Librarian Kristian Brown may have discovered an original 1976 Star Wars script while working in his library’s sci-fi section.
When I go to the library it’s usually a pretty uneventful affair. I go in with an idea of a book I want, find it and steal a cup of coffee from the complimentary Keurig machine. It’s about as routine as things get. Then again, I’m not Kristian Brown. A librarian at the University of New Brunswick, Brown was organizing some of the school’s books when he discovered a potentially unbelievable find hiding among the library’s collection: an original copy of the script for Star Wars.
Brown found the script while going through the process of digitizing the university’s selection of sci-fi novels, pulp magazines and zines. “I was just looking actually for something else entirely and then I just found this unique looking item,” said Brown. The script was bound with blue paper, branded with Lucasfilm Industries stamps and dated March 15th, 1976. Representatives from Lucasfilm have said that it does, in fact, look like a copy of an early script but that there’s also a good chance that it’s just a “fan-made” replica similar to the sort that used be a common sight at conventions.
Setting aside questions of authenticity, Brown has primarily been interested in discovering how the script made its way to the University of New Brunswick and how it differs from the one eventually used with the final film. While its exact origins still remain a mystery, the script does include some interesting artifacts of George Lucas’s creative process. The film, for instance, is referred to in its text as “Saga I” while Luke Skywalker still has his original name of Luke “Starkiller.” Brown also confirmed that, no matter what Lucas might have decided later on, that Han originally shot first.
Here’s hoping more details emerge so we can find out for certain just how unique an artifact this really is.
Source: CBC
