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Harrison Ford deliberately didn't learn his lines for the intercom conversation in the cell block, so it would sound spontaneous.
Due to the limited budget the American cast members and crew (including George Lucas) all decided to fly coach class to England, rather than first class. When Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds heard about this she called Lucas, complaining about how insulting it was for her daughter to be flying coach. Fisher was in the room with Lucas when he took the call, and after a few minutes asked if she could talk to her mother. When Lucas handed her the phone she simply said, "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you f**k off?!" and hung up.
Darth Vader has only 12 minutes of screen time.
Prior to the film's release, George Lucas showed an early cut of the film to a group of his film director friends. Most, including Lucas himself, felt the film would be a flop. The only dissenter was Steven Spielberg who predicted the film would make millions of dollars
In early drafts of the script, R2-D2 could speak standard English, and had a rather foul vocabulary. Although all of Artoo's English speech was removed, many of C-3PO's reactions to it were left in.
Kenny Baker has said that often when the cast and crew broke for lunch, they would forget he was in the R2-D2 outfit leave him behind.
According to an interview with George Lucas, originally Luke was a girl, Han Solo was an Alien, the wookiees were called Jawas, and R2-D2 and C-3PO were called A-2 and C-3.
This is the only "Star Wars" movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, and the first ever science fiction film to be nominated for Best Picture.
The planet Tatooine is never referred to by name throughout the entire showing of "A New Hope". It doesn't appear on the scroll at the beginning of the movie. When C-3PO says he doesn't know what planet they're on, Luke responds by saying "If there's a Bright Center to the Universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from". In the original trilogy, Tatooine isn't mentioned by name until Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). It is referred to by name and visited in all subsequent movies and prequels.
The shootout between Han Solo and Greedo inside the Cantina was the subject for a lot of controversy and debate among Star Wars fans as to who shot first. Many fans debated that Greedo actually shot first a split second before Solo did, but with careful examination of the scene, it was obvious that Greedo never fired his shot at all. For the 1997 Special Edition release of this movie, George Lucas had edited the scene to include Greedo shooting first at Solo at point blank range, with Solo moving his head slightly to the right to dodge the shot before firing back at Greedo. The shooting scene was edited for a third time for the 2004 DVD release, so that both Greedo and Han Solo fired their guns more or less at the same time.
The "TIE" in TIE Fighter is an acronym. It stands for "Twin Ion Engines". Modelmaker Joe Johnston came up with this acronym. In 'The Making of Star Wars' book he mentions another possibility had been 'Third Intergalactic Empire'.
Alec Guinness always recalled the experience of making the movie as a bad one, and consistently claimed that it was his idea to have his character killed in the first film, so he "wouldn't have to carry on saying these rubbish lines". Reportedly because he hated working on Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) so much, Alec Guinness claims that Obi-Wan's death was his idea as a means to limit his involvement in the film. Guinness also claimed to throw away all Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) related fan mail without even opening it. Contrary to this, George Lucas has said he made the decision to kill off Kenobi, that Guinness was "less than happy" his character was dying earlier than expected, and that Guinness appeared to enjoy his time on set. While Alec Guinness made no secret that he disliked the dialogue in George Lucas's script, he claimed that he accepted the role for two reasons: 1). He was an admirer of Lucas' previous film American Graffiti (1973) and 2). The narrative compelled him to read the whole script through to the end, in spite of not liking the dialogue and not being a fan of science fiction.
The actors found George Lucas to be very uncommunicative towards them, with his only directions generally being either "faster" or "more intense". At one point, when he temporarily lost his voice, the crew provided him with a board with just those three words written on it.
In an earlier version of the script, the Millennium Falcon lands on not the Death Star but at a Cloud City that floats above the gaseous surface of the planet Alderaan. The rescue of Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi's duel with Darth Vader take place at this base, not on the Death Star. A cut in the budget for the movie forced George Lucas to bring in the Death Star early, and in the finished film the scenes that would have take place in the Cloud City take place there, instead. The Cloud City, of course, was later used in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) . Since Alderaan was destroyed in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), however, it obviously couldn't be the location of the Cloud City. So a new planet was created to house the Cloud City: Bespin.
Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi never actually meet. The closest they get to meeting is when she sees him from a distance during the lightsaber duel.
When the storm troopers enter the room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding, one of the actors accidentally bumps his head on the doorway due to his limited visibility. When the Special Edition came out in 1997, a sound effect had been added to the scene to accompany the head bump.
At one point, George Lucas had planned the character of Han Solo to be a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and gills. Then Lucas changed the idea of Han Solo to a black human. He auditioned several black actors and even musicians (including Billy Dee Williams) until finally settling on Glynn Turman. But after this he decided to make the role white. Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Robert Englund, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta and Perry King were all candidates for the role of Han Solo. George Lucas also wanted to stay away from any actors he had previously used in his films. James Caan, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Burt Reynolds turned down the role. Harrison Ford (who had played Bob Falfa in Lucas's American Graffiti (1973)) read the part of Han Solo for screen tests of other characters but wasn't originally considered for the part. During these tests Lucas realized Ford was perfect for the role.
George Lucas's script evolved into a mammoth 200 page screenplay. Having spent a full year writing it, he was reluctant to condense it so instead he chose to concentrate on the first third, with a view to expanding the remaining two thirds into two additional films.
This is the only Star Wars film where Darth Vader's signature theme "The Imperial March" is not played in some form or another - as it had not been written at the time.
George Lucas had not originally intended to use Anthony Daniels's voice for the voice of C-3PO. He only changed his mind after a suggestion by Stan Freberg, one of the actors considered as Daniels' replacement Daniels' voice was altered in post-production. His character was supposed to be like a "used-car salesman". Ultimately, though, George Lucas was won over by the charisma of Daniels' reading of the part as a "snooty British butler" and so Daniels has done the voice for C3PO ever since.
Carrie Fisher's breasts were taped down with gaffer tape, as her costume did not permit any lingerie to be worn underneath. She joked later, "As we all know, there is no underwear in space."
When 20th Century Fox attempted to distribute the film in the U.S., fewer than 40 theaters agreed to show it. As a solution, Fox threatened that any cinema that refused to show Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) would not be given the rights to screen the potential blockbuster The Other Side of Midnight (1977) (which ended up grossing less than 10% of what Star Wars did).
Carrie Fisher found the dialogue to be very difficult, later saying, "You can type this stuff, but you can't say it". Harrison Ford had similar trouble (particularly in the scene where the Millennium Falcon leaves Tatooine), and persuaded George Lucas to let him change several lines.
The bantha seen being mounted by tusken raiders after they spot Luke Skywalker's speeder, was actually an Asian elephant dressed in a costume of fur and fake horns. Filming the scene proved difficult, because the elephant was not accustomed to the extreme heat of Death Valley, and kept removing the costume.
Most of the Stormtroopers are left-handed. That is because of how the weapons are constructed. Their weapons are based on a real weapon, where the magazine is on left side of the weapons. This construction caused it to hit the troopers in the chest. Therefore they have to switch grip of the weapon, which made them look left-handed.
The Chewbacca suit retained a bad smell for the duration of filming after the trash-compactor scene.
The hilt of the lightsaber given to Luke Skywalker is a Graflex 3 Cell Camera flash tube with some rubber grips and a loop attached to the base, these flash tubes can still be bought today but cost around the same as an official replica hilt.
Before casting Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, George Lucas considered casting Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune. He also considered making casting a Japanese Princess Leia.
Peter Cushing found the boots that came with his costume extremely uncomfortable to wear because they were too small for his feet. Thus he only wore them in the few shots in which Tarkin's feet could be seen. In all other shots, Peter Cushing wore a pair of fuzzy slippers.
George Lucas came up with the name R2-D2 during post-production of American Graffiti (1973). One of the sound crew wanted Lucas to retrieve Reel #2 of the Second Dialogue track. In post-production parlance, this came out as "could you get R2-D2 for me?". Lucas liked the sound of that and noted it down for future use.
The actors playing the stormtroopers in the scene where they investigate the escape pod were paid 8500 Tunisian Dinar, which back then was the equivalent of only US$6.50 in 1976 dollars, which adjusted for inflation would be US$24.76 in 2010 dollars.
At one point in the scripting process, the Force was a large crystal or galactic holy grail called the 'Kyber crystal'. This idea was used in the 1978 Star Wars novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye".
A small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as Chewbacca makes preparations to depart from Mos Eisley. Set designer Roger Christian claims he added the pair of dice hanging in the Millennium Falcon cockpit (briefly seen when Chewbacca bumps his head on them as he first enters) because there were dice hanging in Harrison Ford's car in American Graffiti (1973). However, Ford's character had a skull hanging from his rear-view mirror. Ron Howard had the fluffy dice. They don't appear in subsequent scenes, because they were stolen from the set and not replaced.
While filming, a fierce sandstorm destroyed several of the Tatooine sets in the desert outside Tozeur, Tunisia, and filming resumed two days later. The same thing would happen to George Lucas 22 years later while filming Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
The filming of the special effects sequences at ILM's studio was interrupted at one point by a visit by representatives from the local camera operators union who were insisting that ILM hire union camera operators. Someone then programmed the newly-developed Dykstraflex motion-controlled camera to perform a complex series of moves that ended with the camera being pointed at the faces of the union reps. At this point the union reps were told, "Send us someone who can operate *that*." The union reps left and were not heard from again.
The movie opened in May 1977 and by November had dethroned Jaws (1975) as the all-time domestic (U.S.) box-office champ. It then was beaten by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), but was back on top when it was re-released in 1997. It held that position until Titanic (1997).
The word "Jedi" is derived from the Japanese words "Jidai Geki" which translate as "period adventure drama." A period adventure drama is a Japanese TV soap opera program set in the samurai days. George Lucas mentioned in an interview that he saw a "Jidai Geki" program on TV while in Japan a year or so before the movie was made and liked the word.
This is the opening sentence for a 13-page treatment George Lucas wrote in 1972: "...the story of Mace Windu, a revered Jedi-bendu of Opuchi who was related to Usby C.J. Thape, a Padawaan learner to the famed Jedi..." George Lucas spent nearly three years rewriting before he completed the script for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Although most of that early script was ultimately unused, the character of Mace Windu and the term padawaan (with the spelling changed to padawan), both appear in the prequel trilogy. Mace Windu, of course, is one of the Jedi Council members, played by Samuel L. Jackson. And the term padawan is used to refer to Jedi apprentices.
The weapons the stormtroopers used were essentially the Sterling L2A3 9mm SMG (sub-machine gun) a military weapon developed in the late 1940s in the UK and adopted by the British and Canadian Armies in the 1950s. The curved left entry side mounted magazine was removed. And that was as much as it was modified for the film. The longer sandtrooper weapon was the MG-34 machine gun from Germany.
Alan Ladd Jr. was very anxious when he attended the premiere in Japan, only to be met by total silence at the end. What Ladd didn't realize was that Japanese moviegoers typically wait for a film's end titles to finish before speaking or leaving the theater.
Was originally scheduled for a Christmas 1976 release, but was pushed back five months as post-production (especially special effects) took longer than expected. Studio executives were concerned that the new 25th May 1977 release date would put the film's box office chances at risk as Smokey and the Bandit (1977) would come out that same week. However, by the end of its initial theatrical run in the U.S., Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) had grossed over twice as much as Smokey and the Bandit (1977).
The origin of R2-D2 can be found in the "drones" Huey, Dewey, and Louie from the film Silent Running (1972). Upon meeting Douglas Trumbull, director and special effects chief on "Silent Running", George Lucas commented on how much he liked the designs of Trumbull's two-footed robots in the film (which were operated by bilateral amputees). Four years later, a functionally similar design appeared as R2-D2 in "Star Wars". Universal Studios, the distributor of "Silent Running" noted the similarity between the robots (and the similarity of "Star Wars" to the Buck Rogers (1939) serials of the '30s), and promptly sued 20th Century Fox for infringement. The lawsuit was eventually settled when Fox counter-sued over Battlestar Galactica (1978), which bore a striking resemblance to "Star Wars".
The Tatooine scenes were filmed in Tunisia. There is a town in Tunisia called "Tataouine". Some of the interiors and the courtyard of Luke's house were filmed in a hotel in Matmata, Tunisia. One can visit this 2 stars hotel and see some pictures and the painted ceiling in the room used for the dining room in the film. When Luke goes out of the farm, he appears in a flat deserted area, while the reality when you get out of the hotel show a lot of other houses, small stone hills and a lot of prickly peartrees (a variety of cactus very common in Tunisia).
Adjusting for inflation, this would be the second highest-grossing movie of all time.
The first film to make over $300,000,000.
George Lucas had ILM watch archival footage of World War II dogfights as reference material for the final battle over the Death Star. This method would evolve into pre-visualization "animatics" in common use today. (Former fighter pilots were also employed as technical advisors, and audio recordings of radio communications made during dogfights were studied, to help with the dialogue.)
In Italy, R2-D2 was renamed C1-P8 while Darth Vader became Lord Fener, the reason being that "Vader" in Italian sounds too close to the common noun for the toilet bowl (the "water", clearly from the English "water closet"). The "clones" mentioned by Obi-Wan Kenobi became "quotes" (Italian: "cloni"/"quoti").
George Lucas waived the normal writer/director fee and asked for a mere $175,000 plus 40% of the merchandising rights. After the failure of _Doctor Dolittle (1967)_, when its massive merchandising push proved an equally costly debacle, studio executives saw little if any profit from such matters and , agreed. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) related merchandise has since generated many millions of dollars in sales, allowing Lucas to make movies completely independent of the studio system he decried. Merchandising rights are now a major part of any film contract.
The reason the screen "whites up" as Ben and Luke carry C-3P0 to repair him after the Sand People attack is that Anthony Daniels was only wearing black tights below the waist.
George Lucas and the production team apparently had a series of running battles with the studio cleaning service, which would continually clean and buff the floors on set, even though Lucas had requested that they leave them scuffed and dull - part of his idea that the world the characters inhabit should look "lived in". After the sets were constructed, George Lucas went through them and had every single one of them "dirtied up". The R2-D2s were all rolled in the dirt, nicked with a saw, and kicked around a bit. George Lucas popularized the concept of giving sets/props/etc. a "dirtied up" appearance, to create the illusion that they were old and worn. However, he was not the first person to use this strategy. Over a decade prior, Gerry Anderson had extensively used this process in his Supermarionation series, most notably Thunderbirds (1965).
According to Ben Burtt, the sounds Chewbacca makes have been made from a compilation of large mammals, mostly bears (he said one particular zoo-kept Grizzly Bear was an invaluable source of Chewbacca sounds). R2-D2's sounds are various people (mostly Burtt) making baby-like sounds or sometimes actually recordings of babies electronically manipulated to sound mechanic.
During the scene where Han Solo and the others emerge from the Millennium Falcon's secret compartments, John Williams wrote a 3-note motif for the accompanied soundtrack. This 3-note motif is a cue from Psycho (1960). As a friend and colleague of Bernard Herrmann, who wrote the music for Psycho (1960), John Williams included this particular cue as an homage to Bernard Herrmann. SOURCE: 'The Making of Psycho' documentary which can be found in the Bonus Materials section on the 'Psycho (1960) Collector's Edition' DVD. The 1:16 mark of the documentary reveals this information.
During the scene on the Death Star right after Ben leaves to shut down the tractor beam, Chewbacca barks something to Luke to which Han says "Boy, you said it Chewie". Backstage footage reveals that what Chewie says is "The old man's gone mad".
Cardboard cutouts were used for some of the background starfighters in the Rebel hangar bay and most of the crowd watching the heroes receive their medallions in the final scene.
The language spoken by the Jawas was created by recording speakers of the African Zulu language and electronically speeding it up. Greedo's language is the Peruvian Indian language Quechua, played backwards. (George Lucas would later feature Peruvian Indians again in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)).
David Prowse, the actor in the Darth Vader suit, was still disgruntled more than 20 years after the film's release about the fact that his voice was replaced by James Earl Jones. In an interview with the Canadian press, Prowse claimed that he was a victim of "reverse racism" as there were no black members in the cast, the studio was worried that they would lose a significant size audience. However, James Earl Jones wasn't even credited in the original film and it was initially unknown that Vader was being voiced by a black actor. George Lucas opted to dubbed Vader's dialogue with another actor because Prowse has a strong Bristol accent which was not in keeping with the character. The cast and crew's nickname for Prowse was Darth Farmer, because of his heavy Bristol accent.
This is the only Star Wars series film in which neither Yoda nor Palpatine make an appearance. Yoda is not mentioned, as the character had not yet been created. Palpatine (whose name is never uttered in the classic trilogy) is mentioned, but referred to only as "the Emperor".
20th Century Fox didn't like the title "Star Wars" and wanted to rename the movie. In a 2013 "Nerdist" podcast, Mark Hamill said that one of their concerns was that they thought that potential female audiences (already a group they thought would be unlikely to enjoy science fiction) would be turned off by the word "wars" in the title. Hamill also said that another reason they wanted to change the title was that a rather large percentage of the Fox focus group members who heard the title (Hamill said 30%) thought that he movie must be a "behind-the-scenes look at the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton marriage."
It was stunt coordinator Peter Diamond's decision to arm Sand People with Gaffi sticks, getting a choice of weapons from various studio props - he felt the stick was a good choice, having served in the British Army, using bayonets and similar weaponry and being familiar with what they were capable of. Diamond played the Sand Person that attacks Luke, being the only stunt person on hand for the Tunisian portion of filming - he initially did not plan on playing the part.
The first two drafts of the screenplay apparently ripped off Flash Gordon and Frank Herbert's Dune, respectively. Lucas had to rework the draft several times when the rights holders (King Features and Herbert) balked. Even then, Herbert tried to sue because they're still similar, but he relented when the film became a hit in its own right.
The first draft was twice as long as the finished film, and contained a lot of elements that would be recycled in later movies - for example, the last act would take place on the jungle planet Yavin, which would be the home planet of the Wookiees (originally envisioned as smaller, with heads like that of "giant bushbabies", and not technologically capable), who would end up fighting the Empire alongside our heroes. The second draft was a substantial rewrite which cut all this out, but Lucas still wanted a Wookiee in the movie: so he created Chewbacca, a Wookiee co-pilot who was familiar with technology. For Jedi, Lucas brought back his idea of a low technology race fighting the Empire - but in place of the Wookiees, he invented the Ewoks (by effectively shrinking them down half the size and inverting the two syllables in their species name)note . A giant battle with Wookiees on their home planet Kashyyyk finally made it to screen in Revenge of the Sith.
George Lucas originally prepared a 14-page story treatment for his space opera. The major studios all rejected it because they viewed it as science fiction which was very difficult to market at the time. Lucas did find one sympathetic ear - Alan Ladd Jr., the then new head of 20th Century Fox, who had been impressed with Lucas's efforts on American Graffiti (1973). It was Ladd who eventually greenlit the movie, to the tune of an $8,000,000 budget.
Darth Vader's breathing was originally meant to be much more labored and raspy. The sound of this labored, raspy breathing would be used later on in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) during that movie's climax.
Luke went through several changes. Lucas toyed with the idea of changing him into a woman after cutting Princess Leia from the script. He also entertained the notion of casting the principal characters as a dwarfs. In an early screenplay, Skywalker was a 60 year-old general. In the shooting script, he was called Luke Starkiller but this was changed to Luke Skywalker during production.
Mel Blanc auditioned for the voice of C-3PO.
The targeting grid used for the Millennium Falcon's canon is based on a paperweight George Lucas saw on Arthur C. Clarke's desk.
When the blasters are cocked they have a clicking/clunking sound. This is a recording of a parking meter handle being turned.
The terms "X-wing" and "Y-wing" and "TIE fighter" were used by ILM effects guys to distinguish the fighters. These terms are not used in this film, though they were incorporated into the sequels. They also became popular with the public after the toys and the Making of special aired on tv. In addition, ILM's special effects staff nicknamed the Millennium Falcon "The Porkburger" but this never caught on.
20th Century Fox bought the screenplay largely because George Lucas had hired conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie to create paintings of a number of scenes to help sell it.
The cantina creature later to be known as 'Dice Ibegon' was really nothing more than a hand puppet known as the 'Drooling arm'. This was because it was fashioned to have a red, oozy liquid drip from it's mouth. When they tried this on film however, the liquid spurted all over the place and the shot was judged to be too disgusting for a PG movie.
Obi-Wan never says "May the Force be with you"; he always says a close variation of the line. The line is spoken by both Han Solo (to Luke) and General Dodonna (while addressing the assembled rebel pilots).
Interested in creating a modest line of colorful space toys, Kenner Toys signed on for the merchandising shortly before Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) opened, although they did not believe the movie would be a hit. When Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) became a hit, they were unprepared to handle the demand and produce enough Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) toys to handle the demand for Christmas. Instead, they sold boxed vouchers for various toys. The toys sold in the "Empty Box" campaign during December were not delivered until the following March.
Prior to the release of this movie, the greatest profit 20th Century Fox had every made in one year was $37,000,000. In 1977, because of the film, their year-end profit was $79,000,000.
20th Century Fox was so sure Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was going to be a disaster that they came within a matter of days of selling off their stake in the film as a tax shelter. Positive feedback from an advanced screening made them change their minds, and the profits from the film ended up saving the studio from bankruptcy.
The first feature film to be screened in Dolby Stereo. Previously, films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Mr. Billion (1977) had made use of the sound system with disastrous results. However, technical minded George Lucas knew exactly how he wanted to incorporate the system and made it work for his picture.
At 121 minutes (special edition runs 125 minutes) this is the shortest of the six "Star Wars" films.
The line "May the Force be with you." is ranked #8 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
George Lucas based the character of Han Solo on his friend, director Francis Ford Coppola.
Before Alec Guinness was cast as Obi Wan, George Lucas briefly considered using Peter Cushing, who plays Tarkin.
The sounds of the lasers were made by striking a metal wrench up the steel re-enforcement cables of a high-voltage electricity pylon - those long lines of power pylons that criss-cross most countries. The Millennium Falcon "shutdown" engine noise was sourced from an external air-conditioning unit on its last legs.
There is a rumor that Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) was having trouble timing his conversations with R2-D2, as R2-D2's dialogue was to be dubbed in later. Supposedly, Anthony Daniels asked George Lucas to make some kind of noise to help him, but when George Lucas forgot, the matter was dropped.
In the original draft, Luke made a failed Death Star Trench bombing attempt before making his shot that ultimately destroyed the station. While all footage of the first trench run was eliminated from the final movie, one line that referenced the first run remained - "They're coming much faster THIS TIME."
George Lucas said in an interview with Leonard Maltin that the Ewoks in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) were originally supposed to be Wookiees. However since he had established Chewbacca as a fairly sophisticated character who was able to fly spaceships, he opted to make the Ewoks more primitive so as to contrast with the Imperials and their technology.
R2-D2's vocal patterns largely contain sound designer Ben Burtt's own voice. In trying to create the beeping, whistling noises of the droid, Burtt found that he was vocalizing a lot of what he was trying to achieve, so he recorded his voice - mainly making baby noises - and then fed it through a synthesizer.
While speaking at London's National Film Theatre in 2009, Ben Burtt disclosed that the alien gibberish sprouted by the Mos Eisley spy Garindan/Long Snoot in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was actually the processed voice of John Wayne.
The final scene in which Luke and Han received their awards required a much larger soundstage than was available at Elstree Studios. The scene was shot at Pinewood Studios instead.
In the novelization of the film, the book begins with a short prologue which tells the story of the fall of the "Old Republic", the rise of the Empire, and the rise of the Rebel Alliance. This would be part of the basis for Episodes 1-3 of the "Prequel Trilogy".
Among the first promotional licenses granted was to Marvel Comics, who published a Star Wars comic book series which ran for 107 issues from 1977-86. The first six issues were an adaption of the film, which included some deleted scenes from the film. The adaptation was also published in a tabloid sized Collector's Edition format.
According the commentary on the Blu-ray Disc version of the movie, the scene where Tarkin blows up Alderaan was the first scene Carrie Fisher filmed at Leia. She admits to being influenced by Peter Cushing, and admits she may have based some of her performance on his own style of acting.
Most of the planets/moons/etc. seen in the films were just balls that were painted. However, unlike the planets and the like, an actual model was built of the Death Star, because there were constant shots of vehicles approaching it.
George Lucas wanted TIE Fighters to move by very fast in the Death Star Escape sequence. His crew thought this meant a ship moving by the ship's window in 3-4 seconds, Lucas wanted them to go past in about half a second. This led to the film crew moving the backgrounds in additions to the TIEs themselves to create a greater illusion of speed.
The very first treatment of the film was originally titled "The Journal of the Whills". It centered around a Jedi-bendu by the name of Mace Windy (who would become the Mace Windu character in The Phantom Menace) and his apprentice, C. 2. Thorpe. Lucas brought the thing to his agent, Jeff Berg, who was quickly confused by the massive amounts of jargon used in the treatment, and recommended he start simpler.
Production was so laden with problems that George Lucas worked himself into poor health. He had to be checked into the hospital after suffering from hypertension.
Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi are ranked #14 and #37 respectively on the "Heroes" section of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, making Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) the only film to have more than one character on the list.
When the film was re-released in theaters after it became so successful, the Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953) was run preceding the feature at the request of George Lucas.
George Lucas started writing the screenplay in 1974.
The film was initially budgeted at $8 million but production problems forced the studio to contribute an additional $3 million.
Director George Lucas had trouble getting funding for this movie, most studios (including Universal and United Artists) thinking that people wouldn't go to see it.
In 1998, the film was ranked #15 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies. In 2007, it moved up two place to be ranked #13 for the 10th anniversary edition of the list.
In its May 30, 1977 issue, Time magazine voted Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) "The Year's Best Movie." The franchise would go on to feature on the magazine's cover six times.
The original editor for the film was John Jympson. Richard Chew was Lucas' first choice of the editor but budgetary reasons will not allow him to do so. After the first assembly, which was absolutely disastrous, Lucas fired Jympson, asked his then wife Marcia (while editing) New York, New York who in turn brought in Chew and Paul Hirsch to finish.
In some Spanish subtitled releases, R2-D2 name appears subtitled as "Arturito" or "little Arthur" in Spanish, since the pronunciation is very closed resembled, this is also the case with C3-PO whose name is subtitled as "Citripio", but that does not resembles anything in Spanish.
Melanie Griffith was offered the role of Princess Leia.
In the scene where Luke is attacked by a Tusken Raider, the moment where the raider (Peter Diamond waves his weapon over his head with both hands in an up-and-down motion was actually created from a shot of him thrusting his weapon up once, run backwards and forward several times.
James Woods auditioned for the role of Han Solo.
William Katt auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker.

Director Trademark 

George Lucas:  [1138]  in honor of his earlier movie THX 1138 (1971).


The trivia items below may give away important plot points.

Vader," pronounced differently, is the Dutch word for "father". In German, "Vater" means "father".

See also


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