star Wars- a fantasy saga consisting of 6 films. The first film was made in 1977, and the last one to date - in 2005. The episode "Revenge of the Sith" reveals the reason for the formation of Darth Vader. By the way, in 2015, the seventh episode of Star Wars should be released, in which the old actors from the original trilogy will return. Let's see how Disney handles this challenge, but for now, here are some interesting facts about the Star Wars movie:
1. Darth Vader is the first character created by George Lucas. By the way Vader is translated as "Father" from Dutch.
2. The lightsaber fight scene between Darth Maul and Obi-Wan with Qui-Gon was filmed for about a month.
3. Initially, Mace Windu was supposed to be an alien, and by the way, Han Solo too.
4. Mace Windu's purple sword is not a director's idea, but a personal request from Samuel L. Jackson. Only he does not have a green, blue or yellow sword in the film. Although some actors playing Jedi (minor roles) also wanted swords in the original colors, they were denied.
5. The name Jar Jar Binks came up with the five-year-old son of George Lucas.
6. Often the role of asteroids was performed by karofelins.
7. The sound of laser shots in the film is recorded on the Severn Bridge in the UK: it sounds like support cables beating against each other in the wind, and the sound of Watto's wings is the accelerated sound of an umbrella opening and closing.
8. The heroine Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) was 30 centimeters shorter than Harrison Ford (Han Solo), so in the scenes where they are next to each other, the actress stood on a special stand so as not to seem so small.
9. The prototype of the Millennium Falcon was a hamburger with olives.
10. None of the crew knew that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father. Even during filming, George Lucas told the actor who played Darth Vader to say "Obi-Wan killed your father" to keep the suspense going. It was only during dubbing that everyone learned the truth.
11. To get the roar of the crowd during the cart races, the sound engineer went to an American football game and recorded the reaction of the fans on a tape recorder.
12. In the third episode of Star Wars, all the clones were made on the computer.
13. Each race had its own language. For example, the Ewoks spoke Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines. The Jawa race spoke the Zulu language accelerated on a computer. Greedo from the Rodian race was explained in Quechua - the language of the Peruvian Indians - played backwards.
14. Khan and Luke "escort" Chewbacca out of Cell Block 1138: Lucas had a movie called THX 1138 (1970).
15. The sound of Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber falling down the reactor shaft at the end of The Phantom Menace is the same sound heard in Return of the Jedi, when Luke Skywalker drops his sword and informs the Emperor that he is a Jedi .
16. It is only in the first episode (The Phantom Menace) that the Jedi's ability to accelerate is shown.
17. George Lucas was fined by the Directors Guild for failing to insert credits at the beginning of the film. After that, he left the Guild.
18. According to the results of the 2001 New Zealand census, Jediism is the second most popular religion after Christianity))).
19. Initially, Harrison Ford did not have an acting career and went to work as a carpenter. And then one day he was invited by George Lucas to make him a closet. And after a while he began to give him small roles in his films, and then in Star Wars.
20. Chewbacca in the original trilogy and in the third episode of "Revenge of the Sith" is played by the same actor, only 22 years later. By the way, the name "Chewbacca" is borrowed from the Russian word "Dog".
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Over the past 40 years, 9 films have been made and a huge number of different series, cartoons and new stories of this famous cinematic universe have been created. It is difficult to find a person who has never heard of"Star Wars".
In this article, you will immerse yourself in a fantasy universe of amazing characters and unique worlds of the iconic franchise.
1. Luke Skywalker - The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Although inspired by fantasy tales and Westerns, George Lucas based the Star Wars universe around the theories of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
The book traces mythological motifs and claims that myths from all over the world, such as Beowulf or King Arthur, have the same structure.
According to Campbell, the hero of the book travels from the ordinary everyday world to the world of the miraculous and supernatural: where fairy-tale forces and heroes meet; he returns from this mysterious adventure able to bestow blessings on his neighbor. Lucas built the MCU on the ideas of this story, and Luke became its main character.
2. The name of Darth Vader is not so difficult
“This is one of the things that came up quickly and, one might say, from scratch. One day this idea just popped into my head,” said Lucas.
Later, in an interview with Rolling stone magazine, he said: "" Dart " in a sense means "dark", and "Vader" - "father", so if you combine both words, you get "father of darkness" ". It is worth noting that the word" vader "in translation from Dutch really translates as" father ". This could serve as a significant spoiler for spectators.
3. Simplicity is the key to success
The film's opening screensaver was made with minimal effects added.
Even those who are not fans remember the very famous screensaver that met us in all the films of the franchise.
The exception is Rogue One. Unfortunately, there the creators decided to do without it.
Few people know, but the screen saver was created manually: yellow letters were placed on a black sheet of paper. The camera flew over them, simulating some kind of movement. In total, this work took about three hours to complete.
4. " Let the force be with you "
This most famous phrase appears in every movie in the Star Wars universe. "and known not only to fans of the franchise. I would like to note that the only time in the movie "Rogue One" the hero Cassian Andor did not let the droid K-2SO finish her.
5. The origin of the word "Jedi"
A Jedi in the MCU is a knight of the light side who serves the Force. The word "Jedi" comes from the Japanese "Jidai Geki", which translates as "historical film, drama". Lucas was fascinated by samurai films and their culture and decided to borrow the word for knights in his films.
6. Skywalker…or Starkiller
Luke Skywalker was originally named Luke Starkiller. This name was approved and kept by the hero until the very beginning of filming. Luckily for the creators, the name was never mentioned, so it was later changed slightly to what fans of the franchise now know.
Luke Skywalker's sword
7. Why green
Luke's lightsaber in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi was originally blue, but there was a problem during filming.
When filming the scene in the desert, Luke's lightsaber blended into the blue sky and was not visible. Then George Lucas decided to change the color of the sword from blue to green.
8. Return? But for what?
In one version of the Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi scenario, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda were about to leave the Force and return to their physical bodies again in order to assist Luke in the confrontation with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.
9. Unforeseen circumstances
Before filming begins on Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back "starring Mark hamill had a major accident and suffered a serious facial injury. The scene in which Luke Skywalker was captured by a wampa on the planet Hoth was added to explain the scarring on his face.
10. Be careful
While filming the scene in the trash press, Mark Hamill held his breath for so long that a blood vessel burst in his face. In order for the spot that appeared at this place not to be noticeable, the filmmakers had to use visual effects.
11. Unusual, practical and durable
Many of the buildings built to film the scenes on the planet Tatooine are in Tunisia. Some of them are still used by the locals.
The most famous droid
12. What was the name of the famous droid
George Lucas came up with the droid name R2-D2 while filming American Graffiti. One of the members of the sound team asked him to play the reel of the second dialogue track again, which sounded like "Give me back R2-D2, please."
George Lucas was inspired by the idea of Star Wars during his studies. At first glance, it seemed insane, but gradually took on more and more clear outlines: its own world, plot, characters ... Initially, the story took up only a dozen sheets and had a strange name, but after many years it became a masterpiece of world cinema.
1. The cult saga could have had a completely different name. They tried to change the name because the film studio that worked on the first film was extremely dissatisfied with it. No one could offer a more suitable title, although for this they even held a competition among all the participants in the filming, so they had to leave the former - "Star Wars".
2. The very first image, invented by the screenwriter, was the main villain Dar Vader. By the way, Vader is a Dutch word meaning "father".
3. Hero Obi-Wan Kenobi was created based on the image of Rokutora Makabe from the Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa.
4. A couple of main characters - robots R2D2 and C-3PO- initially had much more boring names - A2 and C3. The final variants of names do not have any decoding - it's just a combination that is pleasant to the ear.
5. The very concept of "Jedi" also has Japanese roots.. Lucas was interested in Japan, visited it and adopted many interesting things that became the basis of his projects.
6. All assault soldiers in the saga are left-handed. This is because they were armed with weapons made from British World War II pistols, which were intended to be used exclusively by the left hand.
7. Not all the characters were the same as we saw them in the film. For example, Han Solo was originally conceived as a green creature. The image itself was borrowed from Ford Coppola - good friend George.
8. The color of the laser sword, each performer of the role of the Jedi could choose for himself. The most popular things that can be seen in the film are blue, green and red. But there was also a purple color, which fell in love with the actor of the hero Mace Windu - Samuel L. Jackson.
9. Jar Jar Binks, funny alien, got his name thanks to the little son of Lucas.
10. "Yoda" - means "warrior" in Sanskrit. The role of this greatest Jedi in the fourth, fifth and sixth parts was played by ... a doll! George Lucas himself was delighted with the work of Frank Oz, who brought the doll to life with voice and movement; admired so much that he ensured that Frank was nominated for an Oscar.
11. The prototype of the image of Chewbacca became a big and fluffy screenwriter's dog. The role of the most famous Wookiee was taken by an ordinary orderly, he was honored with such an honor because of his great growth.
12. The image of Luke Skywalker, one of the protagonists of the saga, has changed countless times. Initially, it was thought that it would be a girl - Leia, who would fly to save her brother, then a dwarf took the place of a cute young lady, and even later Lucas came up with the idea to make Luke an elderly military man.
13. Every race in the Star Wars world had its own language. These were existing languages and dialects, processed, sped up or played backwards.
14. Tatooine is not a fictional place at all, but the name of a city in Tunisia, where part of the film was filmed.. By the way, the Syrian government (which borders Tunisia) was surprised and extremely indignant at the fact that strange equipment is located on their territory, the purpose of which is unknown. The conflict was settled, and the film crew was forced to move deep into Tunisia.
15. King of the Trade Federation - Nute Gunray was named so for a reason. The fact is that Lucas was outraged that the head of the United States, Ronald Reagan, called the strategic defense initiative the same as the project. Gunray is consonant with the name of the president, and Nit means "newt".
16. Fun Fact: in one moment of the film "The Empire Strikes Back" between flying asteroids, an attentive viewer will notice a boot and a potato.
17. In one part of the saga, a flying asteroid has limbs, and the other is the shape of a cow! So, with humor and creativity, creative Group approached the shooting of the cult saga.
18. The actress who played Princess Leia was concerned that her character always wears too modest clothes. It was for this that the director chose a very revealing outfit when she was a prisoner of a huge alien monster - Jabba the Hutt.
19. To simulate the noise of the crowd during the races, the sound engineer decided to use a recording of the roar of American football fans. The monsters living under water are voiced by the crying of a little girl in processing, and the clanging of the doors of the Alcatraz prison formed the basis of the sound with which the door of Darth Vader's ship opens.
20. The film crew, in order to most accurately recreate the process of racing and the accident in the movie "The Phantom Menace", familiarized with a large number of thematic material. These were real accidents of professional racers.
Almost 40 years have passed since the release of the first part of Star Wars. Not only did this franchise fit perfectly into our popular culture, it created its own. Movies, books, cartoons and comics still take fans and fans to a "galaxy far, far away".
Thanks to a huge number documentaries and interviews with the creators of the franchise today it is quite difficult to learn something new about the film. But there are still 'tidbits' that can shine not only the average viewer, but also fans into previously unknown facts.
Everyone hated the Ewoks
Due to their too cute appearance for intergalactic battles, Ewoks did not appeal to many viewers and fans. Everyone was infuriated by the scenes in which small Ewoks defeated the best stormtroopers of the Imperial Army with amazing ease. Even some Star Wars creators didn't like Ewoks: Ralph McQuarrie, the Oscar-winning illustrator and film designer who created the characters of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, the robots R2-D2 and C-3PO, and more, refused to create anything related to Ewoks.
The emperor was a woman
In the special edition of The Empire Strikes Back, the Emperor was replaced by Ian McDiarmid. Initially, Lucas wanted the Emperor to remain a mystery until the last moment - he was portrayed by a fuzzy female figure. Few believed this until a 2010 "behind the scenes" book revealed that the Emperor was "played" by Elaine Baker, the wife of legendary American special effects and makeup artist Rick Baker.
They wanted to make Yoda a monkey
In the 1980s, computer-generated special effects were used very little, and making a Yoda doll seemed very difficult. A 'wild' decision was made: to put a Yoda mask and costume on a live monkey. But later it became clear that the monkey would take off the costume, so the crew decided to go back to the doll version.
There was also a Star Wars radio show.
The franchise became popular not only because of the script and characters, but also because of the revolutionary, at the time, visual special effects. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to imagine Star Wars on the radio. But it was: in 1981, a 12-episode radio show was released, which, like a series of films, was well received by the public.
Star Wars by Brian De Palma
At that time, there were many young 'hungry' directors and screenwriters in Hollywood, some of whom Lucas knew well. Brian De Palma was one of them. He wrote the introductory text for Star Wars, but when it became clear that it was too wordy, the famous format of paragraphs floating into space was invented. But the influence of De Palma on the saga is recognized by the director Lucas himself.
Return of the Jedi could have been a psychedelic movie
Before choosing Richard Marquard to direct the new film, Lucas was in talks with ... David Lynch, whose films are, to put it mildly, 'a little weird'. In addition, Lynch openly hated Star Wars. After his Dune, you can imagine what a film about the Jedi could have turned out to be.
David Cronenberg was also considered for the director's chair, but after meeting with Lucasfilm, the filmmaker realized that he would not pull the picture.
Working titles
When Return of the Jedi was filmed in 1982 in Yuma, Arizona, the entire crew pretended to the locals that they were making a horror movie called Blue Harvest. Everywhere there were signs with the name of the film, the clothes of the staff were also with the Blue Harvest. One of the local guys managed to sneak onto the set and take some photos of Jabba's barge, but that only convinced him that a horror film was in progress.
Lucas often came up with other titles for his films, such as Episode I was "A Doll's House", Episode II was "Billiard Ball", and Episode III was "The Bridge".
Headhunters love recycling
In The Empire Strikes Back, there is a scene where the bounty hunters gather aboard a Star Destroyer, and a lot of "recycled waste" from other films appears in the frame. The droid IG-88 is made up of parts from other droids, and instead of a head, it has a dispenser from the first part. The look of Boba Fett is based on the original design of the stormtrooper type.
Sound effects are composed of very strange sounds
Working on movie sound effects is always fun, and Star Wars is no exception. For example, the sound of a TIE fighter is a combination of the roar of an elephant and the grinding of car wheels on wet pavement. Darth Vader's breathing is the sound of breathing through a scuba gear. The sound of a blaster is the sound of a hammer hitting a taut cable. And the famous sound lightsaber— a combination of the hum of an old TV and the noise of the clutch.
Mark Hamill injuries
Mark Hamill really suffered for the sake of art. In A New Hope, in the trash bin scene, Mark had to hold his breath for a long time, causing a blood vessel to burst in his face. As a result, after the incident, the entire film was filmed from only one side. But this was not the end of his misfortune. Between the filming of the two parts of the film, Mark was in a car accident and seriously injured his face, after which Lucas needed a scene with a wampa attack on Luke. Lucas said that if Hamill died these days, Luke would have to be killed in the film and a new character would be introduced in his place.
Some names are never mentioned in the movie.
Fans and just ordinary viewers have so memorized all the names of the characters and creatures of Star Wars that for a long time no one has thought about the fact that the names of famous characters are never mentioned on the screen.
For example, while readers of the book knew about "Emperor Palpatine", after the release of the prequels, it was difficult for many to relate Palpatine to the Emperor - his name was not mentioned. Wampas and Ewoks are also not mentioned. Even the name of Boba Fett, one of the most popular characters in the saga, is only mentioned in the credits!
Costume stories "Star Wars"
Many people know that Carrie Fisher had to wrap her breasts so as not to look too sexy as Leia. However, the features of the Star Wars costumes are not limited to this. Chewbacca was originally supposed to be clothed, not practically naked (other than hair). Wearing the C-3PO suit was incredibly painful and even traumatic.
Natalie Portman complained that wearing Padmé's dresses was a real pain, and Hayden Christensen trained before trying on the "uniform" of Darth Vader.
C-3PO was supposed to be a car salesman
Even after filming began, some Star Wars characters gradually changed. The nerdy programmed robot C-3PO was supposed to have the voice and mannerisms of an American used car salesman, but when Daniels rehearsed in his normal voice, the image was corrected and he turned into a prim and nervous servant, proved his charm, and the character was drastically changed.
Liam Neeson's height increased the cost of the painting by $150,000
After the appearance of Liam Neeson in the first episode, the set was already assembled in every detail, from the interiors spaceships to Anakin's house, while Neeson's height was not taken into account. For some interiors, it turned out to be too high. The constant stoop would not fit the image of a Jedi Master, so the design of the interiors had to be changed, due to which the film crew incurred an additional $150,000 in expenses.
Justin Timberlake almost starred in Star Wars
This was almost forgotten, but in 2001 the Internet exploded with the news that the then popular group NSYNC was to appear in the second episode as a cameo - as a group of Jedi. A sigh of relief was heard everywhere when it turned out that this was not so. There is an opinion that Lucas did not intend to do this, but his daughter, a fan of Timberlake, begged him for such an opportunity. If that had happened, Timberlake would have been on the big screen much sooner.
'Return of the Jedi' poster features George Lucas
To be precise, his hands. The film was going to be called Revenge of the Jedi, but George Lucas thought the Jedi shouldn't be driven by feelings like revenge, so the name Return of the Jedi ended up. The poster shows Luke Skywalker's hands holding a sword in the middle of outer space. But these are not the hands of Mark Hamill, the director himself acted as a model. Such an honor fell to the author and creator of the franchise.
All stormtroopers are left-handed
Blasters for imperial stormtroopers were developed on the basis of the Sterling L2A3 machine gun, a real submachine gun that was in service with the British Army from 1953 to 1988. But when the actors took their blasters in their right hand, the magazine hit them in the chest. Due to the limited budget, it was decided to make the attack aircraft left-handed. No wonder they often missed!
Han Solo was giant green lizard
The first scripts for Star Wars didn't really match up with what we're used to seeing on screen. Everything was more like a Japanese movie: Jedi armies, the protagonist Luke Skykiller, a much more princess-like Princess Leia, and a huge green lizard-like Han Solo smuggler. It could also be a hit, but we would have watched a completely different film. Would you like to see such an interpretation of the saga? Then read Star Wars by Dark Horse.
Yoda is a surname
From his very first appearance, Master Yoda has become one of the most iconic heroes of the saga. He's a classic example of the "don't judge by appearances" adage, and his role expands into that of a great warrior in the prequels. Lucas originally intended to make "Yoda" a surname; the master's name was supposed to be... "Minch." Luckily, Lucas figured out that a single Yoda would do better.
Obi-Wan could be Japanese
Obi-Wan could play Toshiro Mifune - the greatest star of Japanese cinema, an actor who starred in several films of Lucas' idol Akira Kurosawa. Nevertheless, it was decided to focus on the actor, better known to the Western audience - Alec Guinness. It’s even a little pity, because Obi-Wan could have turned out to be more ‘cool’ from Toshiro.
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Star Wars (English) Star Wars) is a fantasy saga conceived by American director George Lucas in the early 1970s and later expanded. The film had a huge impact on international pop culture and was repeatedly voted the best sci-fi film.
1. Let's start with the fact that Star Wars owes its creation to a car accident that George Lucas had in high school. Actually, he wanted to be a race car driver, so he sold all his childhood toys and bought a used Fiat, which he drove around the neighborhood, hardly following the rules of the road. Of course, this ended in an accident - Lucas's Fiat almost collided head-on with a small truck, and while lying in a hospital bed, he suddenly had the idea of \u200b\u200b"power" - a certain religion that space knights profess and thanks to which good is able to resist evil on a global scale. After that, Lucas stopped thinking about car racing and decided to become a director.
2. It's hard to believe now, but no one wanted to shoot Star Wars: absolutely all Hollywood studios considered Lucas's idea a failure, and XX century Fox agreed to start shooting only after Lucas refused the fee.
3. His first film - THX 11 38 - Lucas made only because of what Francis Ford Coppola asked for him: he convinced the Warner Bros. studio that Lucas had talent. And when Lucas started filming, Coppola - fortunately - gave 777,777 dollars. The film failed.
4. As for the name - THX 11 38, another interesting fact is connected with this. It's a Lucas thing. These letters and numbers appear in all of his films. Specifically, in Episode One, 11 38 is written on the back of the battle droid that captures Jar Jar Binks, and this is clearly visible in the frame. And one of Lucas's companies called THX to improve the way movies are shown in theaters.
5. Special effects. Their number is increasing almost exponentially. In the 4th (i.e. 1st) episode there were 545 of them, in the 5th (i.e. 2nd) - 763, in the 6th - 942, and in The Phantom Menace, special effects were present in one thousand nine hundred scenes out of two thousand double shots. As for "Attack of the Clones", this is generally one continuous special effect: only 250 frames were done without computer processing.
6. "Attack of the Clones" - the first film in the history of cinema, filmed entirely on a digital video camera, there is not a single centimeter of real film. Because of this, it costs less: only 100 million dollars instead of 115, which was spent on The Phantom Menace.
7. Lucas has his own digital studio and having Lucas special effects is very trendy in Hollywood. Lucas' studio worked on effects for Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, The Mask and Avatar, for example.
8. And speaking of money, in 2000 LucasFilm made $2 billion in revenue. This is more than the revenue part of the Estonian budget.
9. How much can you earn only on Star Wars. At the moment, there are about 15,000 types of different Star Wars toys on sale in the world. About 250 million plastic figurines of characters were sold alone, and only those that were sold under license were counted. Playing cards You can buy Star Wars for $6, Darth Vader's helmet for $129.95, and Jedi lightsabers for $349. To buy all the Star Wars toys, you will need at least $10,000.
10. The most coveted place for all venerable directors in America is the George Lucas ranch in Northern California. He bought it in the mid-80s and set up a real studio there. It was there that Spielberg, Dante, Zemeckis and Cameron filmed their films. Before the premiere of Attack of the Clones, journalists and just fans were allowed to enter this ranch for the first time. The ranch is called Skywalker.
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