Today,
Gary Kurtz will take part in a discussion with
Ben Burtt, and model makers
Jon Berg and
Lorne Peterson entitled "
Masters of the Empire" at
Celebration V...
Tomorrow evening, the reclusive producer will take the stage for "
An Hour with Gary Kurtz," in which he will wax on about his participation in the "
American Graffiti," "
Star Wars, and "
The Empire Strikes Back" for sixty minutes. It'll be interesting to see how he deals with some issues since this is an official event sponsored by
Lucasfilm. That's the organization run by
George Lucas, with whom Kurtz had a falling out back in 1980/81.
To imagine how
Star Wars would have ended had he been able to convince Lucas to continue with the original outline is to dream a geek's dream. Imagine if Han Solo had died in an assault on the Empire, Queen Leia would have to lead her rag tag group of Rebels in their continuing fight with the Galactic Empire, while Luke would go off and wonder the stars in exile. And he didn't have a sister named Organa. Wow, now that's much better than rehashing "A New Hope" with another Death Star, don't you think? If you'd like to read a very enlightening
interview with Gary, then go over to the
Los Angeles Times'
Hero Complex blog. Good stuff.
Before, the Dark Times, before the Empire...
