1. “Attack of the Clones” was the only film in the Star Wars
franchise not to be a top earner. It did bring in $302 million in domestic box
office receipts, but was topped by Spider Man and Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers.
2. In an early script version of Star Wars, the friendly robot
R2-D2 spoke English and had a bad attitude.
3. In 1977, a disco music version of Star Wars was released and
reached #1 on the charts for two weeks.
4. According to Samuel L. Jackson, the words, “bad
motherfucker” were engraved on the lightsaber he used during filming.
5. Alex Guines, the actor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, described
the movie as “fairy tale rubbish.” Despite his low opinion of the film, his
deal granted him 2% of the gross box office receipts for all movies he appeared
in, bringing him over $95 million to date.
6. On the other end of the pay spectrum, Harrison Ford (Han
Solo) got only $10,000 for his role in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
7. Speaking of Han, in the early story outline of Return of the
Jedi, Han Solo actually died. But George Lucas was concerned with one of his
main character’s death affecting toy sales so he had him rescued by the Ewoks
instead.
8. Harrison Ford wasn’t even close to the first choice to play
Han Solo; those were Burt Reynolds, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, and Christopher
Walken.
9. Chewbaccas’s voice is a recorded mix of other animals; bears
walruses, lions, badgers, and other dying animals.
10. And the noise of the lightsaber is a combination of the
noise an old film projector makes and the hum of an old television.
11. On the tiny island of Niu in the South Pacific, you can use
limited edition Star Wars collectible coins as legal tender.
12. Yoda was originally supposed to be a cute monkey wearing a
mask and walking with the help of a cane.
13. The boy band 'N Sync made a cameo appearance in Attack of the Clones because
George Lucas' daughter was a huge fan, but they were edited out of the final
cut.
14. Luke Skywalker was originally called Luke Starkiller all the
way up to the begijning of shooting. When they wanted to change the name they
realized that his full name hadn’t been uttered yet, so they didn’t have to
reshoot. In story development, George Lucas considered the plotline
that Luke removes Darth Vader’s helmet after their epic fight and puts it on.
He would then say, “Now I am Vader,” and turned to the dark side.
15. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, was in a bad
car accident before filming started on
the Empire Strikes Back, resulting in severe facial trauma. They wrote in a
scene where Luke is mauled by a Wampa just to account for the scars on his
face,
16. Tupac Shakur auditioned for the role of Mace Windu.
17. Actor David Prowse, who played Darth Vader, was outraged
that his voice was dubbed over with Earl Jones’. His caused so many problems on
set and pissed off George Lucas so much that he was banned from all ensuing
Star Wars events.
18. Luke’s village of Tatooine was constructed in Tunisia and
many of the buildings still stand.
19. The languages belonging to various critters and creatures in
the Star Wars films are not all gibberish. In fact, the Jawa language is a sped
up version of Zulu. The language Greedo speaks is a South American idiom called
Quechua. Ewoks speak a mixture of Tibetan and Nepalese, and other alien races
speak Kenyan.
20. Yoda had no identified species and depending on the movie
you watch, he either has three or four toes.
21. Amazingly, a
character from Spielberg’s ET: The Extra Terrestrial made an appearance in The
Phantom Menace.
22. Star Wars had almost the identical production crew as 2001:
A Space Odyssey because Lucas was such a big fan of Stanley Kubrick’s film.
23. The very first day of shooting of Star Wars was full of
problems. Shot in Tunisia, the Libyan government because concerned with a
massive military vehicle they saw right over the border. They sent threats to
the Tunisian government and started mobilizing their military before finding out
it was just Jawa’s sandcrawler – a film prop. Lucas had his team move it away
from the border and an international incident was averted.
24. Then, a major rainstorm hit the region for the first time in
50 years, turning the sand world into mud and forcing production to be halted
for the day.
25. Yoda’s facial features are based on Albert Einstein’s
features, including his lips inspired by Einstein’s mustache.
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