PRISON BREAK
This sequence didn’t make it, but you can still see the head and tail of it in the final Ron Howard cut.
The handoff was a conversation over the phone, with carte blanche to lay out Han & Chewie’s sprint to safety. As you can hear in the video below, there were some ideas in play on exactly when Beckett’s crew would be hijacking the shuttle and how that could be shown. Fast and flexible was key.
The pitch posted below is the one used for the production on-set. I was in NY at the time, the directors were in London at the legendary Pinewood Studios, and this was decided as the most effective way to present.
DROID BATTLE
This sequence was cut, but it was fun to draw Star Wars droids battling and an honour to introduce L3-37, who is depicted here before their final design was settled on. This whole thing was from a rough outline given to me over the phone. The only caveat was that these would be practical effects – actual robots, possibly with real actors housed inside.
Clone High nerds will note it’s almost shot-for-shot the Butlertron/Scangrade showdown from ep. ‘Sleep of Faith/Rue D’Awakening’, which I also got to board. Also fun.