No Jiggling in The Empire: Fun Facts About Star Wars

The following is reprinted from The Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

The original 1977 Star Wars poster

Did you know that Star Wars almost didn't happen because Universal Studios turned it down? Or that Harrison Ford was an unknown actor working as a carpenter when George Lucas chose him to play Han Solo? Or that Luke Skywalker's original name was Luke Starkiller? Here are some fascinating facts about Star Wars, one of the highest grossing sci-fi film series in history:

"There's a whole generation growing up without any kind of fairy tales. And kids need fairy tales - it's an important thing for society to have for kids." - George Lucas

BACKGROUND

In July 1973, George Lucas was an unknown director working on a low-budget 1950s nostalgia film called American Graffiti. He approached Universal Studios to see if they were interested in a film idea he called Star Wars. Universal turned him down. It was the biggest mistake the studio ever made. Six months later, Lucas was the hottest director in Hollywood. American Graffiti, which cost $750,000 to make, was a smash. It went on to earn more than $117 million, making it the most profitable film in Hollywood history - even today. While Universal was stonewalling Lucas, an executive at 20th Century Fox, Alan Ladd, Jr., watched a smuggled print of American Graffiti before it premiered and loved it. He was so determined to work with Lucas that he agreed to finance the director's new science fiction film. Star Wars opened on May 25, 1977, and by the end of August it had grossed $100 million - faster than any other film in history. By 1983 the film had made over $524 million in ticket sales worldwide - making it one of the 10 highest grossing films in history. [note: this article was written in 1993; Star Wars is currently the 24th highest-grossing films]

MAKING THE FILM

It took Lucas over two years to write the script. He spent 40 hours a week writing and devoted much of his free time to reading comic books and watching old "Buck Rogers" episodes and other serials looking for film ideas. - Lucas insisted on casting unknown actors and actresses in all the important parts of the film - which made the studio uneasy. Mark Hamill had more than 100 TV appearances, and Carrie Fisher had studied acting, but neither had had much experience in films. Harrison Ford's biggest role had been as the drag racer in American Graffiti, and when he read for the part of Han Solo he was working as a carpenter.

THE CHARACTERS

Luke Skywalker. At first Lucas planned to portray him as an elderly general, but decided that making him a teenager gave him more potential for character development. Lucas originally named the character Luke Starkiller, but on the first day of shooting he changed it to the less violent Skywalker.

Obi-Wan Kenobi. Lucas got his idea for Obi-Wan Kenobi and "the Force" after reading Carlos Castaneda'sTales of Power, an account of Don Juan, a Mexican-Indian sorcerer and his experiences with what he called "the life force."

Darth Vader. David Prowse, a six-foot, seven-inch Welsh weightlifter, played the part of Darth Vader. But Lucas didn't want his villain to have a Welsh accent, so he dubbed James Earl Jones's voice over Prowse's. Still, Prowse loved the part. "He took the whole thing very seriously," Lucas remembers. "He began to believe he really was Darth Vader."

Han Solo. In the early stages of development, Han Solo was a green-skinned, gilled monster with a girlfriend named Boma who was a cross between a guinea pig and a brown bear. Solo was supposed to make only a few appearances in the film, but Lucas later made him into a swashbuckling, reckless human (allegedly modeled after the film director Francis Ford Coppola).

Chewbacca. Lucas got the idea for Chewbacca one morning in the early 1970s while watching his wife Marcia drive off in her car. She had their Alaskan malamute, Indiana (the namesake for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark), and Lucas liked the way the large, shaggy dog looked in the passenger seat. So he decided to create a character in the film that was a cross between Indiana, a bear, and a monkey.

Princess Leia. Carrie Fisher was a beautiful 19-year-old actress when she was cast to play Princess Leia, but Lucas did everything he could to tone down her femininity. At one point, he even ordered that her breasts be strapped to her chest with electrical tape. "There's no jiggling in the Empire," Fisher later joked.

R2-D2. Lucas got the name R2-D2 while filming American Graffiti. During a sound-mixing session for the film, editor Walter Murch asked him for R2, D2 (Reel 2, Dialogue 2) of the film. Lucas liked the name so much that he made a note of it, and eventually found the right character for it.

C-3PO. Inspired by a robot character in Alex Raymond's science fiction novel, Iron Men of Mongo. Raymond's robot was a copper-colored, polite robot who was shaped like a man who worked as a servant. Lucas intended that C-3PO and R2-D2 be a space-age Laurel and Hardy team.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

The spaceship battles were inspired by World War II films. Before filming the special effect began, Lucas watched dozens of war movies like Battle of Britain and The Bridges of Toko-Ri, taping his favorite air battle scenes as he went along. Later he edited them down to a 10-minute black-and-white film, and gave it to the special effects team - which reshot the scenes using X-wing and T.I.E. fighter models. - None of the spaceship models ever moved an inch during the filming of the flight sequences. The motion was an optical illusion created by moving the cameras around motionless models. The models were so detailed that one of them even had Playboy pinups in the cockpit.

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS

The executives at 20th Century Fox hated the film the first time they saw it. Some of the company's board of directors fell asleep during the first screening; others didn't understand the film at all. One executive's wife even suggested that C-3PO be given a moving mouth, because no one would understand how he could talk without moving his lips. - The underwater monster in the trash compactor was one of Lucas's biggest disappointment in the film. He had planned to have an elaborate "alien jellyfish" in the scene, but the monster created by the special effects department was so poorly constructed that it reminded him of "a big, wide, brown turd." Result: The monster was filmed underwater during most of the scene - so that moviegoers wouldn't see it.

The article above is reprinted with permission from The Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

The Harrison Ford carpenter thing is an urban ledgend. His first credit was ten years before Star Wars. He had about 35 credits before Star Wars according to IMDB.
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It's not an urban legend. As the article states, he was a relatively unknown actor. He was a carpenter. He also was not cast as Han Solo until he convinced Lucas to let him have the role. He originally was just a script reader on the film.
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Harrison Ford acted then basically went into early retirement for a while as a carpenter. This brought him back to the biz'.

The article failed to mention that Lucas was very inspired by the Kurosawa film "The Hidden Fortress". Moreover, he originally wanted the lead from said film, a one ToshirĂ´ Mifune, to play Obi-Wan.

Watch them back to back some time. It's not fair to say he stole the whole film, but there are two bungling idiots, a tomboyish princess, and a reckless, fearless leader all trying to escape from the kingdom of their enemy and evade capture.
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I don't think the American Graffiti statistic is accurate. In terms of return on investment, it's not even in the top 5, and the Blair Witch Project was about much cheaper, and made twice as much money.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.php
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No no no! David Prowse is not Welsh! And he doesn't have a Welsh accent!

(sorry for all the exclamation marks, can you tell the article touched a nerve?)

He's from the West Country of England (Bristol, to be precise), and has a lovely West Country accent, just like me.

Very different from a Welsh accent, I should know, I was born near Bristol but live in Wales :)
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Catalyst beat me to it. I love that site.

I have a feeling it may be impossible to beat Blair Witch Project's ROI. Too bad it's such a terrible movie.
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@Catalyst and Ryan H - the article was written in 1993, Blair Witch came several years later

everything from the "early stages of development" sounds horrible
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I'm glad I'm not alone in spotting many fallacies in this. I'll just correct one. In 1973 Lucas was trying to pitch a science fiction script that was nothing like the Star Wars finished product, and at the time it was titled "The Journal of the Whills". And the story was indeed ripped directly from Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress".
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No facts about Star Wars are accurate without mentioning Dune. Lucas can deny all he wants but he ripped Frank Herbert off pure and simple. To make matters worse he dumbed the whole thing down.

-shaking my fist in George Lucas' general direction-
_
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Regarding the executives, it's not completely true that they all disliked it. I read The Making of Star Wars, and there were some executives who came out of the screening crying because it was such an emotional experience. My memory is faulty, so it may not have been the first screening, but Lucas definitely had people in the whole spectrum between dislike and total enthusiasm.
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It's amazing that I have seen beaucoup documentaries and TV specials and DVD special features on Star Wars and I still learn new things about it all the time. The thrill of there being new Star Wars in the world has worn off after 10 years and I finally have to admit that the prequels stink and the old trilogy is what Star Wars really is.
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The thing about the 'Harrison Ford was just a carpenter' was that he was making good money doing kitchens and cabinets in LA. He was probably making more money than a lawyer in Nebraska. And I believe he used it to bump up his salary for Star Wars as well.
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