Poll: Who do you think is telling the truth about TFA story authorship, JJ or Lucas?

I think George had "something"; an outline, notes, ideas written down on paper. I think he "believed" that Disney would use his ideas and want him to be a "consultant" on episodes 7,8,9. Unfortunately, what George had (and I think this was in the Vanity Fair magazine) was something that "reminded them to much of The Phantom Menace". Clearly, this is NOT the direction Disney wanted to go, so they said "no thanks George"; which I think made George mad. He always points out in his interviews how "they didn't want my stories". I think that's the reason he asked JJ the question: "What happened to Darth Vader's grandchildren?" to point out the fact that Disney is NOT addressing the continuation of the Skywalker family, or quite possibly NOT centering the sequels "solely on" the Skywalkers. It is clear that the "story of the grandchildren" is what Lucas wanted to tell and that Disney didn't want that. Perhaps they feared a repeat of the prequels, which I believe would have happened if George would have gotten his way. He refuses to acknowledge any shortcoming the prequels had, and would have crammed Skywalker grandchildren down our throats. No thanks George.

 

I agree with this as I said in earlier that I think they are using some of Lucas broad ideas, but just changing around the chess pieces.

Maybe Lucas version was all Skywalker/Solo offspring and Disney's version is some Skywalker/Solo's and some non-Skywalker/Solo's?

Maybe Lucas version focused on Han/Leia's kids and Disney made Rey the daughter of Luke?

In the end I still think this was all about power as Lucas has always had 100% control of the SW movies. When he was rebuffed and wasn't able to get 100% of his ideas greenlit, that is probably what caused the divorce.

 

Part of me is annoyed at Lucas, it appears that they did in fact want to bring him on to consult for the designs but he was like "Nope, if you aren't doing my story then i'm not giving you my visual sensibilities."

Thats why a few creatures and vehicles are going to lack that "spark" and not feel like Star Wars (ahem, Maz Kanata's castle)

I can see George's side but his complete lack of involvement will hurt the movies, he knows that too

 

I agree. As much as Lucas gets flack for his writing & directing (which is deserved) he is at his best as a big picture guy.

The perfect hierarchy for TFA would have been for Lucas to write the overall story, Kasdan to take that story and write a script from it, and JJ to direct it.

It worked for ESB and it could have worked for TFA.

 

Exactly, which basically is ''built in Lucas' spirit'' is having a third Death Star and damsel in mistress aboard the third Death Star that you have to save before it gets blown to smithereens by squadron of X-Wing fighters. Also, being on Tatooine, that is actually called Jakku (Comic Con JJ: ''Looks like Tatooine right? I'm such a troll, but hold your hats, it is actually a totally different planet called Jakku!!'' Wooooow!)

So script and spirit, are actually different things. Spirit can also be a glass of whiskey, which explains a lot of stuff from the OT:
''We needs a huuuuge battle stayshion!'' ''Yeah, pour me a Death Star, but! We have to camouflage it like the Tatooione, let's call it Starkiller, that's a cool original name on toy boxes.''
Meanwhile, the Lucasfilm storytelling team was locked naked and tied up in cellar and I wonder, if they are still alive after what we saw from new EU.

 

I think this shows the very convoluted way a story/script moves forward.

I see a lot of talking past each other by George//JJ//Disney. This all falls into, "by a certain point of view". What George considers a detailed treatment might, and probably isn't what Disney considers the same.

I don't think Lucas had a complete script ready for production. Lucas most likely had some very broad idea with footnotes, characters (probably no solid names just ideas), maybe a few story boards.

 

ABSOLUTELY! George never spent too long on things, he kept it spontaneous and didn't allow room for "paralysis from analysis" this is why all of the Star Wars movies feel so playful and imaginative (aside from Attack of the CGI and Pussification of the Sith)

 

I'm sorry but OP is extremely confused.
How are those two statements "not compatible"????

Lucas had treatments for 7-9 that they didn't want to use (for all we know they involved a resurrected Trade Federation, who the hell knows).
JJ said that the spirit of what he wrote in the treatment and "prior" (i.e. Eps 1-6) is "everything that this movie is built upon."

GL has said that the treatment centered around Darth Vader's grandkids (Charlie Rose interview), that Star Wars is really a soap opera about "family."
Given what we know (or strongly suspect for good reason) about certain characters in TFA, JJ's comment that they built upon the "spirit" of what he wrote is perfectly accurate and fair.

The two statements are 100% compatible.
They didn't use GL's treatments but they did build upon the themes and "spirit" of what he wrote in those treatments and in everything that came prior.

Does that mean that TFA is GL's story? Of course not. Vader's grandkids, maybe themes involving a fall to the Dark Side and redemption, or growing up on a desert planet...maybe those things were in the treatment, who knows? But GL did not write a story about Finn and Rey and Snoke and Maz Kanata, etc. etc. Those characters were created by JJ and Kasdan and possibly Arndt, not GL.

TFA is not GL's story, period. Nevertheless, he should get a "Based on characters created by" credit, sure; he created every other character we've seen before, and he created the world the new characters inhabit.

Some day we'll have better idea of how much his treatments influenced the sequel trilogy; the influence could be much stronger than we suspect or even GL suspects. His comments about Vader's grandkids suggest that he hasn't even been told that yes, the story IS about Vader's grandkids! I suspect he'll find that out when he sees the movie himself (maybe even on opening day like the rest of us considering the grumpiness and animosity he seems to have). Regardless, the story of TFA is JJ's, Kasdan's, and Arndt's.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 22, 2015, Original Post Date: Nov 22, 2015 ---

Why would you say that "there is an agreement by fans that this is a story by Lucas" when not one single person on the first page said that?
Rebo even explicitly said "that they came up with a new story."

 

The title of this poll/thread, asking who is "telling the truth", implies that someone is a liar.

How about this-

Nobody is lying.

Different people with great imaginations and creativity have different perceptions, ideas, and approaches to creating great things. They can also have differing opinions in regards to how others create great things. Art, and the creation of it, is a subjective thing, open to great interpretation.

Not everything in life has to be either A, or B.

 

For me, when Lucas asked JJ in that video "what happens to Vader's grandkids", he could in fact be having a dig.

It could point to the fact that there aren't any Vader grandkids. Just new heroes who interact with Luje/Han/Leia.

 

GL kept Solo alive because he wanted to sell more Hasbro toys.

 

Just an FYI-

The decision to not kill off the character Han Solo was made during production of the OT.

Hasbro didn't acquire the license to produce Star Wars toys until roughly ten years later, in the early 1990's.

And sales figures don't indicate that a lack of screen time for, or the death of any character, favorite or otherwise, has any negative impact on SW toy sales.

In fact, some of the most popular SW action figures produced to this day are ones who died (Yoda) and/or had a lesser role (Boba Fett).

 

Lucas wanted to continue the Skywalker story.
Disney said no.

The End.

I don't see how any of these statements are contradictory.

 

You haven't even seen the movie yet. How do you know that the new film does not continue the Skywalker story?

Why would Luke Skywalker himself be the voice of teaser number two, if this film is not about the Skywalker story?

 

In fact, we actually have confirmation from Kathleen Kennedy that the film DOES continue the Skywalker story.

 

Nowhere did she say 'offspring'. She said it's generational, and while you'd assume that means kids and grand kids, I think it's pretty clear by now that she meant 'generational' in terms of carrying on a legacy.

Lucas himself said that his treatment was focused on the grandchildren of OT characters. It's looking more and more likely that neither Finn, Poe, or Rey are direct descendants of Luke or Leia. Only Kylo is old enough to believably be one of their children.