Star Wars - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Star Wars or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Star Wars

[gerald]

Though the novelization of the movie is credited to George Lucas, who wrote and directed the movie, it was actually ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster.

[riley]

The reason the scene transitions using a wipe upwards when Obi-wan and Luke carry C-3PO to repair him after the Sand People attack (around the 33rd minute mark) is that Anthony Daniels was only wearing black tights below the waist. It was done this way to hide them.

[aaron]

Among the first promotional licenses granted was to Marvel Comics, who published a Star Wars comic book series, which ran for one hundred seven issues from 1977 to 1986. The first six issues were an adaption of this movie, which included some deleted scenes from the movie. The adaptation was also published in a tabloid-sized Collector's Edition format. It was most recently re-issued in a restored collector's edition from Marvel and Disney with an introduction by Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca). And this was before Disney had acquired Marvel and Lucasfilm outright.

[eli]

Twentieth Century Fox was so sure this movie was going to be a disaster that they almost sold off their stake in the movie as a tax shelter. They changed their minds after positive feedback from an advance screening. The profits from the movie saved the studio from bankruptcy.

[kylie]

In the DVD commentary, Carrie Fisher shares that she and a friend of hers read the script out loud and both wanted to play Han Solo.

[marc]

In 1998, this movie was ranked #15 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies. In 2007, it moved up two places to be ranked #13 for the 10th Anniversary edition of the list.

[veronica]

George Lucas' original choice for cinematographer was Geoffrey Unsworth, but 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 Taylor was slowing production down and attempted to replace him with Harry Waxman, but the camera crew made it clear they would not work under Waxman, and Lucas told Kurtz that replacing Taylor would probably delay the movie even further.

[jeffrey]

While George 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.

[dustin]

This movie borrows several ideas from The Wizard of Oz (1939). Examples include Luke living on a farm with his aunt and uncle like Dorothy Gale, Luke and Han dressing up as stormtroopers to rescue Princess Leia, which also occurred in The Wizard of Oz (1939) as Dorothy's friends dressed up as Winkie Guards to save her in the Witch's castle, and Chewbacca, like the Cowardly Lion, is bipedal, and both serve as supporting characters.

[eli]

Karen Allen, Nancy Allen, Christine Baranski, Kim Basinger, Bonnie Bedelia, Glenn Close, Geena Davis, Farrah Fawcett, Melanie Griffith, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Hicks, Anjelica Huston, Margot Kidder, Christine Lahti, Jessica Lange, Kay Lenz, Bernadette Peters, Jane Seymour, Cybill Shepherd, P.J. Soles, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver, Dianne Wiest, and Debra Winger auditioned for the role of Princess Leia. Linda Blair, Pamela Sue Martin, Theresa Russell, and Jill Clayburgh were also considered.

[veronica]

Malcolm Tierney's (Lieutenant Shann Childsen's) voice was dubbed over.

[lena]

Kenny Baker has said that often when the cast and crew broke for lunch, they would forget he was in the R2-D2 outfit and leave him behind.

[albert]

The actors playing the stormtroopers, in the scene where they investigate the escape pod, were paid 8,500 Tunisian Dinar, which, back then, was the equivalent of only $6.50 in 1976 U.S. dollars. Adjusted for inflation would be $24.76 in 2010 U.S. dollars.

[kim]

In order to illustrate the look he wanted for the Mos Eisley scenes, George Lucas screened for his crew Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Fellini's Satyricon (1969). The Leone western features a scene in which a character shoots another character with a gun hidden under the table, similar to how Han Solo shoots Greedo. The Fellini movie features many bizarre-looking characters, and inspired the cantina scene.

[sandra]

When C-3PO has an oil bath, Luke is seen playing with a model of an aircraft. It's a model of a T-16 skyhopper, which Luke briefly mentions to Wedge during the mission briefing on Yavin.

[eli]

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.

[liam]

Princess Leia's consular ship and Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer are not actually referred to by their proper names, the "Tantive IV" and "Devastator", in the movie. These names did not appear until 1981, when they were used in the National Public Radio radio dramatization of this movie

[caroline]

The name "Stormtroopers" originated in Germany, and used to describe the Canadian expeditionary forces who captured Vimy Ridge during World War I.

[wallace]

This movie came fourth in the U.K.'s Ultimate Film list, in which movies were placed in order of how many seats they sold at cinemas. Gone with the Wind (1939), The Sound of Music (1965), and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) came first, second and third.