All of these questions are very much tied together. We all want MORE Star Wars movies, I think that’s not really up for debate for fans. But we want them to be GOOD, and recently that would seem to mean wrestling complete creative control away from George Lucas, something it’s clear he shouldn’t have. The first three Star Wars films were a collaborative effort between many, many people, but now? Lucas is supreme overlord of the property, and the new trilogy was him from start to finish. If the same rules applied to new movies, would you even want him to make them?

The debate at Unreality magazine has commenters pouring out their feelings. Link

The camera was refurbished back to its original state, was said to be in full working order, and now the new owner can get to work filming Episode 4 all over again! Just kidding, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if someone bought the camera then remade such a beloved movie?

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Fans are excited that the complete Star Wars saga is coming out on Blu-ray. However there are some concerns as Lucas has indicated he will include “surprises.” Some of these may be technical upgrades of audio and visual elements, but some will be disappointed that the original theatrical versions will not be included as well.

The updates include some basic tweaks. The frame size will be adjusted for The Phantom Menace; so you can get more of the movie on your screen. The transfer technology has gotten better since 1999, so the the image can transfer more completely. Color timing is fixed in the original trilogy, and visual mistakes and debris were removed. Finally, the audio files have been cleaned up for the original trilogy. Sounds have been equalized, especially for A New Hope.  I understand those sorts of changes and applaud them. They make for a better viewing experience, and George Lucas always wants to provide that.

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After he was kidnapped, George Lucas spent twenty years in captivity, watching an imposter destroy his reputation with three intentionally terrible prequels. Now he’s out and looking for revenge in this fake trailer by Bridge Stuart and Mike Litzenberg. “Not all men are created prequel.”

via The Mary Sue

The Lucasfilm Animation building in Singapore looks rather like a sandcrawler, don’t you think? This is just an artist’s conception, as groundbreaking occurred only this week.

Link via CrunchGear | Images: FuriousFanboys, CrunchGear, Lucasfilm

Unfortunately, perhaps because of the verisimilitude of the disciplines needed to make a film like Star Wars come together, the making-of narrative is surprisingly fragmented and often incomplete. A quick look at the bibliography needed to put together this post should give a good idea of just how fragmented. And once you’re down the rabbit hole, you quickly learn that nothing found there can be taken at face value. Quotes, drawings, photos and diagrams lack sources, are undated, some old, some new, some so distorted as to be pure fiction and most of it entirely out of context.

Heilemann’s research is quite thorough, and fascinating as well. Link (via Boing Boing)

A long time ago, in a state far out west, George Lucas created Star Wars.

Striking Back

One of our favorite Star Wars fan sites Spokybug.com (and yes, we have favorites) has this to say about the origins of the trilogy:

“A critic might say, ‘Oh, Lucas combined Flash Gordon with Akira Kurosawa … and sewed it all up with Joseph Campbell’s ideas on the structure of myth.’ And Lucas did do all those thing, but that can’t be the final answer.”

OK, it’s not the final answer, and we’re not trying to denigrate Lucas’ achievement – he’s the auteur of one of the most successful films of all time, one that many critics consider the world’s first “high-concept” film, and also one that happens to be completely awesome. but in terms of literary inspirations, those three sources were big ones; Lucas unquestionably based much of his creative opus on the tales he found in the Flash Gordon TV serials, Akira Kurosawa’s epic movies, and Joseph Campbell’s mythical archetypes. Let’s tackle the three of them with the help of a fan who runs the aforementioned site, Kristen Brennan. (What, you were expecting someone more … male?)

Flash Gordon

Brennan’s a genius on this, so we’re gonna let her start things off: “George Lucas often said that his original idea for the project that evolved into Star Wars was to remake the Flash Gordon movie serials from the 1930s (a ‘serial’ is a movie shown in weekly installments of about 10-20 minutes each). [But] the license wasn’t available….Despite the plot changes, the Star Wars films are still bursting with with influences from the Flash Gordon movie serials, including the Rebels vs. the Imperial Forces, the ‘soft wipes’ between scenes, the underwater city with the manta ray-shaped sub and even the famous ‘roll up’ which begins the movie.” We agree; a side-by-side viewing of Flash Gordon and Star Wars stills is downright eerie. We’d also like to throw in a word about Cloud City, which Star Wars fans know as the home of Billy Dee Williams – er, Lando Calrission. Flash Gordon also had a Cloud City, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Lucas borrowed it directly. Both “cities” may be made of castles in the air, but they’ve got solid foundations – in Jonathon swift’s famous tales of Gulliver’s Travels, which also features airy domains. They, in turn, probably drew from Cloudcuckooland in the famous play The Birds, by Aristophanes (c. 448-380 B.C.E.).

Akira Kurosawa

Although Kurosawa is most famous for the Seven Samurai, that’s not the movie that most directly influenced Star Wars. Lucas relied on at least two other films instead; most obviously Kakushi toride no san akunin (The Hidden Fortress, 1958) and Yojimbo (which means “bodyguard”, 1961). In The Hidden Fortress, a princess in disguise must make her way through enemy territory, aided (and occasionally hindered) by two bickering peasants who are clearly the inspiration for C3PO and R2D2. As for Yohimbo, check out the scene where some rough types brag about being wanted by the authorities, a confrontation that ends with somebody’s arm being cut off – and then take a look at the near-identical scenes from the Cantina in Mos Eisley, that famous “hive of scum and villainy.”

Joseph Campbell

In envisioning the archetypal “hero’s journey,” Joseph Campbell laid out a sort of myth that’s mirrored in all great quests. Here’s how Campbell explained the journey, and how Star Wars riffs on it (in a fashion that Campbell approved of, by the way – he and Lucas became close friends after the first movie came out):

“The call to adventure”
Princess Leia shows up via hologram and does my “you’re my only hope routine,” necessitating a trip to Alderaan.

“Refusal of the call”
Luke says that nah, he really can’t go, because he has to help with the harvest.

“Supernatural aid”
Obi-Wan rescues Luke from the Sand People.

“The road of trials”
Luke attempts to to wield a light saber and ends up looking foolish.

“The meeting with the goddess”
Luke meets Leia, who is decked out like an intergalactic vestal virgin.

“Temptation away from the true”
Luke is tempted by The Dark Side.

“Atonement with the father”
“Luke, I am your father,” anyone? (Actually, that’s not the real line from the movie, but bear with us.)

“Apotheosis”
Luke becomes a Jedi, kicks some serious tail.

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The article above was reprinted with permission from mental_floss‘ book In the Beginning.

From Big Hair to the Big Bang, here’s a Mouthwatering Guide to the Origins of Everything by our friends at mental_floss.

Did you know that paper clips started out as Nazi-fighting warriors? Or that cruise control was invented by a blind genius? Read it all in the book!

The movie was filmed during the summer of 1980.

You’ve probably heard the rumors, and yes, they’re true – Indiana Jones was named after George Lucas’ dog, Indiana. He was the prototype for Chewbacca as well, so his old malamute had a pretty big impact on Lucas’ two biggest series.

“Indiana Smith?” Yep, almost, until Steven Spielberg told Lucas it just didn’t sound right. The equally-generic “Jones” was suggested and flowed much better.

According to George Lucas, almost every studio in town turned down the movie, feeling that it would cost too much money to make.

Tim Matheson and Tom Selleck both tested for Indiana Jones; Karen Allen actually screentested with Tim Matheson. Tom Selleck did very well and was the frontrunner, but had to bow out due to Magnum P.I. Harrison Ford was brought up early in the casting discussion, but George Lucas wanted to avoid casting him since he had already become so closely associated with Star Wars.

The role of Sallah was offered to Danny DeVito – he was Spielberg’s first choice – but was unable to do it because of Taxi. The job went to John Rhys-Davies instead. Picture from BlogCDN.

Indy’s leather jacket looks old and beat up, but in reality, it was brand new – and there were 10 of them. The costume director “aged” each jacket with a metal brush and Harrison Ford’s own pocket knife.

The famous hat is from Savile Row in London, a place called Herbert Johnson. The hat had a very wide brim and the crown was quite high, apparently the fashion Down Under since it was their Australian model. After a couple of fittings, it was declared the Indiana Jones fedora. When the customized hat arrived at the studio, the costume designer rolled it up and crushed it, then various members of the cast (including Harrison) took turns sitting on it to make it look like a very worn-in, well-loved hat.

Someone was actually sent out to find a mountain that specifically looked like the Paramount Studios logo mountain so they could create the opening shot of the movie. I suppose these days Lucas would have just made a CGI mountain…

There was a complication during the scene where Alfred Molina is covered in spiders – they didn’t want to move. They just sat stagnant on him, making the excitement of the scene rather… well, not exciting. They discovered that all of the spiders were male, so a female spider was put on Molina’s chest. It did the trick – the male spiders were immediately more active and started to crawl in the direction of the female.

The golden idol was based on an Incan fertility statue. Photo from FanPop.

The movie was filmed in Tunisia because it was a lot cheaper to shoot there than Egypt, and since the script never called for shots of the Sphinx or the pyramids, so they were able to get away with it. In fact, one of the scenes was shot in the exact same canyon where R2-D2 was stolen by Jawas in Star Wars.

The part where Indy watches a swordsman go through a very elaborate routine with his scimitar only to shoot him at the end of it happened because Harrison Ford really had to go to the bathroom. Indy was supposed to have a huge fight scene using his whip, but a bout of dysentery had left him weak and desperately needing the john. Because of this, someone – reports vary on whose idea it was – suggested that Indy just dispatch the dude like anyone who had a gun in his arsenal would.

Harrison wasn’t the only one who got sick – a majority of the cast and crew found themselves incapacitated at some point during filming in Tunisia. Steven Spielberg didn’t get sick because he ate only canned food from the U.K. Everyone else who ate food in the restaurants or at the hotel got horribly sick at least once during filming.

During the scene where Indy fights while the plane is rolling around, Harrison Ford actually sustained an injury when the wheels of the plane got too close and rolled right up onto his leg. It tore his ACL, but rather than submit to Tunisian hospitals, Ford wrapped it in ice and continued to shoot. He also bruised his ribs during the scene where he is dragged behind the truck.

Unlike his character counterpart, Harrison Ford isn’t afraid of snakes and had no problem working with them during the Well of Souls scene. Precautions were taken anyway – if you look closely, a reflection gives away the fact that a sheet of glass was placed between Ford and the cobra. It was a good thing, too – at one point the cobra actually sprayed venom onto the glass.

Some of the sound effects weren’t fancy at all: the sound of snakes slithering was really just the sound designer squishing his fingers through a cheese casserole, the sound of people getting punched was really a pile of leather coats being hit with a baseball bat, and the lid sliding off of the Ark was a toilet lid being slid off the back of a toilet. The sound designer was having trouble coming up with just the right sound for the rolling boulder at the beginning of the movie and ended up using the sound of a Honda Civic coasting down a gravel hill.

Marion was the writer’s grandmother-in-law’s name, and he had been mulling over a surname for a while when he came across a streetname called “Ravenwood” and loved the way the two names fit together. Photo from TheShadyCat.

The boat was actually the submarine model from Das Boot.

Although most shots were done in four takes or less because Lucas and Spielberg wanted a “quick and dirty” feel to the movie – nothing too perfect – there was one shot that took more than 50 takes. It was the scene where the monkey salutes with a “Heil Hitler” gesture. A grape was attached to fishing line and held just out of reach of the camera shot to achieve the salute, but it took a while to get it just right. It ended up being one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite moments in the movie.

Those of us who like little movie secrets know that George Lucas likes to include a reference to “1138” in all of his movies in homage to his first movie, THX 1138. You’ll find it in Raiders during the Nazi harbor scene if you listen to the numbers being read over the loudspeaker. It’s subtle, though, because the numbers are read in German – “Ein, ein, drei, acht.”

Let Hollywood Saloon take you back to a time before Stanley Kubrick was "Stanley Kubrick", before Spielberg was "Spielberg" and Scorsese was "Scorsese".

The folks at Hollywood Saloon have gathered together the early directorial efforts of some of cinema’s biggest and most acclaimed names, ranging from Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron to Paul Thomas Anderson.

These early works, consisting of 16mm student productions, Super 8 and VHS films, give us a glimpse of the youthful talent that would go on to produce some of the most important films of the 20th century.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.

Awesome? Or overkill? Either way, the tattoo artist did a really nice job.

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Update 2/16/09 by Alex – Here’s the original link at Gizmodo: Link

Ever wonder what some of the big-name Hollywood directors’ pre-fame student and short films were like?

Long before Star Wars or even THX-1138 George Lucas was an ordinary USC film student. For his Senior thesis film he, along with 13 other film students, produced an 8-minute short film known as 1:42:08. The dialoge-free film follows racing driver Peter Brock as he takes a Lotus 23 through Willow Springs Raceway at full-throttle.

– via autoblog

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.