What Star Wars Might Have Been...

If you loved the original Star Wars, but thought the new trilogy, or "prequels" left little to be desired, you're probably a Gary Kurtz guy, even if you don't know who he is. You see, he was the guy that was Lucas' partner, way back when they were at USC, who helped dream up the Star Wars universe, and simply left when he felt it slipping away. Among the many revelations from this this interview he gave to the Los Angeles Times are:

• Han Solo was supposed to die in Return of the Jedi
• George Lucas was supposed to direct Apocalypse Now
• Star Wars was never supposed to be multiple movies

There's plenty more reason to read the article, especially if you're a Star Wars fan. And I'll leave you with this quote...

“I took a master class with Billy Wilder once and he said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree and the second act you set the tree on fire and then in the third you get him down,” Kurtz said. “ ‘Empire’ was the tree on fire. The first movie was like a comic book, a fantasy, but ‘Empire’ felt darker and more compelling. It’s the one, for me, where everything went right. And it was my goodbye to a big part of my life.”