All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S01E04.Return.of.the.Jedi.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

[EPIC MUSIC]

NARRATOR: When
the curtain lowered
onThe Empire Strikes Back

in 1980...

-[SLAMS]
-audiences were left hanging.

It could've been
a better ending.

NARRATOR:
And theStar Wars saga
would never be the same,

but the production
of the film itself
had left George Lucas

in a similar,
albeit more personal,
state of uncertainty.

He wanted to be
in control of his own destiny.

NARRATOR: After stepping back
from the director's chair,

with eyes on building
his corporate empire...

MARCIA: George always said
to me, "I've got a company now.

"I'm a success.

"I will never, ever
give up my company."

NARRATOR: The production,
free from his watchful eye,

veered off course.

If Empirehadn't been a hit,
he could've lost everything.

NARRATOR: And, so,
as George Lucas set out

to conclude his epic saga
in the stars,

he would need to balance
his time more deftly

between the soundstage
and the boardroom.

He had a bigger vision.

NARRATOR: But there was
only so much

of this modern mogul
to go around.

The Star Warsfilms are
producing a great many strains

for George Lucas
including a strain

on his marriage with Marcia.

NARRATOR: And as the trilogy
hurtled towards
its climactic end,

Lucas was heading to the end
of a more personal chapter.

We all knew something was amiss.

[EXCITING MUSIC]

[BUILDING MUSIC]

Star Warswas act one.

Empire Strikes Back
was the storytelling.

The meat of it, act two.

NARRATOR: And now with a third
movie a guarantee,

Star Wars,
both on and off the screen,

needed its conclusion.

The third one, I think...

we have to top it
to complete the story

and unfortunately...

uh, there's things in the way...
And I don't mean the Ewoks.

NARRATOR: Quite a few things
in the way, in fact.

Um...um... scary, little dudes.

NARRATOR: First and foremost
was something far less adorable

yet still relatively hairy.

George's relationship
with Gary Kurtz

who'd been mostly replaced
on the last picture

by Howard Kazanjian.

I took over
the picture at the end
when it went over budget.

NARRATOR: But now
as the wheels begin to turn

on the third movie
in the trilogy,

it seemed that Gary
didn't exactly know

where he stood with George,

as evident in this awkward
encounter during pre-production

for what would become
Return of the Jedi.

KAZANJIAN: I was
in London to prepare

and Gary walked in.
He said, "Hey.

"What are you doing here?"
And I told him

that I was doing work
with the crew

for the next Star Warspicture.

And, yes, he turned white

because he hadn't been told.

He says, "No, George
never told me."

Now, it was very difficult
for me to tell Gary

he's not on the next picture.

That wasn't my job.

I thought George had told him.

[JAZZ MUSIC]

NARRATOR: With Gary gone
and George truly free

from the financial clutches
of bank loans...

Lucas is finally able to do
what no one in history

had been able to do before.

NARRATOR: George Lucas
was about to achieve

his long-awaited nirvana.
Total control.

TENUTO: He was able to become
his own studio because

of The Empire Strikes Back
and the money that was made.

And that's really what
he was interested in.

It wasn't about the money.

It was about the ability
to become his own studio.

He's doing a lot of things
that are innovative
in the industry.

He started this company
that was digitalizing editing.

And then he started
his THX sound system

that they were using
in theaters.

NARRATOR: And let's not forget
Lucas's ventures

into the then
nascent technology
of computer animation.

I mean, he was always
thinking to the future.

NARRATOR: And as
George presided over

this burgeoning corporate
empire as commander-in-chief,

his wife, Marcia,
now retired from her
film editing career,

had settled into her role
as a first lady of sorts.

MARCIA: As the company grew,

George wanted to have
a Board of Directors

and he was
Chairman of the Board,

he made me the Vice Chairman
of the Board.

I worked on the ranch,
I did the interior design work,

the architectural design,
and I was doing everything.

NARRATOR: And under Marcia's
benevolent reign,

Lucasfilm became
more than just a company.

The company referred to itself,
as all of us did,

the Lucasfilm family.

She was the family of Lucasfilm.

She was the heart.
The, you know,

"Let's all get together
for Thanksgiving meal."

I started giving
all our employees
Christmas gifts every year

and having a Christmas party,
and having a
Fourth of July party.

DUNHAM: She made sure
people were happy

and that's why it was a family.

Everybody will tell you that.

NARRATOR: And what
everyone also knew

was that George Lucas had
one more Star Wars film to make

and this time he was
holding the purse strings.

He can start
running his own budgets

and begin to figure out
how can he save money

or allocate resources
in a different way.

So, going into Jedi,

um, because of the cost
overruns on Empire,

Lucas wants it to be shot

on a much tighter,
stricter schedule.

NARRATOR: And since George
would now be effectively

footing the bill himself,
he set the budget at...

50,000.

Thirty million dollars.

NARRATOR: Which sounds
like a lot, but...

It's the same initially
as... as Empire,

though it's several years later,
so it oughta be more,

but by...with inflation,
it's actually a little bit less.

-[GROWLS]
-C-3PO: [SCREAMS]

-[CRASHES]
-[GROWLS]

NARRATOR: Beholden to
a relatively modest budget,

George would be
holding a tight leash.

But before George and the team
could work on the script,

there was one potentially
very expensive problem
that needed resolving.

Harrison Ford wasn't signed.

KAZANJIAN: I just
said to George,

"Why isn't he
in the third one?"

"Well, he's not in the third one
'cause he didn't want to do it."

It wasn't that
George didn't want him,

he wasn't contracted
to be in the third.

That's why
he was killed off in Empire.

He was put in carbon freezing.

NARRATOR: With a key character
in suspended animation,

Howard decided it was essential
to press the defrost button.

So Howard Kazanjian,
he called Harrison Ford's agent

and, apparently, uh,
the agent was out of town,

but his son was working
for the agency...

And I needed
to negotiate his deal

and David and I
negotiated his fee.

And made it a really
good deal for the company...

I went to George,
he said, "Okay,

"we'll write him in."

NARRATOR: But when
Ford's agent returned

to hear about the deal...

And when Phil
came back from vacation

he called me and he said,
"You cheated my son."

He said, "You talked my son
into a certain fee."

And I said, "No,

"that...that's the going...
That's what we're paying.

"Period. End of subject."

NARRATOR: And what they
were paying wasn't half bad.

Look, they made good money.

They had terrific back ends.
Those pictures paid off.

NARRATOR: So,
with this rogue hero on board,

George could confidently
proceed developing the story.

George Lucas
writes an outline early on

and they were doing design work
off of the outline.

They were doing pre-production
work off of the outline.

They were doing scouting.

Howard Kazanjian
finally says, like,
"You have to give me a script."

So George finally sits down
and he writes the first draft

well into pre-production.

The original story is that
Leia learns that there are

two Death Stars
that are under construction

and she leads a mission
to investigate and, if possible,

destroy these Death Stars.

NARRATOR: Marcia Lucas
believed the only thing

that needed to be blown up
was the script.

Marcia didn't care
for it too much.

And she would say,
"George, this scene is shit!"

And, of course, we went back
and redid it again.

We shall double our efforts.

NARRATOR: Oh,
that's fantastic advice.

What a handsome, young devil
if I do say so myself.
[CLEARS THROAT]

Looking for new ideas,

George turned
to a trusted friend for help.

Then they bring in
Lawrence Kasdan.

NARRATOR: The writer
ofThe Empire Strikes Back.

MORTON: So, Kasdan comes in
and does a rewrite.

George then rewrites Kasdan.

Kasdan rewrites George.

As these conversations
are going on, they kinda drift

back to the idea
of doing the Death Star again.

And then, eventually,
they come up with
a half finished Death Star.

NARRATOR: This was all
starting to sound

more like return of the...
Death Star.

Lucas even acknowledges it
several times.

"Yes, we're repeating ourselves,

"but basically,
I can't think of anything else
that's really gonna work."

NARRATOR: Don't worry,
they never really did.

It's another Death Star.

I wish that were
the case, Major,

-this is Starkiller Base.
-[CROWD EXCLAIMS]

NARRATOR: That's another story.

As for this one,
unlike the dark tones

and adult themes
ofEmpire Strikes Back...

George wanted to take Jediback

to the nine-year-old audience.

More likeStar Wars.

-[SPEAKS GIBBERISH]
-[HIGH-PITCH BEEPING, BUZZING]

NARRATOR: George knew
that small children
were big business.

And so, even without
a fully-formed story...

He was obsessed
with introducing the Ewoks.

[SPEAKING GIBBERISH]

He thought they were
gonna sell millions of toys.

[SPEAKS GIBBERISH]

Having the license
for Star Warswas really like

having a license to print money.

You can see dollar signs.

[CASH REGISTER CHINGS]

He repurposes a storyline

from one of his
original drafts ofStar Wars.

The adventurers
land on a forest planet

inhabited by Wookiees.

NARRATOR:
But co-pilot Chewbacca

had set the bar high
for Wookiees.

The Wookiees
were too sophisticated.

NARRATOR: Lucas decided
he needed

a new species
no one would take seriously.

Joe Johnston and Phil Tippett
worked on designs.

TIPPETT: I made some stuff
that was kind of
like rat people.

And then I made some things
that were kinda like
Neanderthal men with, like,

big mouths and sharp teeth

because in the, you know,

the idea was that they were,
uh...cannibals.

Wait. [EXHALES SHARPLY]

NARRATOR: Leaving Phil Tippett

to create
some cuddly cannibals,

George got his arms around
the next major challenge.

For some reason George
needed a stand in,

a stooge to direct

because he didn't want to

or he couldn't
for whatever reason.

George has to find
a new director.

NARRATOR: Unwilling to direct
the nextStar Wars movie...

George has to find
a new director.

Question becomes why not
bring back Irvin Kershner?

NARRATOR: Kershner had helmed
the second film,

but wasn't interested
in another turn

in the director's chair.

He didn't want to be
an employee of Star Wars.

He wanted to go do another...
You know, his own projects.

NARRATOR: Ironically,
George Lucas had the power

to do his own projects,
but had lost the desire.

He didn't want to direct anymore
and I kept telling him,

"George, you're a good director.

"George, you're
a great director."
[CHUCKLES]

NARRATOR: Star Wars
had Lucas made for life,

but also scarred for life.

CHRISTIAN: You know,
it's agony for George.

The pain that he went through
on the first one,

it's hard to remove all of that.

I'm not always so sure
that he wants to direct.

George was not happy
and thrilled to be making
motion pictures...

with the big crews,
the talent, the actors.

NARRATOR: George
needed a compliant
and competent director

who would do his bidding.

A safe pair of hands

or he could just ask
David Lynch.

George had seen a number
of David Lynch's pictures.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

NARRATOR: If Lynch
was the wildcard,

on the other side
of the Atlantic was a man

who was the American auteur's
total opposite.

Richard Marquand
was a British director.

He had worked for the BBC.
He started in documentaries.

KAZANJIAN: And we saw
Eye of the Needle

while he was still in
post production and mixing it

and we liked it very, very much.

And it really came down
to two people.

David Lynch
was running neck-and-neck

with Richard Marquand.

NARRATOR: Only George Lucas
could separate them.

So, he made the call.

KAZANJIAN: "Let's go
with David Lynch

"and you call
Richard Marquand right away

"because I don't want him
to hear it through
the grapevine."

And I didn't.
I called David Lynch first

and David Lynch
thanked me and said "Yes."

And the very next day
David Lynch called me back

and he declined.

Mostly because he thought

George would be
looking over his shoulder.

NARRATOR: Lynch didn't like
the sound of the deal,

but he also didn't like
the sound ofStar Wars.

Well, I heard
he didn't like Johnny Williams.

I mean, in my opinion,
Johnny Williams

is one of the finest
composers we have.

Now, is...is it loud?
Now, Ben Burtt will tell you

that Johnny Williams' music
covers up a lot of his sound.

All right.

NARRATOR: So, Howard Kazanjian
knew what he had to do next.

And I called Richard Marquand

and that's how we settled
on Richard Marquand.

[UPBEAT EXCITING MUSIC]

NARRATOR: With the director
locked in,

back at Skywalker Ranch,
George and Lawrence Kasdan

continued to go back and forth
on the script,

even though
they weren't yet sure

-exactly what they'd need.
-TIPPETT: George said,

"Pull a crew together and make
a bunch of space aliens."

NARRATOR: So, Lucas
called in Hollywood's
preeminent puppet master.

He was very specific
about space aliens.

NARRATOR: Phil and his team set
about creating new species.

"Space aliens, you know?"

NARRATOR: Dozens
of new creatures

for George
to mix and match from.

Creating whole new characters
on the fly.

Late at night come,
like, nine o'clock at night

or something,
George would show up

in the workshop and play
with the different characters.

Then he'd pick things out.

"What's that one?"
And go, like,

"This yellow thing

"with long legs
is gonna be a singer

"and this little blue thing
is gonna play the piano.

"What's that one?"

He said, "Oh,
that's Admiral Ackbar."

NARRATOR: Oh, but not
Ackbar as you know him.

First one they plucked
off the shelf to be the Admiral

was a character Ree-Yees.

And because he had
the three eyes,

you could never give him
really good eye focus.

You know, when he looked
right into the lens.

"So, which one of my three eyes
is really looking at ya?"
[CHUCKLES] You know?

[LOW GROWLING]

I said, "So, who is that
that we're working on here?"

And Phil just said...

Oh, that's a calamari man.

NARRATOR: Now he
would be Admiral Ackbar.

Just like, "Well, you know,
there's that. Done. Next."

It's a trap. [CHUCKLES]

NARRATOR: While this
trademark menagerie

drew inspiration
from everything,

from cephalopods to reptiles,

there was one creature
whose origins

were surprisingly human.

At the beginning,
there was no real direction.

He just wanted to see
what we'd come up with.

NARRATOR: A corpulent
gangster villain,

Jabba the Hutt began life
as sketches by Phil Tippett.

TIPPETT: I asked him
if there was an actor

that you could cast

to play Jabba,
who would that be?

And he said,
"Hmm, Sydney Greenstreet."

NARRATOR: Sydney Greenstreet
had played

larger-than-life characters
through Hollywood's Golden Era.

And that was like the thing
that just, like, lit up my mind.

NARRATOR: He could
never have imagined

that his legacy
would include this.

This very fat,
slug-like creature.

I love the reveal
of Jabba the Hutt

with Princess Leia
sitting there on her chain.

-HAN: Where's Leia?
-LEIA: I'm here.

[SPEAKS ALIEN LANGUAGE]

I just love it when you cut
to that big monster slug.

RALSTON: The Jabba puppet
was huge.

There were a lot
of puppeteers crammed in there.

[PERSON STRAINING, PANTING]

You know, it was
a difficult thing to operate.

NARRATOR: Although creating
a character may have been hard,

sometimes naming one is as easy

as grabbing
a few late- night drinks.

TIPPETT: We were
at a Mexican restaurant

and we were getting ready
to go and I was,

you know, my shoes were untied

and I was gonna go,
"Oh, before we go,

"I've got to tie
my 'suelacious'."

And it was like,
"I mean, shoe laces."

And that... But that's what
we called it.

[CHUCKLING] You know,
and then George would take that

and go, "Yeah, that's okay."
You know, and run with it.

[LAUGHS]

NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
over in London,

as pre-production ramped up
it was time

for Richard Marquand
to slip into high gear.

It was the gig of a lifetime

for this modestly
successful director.

And an opportunity
not to be squandered.

But Richard, um...

would show up about...
after lunch

in pre-production.

NARRATOR: And, so,
with a part-time director

and a partly done script,
we should give credit

to Howard Kazanjian
for holding it all together.

Kazanjian was making up
a schedule and a budget

and all the other paperwork
kind of off this...

with no pages. With no script.

And I was looking at the sets.

I was telling
the art department,

"Yes, no." Or "Higher, lower."

Which is so
extraordinarily unusual.

NARRATOR: Unusual in that
it was really a job
for the director.

And I felt
very awkward about that

because he's the director.

NARRATOR: Howard was already
stepping in for his director,

but he wasn't sure Marquand
could actually handle the job.

And, so, I called George

when he said I'm...
he's coming in
for the first two weeks

and I said,
"You better pack
for the full shoot."

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

NARRATOR: Arriving in London

with a bigger suitcase
than planned,

George and his new director
moved ever closer

to the impending start
of shooting,

but they still had plenty
of casting to do.

For example,
who would play the Emperor

because it couldn't be
the same actor
from the last movie.

[CHIMP SQUEAKS]

NARRATOR: The rise
of the Emperor Palpatine

was a changing of the guard.

Darth Vader who was
the main villain in Empire,

ends up kind of dropping back
to a henchman character.

NARRATOR: Meaning a bigger role
for whoever played his boss.

Rise, my friend.

NARRATOR: George knew exactly
what he was looking for
in an Emperor

and there was
something about this man.

I got a call from my agent,

you know, not that unusual
in itself.

Um, and he said,

"George Lucas
would like to meet you."

NARRATOR: Theatre actor
Ian McDiarmid

was summoned
to Elstree Studios.

And George Lucas
and Richard Marquand were there.

Well, it was fairly pleasant,
you know,

"Hello? How are you?
What are you up to?"
All of that.

And that lasted
for about ten minutes.

And then George said,
"Thank you very much.
Great to meet you."

And as I was going away
out of the door, I heard...

George denies this,
but I know it's true,

[CHUCKLES] I heard
George say to Richard,

"Hey, great nose."

I thought, "Oh, well...
that's optimistic, isn't it?"

But I didn't think
anything would come of it.

You know, ten minutes
and not even talking about

the part, the film,
no script whatever.

So I got in that car
and went back home,

and this is all true,
the phone was ringing
as I got in...

[TELEPHONE RINGING]

And I picked it up
and it was my agent again.

He said, "Great news.
You've got the part."

I said, "[STAMMERS]
What? Uh... What part?"

And, uh, he said,
"Oh, he's called
the Emperor of the Universe."

So, I said, "Oh, right.
Well, we'll be doing it then."

NARRATOR: He began doing it
when shooting

forReturn of the Jedi
started in early 1982

and like its predecessors,

it walked
straight into a storm.

Jedibegan filming with
the sandstorm sequence

where all of the characters
came back together

after the escape from Jabba.

Lucas was not happy
with a lot of what
Marquand was doing.

NARRATOR: Early rushes
proved as tough to watch

as they had been to shoot.

DUNHAM: I mean, there's sand
blowing everywhere.

You can't hear anything.
You can't see anything.

The... the dialogue is trash.

It's... [LAUGHS]

What are we doing here?

NARRATOR: And so, it was
George who stepped in
and yelled, "Cut!"

before scrapping
the scene all together.

MORTON: Marquand
got overwhelmed pretty quickly.

Like, he'd never made anything
the size of Jedi.

He was so out of his depth.

NARRATOR: Lucas had intervened
and averted disaster,

but at the expense
of his director's confidence.

He'd come and say,
"We're going to do that there.

"We're going to do that there."

[EVIL LAUGHTER ECHOES]

A close up of Carrie
would end up as a two-shot

favoring Harrison
because Harrison would go up

and say, "You know, Marquand,
we need to this, this and this."

I don't take pleasure
in saying on it.

I take some relief in...
in admitting it.

NARRATOR: Howard's warning
had proved prescient.

George was on the set every day
for Return of the Jedi.

NARRATOR: George was back
and now stuck doing

exactly what he tried
so hard to avoid.

Then George chose
to do the second unit himself

so it was a good backup.

NARRATOR: For this movie,
George was leaving
nothing to chance.

DANIELS: He had
no idea what to do

and you saw this
on a daily basis.

And, so, with nobody in charge,

or one-and-a-half
people in charge,
there was a lack of focus.

There was no sense of...

the right person
being in the right job.

NARRATOR: George Lucas's
hand-picked director

had lost the confidence
of his cast.

Daniels felt very much
like, uh, he was dismissed

and ignored by Marquand.

And I need a laugh
from you at that part.

A big, mean laugh.

It's like this man
is a complete fake

and the more
his "fakerism", new word,

came to the fore, the more...

pathetically bullying he became.

He tried to pick on people.
He tried to pick on me.
I didn't like that.

NARRATOR: This was a problem

no amount of cute, furry
creatures was going to fix.

He was dealing with...
[STAMMERS]

a director
who couldn't direct, frankly.

Or shouldn't direct.

Then he sees him
after that line.

Ding!

NARRATOR: Needing to steady
the ship himself,

George turned in desperation
to one of his most
trusted lieutenants.

CHRISTIAN: George called me
and said, "What are you doing?"

He said, "Would you have
about six weeks?

"Could you come?"
Because he was doing second unit

on Return of the Jedi

and he wanted to spend
more time with Richard Marquand.

So he said,
"Can you come and take over?"

I went on as second unit
director and took over.

George was, I believe,
gonna be there for a few weeks.
He stayed for the whole thing

and I think that had
a marked effect on his life.

[SOMBER MUSIC]

Lucas wants to make sure
he's in control of that...
of that sequel

and in control of the direction
of where it goes

and he's preoccupied
with Skywalker Ranch.

The question could be asked,
"Where does family

"and free time
fit in to all of this?"

NARRATOR:
Unfortunately for Marcia...

nowhere.

Marcia liked to do things.

When it came to the Oscars,
she'd say,

"George doesn't wanna go."

"I wanna go to the opera."

He doesn't wanna go
to the opera.

He was not a very social person

and I was a very,
you know, social person

and I loved to go to parties.

She'd say, "George,
I want to invite people in."

He doesn't want to invite
people in because he's...

working all the time.
He's a workaholic.

He always had the next thing
that he was working on.

Uh, and for poor Marcia,

I think film was always
the other woman.

NARRATOR: Also for Marcia,
well, we weren't there,

but some people say
there was an affair

and others say there wasn't.

About two-thirds
to three-fourths
of the way through Empire,

she met this guy who was

the head
of the stained glass shop

that was working on the Ranch.

Tom Rodrigues.

And it was pretty much obvious
to a lot of the people,

you know, working on the scene,

there was something
going on there.

NARRATOR: George
was waging a battle

in a war for Lucasfilm
and his destiny.

Willing to sacrifice it all
for victory.

However, as the shoot
in England continued,

others were engaged
in battles of their own.

Albeit, slightly smaller ones.

Take Caroline Blakiston,
for example.

She was waging a war of nerves.

I was just dreadfully,
dreadfully nervous

'cause I... I think
I... I forgot a line.

I couldn't remember what to say

and somebody else read it
and I just stood there.

It was a, sort of, nightmare.

NARRATOR: But it wasn't
Richard Marquand

who'd coax the performance
out of Caroline.

During a break between shots,
Harrison Ford came over...

Well, look at you.

And he came and sat down
on the floor with me

and, of course,
made me feel much better.

He couldn't have been nicer.
He could not have been kinder.

But most important of all...

It gave me
a little feeling of...

"I'm going to survive this."

NARRATOR: And not only
did Caroline survive,

but she delivered
one of the most quoted lines

in the movie.

Many Bothans died
to bring us this information.

NARRATOR: Cementing
the legacy of the character

for years to come.

Also, Mon Mothma's entrance
marked the arrival

of new visual effects

including this early CGI.

A subtle glimpse
of the franchise's future.

Now, speaking
of quotable lines...

It's a trap!

NARRATOR: The actor
inside Mon Mothma's
slightly balder counterpart,

Admiral Ackbar,

well, he went to battle, too...

Concentrate all fire
on that Super Star Destroyer.

NARRATOR:
...over the motivation
of the great General.

Richard Marquand came over
and he said,

"We just want to shoot
some filler things
to use for editing.

"We've won the battle,

"the Death Star is destroyed..."

[ZAPPING, EXPLOSIONS]

"We want you all
just to celebrate the fact
that we've won the battle."

And I was just the right age

that I came within a whisker
of getting drafted
to Vietnam myself.

So I had very strong views
about the war

even though, this was
a fantasy thing,

I'd still sent X-wing fighters

to their final fight.

[LASERS ZAPPING]

I just let the...
the weight of the loss

of all those people
sit on my shoulders

and it pushed me down
into my chair.

But... Richard comes in
and he says,

"I told you to jump up
and dance around
and celebrate."

And I said, "If you want someone
to jump up and celebrate,

"you're gonna have to put
somebody else in this costume
and shoot them in it."

NARRATOR: Tim Rose
stuck to his guns

and gave a performance
to be proud of.

But the battle
was nowhere near won.

In April of 1982,
principal photography
was wrapped in London,

but some of the bigger scenes
still remained to be shot.

Lucas wanted
more convenient California
and Arizona locations

partly to shorten the leash
on his director

and avoid a repeat
of the previous film

where he'd lost touch
with Irvin Kershner

onEmpire's overseas sets.

Changing locations was easy,
but saving money was not.

The barge cost over
a half-a-million dollars.

NARRATOR: Because one thing
Lucas couldn't change now

was his director.

KAZANJIAN: With the barge
and some other sets,

Richard Marquand
could not visualize

certain sections of it

or the visual effects
that would be done later.

He couldn't put that in his mind

and direct people

without seeing the entire set.

That's why we built
the entire set

which was, at that time,
the largest set ever built

in California.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

NARRATOR: Despite
its immense presence,

Jabba's sail barge enjoyed
only a brief maiden voyage.

The full barge
is only in one time...

one shot.
All the others are ILM.

NARRATOR: And that one shot
left a gaping...

-[SCREAMS]
-hole in the budget.

But it was that other one shot
during the sail barge sequence

that had
Billy Dee Williams concerned.

The squibs. I shot into my foot.

And Harrison,
he was so caught up
in what he was doing

that he was...
he was really busy acting

and, uh, so he didn't realize
that I was hurt

at that particular moment.

NARRATOR: But the real pain
was behind the scenes

and taking an unseen toll.

TIPPETT: I was
on the set with George.

We were walking to work
in the morning

and one time I went like,
"So, how's it going?"

And he goes, like, "You know,
I'd rather be watching TV."

[LAUGHS] You know?

NARRATOR: With the challenges
of the desert behind them,

the production moved
to the California forests.

Destined to become Endor,
home of the Ewoks

where George soon discovered
that big problems

sometimes come
in small packages.

[BEEPING WORRYINGLY]

So Kenny Baker,
who played R2-D2,

also played an Ewok
called Paploo...

[SPEAKS GIBBERISH]

TENUTO: Originally,
Paploo's character

was supposed to have
a larger role in the film

and it was Kenny's Ewok
that was supposed
to meet Princess Leia.

I promise I won't hurt you.
Now come here.

[GROWLS] No!

The problem was,
when we needed him,

he didn't show up.
So we sent four or five people

looking for him
and they came back

and they told me
that he was drunk,

passed out by the lake.

[WHINES]

Well, George
heard that off-screen
and George immediately said,

"Put in Davis."

NARRATOR: Davis was
up-and-coming actor
Warwick Davis.

One of a raft of little people

cast to play
the diminutive tribe.

MORTON: Warwick Davis,
who was a young kid,

um, fills in and is so adorable
in the outfit

that they decide to keep him
playing that role
for the rest of the film.

-[GRUNTS]
-Hmm?

[SNIFFS]

You cannot say a bad word
about an Ewok ever.

Especially in public. Hmm.

NARRATOR: Making the Ewoks work
along with everything else

now depended on the edit
and that was just another thing

George was strangely
unable to control.

Paul should cut this.

He cut Star Wars
and he cut Empire.

MORTON: But when
Richard Marquand was hired,

he asked for two approvals.

He wanted his own
cinematographer

and he wanted his own editor

and his editor
was a guy named Sean Barton.

They used Sean Barton through

Richard Marquand's
director's cut.

The director's cut was
not well received at all.

NARRATOR: And so,
just like onA New Hope,

George would need to save
this movie in post.

However, this time
Marcia wouldn't be at hers.

It was always Marcia Lucas
who was that one person

or that voice
that George saved till the end

because he trusted her opinion.

NARRATOR: But for the first
time in their relationship,

Marcia wouldn't be there
for George.

I was burned out. I was fried.

My brain was fried. I was fried.

I was probably sleep deprived.

I mean, I really gave up...
my career to be a mother.

NARRATOR: And Marcia
had said the words
no husband wants to hear.

I wanted a time out, you know?

I needed to...
I needed to find myself again.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

NARRATOR: Deep into
post production
onReturn of the Jedi,

George Lucas's world
was spinning out of control.

His marriage of 13 years
was unraveling,

but so, too, was his film.

Its budget creeping up

and its schedule
falling behind.

Towards the horrific end
of Jedi,

heading as fast as we could
towards the finish line.

Running out of time,
we have a hell of a lot
of work to do.

George decided to recut
the film himself.

NARRATOR: And for
Richard Marquand,

the director's cut
would also be...

his last cut.

I'm sure he had good qualities,

he just didn't
bring them to the set.

NARRATOR: From here on out
it would all be down to George

and a now-bewildered ILM team.

The news was kind of devastating

and I had to regroup
and figure out

how we can reshoot a lot
of stuff as quickly as possible.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Every morning George would start

in the cutting room with me

and then he'd leave
the cutting room

and then he'd
go to his other job,

which is building a studio
and a ranch and everything else

and then he'd go across
the parking lot to ILM

and he'd look at dailies.

And there was a very different
energy to him and to the place.

I guess we probably didn't have
as much access to him

as we used to have.
We were a little...

uh, flying blind, sort of,
in a weird way.

I was talking to him
in the hallway at ILM

and he just seemed diminished.

And, like, kind of hunched over
and exhausted.

It's like, "Oh..." You know?

"This is...This is taking
its toll on this guy."

But also at the same time,
there was something going on
we didn't know about...

and that was George
was different

because he was
in the middle of a divorce.

NARRATOR: For George,
Marcia's time out

was not an option.

George said,
"There'll be no time out.

"If you want a time out,
I want a divorce."

He... He brought it up.
He said, "I want the divorce."

NARRATOR: George Lucas
had it all

and achieved everything
he'd dreamed of.

[POLLOCK ECHOING]
Own your own business.

Control your own fate.

NARRATOR: But it came
at a terrible cost.

MARCIA: I saw George
the happiest

when he was
building those buildings.
When he was building the ranch.

Walking around the buildings
when they were being built,
he loved that

because of the small business
that his father had built
from nothing.

George always said to me,
"I've got a company now.

"I have a company.

"This is my company

"and I will never,
ever sell my company.

"I'm a success.
I made all this money.

"I will never,
ever give up my company."

NARRATOR: But he would
give up Marcia.

It was definitely
the end of an era.

NARRATOR: And the impact
was felt far beyond
this little family.

KAZANJIAN:
They were inseparable

and when Marcia
and George divorced,

we all hurt.

NARRATOR: Marcia Lucas
had helped buildStar Wars

with George Lucas
from the ground up.

It was the end of Camelot
in some respects.

NARRATOR: And now
with both his marriage

and the edit in turmoil...

Their marriage is breaking up
during post production on...

on Jedi.

NARRATOR: George would
need a miracle...

-and then...
-And then...

NARRATOR: George did
something extraordinary.

He pulled me in to cut
Return of the Jedi.

NARRATOR: And the miracle
was he still had Marcia

this one last time.

I was saying good-bye
to my marriage.

I was saying good-bye
to my career.

Because people always ask,
"Don't you miss...

"Don't you miss
the cutting room?"

Of course I missed it.
I loved what I did.

I loved being a film editor.

NARRATOR: But Marcia
wasn't just any film editor.

She understood stories.

She understood what was
in George's mind.

She understood her husband.

NARRATOR: And so
Marcia Lucas got to work.

He gave me
all the emotional scenes.

Everything that had emotion,
George wanted me to cut.

Because the director
had directed certain scenes

where Luke Skywalker
was very angry

when Obi-Wan appears to him,

you know,
as a ghost-like figure.

That's not the way of a Jedi.
So I had to recut the scene

and I had to find the softest
reading I could find.

And of course,
the British director was having

a British editor
cut all the anger.

I knew Mark had to be
uncomfortable with that.

And I knew there'd be
softer readings in the outtakes

and so I had to soften
Luke's performance
throughout the whole movie.

DUNHAM: And there wasn't

a emotional or dramatic scene

that didn't pass
through Marcia's hands.

NARRATOR: AndJedi
had no shortage

of emotional baggage
that needed careful unpacking.

My son.

-Leave me.
-So, it fell to Marcia...

-No.
-to stop

Return of the Jedi's
death scenes

from dying themselves.

I was the queen of death.

I used to go
into the editing room and say,

"Who's dying today?"

NARRATOR: Vader's de-helmeted
denouement was crucial,

but first there was
an important

near-death experience
to negotiate.

[ZAPPING, SCREAMS]

I wanted the audience
to feel like,

"When is Vader going to stop him
from killing his son?"

I said to George in dailies,
"Well, in a close-up,

"I don't see Darth Vader
making the decision

"that he's gonna do this."

The next day George said,
"Get the second unit ready."

We went back and George
and I shot close-ups

of Darth Vader
making that decision

to save his son.

NARRATOR: Those extra shots
gave Marcia scope

to reimagine the cut...

So she did.

So, I milked it a little.

[SCREAMS]

You have paid the price
for your lack of vision.

-[ZAPPING]
-[GRUNTS]

Is he really gonna let
The Emperor kill his son?

[ZAPPING]

Father, please! [GRUNTS]

-You know, Luke's screaming.
-[SCREAMING]

And The Emperor's shooting him
and Vader's looking

back and forth and finally
he picks the Emperor up,

boom! Takes him over
and throws him down the cannon.

NARRATOR: And such
a monumental death

required a monumental reaction.

[SCREAMING]

I said, "Don't you think
there oughta be some
nuclear reaction?"

[SCREAMING CONTINUES]

'Cause it was just, like,
pick him up, throw him over,

-drop him...
-[SCREAMING CONTINUES]

That needed to be
an... an event.

[WHOOSHES]

And George said,
"Yeah, I'm gonna get
ILM to work on that."

[WHOOSHING]

-Father...
-NARRATOR: But the main event

was to be more understated.

I won't leave you.

It's a very emotional scene.

NARRATOR: And it might've been
very different

were it not for Marcia.

The way it was originally
cut was, you know,

"I know you're--
I know there's good in you."

"Yeah, you're right."
Boom, "I'm dead."

And what I had to do was

put in some pregnant moments.

Tell your sister...

you were right.

I tried to make
this scene more emotional.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

NARRATOR: But while
Marcia's deft recuts
ratcheted up the tension,

they unfortunately
had the same effect
on the special effects team.

Jediwas a real grind.

And it was like,
"Get these shots out!"

NARRATOR: Just like
its predecessors,

the final scene ofJedi
was coming down to the wire.

Another battle within a battle.

RALSTON: For the
space battle sequence,

I did a really funky version
of the whole sequence

based on the storyboards
using Chroma key

and ships on sticks, you know,

shooting the models we had.

It was so funky,
but it was the sequence

and we sent it to George
to take a look at,

to get his blessing,
and he loved it.

Intensify forward firepower!

[SCREAMS]

Too late!

NARRATOR: Like a
Super Star Destroyer,

Return of the Jedi
had come to an explosive end.

We still got it done
and it's still a laugh riot.

It still has Ewoks in it.

[LAUGHS] And, uh...

[SPEAKS GIBBERISH]

You know, it was
an exhausting movie to do.

We were all wiped out.

NARRATOR: Amidst
the wreckage of it all,

was a movie that was loved
by almost everybody

-at the time.
-That was good.

It was really, really good.

NARRATOR: And is beloved
by almost everybody today.

And it end at one of my most
horrible moments, really.

Shameful is the final shot

of 3PO dancing with Ewoks.

[SOFTLY GROANS]
Shouldn't have happened.

[INHALES SHARPLY,
LIGHTLY GROANS]

NARRATOR: Financially,
George's experimenting

in self-funding
had well and truly worked.

Return of the Jedicost
about $32.5 million,

but returned $475 million
at the box office.

NARRATOR: When it came
to personal finances,

George had some
big decisions to make.

So when we were getting
divorced I said to George,

I said, "I don't...
I'm not gonna be around

"to make movies with you
and you're gonna

"go on to make movies."

I said, "But I would take
a small percentage
of Lucasfilm."

"You can't have anything.

"No, I will give you nothing
in Lucasfilm."

And Star Wars
was worth nothing.

The movies were over.
They were done.

It wasn't worth anything.

And then my lawyer said,

"Well... doesn't Lucasfilm
have properties?

"ILM and...and Egg Company
and all these...

"He had some properties."
I said, "Yes, he has...
he has you know,

"real estate."

I got a percentage
of...of some of that.

And I heard on the grapevine
through the years

that George will go out
and tell people

that he couldn't, um,
he had to let go...

he had to let go of people
because he had
to pay his divorce.

NARRATOR: The settlement
George made with Marcia

drew a firm line under
the ex-couple's
business affairs.

I do know that George told me

if it wasn't for the settlement,

he would've have had
to have sold the Ranch.

NARRATOR: But it was
their personal lives

that hurt George the most.

He just thinks I had an affair.

He thinks I left him
for another man.

I never had an affair.

The other man
didn't have anything to do
with my decision to leave.

He wanted me gone forever...

with no contact.

NARRATOR: George and Marcia's
love of each other
and film making

led to an extraordinary period
in Hollywood.

And what they created
was much more

than just amazingly
popular movies.

George, obviously,
was Lucasfilm,

Skywalker, the creator.

The guy who paid our bills.

The guy who made
the company what it was,

but Marcia was really
the shining bright light

of Lucasfilm.

Everybody knew her.
Everybody loved her.

NARRATOR: And no one
more than George Lucas himself.

KAZANJIAN: He was
very, very upset

about the love
of his life leaving.

And I know at one time,
George said to me,

"I still love her
and I would take her back."

[SOMBER MUSIC]

MARCIA: Unfortunately
when you get married

you always believe
you're gonna be the old people

sitting on the park bench.

You're gonna be walking through
the park holding hands.

You know, in your 80s.
We didn't get there.

But the 20 years we spent
together were wonderful years.

Look what we made.

And I would just be sad
to think that I wouldn't...

I mean, I probably
never will talk...

He could very well
die tomorrow. I mean,
I don't know.

I don't know
if I'll ever see him

or speak to him
again in this lifetime.

But I would just be sad.

Suddenly, George's world
is upside down

and he's not
gonna make movies for a while.

MORTON: He was just burned out.

So he had pretty much said
he was gonna retire.

And he's out.

[ECHOES] Out. Out. Out. Out.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC FLOURISH]