Leigh Brackett's ESB Script draft: FAKE!!!???

[Kurgan]

As everyone knows by now, Leigh Brackett's Empire Strikes Back draft (which she completed just a few days before her death), which fans had long known about from various books including the Annotated Screenplays, etc. has been online for awhile now, in both scanned photocopy form and transcription (such as here: http://www.mypdfscripts.com/screenplays ... kett-draft).

What's interesting to me is that LucasFilm and the Ranch have not publicly acknowledged it. Various folks have theorized they did this because it was a leak and not an official release and drawing attention to it would draw attention to a theft. Makes sense there. But somehow I figured some insider leaked it to coincide with the anniversary.

It's long been acknowledged to exist, but you won't find news about it on any of the major official sites.

What's more interesting still is that many fan sites won't talk about it and will even suspect it of being a forgery or hoax.

Apparently when it was first posted online, Lucas's legal team actually pressured the site to TAKE IT DOWN. This implies it was the real deal (since LFL doesn't seem to care much for policing fan scripts, even fake ones claiming to be real, like the infamous SuperShadow site, which was only threatened that time he was charging money to view content stolen from SW.com's premium section). So even setting aside that this would be one of the most clever forgeries in modern times, it seems to me to be authentic. A trip to that library could verify it, I suppose.

So why are people still acting like it's a fake or a no-no? You'd think they'd be interested in Star Wars history. People have read the OTHER leaked scripts, and noted the differences and evolution of the story that occurs on the pages.

Anyone have any insight into the "it's fake!" claims or the taboo-ness of this script amongst certain segments of fans? I mean for crying out loud, even wookieepedia doesn't acknowledge its existence.

[Havok]

Man, I don't know if it is fake or not, but I know it sure does suck.

If Lucas would have gone with... that? The Empire Strikes Back would have been one of the most disappointing sequels of all time instead of one of the best.

I guess it's nice that he gave her credit, but if that is real, there isn't much that she contributed to the movie.

[Dooey Jo]

VADER
The coordinates, man, the coordinates!


Oh god what a fucking geek Han is.

[they are hiding on an asteroid]
HAN
We're two people, alone in the immensity of space...
(shakes his head)
no no hold it. That's too much even for me.

LEIA (laughs)
It's a great line Han, and well-polished with use.

HAN
No. Matter of fact, you're the only woman who's ever flown in Falcon. Trouble is, I can't seem to make anything sound convincing. Leia...

Then they sit around cuddling all the damn time. Argh! I can't take it!


Apparently Darth Vader has a "Black Iron Castle" on a rock in a "crimson sea" and "pet gargoyles".
Then he laughs as if he has discovered something that bodes no good for Luke.

[Elfdart]

I have no idea if this is authentic or not, since according to Brackett's publisher, the only places to see it are at Skywalker Ranch and Eastern New Mexico University, neither of which allows borrowing or copying. It's possible someone sneaked a copy out anyway, though so maybe this is for real.

Judging from Stephen Haffner's description of Brackett's first draft, I'm inclined to think it's authentic:

FWIW, Leigh Brackett turned in the first draft of TESB (her cover page
reads: STAR WARS SEQUEL) in February of 1978 before dying of cancer
weeks later on March 24th.

While she wrote her script from story notes and telephone interviews
with Lucas, none (I repeat NONE!) of her contributions were utilized in
subsequent drafts or the final script. I've read her script and
although I'm a big Brackett fan (in 2002 I published a 500-page book of
her earliest stories), her screenplay is pretty bad.

Lucas enjoyed working with Brackett and wanted her name on the film and he ensured that her estate would benefit from the finished product.
I've read a letter written by Richard C. Jones, then-attorney for
Brackett's estate and he is effusive on how above-board and reputable
Lucas is.

Grist for the mill,

Stephen Haffner
Big Poobah
HAFFNER PRESS

and

I've just finished reading the Salon.com article on Lucas' material, and
insofar as Leigh Brackett is concerned my response is "bullshit."
Mega-super bullshit.

I've read the first draft screenplay that Leigh Brackett wrote (called
alternately STAR WARS II and STAR WARS SEQUEL) and while it adheres to
the three-chapter outline (Ice Planet-Swamp Planet/Asteroid Belt-Cloud
Planet) given to LB by Lucas in 1978 (supplemented by lengthy telephone
interviews between GL & LB with Lucas role-playing several different
characters) the draft that she turned in is near-unfilmable and at
variance with what was ultimately done in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

I think EMPIRE is a great film and I obviously admire LB's work, but her
STAR WARS II script, while it has more than a few wonderful moments, it
fatally flawed. For one thing, the "Force" is much more prominent, and
is essentially an additional character in the film, giving the
screenplay an over-abundance of supernatural and spiritual overtones.
Also, no sod is sewn over the "Vader is Luke's father" scheme.
Nothing. Brackett's trademark rapid-fire dialogue is present between
Han-Luke-Leia, but the romance is missing, and Han Solo exists in the
script only to pilot the Millennium Falcon and tell everybody that he
has to meet up with an old mentor before paying off Jabba the Hut
(sic). In fact, Han never gets to meet this dutch-uncle, and leaves the
film at the end to do so. No Boba Fett. No carbonite freezing
chamber. A proto-Lando is present, and a proto-Yoda (called Minch in
the script) guides Luke through his Jedi training. The asteroid chase
is brief, and Han, Chewie, Leia and 3PO simply rendezvous with the Rebel
fleet. A second draft using Brackett's material could have been
attempted, but Lucas gave the same three-chapter synopsis to Kasdan and
the result is the final film.

For some reason, it has become fashionable to slag-off Lawrence Kasdan
and his work on RAIDERS and JEDI, as well as diminishing BODY HEAT, BIG
CHILL and SILVERADO. Maybe having worked so much with Lucas and Kevin
Costner, and with their clout currently tarnished (Lucas for PHANTOM
MENACE and Costner for, well, take your pick post-DANCES WITH WOLVES)
that Kasdan is an easy target.

Sorry for the rant, but in the past few years I've heard any number of
people tell me how MUCH BETTER "EMPIRE" would be if Lucas had used the
original Brackett screenplay. The reality is that only a few people
have read that screenplay (my guess is less than 15 or so) and EMPIRE is
a better film for not using it. It is to Lucas' credit that he enjoyed
working with Leigh enough that he let Kasdan know the he could only get
co-screenplay credit as Lucas wanted Brackett's estate to benefit from
EMPIRE's success--if any. Fortunately, the executors of the
Hamilton-Brackett estate confirm that Lucas and his people have more
than done right, financially, by Leigh's contribution, and her name is
on the film to this day. Although, I'm told that EMPIRE was pothumously
dedicated to LB, but none of the tapes ('80 or re-worked '97 editions) I
own have any such note.

Stephen Haffner
HAFFNER PRESS

I think the main reason people are reacting the way you describe is that it's been an article of faith among the less intelligent that "George Luca$ IS TEH SUXXOR!" and that the real credit for the success of Star Wars belongs with others, like Leigh Brackett. If her first draft was as off-the-wall as Haffner describes and this bootleg copy shows, it's a huge gaping hole in the idea that Lucas was just along for the ride.

[Kurgan]

That brings up a new angle... was Lucas secretly "honoring" Brackett's rough draft by cribbing stuff from her (bad romantic dialogue, Yoda fighting with a lightsaber) to put into the Prequels?

So maybe "LUCA$$ iS TEH SUXX!!!!1" is still true... from a certain point of view.

Agreed that you have to look at it in the context of the whole process, like looking at the early scripts for any of the other movies. I don't talk about it for the opportunity to bash or praise Lucas, but because of the fact that it's a piece of Star Wars history that wasn't widely available for a long time, and it's interesting. It just surprising me that certain fans want to just brush it off and ignore it, or bash it like it's not worth their time. Yet these same fans will buy a whole new set of DVD's if one tiny thing is changed, or wait in line for a crack at some action figure variant, the latest EU book, or autograph from a glorified extra.

I admit, I have interest in the stuff that is not directly George's work precisely because the film franchise been so overexposed and packaged as "his" (while still giving credit for the man's obvious achievements). Yet we know other people contributed, and it's nice to see their take on it, or how they would have taken it. Surely if Brackett had lived, she would have revised her script, but all we have to go on is what was put into the vaults (so to speak) before cancer took her.

If the "Lucas didn't make it, so it doesn't suck" thing was true, then I'd be a huge gushing EU fanboy, which, as anyone who knows me knows, is not what I am.

[Elfdart]

I just read through part of it and if it's not Leigh Brackett it's someone familiar enough with her style to be able to copy it. I can see why this draft was rejected. Her version of Princess Leia has little in common with the one you see in Star Wars. In fact, Brackett's version seems to be a hybrid of Maudie and Joey, the two female characters from El Dorado, which she wrote back in 1965. Brackett wasn't shy about in-your-face exposition, which Lucas' generation of filmmakers rejected.