Treks, Gates and Wars

Every Saga Has A Beginning (Part 2) - The Development and Pre-production

After James Cameron agreed to direct and executive produce Star Wars Episode I, him and Lucas began to develop the story of the film and the trilogy. Lucas's idea of the antagonist faction being the "Trade Federation", an alliance of aliens that is distrustful of the Galactic Republic that decides to fight it with an army of "battle droids". Cameron liked the initial idea but was a bit less sure about the effectiveness of battle droids as antagonists. "Wouldn't the jedi just cut them down like they're made of butter?" He would ask Lucas and that made him think, the conflict of that era of the Star Wars timeline was already established as the Clone Wars, clones had do be involved somehow in this conflict.

"You're right, lets make them clones, genetically engineered super-soldiers that have lightsaber-proof melee weapons and heavy rapid-fire blasters that they'd have trouble blocking all the shots with their lightsabers." He said.

Cameron would try to get his Terminator 2 co-writer William Wisher Jr. to help him with the writing but Wisher would say no to his offer. At the same time, Lucas approached Robert J. Sawyer and Timothy Zahn to likewise help pen the script. Zahn was very much against the idea saying that he wasn't good at script writing while Sawyer was tempted but ultimately declined the offer. As a result the writing duties fell to Cameron and Lucas for the first couple of drafts, Lucas would remark that it was like "Empire Strikes Back all over again." reminiscing about having to write the script for the film on his own after the death of Leigh Bracket.

During their brainstorming sessions, several of Lucas's initial ideas were abandoned or changed, originally the film was to take place on a planet called Naboo, which would be under siege from the Federation under the orders of the future Emperor, then-Senator Palpatine. Cameron did not like the specifics of the premise, and as he would realize, it's peaceful nature made it very similar to Alderaan to the point where he asked "why not just set it on Alderaan?" And Lucas had no reasons not to as Naboo was supposed to be the homeworld of Luke and Leia's mother and he realized that it made more sense as a prequel to build up an emotional connection to the planet that gets destroyed in the original movie.

Furthermore Cameron would re-write the initial scenes to make it clear why the Federation was invading Alderaan (an aspect of the film he found frustrating and unclear), it was petitioning to join the Galactic Republic, and because of a mutual trade embargoes between the two superpowers, Alderaan joining the Republic would've deprived the Federation of a major source of a rare energy-producing mineral that Cameron dubbed "Unobtanium" (an idea he borrowed from a script he had laying around for an original sci-fi film), a name that Lucas didn't like at all and insisted be changed as soon as they had a better name for it. They were desperate enough to try and annex the planet and they believed that Palpatine would be the insider they needed to succeed by providing them with foreknowledge the Republic's countermoves to the Federation's actions.

As the script approached film-worthy stage, Lucas and Cameron were able to get Watchmen co-writer Joss Whedon to help focus and improve the dialogue, both Lucas and Cameron finding the banter between the hero Anakin Skywalker and his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi to be "very entertaining", while Cameron would read through the initial drafts of Episode IV for inspiration and would stumble across the names "Akira" and "Montross Holdaak", he would the re-work the Jedi Council scenes, renaming one of the Jedi masters of the council from "Mace Windu" to "Akira Holdaak", envisioning an actor like Mako in the role, as well as giving him most of Yoda's intended lines in the film, writing the character out of the film entirely. As 1995 summer came and went, Lucas, Cameron and Whedon were making final adjustments to the script, the character of Jar-Jar Binks being re-imagined from a goofy comic relief into a darker anti-heroic counterpoint to the noble Jedi heroes, allowing Whedon to write more banter between the three characters.

After the script was more or less finished, baring a additional re-writes to accommodate the actors performances and interpretations of the characters, Lucas and Cameron now focused on casting the film as well as picking the film crew. Cameron would bring the The Terminator and Aliens alumni Michael Biehn fresh from rejecting Roland Emmerich's offer for Colonel O'Neill in Stargate to play the villainous Nute Gunray, the leader of the Trade Federation invasion force and described as a "charismatic, corrupt corporate executive that's not afraid to get his hands dirty", a stark contrast to the heroic and noble Kyle Reese or the gruff space marine Hicks. Cameron would admit that the casting as partially motivated out of "feeling sorry for the guy after passing him over for Rorschach."

Further on the villain front, the casting of Senator Montross Palpatine would hit a snag when the character's actor in Episode VI, Ian McDiarmid chose not to reprise his role, choosing instead to focus on his theater acting career. "I'd love to George, I loved playing the Emperor in the last Star Wars film but I've got too much going on right now." Eventually however Cameron and Lucas would zero in on two choices, British TV actor John Nolan, and Welsh cult actor, and former Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins. Lucas was more impressed with Nolan's performance and thought that Hopkins was "too much like Hannibal in his performance." Cameron on the other hand was very much unsure of which one was more fitting of the role but ultimately decided to go for Nolan as well due to his "gravitic voice."

Shifting their focus to the heroes, veteran Shakespearean actor Kenneth Brannagh was cast as a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi and after a search that comprised over 200 actor auditions, Cameron was again split between two unknwons Leonardo DiCaprio and Irish actor Aidan Murphy. His decision between the two was really dependent on just how young he felt Anakin should be in relation to Kenobi. Ultimately Lucas, despite initially wanting Anakin to be a pre-teen, felt that the two were not that far apart in terms of age so Murphy was cast in the role, while DiCaprio would receive the consolation prize of the role of Owen Lars in Episode II and Episode III. At the same time actress Lena Headey was cast as the young Princes Padme Organa of Alderaan, her cousin Senator Bail Organa would be played by Ewan McGreggor in Episode II and III.

Lastly the film's supporting cast was rounded out by Mako himself as Jedi Master Akira Holdaak, described as a "wise old adviser to the younger Master Obi-Wan and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker.", British Actor Idris Elba as Jar-Jar Binks (which Cameron insisted be a role done with prostetics and not CGI) and Terence Stamp as the Republic's Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum, which Stamp would play as "President Cuomo in space."

With pre-production wrapping up and filming set to commence in early 1996 the future was looking bright for Star Wars.

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An excerpt from the final draft of the Star Wars Episode I: The Shroud of the Dark Side script.


1. EXT. SPACE - STAR FIELD 

MAIN TITLE recedes into view

STAR WARS

We see the MAIN TITLE receding into SPACE as a ROLL UP appears.

EPISODE I

SHROUD OF THE DARK SIDE

THE GALAXY IS ON THE VERGE OF WAR. THE NOBLE GALACTIC REPUBLIC, A BASTION OF FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY IS UNDER THREAT OF AN INVASION FROM THE INSIDIOUS TRADE FEDERATION AND ITS UNSTOPPABLE CLONE ARMY.

AS THE TWO SIDES PREPARE FOR WAR THE IDYLLIC AND PEACEFUL WORLD OF ALDERAAN IS ATTACKED BY A FEDERATION FLEET LEAD BY THE CUNNING AND MALEVOLENT VICEROY NUTE GUNRAY ON THE EVE OF ITS ADMISSION INTO THE REPUBLIC.

UNABLE TO AID THE ALDERAAN PEOPLE IN THE DARKEST HOUR, THE REPUBLIC IS LEFT NO CHOICE BUT TO SEND TWO JEDI KNIGHTS ON A MISSION OF DIPLOMACY IN A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO SAVE ALDERAAN'S FREEDOM AND PREVENT AN ALL OUT WAR....

thejovian

Interesting updates. Not a great Star Wars fanand never seen the episodes 1-3 OTL but sounds like it would be a better set-up for those films.

Like the way some unknown actors get roles ahead of some of OTL famous characters.

Steve

Bruce Campbell as Clark Kent, that is something i never saw coming.

Either Clark Kent father ore Perry White.

They wouldn't be keeping his character a secret if he wasn't a major surprise or a spoiler so to quote Kevin Spacey: WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!!!!!!!!

Also the Kevin Spacey "WROOOOONG!!!" meme has been butterflied away ITTL.

As I say to the overexcited little kids waiting for their parents to finish shopping in the store I work in: Be patient.

The Dynamic Duo Returns

Batman: The Dark Knight was a resounding success for DC and Warner, earning 500 million worldwide. With such success it was impossible for DC/Warner not to find a way to continue the film series, greenlighting a fourth film for a May 1997 release. The film was to be the first official installment in a shared movie universe consisting of Superman: Universe and the as of yet untitled The Flash and Wonder Woman movies.

As such the studio attempted to persuade Sam Raimi to return for a second Batman film but he would refuse to focus on completing Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness, which he had already delayed due to Campbell's commitments to Watchmen and his own commitments to Batman: The Dark Knight. While Raimi was busy completing his own horror trilogy, the studio secured Waterworld director Joel Schumacher to direct, who in turn would bring Waterworld star Val Kilmer to replace Michael Keaton as Batman, and was able to bring former Star Wars writer, Lawrence Kasdan, to write the script, which would feature Robin (after two failed attempts to return the character to the silver screen) and the comic book villains Deadshot and Riddler as the main antagonists, with the working title of Batman & Robin.

The film would be a soft-reboot to the series, with a younger Batman than the one in The Dark Knight as well as a young Robin. Despite this Schumacher would insist that the film would maintain the dark tone set by the Burton/Raimi trilogy and wouldn't try to make it more lighthearted.

The role of Robin would go to newcomer Leonardo DiCaprio while action star Tom Cruise would don Deadshot's signature faceplate and eye scanner in a rare villainous turn from the performer. As for the Riddler the role of the obsessive criminal mastermind would go to actor Robin Williams much the surprise of many comic book fans.

As the 1997 release date loomed closer excitement for the film grew in intensity as fans of the comic book would see the Dynamic Duo on the big screen for the first time in decades (assuming they even counted the Adam West Batman film as a legitimate attempt).

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DC Film Universe Cast (so far):

Justice League:
Bruce Campbell as Clark Kent / Superman
Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne / Batman

Supporting Cast:
Jullianne Moore as Lois Lane
Jonathan Brandis as Jimmy Olsen
Leonardo DiCaprio as Dick Grayson / Robin

Antagonists:
Kevin Spacey as Brainiac
Tom Cruise as Floyd Lawton / Deadshot
Robin Williams as Edward Nygma / Riddler