Club Jade

Mystery Man on Film devoted yesterday to a repost that I’m pretty sure I linked before… But it’s still worth a second look. The premise, if you will:

Let it be said, my friends, that the early drafts of Star Wars should be a rich source of encouragement to every aspiring screenwriter the world over – because they royally sucked.

And they do. One example: Annikin Starkiller punches the princess in the face. Sure, she’s a hell of a lot more Vespa than Leia at this point, but… In the face. Oh George, no.

Read on for a compare and contrast of the scripts from 1974 and 1977. The difference is nothing short of amazing.

If your trainwreck syndrome is strong, you can find many of the early drafts at the Jedi Bendu Script Site.

Try not to be totally surprised that Star Wars is #2 on Cracked’s list of seven terrible early versions of great movies. After reading the early drafts, some of the prequels less-stellar quirks make a lot more sense.

You can read early drafts of Star Wars for yourself at The Jedi Bendu Script Site, and see the (considerably less painful) Ralph McQuarrie concept art in Michael Heilemann’s Flickr collection.

The script for Frank Darabont’s Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods – the one Spielberg and Ford liked, but Lucas rejected – has reportably been leaked online – but good luck finding a copy now.