Universal Pictures Studio Lot, Hollywood, CA
January 16, 1974
Steven Spielberg had, in the months since that call with Lucas, totally reversed his stance on Jaws. Way back then, during the early summer, he was convinced this movie would never work. The animatronic shark was only consistent in one thing (inconsistency), and after filming on the ocean for however many months, Spielberg now had a good taste of what Hell was probably like. On the other hand, all the shark's malfunctionings had turned the movie in a better direction. He'd had to get creative with just how he used the shark, and that made it impossible for something like Godzilla or King Kong, where the monster rampaged across the screen every ten seconds. His approach to Jaws was now similar to a Hitchcock picture, where the less you saw, the more scared you were. When the shark did show up (like when Brody is throwing chum out the back of the Orca), it was startling and made the fake-looking fish more terrifying than it could have been otherwise.
That being said, there was still a lot of work to be done to get the movie out by summer of 1975. This was prime time for all of the cutting, rearranging, and reshoots. And there were some things Spielberg just had to perfect, in particular the "You're gonna need a bigger boat" line, which from preliminary screenings showed the audience screamed right through it in shock of the first showing of the full shark in the aforementioned chum-throwing scene. Brody's reaction would need to be extended, to quiet down the viewers enough to drop the "bigger boat" line, which was up there with "You'll never go back in the water again" as a prospective tagline for the movie. (Spielberg personally prefered the latter of the two, and felt the other was too situational and wouldn't make much sense to those who hadn't seen the movie yet.)
"George?" asked Spielberg, who'd just dialed his old friend's number to update him on Jaws. "I've done it."
"Done what?" replied Lucas, clearly bewildered.
"I've made a better movie than you."
Silence. And then, George Lucas crackled through the receiver, "Fuck off."
Spielberg laughed heartily, and obliged.
As a result, his new script was much more... streamlined. Less hodgepodge, actually defined characters, and a whole storyline that ties it all together. Kinda.
The first major addition was the character of Luke Starkiller, with Annikin becoming his father, a wise Jedi knight still involved in his many sons lives and a figure who appears briefly at the end of the script. The second major addition was that of "The Force," a mystical and mysterious energy field binding the world together and harnessed by the Jedi. The third major addition was the mention of an ancient Jedi who fell to the Dark Side and promptly trained the Sith race to use the arts of the Force. It seemed a true antagonist was finally forming, as the Empire and the Sith blurred together in Lucas' latest draft.
The plot was changing as well. Leaving behind the action roots, the story was now more fanciful, like something you'd find in a collection of futuristic fairy tales, sandwiched between post-apocalyptic King Arthur and dystopic Robin Hood. It was, after all, about a knight with a sword rescuing a princess from the big, evil imperial tyrants. In a reflection of this, some of the characters became more human--specifically, Han Solo, who actually became a human as a wise-cracking, cocky smuggler instead of the hulking green monstrosity of the last script.
But with all the good came the bad. Most notably, the opening and closing title crawls rambled on and on and on nonsensically, reading more like essays than they should. He'd have to get Walt to help him with those. Lucas wasn't even sure he wanted an ending title crawl. All it did was tease a sequel, but it seemed presumptuous to tack that on when he didn't even know if people would like the first movie.
"At least I have these beauties," Lucas muttered aloud. He was referring to the gorgeous concept art he'd asked Don Bluth to sketch up. Done as paintings, they didn't look quite like Bluth's usual "cartoony" style, but were instead very close to realism, with a healthy dosage of fantastical sci-fi elements. His personal favorite was the image of Luke Starkiller, decked out head-to-toe in light battle gear, dueling Darth Vader, the Sith/Imperial general (he hadn't decided yet) in lightsaber combat. It was epic. There was no other word to describe it. Not a single other one in the whole English vernacular.
"Oh man, this better work out."
January 16, 1974
Steven Spielberg had, in the months since that call with Lucas, totally reversed his stance on Jaws. Way back then, during the early summer, he was convinced this movie would never work. The animatronic shark was only consistent in one thing (inconsistency), and after filming on the ocean for however many months, Spielberg now had a good taste of what Hell was probably like. On the other hand, all the shark's malfunctionings had turned the movie in a better direction. He'd had to get creative with just how he used the shark, and that made it impossible for something like Godzilla or King Kong, where the monster rampaged across the screen every ten seconds. His approach to Jaws was now similar to a Hitchcock picture, where the less you saw, the more scared you were. When the shark did show up (like when Brody is throwing chum out the back of the Orca), it was startling and made the fake-looking fish more terrifying than it could have been otherwise.
That being said, there was still a lot of work to be done to get the movie out by summer of 1975. This was prime time for all of the cutting, rearranging, and reshoots. And there were some things Spielberg just had to perfect, in particular the "You're gonna need a bigger boat" line, which from preliminary screenings showed the audience screamed right through it in shock of the first showing of the full shark in the aforementioned chum-throwing scene. Brody's reaction would need to be extended, to quiet down the viewers enough to drop the "bigger boat" line, which was up there with "You'll never go back in the water again" as a prospective tagline for the movie. (Spielberg personally prefered the latter of the two, and felt the other was too situational and wouldn't make much sense to those who hadn't seen the movie yet.)
"George?" asked Spielberg, who'd just dialed his old friend's number to update him on Jaws. "I've done it."
"Done what?" replied Lucas, clearly bewildered.
"I've made a better movie than you."
Silence. And then, George Lucas crackled through the receiver, "Fuck off."
Spielberg laughed heartily, and obliged.
--------------------------------
Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, CA
The man on the other end put down the telephone. Lucas didn't doubt, by this point, that Spielberg had outdone American Graffiti. In fact, he was worried that Jaws or whatever sequel it would inevitably get will outdo The Star Wars. He'd just completed the second rough draft, after going through piles and piles of Asimovs, Vernes, Wells, Flash Gordons, and even the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which outlined the Hero's Journey of the myths of old, all as research.As a result, his new script was much more... streamlined. Less hodgepodge, actually defined characters, and a whole storyline that ties it all together. Kinda.
The first major addition was the character of Luke Starkiller, with Annikin becoming his father, a wise Jedi knight still involved in his many sons lives and a figure who appears briefly at the end of the script. The second major addition was that of "The Force," a mystical and mysterious energy field binding the world together and harnessed by the Jedi. The third major addition was the mention of an ancient Jedi who fell to the Dark Side and promptly trained the Sith race to use the arts of the Force. It seemed a true antagonist was finally forming, as the Empire and the Sith blurred together in Lucas' latest draft.
The plot was changing as well. Leaving behind the action roots, the story was now more fanciful, like something you'd find in a collection of futuristic fairy tales, sandwiched between post-apocalyptic King Arthur and dystopic Robin Hood. It was, after all, about a knight with a sword rescuing a princess from the big, evil imperial tyrants. In a reflection of this, some of the characters became more human--specifically, Han Solo, who actually became a human as a wise-cracking, cocky smuggler instead of the hulking green monstrosity of the last script.
But with all the good came the bad. Most notably, the opening and closing title crawls rambled on and on and on nonsensically, reading more like essays than they should. He'd have to get Walt to help him with those. Lucas wasn't even sure he wanted an ending title crawl. All it did was tease a sequel, but it seemed presumptuous to tack that on when he didn't even know if people would like the first movie.
"At least I have these beauties," Lucas muttered aloud. He was referring to the gorgeous concept art he'd asked Don Bluth to sketch up. Done as paintings, they didn't look quite like Bluth's usual "cartoony" style, but were instead very close to realism, with a healthy dosage of fantastical sci-fi elements. His personal favorite was the image of Luke Starkiller, decked out head-to-toe in light battle gear, dueling Darth Vader, the Sith/Imperial general (he hadn't decided yet) in lightsaber combat. It was epic. There was no other word to describe it. Not a single other one in the whole English vernacular.
"Oh man, this better work out."
