[Supes]

I have a question.

We keep discussing the script of Episodes I & II and ask why didn't someone do something or say something? Well I'd like to ask what did Jonathan Hales contribute to Episode II? He is credited as the co-screenwriter. Surely someone with his background an pedigree could have helped. If you're not familiar with Hales here's a bit of his Bio:

British-born Jonathan Hales graduated from Cambridge University, and received a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Texas, where he taught in the English department and gained a Ph.D.
He returned to England and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, spending two years in Stratford-upon-Avon and London. Hales also directed theater productions, staging more than forty plays and operas in London's West End and at leading regional theaters in England.

Hales worked with director George Lucas as one of the writers for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and later also wrote the films The Scorpion King, Death on the Nile, The Mirror Cracked, and Loophole. Five of Hale's theater plays have been produced, and he has written many television screenplays for the BBC, London Weekend, Thames TV, Granada, Yorkshire TV, and Gaumont. A short list of Hales' numerous television screenplays includes episodes of Dallas, Van der Valk, Dempsey & Makepeace, and Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime.

I'm not saying he's a literary genius or anything like that, but he should have been able to see what was clearly presented as drivel. According to the credits he needs to be as responsible for it.

Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated.

Trent

[sinister grinner]

how come cows shit is flat, horse shit is mushy, and goat shit is round or tubular, yet they all eat the same grass.

well..........you said thoughts but you didn't specify. actually, maybe george lucas is a greedy bastard.

[Supes]

how come cows shit is flat, horse shit is mushy, and goat shit is round or tubular, yet they all eat the same grass.

well..........you said thoughts but you didn't specify. actually, maybe george lucas is a greedy bastard.

I did! I did indeed. And all are welcome in this the free land of speech. Topical or not. And you also do pose a very interesting question Mr Grinner. One that I will muse upon in the hope of enlightenment and greater understanding.

[Chefelf]

Well he did work on the Young Indiana Jones. That explains a lot.

Still I'm sure that Lucas was kept in his protective yes-man bubble enough so that Hales had precious little to do with AOTC.

[Supes]

I only managed to see the first couple of episodes of the Young Indiana Jones series. Was it any good?

[Vwing]

As you said, Hales is CREDITED for CO-writing the script with Lucas, meaning he was probably responsible for the couple of good lines in it and had nothing to do with the rest. I'm sure he wrote the "You'll be the death of me line" (probably the best line in the movie), and probably had some input on the Shmi death scene (probably the best dialogue and emotion-driven scene in the movie), other than that, Lucas kept him locked up somewhere.

[Chefelf]

I still feel deep regreat for actually chuckling at the "You'll be the death of me" line. It would have been evey funnier if there weren't so many other lame throwbacks to the original movies that were done so poorly.

[Vwing]

yeah but hey give credit where credit's due, it was a pretty funny line

[barend]

so was " i killed them all, even the women and children"

[Despondent]

Lawrence Kasdan rewrote Leigh Brackett's screenplay, based on GL's material for Empire. she died after the first draft, and he (paraphrased) was under a lot of pressure to write quick so they could get with production. I found my old copy of TESB notebook (script and storyboards with liner notes, a great read) and found some quotes interesting. for your perusal:

When we worked on the script, george, kersh (director), gary (producer) and i met every 2 weeks at first. then it was down to every week. we took the script, page by page and went over every line, every word. between meetings, i would write as many pages as i could, then bring in those 25 or so pages for us to go over. george had a policy of never telling me when he liked something. from a practical point of view, that saved time, but from a writer's point of view---presenting his material for approval--it was very tough. after a week or two i got used to george's method-- lawrence kasdan


I hate slick films, because to me slick means polished with all the bumps and seams taken out. I think empire is not slick because it's bumpy in places, and a little ragged, and terribly real. and if bumps in places and if there are little things that are not quite right, those things lend a sense of something that has been handmade, not machine made. empire is not a machine-made film. it's a handmade film and it has all the imperfections of anything that's handmade.-- irvin kershner

[Vwing]

And this just begs you to ask the question...what happened to GL? He was so devoted to all of his movies early, ANH, ESB, ROTJ, all of them he wanted to make sure fit in, and were good. What happened? Did he get so arrogant, so greedy, so mad with his power that he just thinks anything and everything he does now is great? What happened to the hard-working kid from California who gave us all of these movies that we loved, and who's turned into someone who gave us these movies we love to not love? It really is sad.

[Despondent]

What happened?  Did he get so arrogant, so greedy, so mad with his power that he just thinks anything and everything he does now is great?

well, Yeah...

seems a long time ago, in a reality not far-fetched, GL had his hands tied in order to procure delivery of his (ever-evolving) "vision." then mattel printed their own currency in action figures and Yoda had more money than wisdom.

the first step of recovery is admitting you have a problem. GL, you need professional help.

writers, directors, producers. you can micro-manage a galaxy far far away, but you may be the only one who actually likes it. (or not. I believe there is goodness in the father. I have faith even lucas is privately disappointed)