The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars: Episode V)
The Empire Strikes Back is often called the best film in the Star Wars saga, and it started with a decision that seems almost unthinkable in retrospect.
George Lucas, creatively burnt out after directing the first film, chose not to direct the sequel at all. Instead he handed the reins to his old USC film professor Irvin Kershner, hired veteran pulp sci-fi writer Leigh Brackett to draft the screenplay, and set about building Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic into more than one-hit studio products.
Brackett's now-legendary first draft featured a very different Yoda, a very different…
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