DBWI: Star Wars was an American film?

It is a period of Total War. Republic ships, fighting alone against the unstoppable fleets of the Galactic Empire, have won their first victory.

During the battle, Republic spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empires planned invasion of the neutral Confederation, and the location of a secret weapon of unimaginable destructive power.

Pursued by the Empire's forces, Captain Organa races home on her starship, custodian of the information that may save the Republic and bring peace and freedom to the Galaxy...

I couldn't imagine what it must've been like to see that crawl, nearly 40 years ago now, and not knowing the massive success and cultural icon that it would unleash on the world. Ridley Scot had undoubtedly found further success after the first three movies, but there's no denying the impact his first project as a director had on the British film industry and entertainment in general.

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Scott on the set of the Tantive, the crucial first scene of Star Wars I.

While films before it went over to America, Star Wars of all films managed to somehow drag America to Europe, establishing a more permanent bridge across the Atlantic and even broke Hollywood's grasp on big-budget film in America. Odd for a film that (at least for the first film), basically told the story of Britain, Germany and the Soviet Union during 1940-1941, except in space. Maybe it was the effects, or the score, or the writing and characters, but there were few places on Earth that didn't get sucked in to the tale.

Now, with the latest series of 414 Squadron finishing on the BBC and a new main trilogy on the way, and the occasional thread discussing a British Trek, I thought all the talk and pondering could be put to use on a scenario: What if Star Wars had been made by an American director, with an American writer, studio, and at least a good deal of the cast? Who would be good candidates for the film in 1977? What would the core differences be in the first film? How might the franchise spawned by it differ? (Scott once said that he had wanted to make at least one film set before Star Wars I, there's an idea for a difference. Yeah, yeah, the 'Rise of Order' novels tell the story of the Empire's birth, but I'm talking proper films here.) How about impact on the industry, does 'foreign film' get resigned to a corner of the store, drowned out by 'local' work?

And even if we can't make solid predictions, it's nice to think where other directors would take the core idea :)
 
I can't imagine the sober and dark atmosphere wold be possible in an american flic. Even the occasional streak of humor was dry and and dark.

As a hollywood project I imagine it would have loud blunt jokes, slapstic and probably the whole thing would be more like a fairy tale than a hard SF story.

Do you remember what that wanna be director Georgy "Porgy" Lucas did to Dicks "Do robots fream of electric sheep" - Rachaele became dumb lovesick heiress, the androids an evil group of terrorists and Deckert wielding a mediveal sword beheading discovered androids. The android animals of the story turned into comical relief but meaningless to the story.

Imagine that Lucas directing Star Wars. Sorcerers in space? Androids not the tireless machines doing all the gruesome tasks of Space Battle, but being court jesters? Laser Wielding Princesses? Masked "comic strip" villains?
 
I can't imagine the sober and dark atmosphere wold be possible in an american flic. Even the occasional streak of humor was dry and and dark.

As a hollywood project I imagine it would have loud blunt jokes, slapstic and probably the whole thing would be more like a fairy tale than a hard SF story.

Do you remember what that wanna be director Georgy "Porgy" Lucas did to Dicks "Do robots fream of electric sheep" - Rachaele became dumb lovesick heiress, the androids an evil group of terrorists and Deckert wielding a mediveal sword beheading discovered androids. The android animals of the story turned into comical relief but meaningless to the story.

Imagine that Lucas directing Star Wars. Sorcerers in space? Androids not the tireless machines doing all the gruesome tasks of Space Battle, but being court jesters? Laser Wielding Princesses? Masked "comic strip" villains?

There would be differences, of course, but isn't that the point of alternate history? To explore possibilities rather than be scared of them?

Besides, while the films tend to be rather mature, other media made since then had proven that the Star Wars universe could work as a lighter, more child-friendly setting. Even the older fans complaining about the Star Base cartoon a few years back probably played the likes of Squadron Commander on their Nintendo 64s when they were kids, so don't really have a point in complaining.

I think I know that Lucas guy. He also made this Samurai film that was brilliant. It caused a bit of a craze in America after the boom of Star Wars died down. It even went over to Japan and somehow got enough right to get fans. If Star Wars didn't happen, I think he would've gotten more money for an even bigger project, one to make his name.
 
I doubt that an American Star Wars would have been so closely linked to, well, real themes. I mean, the Empire were very clearly Space Nazis, right down to ideas of racial/species superiority. Moreover, it was made very clear that they were us - the idea that the Empire was descended from lost Earth space colonies. The idea that any people could succumb to Nazi-like ideology...

I'll say this, too: no Star Wars, no Babel Station from 1981 to 1986. Which would have been a tragic loss to SF. Terry Nation worked his heart out on that show, and some of the people who wrote episodes...well, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore...I could go on, but you get the point.

Of course, the main thing about that show was the idea that it's not alien conquerors or void dragons who are the real threat: it's 'normal' humans.

Also: Commonwealth Marshal Servalan was...wow :D

OOC: Babel Station is TTL's Babylon 5 - only without the Shadows. The show in its entirety is about the growth of a repressive government in the Earth Commonwealth, and Military Governor Emily Blunt's (Mary Tamm) rebellion against it.
 
If us American's had made the film who would of played John Alderton's role as the con artist space huller in a american film someone like Tom Selleck ? I just can't see him pulling it off even if he did make a great Indiana Jones.



 
If it was a series of Hollywood films they would have a Hollywood Ending. Rod Cloudsurfer would beat the odds and kill the Emperor in the last scene of the third film. Rather than the typically British bleak ending where the were Imperial forces trapped and wiped out the "good guys" in the one-sided shootout at the end of the third film.

I put good guys in inverted commas, because as they were in a British 1970s production the heroes weren't much better than they people they were fighting.
 
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If it was a series of Hollywood films they would have a Hollywood Ending. Rod Cloudsurfer would beat the odds and kill the Emperor in the last scene of the third film. Rather than the typically bleak British ending where the were Imperial forces trapped and wiped out the "good guys" in the one-sided shootout at the end of the third film.

I put good guys in inverted commas, because as they were British 1970s production the heroes weren't much better than they people they were fighting.

That was the ending with Scott himself spent half the '90s trying to buff out with the Sequel Trilogy. He always imagined the end of III to be more similar to the end of what became VI, bittersweet but hopeful, a mirror to the end of the Second World War, not an outright 'Bad Guys Win' that Radford insisted on. It's amazing they were able to stay in the same room long enough to finish the movie. I can see how some people came to the belief that he was 'infantilising' the main saga and milking the brand, but I really did enjoy seeing the process of the Free Republic learning its lessons, turning surviving darkhorses on both sides of the Original Trilogy into mentors for the new cast, and ending it in one big, almighty clash that leaves the story on a higher note. A nice subversion of the 'Chosen One' trope, and the main trio of Richard Armitage, Jessica Hynes and Sam Rockwell gave off a 'B-Team' feel that made them relatable.
 
Also as an American film aimed at a family audience rather than the old AA Certificate there's going to be less nudity in it.

So in Episode 3 we probably see Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathleen Turner and Kim Bassinger (or ASB Carrie Fisher) in space-age bikinis instead of Josette Simon, Glynis Barber and Victoria Tennant (or Marina Sirtis) topless.

Just to check, is this British Star Wars effectively Blake'7 made as a series of films by Ridley Scott?
 
Also as an American film aimed at a family audience rather than the old AA Certificate there's going to be less nudity in it.

So in Episode 3 we probably see Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathleen Turner and Kim Bassinger (or ASB Carrie Fisher) in space-age bikinis instead of Josette Simon, Glynis Barber and Victoria Tennant (or Marina Sirtis) topless.

Just to check, is this British Star Wars effectively Blake'7 made as a series of films by Ridley Scott?

Why would Fisher be ASB? I knew that she overdosed in the 90's while voicing Sailor Jupiter in the American dub of Sailor Moon, but in the '70s she was an up and coming actress, in exactly the right state to take a role (If Sigourney Weaver managed to get on, so could Carrie Fisher). Maybe the fame of the role would get her the attention to confront her cocaine addiction, if it ever happens.

As for nudity, I suppose you're right on that one, although I had always thought that scene with them in the station 'laboratory' didn't absolutely require it. I suppose it was to reflect the Empire 'dehumanising' them, but it reeks a bit too much of a concentration camp, even by Star Wars standards. I always had an odd fondness for those stupid looking rocketpunk bikinis that were popular in pulp during the '50s and '60s, so if a lighter, more bubbly Star Wars wanted 'sex appeal', that's the way it would do it. It's immature, but it's at least owning the immaturity.

OOC: I at first imagined a cross between the WWII-influenced British scifi and Commando comics, and Scott's Alien. Everything's used and old, both in-universe and out, although old surplus props are given new paint and a layer of fantastic music and atmosphere to make a world that fits into the definition of 'Space Opera', but still makes 'sense' and is a much grittier imagining than the Star Wars we know. So yeah, imagine Alien as a Commando Comic, structured as a morally ambiguous 'black-verses-gray' allegory of the Second World War. No Force, or Jedi and Sith, with some terminology raided from, again, old pulp stories and the word of Clarke and Asimov.
 
Why would Fisher be ASB?

It was a joke. That is I swapped one daughter of a 1950s star couple (Fisher) for another (Lee Curtis). That's why I also mentioned Marina Sirtis for the British Star Wars as she auditioned for Blake's 7.

Furthermore I had been told off in another DWBI for making it too close to the real world.
 
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It was a joke. That is I swapped one daughter of a 1950s star couple (Fisher) for another (Lee Curtis). That's why I also mentioned Marina Sirtis for the British Star Wars as she auditioned for Blake's 7.

Furthermore I had been told off in another DWBI for making it too close to the real world.

OCC: Oh, right, got it.
 
OOC: I at first imagined a cross between the WWII-influenced British scifi and Commando comics, and Scott's Alien. Everything's used and old, both in-universe and out, although old surplus props are given new paint and a layer of fantastic music and atmosphere to make a world that fits into the definition of 'Space Opera', but still makes 'sense' and is a much grittier imagining than the Star Wars we know. So yeah, imagine Alien as a Commando Comic, structured as a morally ambiguous 'black-verses-gray' allegory of the Second World War. No Force, or Jedi and Sith, with some terminology raided from, again, old pulp stories and the word of Clarke and Asimov.

So something along the lines of a darker Dan Dare, Trigan Empire or "Storm the Movie."

I was thinking of the British Star Wars being Blake's 7 turned into a big budget film trilogy because the BBC wanted it to be a TV Star Wars until the Special Effects Department told them how much the special effects would cost.

Also I've read that the show was conceived as a Dirty Dozen in space with Avon as a space age Dirty Harry. That's why I said have them all killed at the end of the third film as Blake and co were killed at the end of Blake's 7.

However, I've spent over 30 years thinking that Avon should have gone off with Servalan after all the others had been killed.

Maybe the twist in the American Star Wars ITTL is that Servalan goes over to the good guys and that is how the Empire/Federation is defeated.
 

Polemarchos

Banned
I bet there'd be less controversial dismantlings of the Victorian age. No Indian sounding Raja the Hutts either. The ultimate villain being revealed to be a gilded Empress would also be impossible.
 
I bet there'd be less controversial dismantlings of the Victorian age. No Indian sounding Raja the Hutts either. The ultimate villain being revealed to be a gilded Empress would also be impossible.

OOC: What does this mean, how does it fit into the TTL films?
 
Well the "special effects" department was really the downside of the series - When the Andersons turned down the offer because they wanted to do their "own" work (Space 2022 lacked the story of Star Wars, but the special effects were top notch). And their casting decisisions were awful - a Shakespeare actor as commander of a Moonbase - weirdest thing ever heard ... Though that Crosby girl as flight lieutenant Deanna Martin was really cool - looks AND brains...

OOC: I assume Gerry and Sylvia Anderson do big screen flics instead of TV series TTL. (Yeah and a not to my favorite OTL crew ;))
 
Well the "special effects" department was really the downside of the series.

While Scott's team didn't have the money behind them, they were very clever in conserving what they had and using comparatively simple props to make the sets look like they were on a much higher budget than they really were. Using old bomber aircraft interiors and the bridge of a decommissioned warship actually helped achieve the feel of living in a galaxy full of old, unpainted, by-the-lowest-bidder junk, and everything from the computer displays to the symbols painted on the walls made it look like it was really space. Of course, it then became for of a stylistic choice in the later films, Episode I having pulled in so much money and trust in Scott that he could set up a visual effects company.

But I suppose that an American Star Wars would have a higher budget and more resources. Maybe it would have the characters shoot at each other with laser guns instead of 'handheld kinetic weapons', if FX could dedicate resources to adding in the shots. The bigger space battles of the third film would be possible earlier, and go at a faster speed (as tense as the torchship duel was in I, it was good he didn't have it near the start, a battle involving two huge models positioning themselves for space jousting isn't the best way to draw in a crowd). And more aliens that are...'alien'. That was one way the OT got better in as time went on, more unique designs in aliens were added to the cast. But for I, it was mostly just humans and rubber-foreheads. At least the robots had interesting designs.
 
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