he's even got over it today.
 

Hendryk

Banned
His front-runner up to that point, it seems...was Steven fucking Spielberg.
I wonder if this might have affected their collaboration on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" the following year. Lucas doesn't have the reputation of being easy to work with.
 
Erm...I'm not sure how much input Lucas would let Spielberg have when it came to the script. Sure, the guys are good friends, but I can't imagine Stevie raising fuss over the Ewoks or anything, given that he isn't exactly immune to whimsy either. So I'd imagine that it'd likely turn out or more less the same, maybe with scenes shot differently and occasional dialogue changes.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I wonder if this might have affected their collaboration on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" the following year. Lucas doesn't have the reputation of being easy to work with.

Well, if anything that shows they work together quite well. Heck, they worked closely for four films, and they'd already been working together for a few months on Raiders by the time George Lucas really started rolling on Empire.
 
I'm now reminded of the story that I once heard of David Lynch being considered for the job. Wonder what Lynch's ROTJ would've looked like (assuming that he was still, at that point, attempting to remain mainstream)?
 
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