Directed by:
Written by:
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Box-Office: $ million in the U.S., $ million worldwide
 

http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/sw1.html
 
 

During an August 2001 interview, Mark Hamill gave his opinion on Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: "It didn't work as well as it could have because there's no cynic in it. We had Han Solo to keep our films from being too sugary and upbeat." Looking back at his involvement in the trilogy, he joked that he was living in fear of an inevitable encounter: "Some day a tiny tot is going to come up to me and ask if I'm Luke Skywalker's grandfather. That's my greatest fear because I know it's going to happen. The Star Wars movies have an incredible shelf life. I've already been asked if I'm Luke's father!"
 

In August 2001, a 25-year anniversary celebration of Brian De Palma's Carrie reunited the cast of the cult movie.  The following was revealed:

"Brian De Palma: Carrie was happening at the same time George was casting Star Wars. We were both using lots of young people, so we went through a filtering process together. We saw every young actor in New Yorkm Los Angelesm Chicago, and everywhere else. It was relentless.

P.J. Soles: You waited your turn, and there were these two guys behind a desk, George on the left and Brian on the right. They didn't tell us anything. It was just like, "I hear one guy's doing a space movie and the other guy's doing a horror movie." They'd basically look you up and down and decide right there whose pile you'd go in.

William Katt: I read for Luke Skywalker. I don't even think I was told about Carrie.

Brian De Palma: George was interested in Amy [Irving] for Princess Leia. I think that's the only case where we had similar desires, castwise.

Amy Irving: Even after Brian had cast me in Carrie, he coached me to play Princess Leia. He said, "That's going to be a much bigger film. It would be good for you." And, actually, he was a big help, because Star Wars was a difficult audition. You had to talk about C-3 Po and R2-D2, and there were these mouthfuls of exposition."
 
 

Despite his 1973 American Graffiti being the most profitable film in Hollywood history, neither United Artists nor Universal picked up their option to produce Star Wars (1977), George Lucas's next project. Alan Ladd, Jr., finally bought the idea for Twentieth Century-Fox, having to fight his board of directors, some of whom hated Star Wars so much that they refused to call it by name, referring only to "that science movie." Lucas was paid only $50,000 as writer and $100,000 for directing, opting instead to retain a larger percentage of the merchandising and licensing rights -which the studio's lawyers considered the "garbage" provisions of the contract. The garbage eventually brought Lucas untold sums.

Having made the most successful film in the history of motion pictures, George Lucas was in the driver's seat. Fox had an option on the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), but Lucas drove a hard bargain. His company ended up with an agreement guaranteeing profits that began with 50% of gross rentals and rose to an unheard-of 77%. The filmmaker had also instructed Tom Pollock (who later became chairman of Universal Studios) to negotiate in reverse all the clauses that Fox had forced on him with Star Wars; he was correct every slight, and to give Lucas total control. When the final contract for The
Empire Strikes Back was drawn up, Tom Pollock presented it on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur to Alan Ladd, Jr., with these words: "This is your day of atonement."
 

George Lucas wrote the part of Princess Leia in Star Wars for a virginal teenager. Carrie Fisher was nineteen when she played it, and her physical charms were completely covered in a long white robe. Lucas even insisted on having her breasts fastened to her chest with electrical tape.  "No breasts bounce in space," the actress joked about it, "no jiggling in the Empire."
 

Though rich in imagination, the plot for Star Wars was hard to follow. George Lucas spent two and a half years struggling to simplify it, but even then the script was greeted with something less than constructive criticism by the actors.  "You can type this shit, George," Harrison Ford told Lucas, "but you sure can't say it."  And Mark Hamill, who made his debut in the movie, said afterwards: "It was not Noel Coward, let's face it."
 
 

Jodie Foster was Lucas' second option for Princess Leia. Christopher Walken and Nick Nolte were considered for the role of Han Solo.

Burt Reynolds was originally cast as Han Solo, but he dropped out.

John Williams was introduced to George Lucas by Steven Spielberg, who originally laughed when he heard the two notes the composer wanted to base Jaws' score on, but was now referring to him as "the greatest composer ever".  John Williams wrote the score for Star Wars with Wagner's work in mind.

In the original plot synopsis (May 1973), entitled "The Adventures of the Starkiller" and set in the 33rd century, Luke Skywalker was a general of an unnamed "rebel princess." The plot had many similarities to Dune, the filming of which had been canceled the previous year. The plot was heavily rewritten in 1974, and a farm boy named Annikin Starkiller was introduced. It also featured Annikin's father and younger brother, named Kane and Deak. Kane was a Jedi Master and Deak was a learner. Annikin became Luke Starkiller in a later draft of the screenplay, and changed to Luke Skywalker in the final draft. In the penultimate draft of the screenplay, the Empire destroyed Organa Major (Leia's home) with the Death Star, although this is not shown. Leia was taken to Alderaan, the Empire's seat of power. The Death Star is seen for the first time when the rebels attack it.

Although it is often claimed by George Lucas that Star Wars was always intended as part of a series (originally nine parts, later six), producer Gary Kurtz claimed differently in a interview in 1999. According to Kurtz, Star Was was meant to be a
standalone film. It was only after the film's incredible success that he and Lucas got together to consider sequels. They came up with the idea that Star Wars was the fourth story of a nine-part series and penned rough outlines for each episode. After
releasing the "fifth" episode (The Empire Strikes Back (1980)), Lucas made Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) with Steven Spielberg. The success of this film convinced Lucas to increase the emphasis on action in the "sixth" Star Wars episode.

According to Kurtz, the Emperor was not originally going to make an appearance until episode 9. Luke and Leia were not brother and sister. There was no Death Star II. The search for Han Solo was the main plot of the film, during which Luke
would have furthered his Jedi training. Solo was going to die in the final battle. Luke was going to go off to complete/continue his Jedi training and Leia was going to resume her position as Queen of her people, separating the major characters in a "downer" ending similar to that of Episode 5. Kurtz strongly objected to Lucas' changes and insisted they should stay with
the story they had originally planned. Lucas just as strongly disagreed and the two parted company. (Kurtz left to make Dark Crystal, The (1982) with Jim Henson and hasn't worked with Lucas since.) 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)).
 

STAR WARS 1

Han Solo's blaster was manufactured from a "Broomhandle" Mauser Pistol.

"Vader" is Dutch for "father."

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." Lucas, confused, asked what he meant by the term. McGovern admitted that he didn't know and added that he simply made it up. Lucas never forgot the cute word and used it years later in Star Wars.

R2-D2 is renamed C1-P8 for all the Italian versions of the Star Wars trilogy.

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.

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.

Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles, is the uncle of Ewan McGregor, the Scottish actor slated to play Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming prequels.

Lucas had trouble getting funding for this movie, most studios thinking that people wouldn't go to see it.

The Director's Guild of America (DGA) didn't like the fact that there were no specific credits at the beginning of the film. They "ordered" Lucas to recut the film and put some credits at the beginning. Lucas refused, claiming that this would destroy the opening of the film. The DGA fined Lucas, who paid up, and promptly quit the DGA.

The Millennium Falcon was originally modelled 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.

Derived from (among other things) a Japanese movie called Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958). 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.

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. 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.

A great deal of the film was shot by vintage 1950's VistaVision cameras, because they were of higher quality than any others available. After the film was released, the prices of these cameras skyrocketed.

The episode number and subtitle "A New Hope" did not originally appear in the film's opening crawl. These were added in a later re-release to be consistent with those seen in Empire Strikes Back, The (1980).

Scene of escape pod leaving Leia's ship was the first ever done by ILM.

C-3PO was originally scripted as a "used car salesman" type, and designed after the robot from Metropolis (1926).

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.

After the sets were constructed, 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 rumour 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, Daniels asked Lucas to make some kind of noise to help him, but when Lucas forgot, the matter was dropped.

Chewbacca was modeled after Lucas' dog, Indiana. See also Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

C-3PO loses an arm when attacked by the Sandpeople.  Ben cuts off a creature's hand in the Cantina. See
also Empire Strikes Back, The (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

The following characters "have a bad feeling about this": Luke and Han. See also Empire Strikes Back, The
(1980), and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

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.

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
Han and Luke "transfer" Chewbacca from cell block 1138: Lucas directed a film called THX 1138 (1970). "THX-1138" was going to be the serial number of the guard with the faulty transmitter on the Death Star, but this was changed.

Harrison Ford deliberately didn't learn his lines for the intercom conversation in the cell block, so it would sound spontaneous.

When the stormtroopers 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.

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 (and is killed by Darth Vader).
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.

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.

Denis Lawson plays Wedge Antilles, despite his name being misspelt in the credits as "Dennis Lawson". See also Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

The final battle has been described as borrowed from Dam Busters, The (1954), but much more closely
resembles one in 633 Squadron (1964).

Most of the crowd watching the heroes receive their medallions are cardboard cutouts.

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.

The final medal scene parallels shot-for-shot a sequence in Triumph des Willens (1934).

In one draft of the screenplay, there were three Sith Lords who drew their power from a "Kiber Crystal."

Obi-Wan survived the light sabre duel with Darth Vader, and stole the crystal. He gave it to Luke to take with him during the attack on the Death Star. 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.

Portions of the sound effects for the Millenium Falcon's engines were recorded at an airshow 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.

STAR WARS 2
On Hoth, General Rieekan says "Send Rogues 10 and 11 to sector 38," a veiled reference to THX 1138 (1970).

The character of Boba Fett is never referred to by name, except in the credits.

In the asteroid scene, one of the asteroids is actually a shoe. The rumor is that George Lucas asked the SFX people to redo the scene so many times that they got annoyed and one of them threw in their shoe.

Lighting for SFX was so strong that several models melted.

The AT-AT's were based on ship loading structure in an Oakland, California shipyard. Walking patterns of elephants were studied to make the movements seem as realistic as possible.

Mark Hamill was involved in a minor car accident before shooting began, and many rumours exist regarding facial injuries and script rewrites. The magazine "Starlog" (#40) contains an interview with Hamill where he attempts to dispel the rumours.
Further scenes with the wampa were shot, and later cut. R2-D2 encountered one within the Rebel base, where it was killed by troopers. Later, the beasts were lured into a prison within the complex. In the completed film, a medical droid is seen examining the wounds of a tauntaun killed by a wampa, and Princess Leia mentions the "creatures" while discussing the Imperial probe droid. A scene filmed but cut had Han, Leia and C-3PO running through a corridor. Han went to take a short-cut through a door with a sign on it, but Leia warned him "that's where those creatures are kept". They run off, but not before C-3PO rips off the sign, hoping that the stormtroopers will enter the room.

Luke cuts off the Wampa's arm. C-3PO loses an arm when blasted by the Stormtroopers. Darth Vader cuts off Luke's hand. See also Star Wars (1977) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). The blasters used by the stormtroopers were constructed from Sterling L2A3 Mk 4 submachine guns.

One of the asteroids is actually a potato. It appears just as the Millenium Falcon first enters the field. Two asteroids travel from the top left to the bottom right corner of the screen. Just after the second asteroid leaves the screen a third one appears in the
top left corner. This is the potato.

The following characters "have a bad feeling about this": Leia. See also: Star Wars (1977) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

Security surrounding this movie was so intense that George Lucas had regular reports about "leaks" from actors. Lucas was so determined that the ending be kept secret that he had actor David Prowse (Darth Vader) say "Obi Wan Kenobi is your father" ("Obi-Wan killed your father" by some reports), and dubbed it later to be "I am your father".

An extra fell sick, and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) was called in as a replacement. He can be seen as the Imperial Guard who pulls Princess Leia into the elevator after she screams "Luke! It's a trap!". He can also be seen as the Imperial Guard who is captured by Lando Calrissian's men.

Denis Lawson plays Wedge Antilles. Wedge was not originally scripted to appear in this film, but intense fan interest prompted Lucas to include him.

In the original film, when R2-D2 gets spit out of the swamp, Luke tells him, "You're lucky you don't taste very good." In the "special edition," the line is inexplicably redubbed, "You're lucky you got out of there."

Leigh Brackett succumbed to cancer shortly after completing her first draft of the script of the film. The voiceover line "The first transport is away" during the Rebel evacuation is delivered by Mark Hamill.

Mark Hamill's wife gave birth to their first son early one morning, and Mark went straight from the hospital to shooting. This was the day they filmed the shots of Luke hanging by the weather vane below Cloud City, on Bespin.

Jeremy Bulloch, who plays Boba Fett, is producer 'Watts, Robert (II)' (qv)'s half-brother.

STAR WARS 3
Watts, Robert, a co-producer of the film, doubles as the scout walker driver who is thrown out of the scout walker by Chewbacca.

Several Ewok lines are in the Filipino (Tagalog) language.

David Lynch was orignally offered the chance to direct this episode of the series. He turned it down because he believed it was "Lucas' thing."

The dual stripes painted on rebel A-wing fighters were originally blue, but were changed to red because the blue made it a problem when filming blue-screen effects.

Originally included a sandstorm scene that occurred after Han's rescue. It was cut because it was unnecessary and was hectic to shoot.

SFX crew claim to have included a "sneaker" as one of the spaceships in a complex dog-fight scene. Jabba's sail barge was filmed in Yuma, Arizona. The film crew had problems avoiding the 35,000 dune buggy enthusiasts in the area. To preserve secrecy, the producers claimed to be making a horror film called "Blue Harvest (Horror beyond your imagination)", and
even had caps and t-shirts made up for the crew. A chain-link fence and a 24-hour security service could not prevent die-hard fans from entering the set and sneaking some photographs.

Luke's hand gets shot. Leia gets shot in the shoulder.

Luke cuts off Darth Vader's hand. See also Star Wars (1977) and Empire Strikes Back, The (1980). The main chamber of Jabba's palace is connected to the entrance by a short flight of steps. When filming the scene where R2-D2 enters the chamber it was discovered that the droid could not roll down the stairs. In the movie we see R2-D2 approaching the stairs, then the
camera moves to the left past the steps and the droid re-enters the field of view, having been manually hauled down the stairs.
The dancer that Jabba drops into the Rancor pit loses her top as she falls in.

Carrie Fisher's birthmark (near the small of her back) is visible in the desert scene where she turns her back to the camera to swing around a mounted laser gun.

Rumour has it that Nien Numb speaks a Kenyan dialect, and one of his lines is "One thousand herds of elephants are standing on my foot".

Lando Calrissian and The Millennium Falcon originally scripted to perish in the Death Star explosion, but this was changed after a poor preview audience reception. Note Han's line when departing in the stolen Imperial shuttle: "I got a funny feeling, like
I'm not going to see her again."

It is rumoured that a different ending was shot, but discarded later on. It featured the (long awaited) marriage between Leia Organa and Han Solo. Dark Horse's Comic "Dark Empire" is based on that fact and presents Han and Leia as a married couple.

Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in Star Wars (1977) and Empire Strikes Back, The (1980) plays Wedge
in this film, despite the rumours to the contrary which were caused by his name being misspelt ("Dennis Lawson") in the credits of Star Wars (1977). Intense debate on Usenet prompted Jarod Nash to write a letter to Lawson, asking for clarification. Lawson confirmed that he indeed played in all three movies.

Among the aliens in Jabba the Hutt's entourage are ones named "Klaatu," "Barada" and "Nikto," after the command given to the robot Gort in Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951). The aliens are not referred to by name in the film, nor do they have any lines. The name "Ewok" is never used to refer to the teddy-bear creatures in the film, though it does appear in the credits.
The Endor shots were filmed near Crescent City, California. Forest work was especially hard on the Ewok actors. Production Assistant Ian Bryce arrived on the set one day to find a note from the Ewok actors saying that they had all had enough and they were on their way to the airport. Bryce tried to drive to the airport, but got a flat tire not far from the set. He found another car and was about to leave when the Ewoks' bus pulled up, and all the Ewok actors got off wearing "Revenge of the Ewok" t-shirts.

Darth Vader's body was played by David Prowse, his voice by James Earl Jones, and his face by Shaw, Sebastian.

One of the songs that the Ewoks sing sounds like: "Det luktar flingor har", which is Swedish for "It smells of cereal here." (In fact, that line's lyrics are supposedly, "G'noop dock fling oh ah.") Another song sounds identical to a song sung in Caveman (1981). The primitive warrior tribe at the end of this film was originally supposed to be a tribe of Wookiees. In pre-production, though, the decision was made to go "cute" (probably for merchandising reasons) and, hence, the Ewoks were created (by rearranging the sounds in the word "Wookiee").

The title "Revenge of the Jedi" was leaked early in production, so that pirated merchandise could be easily spotted when the film was released. The official reason for the change was that "...a Jedi would not take revenge". Some authentic pre-release
movie posters actually had "Revenge", and are worth a lot of money today.

Portions of the partially completed Death Star model resemble the San Francisco skyline. At the end, when Luke cremates Darth Vader, he starts the fire at big toe of his right foot. He also apparently walks around the pyre. Those details and
the style of the pyre correspond to Hindu tradition.

David Prowse, who played Darth Vader's body in three films, was unaware of the planned unmasking scene in which a different actor, Shaw, Sebastian, played Vader's face.

The name Anakin is the accusative of the greek noun Anax, meaning "lord."

In deleted footage from a scene on Dagobah, Obi-Wan Kenobi reveals that Owen Lars was his own brother, not actually Luke's uncle.