The Star Wars Archives: Eps I-III: 1999-2005 is an upcoming book by author and historian Paul Duncan that goes behind-the-scenes of Everything LucasFilms from 1999-2005 — the period of the Star Wars prequels. The book was created with cooperation from George Lucas himself, and includes plenty of detailed production notes.
One such detailed — revealed in the unboxing video above — was actually a leftover from the Special Editions, and has to do with Lucas's specificity about the controversial decision to make Greedo shoot first. As Duncan explains:
I found a document… that actually says that on frame 52, is the approximate start mark for Greedo– for his misfire. And frame 57 — five frames later, which is less than a quarter of a second — approximate start for Han returning fire.
That's a hyper-detailed vision for such a small tweak that resonated so loudly.
Duncan presents this information in the context of film restoration; some of the original footage had aged, and required digital editing in order to make it usable again. But it's not clear if this specific scene had restoration issues…or if Lucas just wanted to make Han look like a slightly more moral guy (with wonky CGI).
So far, no one has unearthed any handwritten artistic justifications for "Maclunkey!"
George Lucas Was Incredibly Specific About How Much He Wanted Greedo to Shoot First [James Whitbrook / Gizmodo]
Image: Pat Loika / Wikimedia Commons (CC 2.0)
