- "That night he and George had kind of a verbal duel in a Chinese restaurant, which was pretty amazing to have witnessed. But out of that conflict came a wonderful contribution. De Palma inspired the new crawl, which gave the audience some kind of story geography."
- ―Steven Spielberg, on the discussion between De Palma and George Lucas about Star Wars
Brian De Palma (born James Giacinto DePalma) is a prolific American film director. His is known for films such as Scarface, The Untouchables, and Carlito's Way.
Biography[]
- "[…] Brian was saying, 'What's all this Force shit?! Where's all the blood when they shoot people?' If you know Brian, that's the way he is. He does that to everybody; he's very caustic. […] Brian was the one who actually sat down and helped me fix the roll-up, he and Jay Cocks. The next day we rewrote the roll-up; Brian dictated it to Jay. He typed it up and it got rewritten a couple of times after that."
- ―George Lucas, on Brian De Palma's response to a screening of a rough cut of Star Wars
He is notable in Star Wars history as the director of Carrie, since the pre-production process for Carrie coincided with that for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, then simply titled Star Wars. De Palma and George Lucas held joint auditions for the two films, and according to Carrie Fisher, De Palma interviewed the actors instead of Lucas.[2] De Palma watched a rough cut of Star Wars in mid-February of 1977.[1] He was among about twenty of Lucas' director and writer friends invited to watch the early cut, which was missing effects shots, showing World War II dogfight reels instead. While most of Lucas' friends were ambivalent, De Palma was vocal in criticizing the film's fantastical aspects, though Steven Spielberg saw potential in the project.[3] De Palma admitted that he ribbed about the concept of the Force as he felt that it didn't sound like a great name for a power of spiritual guidance. He later admitted to be wrong after the film was released.[4] Although he did not believe in the project,[3] De Palma took the six-paragraph opening crawl and,[5] with screenwriter Jay Cocks,[4] rewrote the crawl into three paragraphs for conciseness, as seen in the final release and reminiscent to those of the Flash Gordon movies that Lucas loved watching growing up.[3]
Works[]
Filmography[]
Year | Title | Contribution | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1977 | Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope | Rewrote opening crawl[1] | Uncredited[6] |
Sources[]
- The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film
- Star Wars Insider 94
- Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – The Official Collector's Edition
- Light & Magic
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film
- ↑ Star Wars Insider 94
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2
Nismaland on YouTube
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Light The Fuse - A Mission: Impossible Podcast: 158. Brian De Palma and Susan Lehman Interview, Part 1 on podcasts.apple.com (archived from the original on July 8, 2021)
- ↑ Pearlman, Cindy (May 15, 2005). The force behind 'The Force'. Chicago Sun-Times.
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope