Howard G. Kazanjian

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The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, The Making of Return of the Jedi, Howard Kazanjian – working with Alfred Hitchcock, producing Star Wars & more | Creative Armenia Week on the Creative Armenia YouTube channel (August 22, 2022) (backup link)

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Howard G. Kazanjian is a former Vice President of Lucasfilm and producer of Return of the Jedi. Kazanjian also produced for George Lucas on Raiders of the Lost Ark,' and was an uncredited producer on The Empire Strikes Back.

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Biography[]

Howard Kazanjian attended the University of Southern California alongside George Lucas. They became not only Delta Kappa Alpha cinema fraternity brothers but also longstanding friends. During those college years, Kazanjian and Lucas met their respective future wives and the couples would often double date. Kazanjian went on to work with filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Sam Peckinpah, and Robert Wise.^[1]

After Lucas' initial Star Wars film was released in 1977 and set up Lucasfilm, Kazanjian was intimately involved in the company's day-to-day strategic and practical operation as its Vice President of Production, a role that he maintained until around 1984-1985. Since Lucas had quit the Directors Guild of America over Star Wars' opening titles and did not want to return to directing, he had to hire film directors outside the Hollywood studio system for the rest of the original trilogy. Most American directors were thereby excluded, including Lucas' friends such as Steven Spielberg.^[1] Lucas invited Irvin Kershner to direct The Empire Strikes Back and later David Lynch and David Cronenberg for Return of the Jedi.^[2]

Cronenberg declined and Lynch took on the job for one day, dropping the project when he realized that he could not understand the story and urged Lucas to direct his own film.^[2] Kazanjian recalled that Lynch was wanting to include neither John Williams nor Ben Burtt for music and sound design if he was director; Lynch wanted to focus on his Dune film, which was eventually made and released in 1984. Although Lynch was his first choice, Lucas hired his second choice, Richard Marquand, to direct Return of the Jedi instead, with Kazanjian serving as producer.^[1]