An interesting article came out earlier this month in the LA Times, it was a sad, yet interesting perspective on the making of the first two films of the Star Wars franchise. Kurtz, who was the Producer for American Graffiti, A New Hope, and Empire Strikes Back spoke to LA Times reporter Geoff Boucher about his involvment in the first two films, and the reasons he left the franchise after Empire. Oh yeah, and he also wanted to kill Han Solo…

“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”

Kurtz’s main gripe against Lucas was he felt that toy sales was driving the franchise rather than rich story telling. Whether we agree with Kurtz or not, it is an interesting perspective that this fan is not used to seeing from someone so close to the projects. I leave it up to you, dear reader, to make your own judgment on this one. If Kurtz had his way the entire Star Wars story as we know it would be drastically different, and we might not have had such cool toys growing up…

You can find the entire article here.

Alright, kids: We can debate the merits of scantily-clad-hillbilly-rebel-chicks-who-make-out-with-their-brothers v. scantily-clad-green-alien-chicks until we’re blue in the face. We can dissect the coolness factor of those aboard the Millennium Falcon v. the U.S.S. Enterprise until the proverbial space cows come home. Hell, we can even argue epic hero’s journey/space opera v. dramatization of the socioeconomic power plays between capitalism, communism, fascism, socialism, imperialism, expansionism… wait, is there really that much of a difference?

But despite the constant back-and-forth (or perhaps because of it), there’s one question that remains to be asked: Which franchise has contributed the best music and inspired the largest number of culturally relevant spin-offs? Or, in simpler terms…

Star Wars v. Star Trek: Who can claim the greatest share of ROCK?

There’s more, so make like Van Halen: Go ahead and JUMP! (continue reading…)