ESB director Irvin Kershner has passed away

[DarthPipes]

I think Lucas kept Brackett's name for screen credit as a tribute to her and to bring more attention to her work.

The original ESB script is very, very different from the finished product. Vader is not Luke's father, the ghost of Luke's father appears, Han doesn't get frozen in carbonite, a subplot involves Han trying to find his step-father, who controls all non-military shipping in the galaxy to join the Rebellion, etc.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Lucas wrote the next draft from scratch, which was very different from Leigh's, but aligns pretty closely plot-wise with the final product - if extremely clunky in dialogue. Kasdan's drafts (3rd, 4th, and 5th) all build off of George's original 2nd draft.

That sounds familiar. He had a great core of a story in the PT, but he sure could have used other people writing several more drafts to get rid of the stupid, unworkable notions, improve the dialogue, etc.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

By chance this morning I just started to watch the first half hour of the pilot of
SeaQuest DSV aka SeaQuest 2032 (TV series)
and see him listed as the director.

A coincidence...
According to imdb.com it was his last director job in 1993 after directing the feature film RoboCop 2 in 1990.

 

[DarthPipes]

Yeah, I remember reading an article in the old Starlog magazine. He directed the two-hour pilot. Remember that pilot getting a lot of press. I missed it for some reason that I can no longer remember.

 

[RandyS]

RIP, Irvin Kershner.

ESB is still my favorite of the Star Wars films. From the interviews I've read and seen, he seemed like a great guy.

Agreed.

 

[ALF]

Does anyone know which bits of ESB that he was able to spin into gold?
Specifically, I'm thinking that I read he was responsible for the "I love you" / "I Know" exchange between Han and Leia that because legend. The script called for an "I love you" return, Ford, Fisher and Irvin agreed it sucked and worked around it.

Anything else specific?