A New Hope... For Your Script

2009-12-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

I think it all began with George Lucas.

Like many children of my generation, George Lucas was my hero. He gave me Han Solo, Darth Vader, Princess Leia and the entire plot of the Empire Strikes Back- the very first movie I remember falling in love with just for the beauty of its writing.

So when the news broke back in 1998 that he'd be creating Episodes 1-3... I've never anticipated anything so eagerly. I ignored the snickers that, as titles went, “The Phantom Menace” kinda sucked. Oh no, I thought, this is George. By then I was old enough to know that George wasn't an artistic genius-Oh no, in my mind he was something even better: A storyteller. A craftsman who understood that the suspense, surprises and delight he created for audiences began with the movie's script.

George understood the value of good writing.

Sadly, we all know how this story ends. George takes my faith and hope and fond childhood memories and slaps Jar-Jar Binks and a meaningless Pod Race all over them. I left that theatre with a broken heart because the man responsible for my beloved Empire clearly couldn’t tell the difference between character motivation and cgi robots, thought mechanical suspense could take the place of an emotional arc, and was pretty much relying on the mythos he’d established thirty years ago to sell action figures.

It was a tragedy, though I'm not sure Lucas meant it in the way he succeeded.

But leaving that theatre in May of 1999 was another first for me. It's the first time I remember leaving a theatre wanting a Do Over. The Phantom Menace was terrible, but no amount of complaining about it was going to mend my broken heart. There was no remedy except for George Lucas to have done better. I wanted to hop into a time machine, travel a long, long time ago to a galaxy far, far away and SAVE GEORGE LUCAS' SCRIPT. So I ditched my date (the poor bastard liked the movie, and was immediately disqualified), made myself a good strong cup of tea, and set about identifying where George had gone so terribly, terribly, terribly wrong.

First things first, I needed ground rules. Every Luke, Han and Leia out there probably thought they could do a better job than Lucas on Phantom, but the point of the exercise was to save George Lucas' script, not to just write an entirely new one of my own.

Because trust me, that would have been *MUCH* easier.

The rules I decided upon, sitting in that dark little kitchen in May of 1999, were as follows:

Script-Saveage Must:

1. Remain Faithful to the Core Thematic Conflict and Intentions of the Script. (I.e. No suddenly deciding that the script will mean something completely different.) This is the rule that would, for example, prevent some deluded maniac from rewriting The Shining with a happy ending where the ghosts weren't evil, just misunderstood. Or Patrick Swayze.

2. Emerge Organically from the World of the Script. (I.e. No changing the physical, emotional, or moral rules established by the script just to suit your preferences.) This is the rule that would keep some sequin-happy milksop from turning Robocop into a cute little romantic comedy where nobody ever gets shot in the crotch with a .54 handgun.

(There are two caveats to this rule: I. Where the world of the script is inconsistent, Script-Saveage should do it's best to reconcile these inconsistencies, or failing that, to follow the internal logic that best supports the Core Thematic Conflict, and II. In the rare case that the world of the script is actually in conflict with the script's Intentions, to adjust that world to better serve, but only as a measure of last resort.)

3. Use as Much of the Existing Script as Possible. This is salvage, not renovation, so the goal of Saving a Script is to make the minimum number of adjustments necessary to make the script soar. This is the rule that really makes my life difficult, but this is also what separates saving a script from just writing something completely different and slapping on the same title.

Let's get this daring rescue mission started, shall we...

(Continued in Part Two)

save my script

A New Hope... For Your Script