The two biggest pop culture sci-fi franchises of the last half-century have been Star Trek and Star Wars. The latter was always the bigger of the two, but both have thrived as the crème de la crème of space adventure fantasy. But according to one of George Lucas’ oldest friends, there was a time when Lucas wanted to do his own version of Star Trek, too. Slashfilm unearthed an old interview from a 1977 issue of New Times with Invasion of the Body Snatchers director Philip Kaufman. He was the man whom Paramount originally considered to direct an early iteration of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He recalls Lucas telling him that he wanted to secure the rights to Trek before he started Star Wars. Here’s what Kaufman had to say back in the day:
George Lucas is a good friend of mine. He told me before he made Star Wars he’d made inquiries as to whether Star Trek was available to be bought. I thought George had a great thing going. When I was asked if I would be interested in doing Star Trek, well … I felt I could go through the roof.
It’s been well documented for years that George Lucas tried to get the rights to Flash Gordon, but was unsuccessful. As a result, he took inspiration from Flash Gordon (and a million other things), and that became Star Wars. But this is the first time we’ve heard of Lucas taking an interest in making his version of Star Trek. Back in 1987, Lucas and Trek creator Gene Roddennbery appeared together on stage once, their only known joint convention appearance. Lucas told Starlog magazine that he loved watching old Star Trek episodes while writing the screenplay for Star Wars.
Lucas having an affinity for Star Trek is not surprising. We definitely see more than a few influences, even if both franchises are very different. A giant galactic government made up of many member worlds? Star Trek did that first. The closest George Lucas got to the Star Trek IP was his company, ILM, providing many effects for Star Trek movies and TV shows over the years. But it’s fascinating to think that once upon a time, George Lucas might have put his stamp on not one, but two of the biggest space franchises of all time. That’s an alternate universe we’d at least like to visit.
The post Did George Lucas Try Making STAR TREK before STAR WARS? appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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