Carrie Fisher considered losing weight for the role of Princess Leia, but she and George Lucas decided against it.
William Katt (star of "The Greatest American Hero" (1981)) auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker.
Peter Mayhew worked as an orderly in a Yorkshire hospital prior to being cast as Chewbacca.
Stunt doubles were not used for the scene in which Luke and Leia swing to safety. Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill performed that stunt themselves, shooting it in just one take.
Interested in creating a modest line of colorful space toys, Kenner Toys signed on for the merchandising shortly before Star Wars opened, although they did not believe the movie would be a hit. When Star Wars became a hit, they were unprepared to handle the demand and produce enough Star Wars toys to handle the demand for Christmas. Instead, they sold boxed vouchers for various toys. The toys sold in the "Empty Box" campaign during December were not delivered until the following March.
At one point, George Lucas planned for the characters of Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle, to be midgets.
At one point, George Lucas had planned the character of Han Solo to be a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and gills.
George Lucas based the character of Han Solo on his friend, director Francis Ford Coppola.
Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, and Perry King were all candidates for the role of Han Solo, as George Lucas wanted to stay away from any actors he had previously used in his films. Harrison Ford (who had played Bob Falfa in Lucas's American Graffiti (1973)) read the part of Han Solo for screen tests of other characters but wasn't originally considered for the part. During these tests George Lucas realized Harrison Ford was perfect for the role.
George Lucas at one time considered making Han Solo black. He auditioned several black actors and even musicians (including Billy Dee Williams) until finally settling on Glynn Turman. But after this he decided to make the role white and went with Harrison Ford.
When the film was re-released in theatres after it became so successful, the Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953) was run preceding the feature at the request of George Lucas.
Due to the limited budget the American cast members and crew (including George Lucas) all decided to fly coach class to England, rather than first class. When Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds heard about this she called George Lucas, complaining about how insulting it was for her daughter to be flying coach. Carrie Fisher was in the room with George Lucas when he took the call, and after a few minutes asked if she could talk to her mother. When George Lucas handed her the phone she simply said, "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you f*** off," and hung up.
Most of the Stormtroopers are left-handed. That is because of how the weapons are constructed. Their weapons are based on a real weapon, where the magazine is on left side of the weapons. This construction caused it to hit the troopers in the chest. Therefore they have to switch grip of the weapon, which made them look left-handed.
This is the only film in the series where David Prowse did the lightsaber fighting on his own; he was doubled in the sequels because he kept breaking the poles that stood in for the blades. This switch might explain why Vader pivots on his feet in this film, but not in the others.
According to Mark Hamill, studio executives were unhappy that Chewbacca has no clothes and attempted to have the costume redesigned with shorts.
The studio was unhappy with Star Wars as a title after negative market testing. A competition was held during shooting for cast and crew to come up with a better one but nothing stuck.
George Lucas started writing the screenplay in 1974.
Terri Lynn and Cindy Williams auditioned for the role of Princess Leia.
Terri Nunn of the band Berlin was in the running for the role of Princess Leia and had readings with Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.
Was originally scheduled for a Christmas 1976 release, but was pushed back five months as post-production (especially special effects) took longer than expected. Studio executives were concerned that the new 25th May 1977 release date would put the film's box office chances at risk as Smokey and the Bandit (1977) would come out that same week. However, by the end of its initial theatrical run in the U.S., Star Wars had grossed over twice as much as Smokey and the Bandit (1977).
George Lucas had not originally intended to use Anthony Daniels's voice for the voice of C-3PO. He only changed his mind after a suggestion by Stan Freberg, one of the actors considered for Anthony Daniels's replacement. Anthony Daniels's voice was altered in post-production.
20th Century Fox promoted the film at the San Diego Comic Con, believing the attendees of that event to be the film's main target demographic.
When 20th Century Fox attempted to distribute the film in the U.S., fewer than 40 theatres agreed to show it. As a solution, Fox threatened that any cinema that refused to show Star Wars would not be given the rights to screen the potential blockbuster The Other Side of Midnight (1977) (which ended up grossing less than 10% of what Star Wars did).
The film was initially budgeted at $8 million but production problems forced the studio to contribute an additional $3 million.
Within three weeks of the film's release, 20th Century Fox's stock price doubled to a record high.
The following characters "have a bad feeling about this": Luke and Han. See also Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).
C-3PO loses an arm when attacked by the Sandpeople. Ben cuts off a creature's hand in the Cantina (see also Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)). The scene in which Ben cuts off the bad guy's arm is a direct reference to Yojimbo (1961); the same scene was the basis for Clint Eastwood's "My mule doesn't like to be laughed at" scene in Per un pugno di dollari (1964) (A Fistful of Dollars); in the original Japanese film, one of the bad guys tells Sanjuro ('Toshiro Mifune' ) how bad he is and how he's a convicted murderer. Sanjuro taunts the bad guys into attacking him ("Are you sure you want me to kill you? It'll *hurt* you know...") and leaves two dead and one with his arm chopped off.
Derived from (among other things) the Akira Kurosawa film Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958) (The Hidden Fortress). Obi-Wan Kenobi was modeled after a Samurai warrior, and C-3PO and R2-D2 are derived from a couple of petty crooks he conscripted to help rescue a princess. Two characters in the Japanese film were split to produce four in "Star Wars": aspects of 'Toshiro Mifune' 's samurai character became Ben Kenobi and Han Solo; and aspects of the Princess's character became Luke and Leia (early production art exists showing a female lead character rather than Luke).
According to an interview with George Lucas, originally Luke was a girl, Han Solo was an Alien, the wookiees were called Jawas, and R2-D2 and C-3PO were called A-2 and C-3.
In the scene where Luke is attacked by a Tusken Raider, the moment where the raider waves his weapon over his head with both hands in an up-and-down motion was actually created from a shot of him thrusting his weapon up once, run backwards and forward several times.
The origin of R2-D2 can be found in the "drones" Huey, Dewey, and Louie from the film Silent Running (1972). Upon meeting Douglas Trumbull, director and special effects chief on Silent Running (1972), George Lucas commented on how much he liked the designs of Douglas Trumbull's two-footed robots in the film (which were operated by bilateral amputees). Four years later, a functionally similar design appeared as R2-D2 in "Star Wars". Universal Studios, the distributor of Silent Running, noted the similarity between the robots (and the similarity of "Star Wars" to the Buck Rogers (1939) serials of the '30s), and promptly sued 20th Century Fox for infringement. The lawsuit was eventually settled when Fox countersued over Battlestar Galactica (1978) (TV), which bore a striking resemblance to "Star Wars".
Though the only thing Chewbacca can say from start to finish is a Wookiee growl, he has the last line in the film.
The term "Moff", used to describe some Imperial characters (such as Tarkin) is used to mean a regional governor of a specific sector of space. Military officers can also be Moffs - Tarkin, for example, is listed in the script as an Admiral in the Imperial fleet.
Luke went through several changes. He started out as a woman, then he was a dwarf, then he was a 60 year-old general then his name was changed from Luke Starkiller to Luke Skywalker.
Production was so laden with problems that George Lucas worked himself into poor health. He had to be checked into the hospital after suffering from hypertension.
Mel Blanc auditioned for the voice of C-3PO.
7 foot 2 Peter Mayhew got the role of Chewbacca 10 seconds after he met George Lucas. All he did was stand up.
During the scene on the Death Star right after Ben leaves to shut down the tractor beam, Chewbacca barks something to Luke to which Han says "Boy, you said it Chewie". Backstage footage reveals that what Chewie says is "The old man's gone mad".
Darth Vader was the first character that George Lucas created for the story.
The lightsaber sound effect is a combination of the hum of an idling 35mm movie projector and the feedback generated by passing a stripped microphone cable by a television.
Jodie Foster was George Lucas's second option for Princess Leia.
James Earl Jones supplied the voice of Darth Vader, but specifically requested that he not be credited as he felt he had not done enough work to get the billing. (He does receive billing in the 1997 "Special Edition".) David Prowse was supposedly extremely annoyed at not being told that his voice would be dubbed.
George Lucas originally wanted Orson Welles to do Darth Vader's voice, but decided against it, feeling that Welles' voice would be too recognisable.
Before casting Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, George Lucas considered casting Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune.
Peter Mayhew, who portrayed Chewbacca, was given the option of playing either Chewbacca or Darth Vader - he opted to be the Wookiee because he wanted to play a 'good guy'.
Director George Lucas had trouble getting funding for this movie, most studios (including Universal and United Artists) thinking that people wouldn't go to see it.
20th Century Fox was so sure Star Wars was going to be a disaster that they came within a matter of days of selling off their stake in the film as a tax shelter. Positive feedback from an advanced screening made them change their minds, and the profits from the film ended up saving the studio from bankruptcy.
At one point when the prospects for the movie's release seemed bleakest, the idea came up that perhaps the effects could be removed from the movie and recycled into a TV show.
C-3PO was originally scripted as a "used car salesman" type, and designed after the robot from Metropolis (1927).
Chewbacca was modeled after George Lucas's dog, Indiana. See also Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
A great deal of the film was shot by vintage 1950s VistaVision cameras, because they were of higher quality than any others available. After the film was released, the prices of these cameras skyrocketed.
The shot where the escape pod leaves Leia's ship was the first ever done by ILM.
The Tatooine scenes were filmed in Tunisia. There is a town in Tunisia called "Tatahouine". Some of the interiors of Luke's house were filmed in a hotel in Tunisia, but the exterior is an actual home in the village of Matmata, where caves and craters have been inhabited for a long time.
Tatooine is named after an actual city in Tunisia called Tataouine.
Came fourth in the UK's Ultimate Film, in which films were placed in order of how many seats they sold at cinemas
After the sets were constructed, George Lucas went through them and had every single one of them "dirtied up". The R2-D2s were all rolled in the dirt, nicked with a saw, and kicked around a bit.
The sounds of the lasers were made by striking one of the guy wires of a power pylon.
There is a rumor that Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) was having trouble timing his conversations with R2-D2, as R2-D2's dialogue was to be dubbed in later. Supposedly, Anthony Daniels asked George Lucas to make some kind of noise to help him, but when George Lucas forgot, the matter was dropped.
The Millennium Falcon was originally modeled after a hamburger with an olive next to it.
Two different basic designs were created for the Millennium Falcon. The rejected one became the Rebel Blockade Runner seen at the start of the film.
Han Solo's blaster was manufactured from a "Broomhandle" Mauser Pistol.
According to the exhibit at the Smithsonian, the sound of a TIE fighter is created by combining the squeal of a young elephant with the sound of a car driving by on a rain-slicked highway.
Harrison Ford deliberately didn't learn his lines for the intercom conversation in the cell block, so it would sound spontaneous.
When the storm troopers enter the room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding, one of them "accidentally" bumps his head on the door, complete with sound effects.
The Chewbacca suit retained a bad smell for the duration of filming after the trash-compactor scene.
Cardboard cutouts are used for some of the background starfighters in the Rebel hanger bay.
Mark Hamill held his breath for so long during the trash compactor scene that he broke a blood vessel in his face. Subsequent shots are from one side only.
Most of the crowd watching the heroes receive their medallions are cardboard cutouts.
Portions of the sound effects for the Millennium Falcon's engines were recorded at an air show at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual convention in Oshkosh, WI. In a gesture of thanks, Lucasfilm donated a model of the Falcon to the EAA Air Museum.
The model used for the rebel blockade runner (the first ship seen in the first scene of the film) has a tiny Star Wars movie poster and a tiny Playboy centerfold in its cockpit. These aren't visible on screen, though.
The famous opening title sequence of the Star Wars series was first used in the The Phantom Creeps (1939) series which began in 1939.
The piece of equipment used to fire the Death Star's weapon is actually a Grass Valley Group 1600-7K television production switcher.
The targeting grid used for the Millennium Falcon's canon is based on a paperweight Lucas saw on Arthur C. Clarke's desk.
The language spoken by the Jawas was created by recording speakers of the African Zulu language and electronically speeding it up. Greedo's language is the Peruvian Indian language Quechua, played backwards. (George Lucas would later feature Peruvian Indians again in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)).
George Lucas shot the opening sequence of the Storm Troopers bursting through the blockade runner door, and the ensuing battle against rebel troops, in two takes. While the action on set was over very quickly, Lucas used six cameras to capture it, thereby extending the length of the scene on screen. Since some cameras were in very tight and others wide, it is difficult to tell the various actions that were duplicated.
Peter Cushing found the boots that came with his costume extremely uncomfortable to wear because they were too small for his feet. Thus he only wore them in the few shots in which Tarkin's feet could be seen. In all other shots, Peter Cushing wore a pair of fuzzy slippers.
The final battle has been described as borrowed from The Dam Busters (1954), but much more closely resembles one in 633 Squadron (1964).
The final medal scene parallels shot-for-shot a sequence in Triumph des Willens (1935).
Leia was imprisoned in cell number 2187, perhaps a reference to the Canadian documentary 21-87 (1964), which may have influenced George Lucas and his filmmaking style.
The sequence where Luke returns to the farm is identical to The Searchers (1956), when the farm has been burned by Indians
Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles (his name is misspelt in the credits as "Dennis Lawson"), is the uncle of Ewan McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels. See also Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).
Han and Luke "transfer" Chewbacca from cell block 1138, a reference to Lucas' earlier film THX 1138 (1971). "THX-1138" was going to be the serial number of the guard with the faulty transmitter on the Death Star, but this was changed.
A small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as Chewbacca makes preparations to depart from Mos Eisley. They don't appear in subsequent scenes.
George Lucas insisted that he have merchandising rights to the film. Studio executives, seeing little if any profit from such merchandise, gave him the rights for free. Star Wars related merchandise has since generated many millions of dollars in sales, allowing Lucas to make movies completely independent of the studio system he decried. Merchandising rights are now a major part of any film contract.
The MPAA originally rated the film G, but studio execs had it changed to PG before release because it might turn off teenagers from seeing it, considering it a "kids' movie".
Several scenes were filmed showing Luke on Tatooine, such as interacting with his friends on Tatooine (before Biggs leaves for the Rebellion), and seeing the rebel space battle through his macrobinoculars. The inclusion of these scenes in other versions of the story (e.g. comic books, "Story of Star Wars" kids' book, novel), sometimes with stills from the footage, has led many fans to swear they saw them on film. Officially, those scenes have never appeared in any release of the movie but new evidence suggests that they were incorporated in prints released specifically for drive-in theaters. It is, or at least was, common practice to release special prints just for the drive-in market because the lighting conditions are so different.
Shortly before production began, George Lucas brought in his film school pals Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck to polish some of the dialogue.
The name Wookiee came about as a result of an accident. When San Francisco DJ Terry McGovern was doing voice-over work on _THX 1138 (1970)_ for George Lucas, he made a blunder and exclaimed, "I think I ran over a wookiee back there." George Lucas, confused, asked what he meant by the term. Terry McGovern admitted that he didn't know and added that he simply made it up. George Lucas never forgot the cute word and used it years later in Star Wars.
Ben Burtt created the sound of Darth Vader's breathing by placing a small microphone in the second stage (mouthpiece) of a scuba regulator, and then recording the sound made by his breathing through the regulator.
R2-D2 is renamed C1-P8 for all the Italian versions of the Star Wars trilogy.
The word "Jedi" is derived from the Japanese words "Jidai Geki" which translate as "period drama." A period drama is a Japanese TV soap opera program set in the samurai days. George Lucas mentioned in an interview that he saw a "Jidai Geki" program on TV while in Japan a year or so before the movie was made and liked the word.
"I'm for it so we can put Nuclear power plants up there, and then beam the power back to earth on a laser beam." ~ Whidden
Scenes featuring Luke and his Tatooine friend "Biggs" were cut from the film. Biggs was a young pilot who left the Imperial Academy to join the Rebellion. Luke mentions him to his "aunt" and "uncle" during the breakfast scene, and the character later shows up as a Rebel pilot who accompanies Luke down the final run on the Death Star trench.
Despite the legend that R2-D2 was named after Reel-2 Dialogue-2, George Lucas came up with his name the same way he came up with most of the droid characters names: by sounding out letter and number combinations that were easy to say.
In the French version of the movie many of the names are changed including C-3P0 who is renamed "Z-6P0", Han Solo as "Yan Solo" and Darth Vader as "Dark Vador".
In Italy, R2-D2 was renamed C1-P8 while Darth Vader became Dart Fener. The 'clones' mentioned by Obi-Wan Kenobi became 'quotes' (Italian: 'cloni'/'quoti').
Actress Koo Stark had a brief appearance as a Tatooine woman named 'Cammie' in the 'Biggs' scene but her role ended up on the cutting room floor.
Director Trademark: [George Lucas] [1138] in honor of his earlier movie THX 1138 (1971).
For reasons that are unclear, Denis Lawson does not appear as Wedge Antilles in the scene taking place in the Yavin 4 briefing room. Wedge's lines in this scene are delivered by a stand-in actor, Jack Klaff. Lucasfilm has confirmed that Denis Lawson was indeed not present for the shooting of that scene. Denis Lawson did play Wedge in all other appearances in the movie.
On opening weekend in 1977, Star Wars earned $1.554 million on over 40 screens. In 1997, it made over $36 million on over 2,000 screens.
Chewbacca's "voice" is a combination of several animals including bears, badgers, walrus and camels.
Lucas acknowledges his debt to Akira Kurosawa's Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958) "Hidden Fortress" in the first conference room scene on the Death Star. Just as an Imperial Officer is saying the line "...the Rebel's hidden fort..." he is telekinetically strangled by Darth Vader, shutting him up before he can say the full title.
When the blasters are cocked they have a clicking/clunking sound. This is a recording of a parking meter handle being turned.
While filming, a fierce sandstorm destroyed several of the Tatooine sets in the desert outside Tozeur, Tunisia, and filming resumed two days later. The same thing would happen to George Lucas 22 years later while filming Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
George Lucas said in an interview that Darth Vader was based on Hakaider, a villain from the superhero TV series, "Jinzô ningen Kikaidâ" (1972), which he saw while he was in Japan.
The sounds made by Chewbacca are actually recordings of sounds made by Polar Bears.
While Lucas was filming on location in Tunisia, the Libyan government became worried about a massive military vehicle parked near the Libyan border. Consequently, the Tunisian government, receiving threats of military mobilization, politely asked Lucas to move his Jawa sandcrawler farther away from the border.
The original name of the main character in this film was Luke Starkiller. It was changed to Skywalker on the first day of filming. All early drafts of the script still bear the name "Starkiller".
George Lucas feared he had a box office flop on his hands when he made the film so he intentionally distanced himself from the studio people when the film opened. He and his wife just happened to be sitting in a cafe when they looked outside at a crowd in the street. They realized that the crowd was for a theatre where this film had just opened.
Dan O'Bannon and John C. Wash animated the Death Star schematics seen on the computer screen as R2D2 searches the Death Star's computer memory. They were influenced by similar sequences they produced for the filmDark Star (1974).
This is the opening sentence for a 13-page treatment George Lucas wrote in 1972: "...the story of Mace Windu, a revered Jedi-bendu of Opuchi who was related to Usby C.J. Thape, a Padawaan learner to the famed Jedi..." George Lucas spent nearly three years rewriting before he completed the script for Star Wars.
The filming of the special effects sequences at ILM's studio was interrupted at one point by a visit by representatives from the local camera operators union who were insisting that ILM hire union camera operators. Someone programmed the Dykstraflex camera to perform a complex series of moves that ended with the camera being pointed at the faces of the union reps. At this point the union reps were told, "Send us someone who can operate *that*." The union reps left and were not heard from again.
In the Italian version of the trilogy, the Death Star is called Morte Nera (Black Death).
Jack Klaff who played rebel pilot John D. had all his scenes cut even though he's still listed in the credits. He did, however, play the role of Wedge Antilles in the briefing room, though future shots of Wedge were done with Denis Lawson.
Jack Klaff is credited with playing Red Four, although this character never appears.
The terms "X-wing" and "Y-wing" and "TIE fighter" were used by ILM effects guys to distinguish the fighters. These terms are not used in this film, though they were incorporated into the sequels. They also became popular with the public after the toys and the Making of special aired on tv. In addition, ILM's special effects staff nicknamed the Millennium Falcon "The Porkburger" but this never caught on.
When Ben Kenobi is turning off the tractor beam, the set Alec Guinness was on was only six feet above the ground.
The humorous moment when Chewbacca frightens a skittish mouse droid, was improvised on set and not scripted.
The reason the screen "whites up" as Ben and Luke carry C-3P0 to repair him after the Sand People attack is that Anthony Daniels was only wearing black tights below the waist.
George Lucas's original choice for cinematographer was Geoffrey Unsworth, but Geoffrey Unsworth was committed to A Bridge Too Far (1977). Gilbert Taylor was hired instead, but hated working on the project. Producer Gary Kurtz became concerned that Gilbert Taylor was slowing production down and attempted to replace Gilbert Taylor with Harry Waxman, but the camera crew made it clear they would not work under Harry Waxman, and George Lucas told Gary Kurtz that replacing Gilbert Taylor would probably delay the film even further.
James Earl Jones and David Prowse have never met.
Was voted the 16th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly, the highest ranked of science-fiction movies.
Perry King screen-tested for the role of Han Solo. Though he lost the part to Harrison Ford for the film, he got to play Solo in the National Public Radio adaptations of the original "Star Wars" trilogy.
During filming, Peter Mayhew actually spoke English dialogue for Chewbacca so that his character's conversations with the actors would seem more natural. In post production; his dialogue was dubbed into what we see now Chewie's growls and barks. A clip of Chewbacca's voice before dubbing in the Death Star control room scene is shown on the documentary included in the new 2004 DVD release.
The original teaser was narrated by Orson Welles, who was the original choice to do the voice of Darth Vader. >>> WARNING: Spoilers <<<
SPOILER: Darth Vader's breathing was originally meant to be much more labored and raspy. The sound of this labored, raspy breathing would be used later on in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) after Vader has killed the Emperor.
SPOILER: "Vader" is Dutch for "father".
from imdb.com
"I'm for it so we can put Nuclear power plants up there, and then beam the power back to earth on a laser beam." ~ Whidden
03-17-2005 05:18 AM
