Pop-Culture DBWI: What if Lucas directed the Star Wars prequels by himself?

We all know George Lucas co-directed the Star Wars Episode I with Steven Spielberg with Lucas laying out the ideas and Spielberg directing and Kasdan writing the script. And it was a masterpiece that renewed interest in Star Wars after so long.

But there were times when Lucas actually wanted to do the script for The Phantom Menace, and the entire prequel trilogy by himself, and eventually do the script for the prequels by himself but was talked out of it by his friends. Which raises the question. What if he had done it himself. Would it have worked as a movie? I recall a character called "Jar Jar" in the original drafts that was removed. But why? Would the character have sucked?
 
We all know George Lucas co-directed the Star Wars Episode I with Steven Spielberg with Lucas laying out the ideas and Spielberg directing and Kasdan writing the script. And it was a masterpiece that renewed interest in Star Wars after so long.

But there were times when Lucas actually wanted to do the script for The Phantom Menace, and the entire prequel trilogy by himself, and eventually do the script for the prequels by himself but was talked out of it by his friends. Which raises the question. What if he had done it himself. Would it have worked as a movie? I recall a character called "Jar Jar" in the original drafts that was removed. But why? Would the character have sucked?

Lucas back during the production of the first Star Wars made a bet with Spielberg that the movie would bomb--his ideas weren't getting used in production, and he didn't like how the movie was going. I bought a copy of a director's commentary on Beta during a convention in '88, and apparently Lucas's ideas included having Jabba appear as a rabbit-creature and Han Solo be an alien frog creature.

His ideas were quite often goofy. But maybe he could have pulled them off with modern effects technology. He stumbled with the bombed remastering of the originals in '97, but I think that taught him a lesson about what would really work in a Star Wars film.
 
We all know George Lucas co-directed the Star Wars Episode I with Steven Spielberg with Lucas laying out the ideas and Spielberg directing and Kasdan writing the script. And it was a masterpiece that renewed interest in Star Wars after so long.

But there were times when Lucas actually wanted to do the script for The Phantom Menace, and the entire prequel trilogy by himself, and eventually do the script for the prequels by himself but was talked out of it by his friends. Which raises the question. What if he had done it himself. Would it have worked as a movie? I recall a character called "Jar Jar" in the original drafts that was removed. But why? Would the character have sucked?

Ah, I remember Jar Jar! He was in the animated TV series that Lucas created after the resounding success of the prequels.....and probably one of it's wackiest and funniest characters, too; I betcha if he had been included, it would have added a comic twist to the movies; though, given how serious the movies were overall, perhaps it was indeed best to save him for the TV series. :D
 
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