That
John Williams, composer of the Star Wars scores, was introduced to George Lucas
by Steven Spielberg (they had done JAWS together). After Spielberg had heard only
30 minutes of the Star Wars score, he got terribly depressed. He confessed to
Lucas later that since John was supposed to do CLOSE ENCOUNTERS next, he was afraid
that Williams had 'used up' his talent on Star Wars. We all know this wasn't in
fact the case... John Williams continues to serve up memorable scores to this
day.
That Alan Ladd, Jr., then development executive at 20th Century Fox, paid Lucas $ 15,000 to develop the Star Wars script in 1974. "George had many permutations on the picture," Ladd said. "He once thought of it with an all-Japanese cast."
That
in the Empire Strikes Back, the filming of a swamp scene was actually shot in
George Lucas' unfinished swimming pool in San Rafael? The scene was the one
in which a monster shoots out of the swamp hoping to grab R2-D2. "We piled the
whole crew in the pool, which was filled with muddy water, and George shot the
footage himself. Lot of fun!"
- Ted Moehnke, prop man for ILM
(from"George Lucas-The Creative
Impulse:
Lucasfilm's First Twenty Years" by Charles Champlin)
That Richard Marquand, Director of Return of the Jedi, also directed "Eye of the Needle" starring Donald Sutherland. After Jedi, he went on to direct "Jagged Edge"; however, he died at only 49 years of age in 1987.
(from"George Lucas-The Creative
Impulse:
Lucasfilm's First Twenty Years" by Charles Champlin)
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(Star Wars Insider, Issue 32,
January, 1997).
{He was also in the television mini-series "Scarlett" - MK.}
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That during filming of The Empire Strikes Back, the actor who portrayed Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) can also be seen in the film "unmasked". He served as a last-minute fill in for the actor set to portray an Imperial officer on Bespin. The actor had called in sick that day, and Bulloch was asked to step into the role of that "fearless" officer who uses Leia as a shield. |  |
That in Return of the Jedi, as the shuttle comes into the landing bay of the Deathstar, ILM "matted in a couple of little guys who are welding or working on something in there. They're so tiny that even the most avid Star Wars fan probably won't notice them until his eighteenth viewing; but they're there, and it's one of those peripheral-type things that we do that makes the scene look more alive, even if you don't conciously see it".
(Richard Edlund, September 29th,
1982
From: Cinefex Magazine, Number 13, 1983)
That "On every
picture we try to sneak a few weird things in. On Empire, we had a potato
flying through the asteroid sequence. For some reason, we all felt like we had
more freedom to do gag shots and things on that show. On Jedi, though,
we really hadn't done anything until just this week when I started horsing
around with some of the elements. So on the fleet shots, I've been putting in
pictures of my tennis shoes, wads of gum -- things like that. You'll never notice
it, but it's kind of fun to fool around sometimes and see how much you can get
away with."
(Ken Ralston, February 16th, 1983
From: Cinefex Magazine, Number 13, 1983)
"Digital
Doubles" In Attack
of the Clones, even Obi Wan Kenobi was a CG character in some scenes. "Take
the scene in the old-school diner where Obi-Wan Kenobi goes to consult with
Dexter, weapons-expert-turned-cook. Dexter, a jocular, rotund creature with
four arms, was obviously created through the use of visual effects of some sort.
In this case, it was computer graphics. Likewise, the droid waitress is not
difficult to identify as a creation of ILM. However, many viewers would be surprised
to learn that as Obi-Wan and Dexter embrace in a greeting, Obi-Wan is CG too.
"When Dexter grabs him, you want to see the cloth of Obi-Wan's robe deform in
response to all four of Dexter's arms," said Knoll. "So in those shots, Obi
Wan is computer generated from the neck down, so that the shading matches. We
used his live-action head and replaced the rest of his body." Knoll's team key-framed
the CG Obi-Wan to match the performance of live-action Ewan McGregor.
(From PostIndustry: ILM on 'Attack
of the Clones'
by Catherine Feeny
Click here
for the full article)
"People occasionally say
I'm the new Walt Disney," Lucas has said. "But I'm not really the new Walt Disney
at all. Yet one thing occurred to me when Jim Henson died. People said he was
the new Walt Disney, too. But the truth is that what Walt did for animation
Jim did for puppetry and I've done for special effects. I took something that
was not very well regarded, a kind of esoteric, technical-cult enthusiasm, and
recognized it for the art it is and gave it a showcase where people could really
see and appreciate the artistry."
(from "George Lucas-The Creative Impulse: Lucasfilm's First Twenty Years", by
Charles Champlin)
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