Q&As About 'Star Wars' (Beating a Dead Tauntaun Department): When did George Lucas start tampering with the original Star Wars films by changing the special effects?
When did George Lucas start tampering with the original Star Wars films by changing the special effects? Ah. Here we go, another loaded question with a subliminal anti-Lucas bias. First of all, I will remind you that like it or not, George Lucas had every right to revise (not tamper with ) films that he conceived, produced, and in the case of Star Wars, directed between 1973 (when he first wrote the story treatment for what he originally called The Star Wars ) and late 1982 (when Return of the Jedi was in post-production and scheduled for a May 25, 1983 release. It is a matter of record that Lucas was not happy with some of the compromises he had to make, technologically speaking, when Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were produced. The first film’s budget, which came from the coffers of the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, were barely sufficient for the effects that Lucasfilm and its spe...