S T A R W A R S

EPISODE IV

TREATMENT:

THE ADVENTURES OF HAN ZOLER

Written by

George Lucas

TM & © Lucasfilm, Ltd 2001

The movie opens in the vast space, the main title and crawl start here. After a few minutes the scroll is far in the stars.
{This is pretty much given since The Phantom Menace started with a crawl and, it seems, so will Episode II}

A life pod soars into view and down to the planet {although it's not said I guess the planet must be Tatooine}. Two droids C-3PO and R2-D2 hop out of the wreckage.
{A pretty low key intro with no battle but it gives us our re-introduction to the two droids from the first movie. As rumoured 3PO may have silver coverings}

A boy the age of eighteen comes into view, he is Han Zoler (Skywalker) the young boy takes the droids to his house and becomes their soon to be master.
{It seems Han Zoler is in fact Anakin Skywalker's son as we once thought. It's kind of ironic that he owns the droids that once belonged to his father}

Eventually Han’s Aunt and Uncle get killed by Imperial troops.
{Imperial? There's an Empire... this is interesting. This hasn't been mentioned in any reports. Maybe Darth Sidious really does take over the galaxy}

A wise old man saves the boy and droids from the troops by using his lightsaber. The wise old man named Ben Kenobi apparently knows the boy.
{Obviously Kenobi can still use a lightsaber in his old age. As rumoured this "Ben" Kenobi is Obi-Wan}

The boy tells Ben that R2 had been looking for a Kenobi, named Obi-Wan, Han thought he would have been a brother or son of Ben.

Ben tells Han he is Obi-Wan. R2 ends up showing a message to Ben from Padme Organa.
{Wow! This is unexpected. We heard from sources that Padme would make an appearance but with the surname Organa? Wow!}

It ends up they need to go to Alderaan to give plans to Prince Organa to help destroy the huge Imperial Space station, the Killer Star.
{Killer Star? Now this sounds interesting. If this is true it could be more of a threat than what's we saw in TPM}

Ben, Han and the droids get a ship from Mos Espa and Han pilots it towards Alderaan, when suddenly their ship is under attack by a pirate freighter named the Millennium's Eagle.
{There's no description of whether or not our heroes have a ship in Mos Espa or whether or not it's stolen. I've heard from several sources we may even meet a now ancient Watto}

The pirates board the ship. The leader is a dark man, with a black moustache and black hair he is Lando Solo, followed by his gungan co-pilot Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar and Ben seem to know each other, from the past or something.
{This is the first time we've heard of Lando Solo. Could this be the character that Will Smith is rumoured to be playing? Sounds good}
{Confirmation of Jar Jar's presence! This is great! No mention as to how he actually gets involved with pirates though...}

Jar Jar looks at the boy and whispers something to Lando, Lando asks the boy where they’re going. Han replies with "Alderaan."
{Even though he may be alligned with pirates Jar Jar's loyalties are obviously still with Obi-Wan who helped to save his life... at least once. And it seems he isn't as clumsy as he once was. Obviously something changes his character}

Lando insists he’ll take them to keep them safe. They end up finding out that Alderaan was destroyed by the Killer Star. They save Padme from the Killer Star Ben is caught up in a fight with Darth Vader. They fight with their lightsabers.
{So Darth Vader is real. Although we know nothing of his origins we can only guess he'll be introduced in either Episode II or III}

In order to let them escape, Ben turns off his saber and throws it down. Vader runs him through. Before Ben hits the ground he dissapears.
{Obi-Wan sacrifices himself? This is expected but I was sure he'd stay through the whole 6 Episodes... And he disappears. Qui-Gon Jinn didn't disappear... maybe it's something we'll learn in Episode II or III - so we may have inadvertantly unveiled a plot point for the other movies}

Han, Leia, Lando, Jar Jar and the droids escape. Han and Lando then lead a fleet to attack the station. Han eventually blows the station up. The only survivor of the station is the Sith Emperor Darth Vader.
{Vader is a Sith Emperor? Interesting. Could Darth Vader be Darth Sidious? But why would he change his name?}

The film ends with a celebration which is interrupted by Darth Vader and his men attacking the base. Han uses a lightsaber that Ben gave him that belonged to Han’s father. Vader’s arm gets cut off at the elbow, and he escapes to return in Episode V.
{Two duels in the movie. Makes sense since we get that in TPM. The mention of Anakin's lightsaber is the only time we hear about him in this whole movie. Han also never finds out about his true identity which may mean that the rumours about him actually being this "Luke Skywalker" could be false}

THE END, FOR NOW...

{So as far as we can tell there's no reference to Anakin but I guess this will all be explained in Episodes II and V!}

{But I also have to point out that this is an early draft! Nothing is set in stone! Plus there is the possiblity that this treatment is false despite the confirmation from several of our sources}