Directed by George Lucas
Produced by Rick McCallum
Written by George Lucas
Starring :
Liam Neeson
Ewan McGregor
Natalie Portman
Jake Lloyd
Ian McDiarmid
Anthony Daniels
Kenny Baker
Pernilla August
Frank Oz
Music by John Williams
Cinematography David Tattersall
Edited by :
Paul Martin Smith
Ben Burtt
Production :
company
Lucasfilm Ltd.
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates :
May 19, 1999
Running time :
133 minutes
Country United States :
Language English
Budget $115 million
Box office $1.027 billion
The early drafts of Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are well documented. We know all of their plots, their differences, their characters, and how they changed and transformed into what ended up on silver screens in 1977, 1980 and 1983. A lot of this insight comes courtesy of The Annotated Screenplays, but even before this we had copies of virtually all the Star Wars drafts, the fifth draft ofEmpire, and the revised rough draft of Jedi . Fans--nay, scholars, for the research and thought that went into their work could carry no other label--such as Jan Helander and Bjorn and Brendon Wahlberg even wrote extensive papers on this early material, explaining how it changed, transformed and what was contained within these documents. One of the earliest examples of these types of papers was one published in Starlog in July 1987; titled "The Primordial Star Wars" authors Randy and Jean-Marc Loffcier went through the bootlegged early drafts of Star Wars to explain where the story had come from (The Jedi Bendu Script Site hosts this article, which is claimed to have actually been penned as early as 1983).
What is sorely missing, however, is anything like this regarding the prequels. Pale as they might in comparison to the original films, they nonetheless are interesting to examine in their genesis and evolution; I believe I assembled the most comprehensive collection of info in my book but it is clearly less detailed than the original trilogy section. One inhibiting and inherent factor in Episodes I to III is that the story evolved not on paper but in the art department--unlike the originals, Lucas explored story, character and environment through sketches and designs, and only put pen onto paper when he had already thoroughly distilled a fairly specific plan. Revenge of the Sith shows this quite clearly, as Rinzler covers in his Making-of--this terrific book actually gives us the most complete picture of any prequel script evolution. By contrast, Attack of the Clones' remains almost entirely unknown, except for small trivia bits. Again though, it seems as though the early drafts are not too wildly different from the shooting script, from what we can gather.
Episode I is somewhat of an exception. Unlike the two sequels, it began on paper, with ideas explored through writing, and the art department involved much later. It also was granted the freedom to take the story in any direction it pleased, and thus the early material contains elements that are in some cases wildly different.
While we have no actual first-hand copies of any of the early prequel scripts, in the case of Episode I we have a detailed summary of the revised rough draft. This comes courtesy of the 1999 CD-ROM The Episode I Insiders Guide--one of its features was a copy of the final script with annotations about how the rough draft differed. The script was not known as Phantom Menace but was titled The Beginning. Qui Gon did not enter the film until the Coruscant section and so it is mainly the story of Obi Wan Kenobi, an older, full Jedi Knight, who uncovers the invasion of Utapau (Naboo in the film), rescues the queen, lands on Tatooine and recruits a young boy named Anakin Skywalker to become a Jedi. The tone is more mature, and in fact Jar Jar is a more realistic character who speaks normally and is not so over-the-top. In many ways, it is actually superior to the final script. Look out for Darth Maul as well, who is quite vocal in this version.
Below is the collection of annotations from the CD-ROM. These were provided--many years ago now--by another fan whose name I have now forgotten, who transcribed nearly word-for-word from the CD. Enjoy reading the earliest version of Episode I: The Beginning.
Before it was known as "The Phantom Menace," the working title of Episode I was simply "The Beginning." The opening scroll also underwent changes. In the revised rough draft, the scroll reads: "It is a time of decay in the Republic. The taxation of trade routes to the tiny planet of Utapau is in dispute. Hoping to force a resolution with a blockade of deadly Star Destroyers, the greedy Federation of Galactic Traders has cut off all shipping and supplies to the small, peaceful planet. While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates the alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched a young Jedi Knight to settle the conflict...."
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