While I wouldn’t wish to change a single hair on the head of a single Ewok in Return of the Jedi, in the week we mourn the passing of the great Gary Kurtz one has to wonder how different Jedi would have been with Kurtz creatively involved and producing, or with director David Cronenberg at the helm instead of the late Richard Marquand.
Cronenberg spoke briefly with Entertainment Weekly about this ultimate could-have-been scenario.
“I still recall getting a phone call. Somebody said that they were from, I guess it was Lucasfilm, and asked me if I was interested in—at that point it was called Revenge of the Jedi, actually, until somebody pointed out that it was against Jedi philosophy to think in terms of revenge. But, anyway, I was asked if I would be interested in considering that, and meeting with everybody, and I said, with the arrogance of youth—relative youth, anyway—I said, ‘Well, I’m not used to doing other people’s material.’ And there was like a stunned silence and then ‘Click’—hang up. Basically, that was as close as I came to that.”
Short and sweet, so add that to the many alternate visions of Star Wars that could have been.
