From the Editors: 101 Things You Never Knew About Star Wars Star Wars | The Empire Strikes Back | Return of The Jedi | Episode I: The Phantom Menace The Story Just like The Singing Detective, but with better skin: After a serious car accident that left him in critical condition, a young George Lucas spent several months bedridden in the hospital. It was during this prolonged convalescence that he cooked up the concept of the Force and decided to become a filmmaker. I am your [spiritual] father: Lucas turned to author Joseph Campbell's writings on legends and myths as the ideological source of Star Wars' interstellar heroism. Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces was also studied extensively by Steven Spielberg for his films, and its darker themes were incorporated into Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979). Good thing he wasn't watching Green Acres: Lucas coined the term "jedi" after watching the Japanese samurai-era soap operas called "Jidai." "... And these darn Ewoks are killing my suspension!" George Lucas coined the term "wookie" based on a friend's joke name for bumps in the road. Reel Droid: During the post-production of American Graffiti (1973), Lucas asked his sound editors for "Reel 2, dialogue 2." "R2-D2?" his coworker responded, and the name of a droid was born. What about his goldfish Ackbar?: George Lucas based Chewbacca's personality on that of his shaggy dog, Indiana, though he saved the name for another character.... From Samurai to Jedi: Long a fan of Akira Kurosawa's, Lucas credits the Japanese filmmaker's epic The Hidden Fortress as the primary inspiration for the Star Wars saga. The story of a brave soldier smuggling a princess through enemy territory with the help of two bumbling companions, The Hidden Fortress contains themes remarkably similar to those that crop up throughout the trilogy, including a mistaken identity concept that will feature prominently in Episode I ... Cinematic origins: Lucas also credited several older films with helping to spark ideas for various scenes in Star Wars: C3-PO was originally envisioned as an improved male version of the female robot in Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926). Star Wars's Death Star was modeled on the climactic bomb-run finale of the WWII air thriller The Dam Busters (1953). Star Wars' triumphant finale was almost an exact cinematographic copy of a Nazi awards ceremony from Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1934). Lucas used actual footage of WWII air combat to storyboard the X-Wing/Tie Fighter dogfights. Nom de Guerre d'Etoile: Luke Skywalker's original name was "Starkiller." "How silly must I be? In my contract it is not!" George Lucas originally conceived of Obi-Wan Kenobi as a goofy eccentric, until Alec Guinness convinced him that the character should possess a more dignified air. Lucas later bestowed these bizarre traits upon Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. The Cast Darth Van Patten?... Mark Hamill filmed Star Wars while on break from the TV series "Eight is Enough." Must have made that wampa-swat feel like a love tap... Mark Hamill suffered serious facial injuries in a car accident toward the end of the Star Wars shoot. His injuries required extensive reconstructive surgery. Lucas used a body double in some of the Mos Eisley speeder scenes. "Hey kid, nothing beats a trusty Black & Decker by your side!" Short on roles and money, Harrison Ford was working as a carpenter when he was cast for Star Wars. He actually took a pay cut to take the part - he earned only $1,000 a week playing Solo. Rebel Assault at the Improv: Harrison Ford improvised many of his most infamous lines, including his hilarious interaction with the prison block guards in Star Wars ("Everything's fine here...just a slight weapons malfunction") and his response to Leia's declaration of love in The Empire Strikes Back ("I know"). Use The Force, Yojimbo: Lucas briefly considered casting the late Japanese screen legend Toshiro Mifune as Obi-Wan, but changed his mind when he heard that British master thespian Alec Guinness was available. Jedi Dustbuster: Concerned that his Jedi robes looked too clean., Alec Guinness lay down and rolled around in the Tunisian desert dust before shooting Star Wars' first Tatooine scene. Well, your voice does sound different on tape... David Prowse, the British bodybuilder who wore Darth Vader's costume, had no idea that his dialogue had been dubbed over with James Earl Jones' rich baritone until he saw Star Wars in the theater. "I find your brand of herbicide disturbing..." - When he read Vader's lines on the set, Prowse's rural Welsh accent was so pronounced that the crew nicknamed him "Darth Farmer." Suffering from actor's foot? Call 1-800-4-CHEWIE! Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) was not a professional actor. He got his break after a talent scout read about him in a London newspaper article about men with big feet. Guess who's coming to the Death Star? George Lucas originally wanted an African-American actor to play Han Solo, and nearly hired Cooley High's Glynn Turman for the part. Nightmare in Mos Eisley: Before donning the razored gloves of Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Kruger, a young Robert Englund auditioned for the part of Luke Skywalker The Production "What, Mr. Emmerich? $200 million for Godzilla? No problem!" The original proposed budget for Star Wars was $3.5 million; the final approved budget was $8 million; the actual cost was $11 million. Fox almost cut off funding when the budget reached $10 million. Well, what's 40% of nothing? Rather than sink money into an unknown commodity, Fox paid George Lucas $500,000 for writing and $100,000 for directing Star Wars, allowing him to keep 40% of the box-office take. How to be your own boss, Jedi-style: Lucas provided the initial $18 million budget of The Empire Strikes Back out of his own pocket; he did the same for Jedi and The Phantom Menace ($114 million - estimated). Hey, what does "Verdammt!" mean? Fox, convinced it was making a dud akin to Wing Commander (1999), nearly sold the revenue rights to a German businessman as a tax dodge... until studio execs saw the first test screening results. Now playing at limited engagements across the galaxy... Fearing a disaster, Fox limited Star Wars's opening to 32 screens, only 10 of which had the full-sized 70mm print. The 1997 special edition re-release premiered in 2,100 THX-equipped theaters. Guess they needed to conserve vinyl for the upcoming Partridge Family album: For fear of being stuck with excess copies, Fox's music division originally only pressed 20,000 Star Wars soundtracks. They sold out within a week. Oh my God! They stole Luke! Those bastards! Fox sued rival studio Universal after it released the eerily Star Wars-esque TV series Battlestar Galactica, but eventually lost the suit. "I've got a bad feeling about this..." Star Wars producers originally offered the film's toy rights to Mattel, which turned them down for "lack of earning potential." Current estimates now put the worth of Star Wars merchandising revenue since 1977 at $3 billion. Now if they could only give The Millenium Falcon a new paint job: For the 1997 Special Edition, the original print was extensively washed and restored by hand, then scanned into a computer and further retouched. Odds & Ends So "Putini" isn't Jawanese for "helium"? The Jawas' language was based on a Zulu dialect cranked up to twice normal speed. I knew the power companies were evil, but I had no idea... The sound of thestormtroopers' blasters was that of a powerline support cable being banged with a metal rod. Guns! Guns! Guns! In order to make the Star Wars Trilogy's firefights seems more realistic, Lucasfilm's props department based most of the pistols and rifles on actual weapons and often loaded them with blanks. Han Solo's blaster pistol was based on a WWI-era German 7.63mm German Mauser Parabellum. The tripod guns used by the rebels to defend the Empire's assault on Hoth were inspired by the 908 Vickers Maxim machinegun, which helped mow down millions of soldiers during the First World War. The stormtroopers' short blaster rifles were originally 9mm British Sterling "Sten" sub-machineguns, while the long rifles they carried on Tatooine were based on the 7.62mm Mauser MG 42 machinegun, used to lethal effect by Nazi troops in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. And "Jabba" is Bantu for "Gingrich": Dutch fans were provided with a clue to The Empire Strikes Back 's climactic revelation early on: "Vader" is Dutch for "father." Let's hope Earth has better ratings: Lucas used an unaltered TV studio switcher-board as the control panel for the Death Star's gunnery crew; the lever thrown to destroy Alderaan is actually a fade switch. Next: The Empire Strikes Back >> The Story "Hey Lou! Where you want this shipload of Bantha guano?" The Empire Strikes Back's dreaded imperial walkers were inspired by the imposing cargo-loading cranes on Oakland's wharves. The Cast Well, bounty hunting is just a hobby, really.... Did Boba Fett have a second job? Seems so: Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who played the infamous bounty hunter, also appeared in The Empire Strikes Back as an imperial guard on Cloud City. You can catch a glimpse of him dragging Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) away and later being captured by Lando Calrissian (a Colt 45-less Billy Dee Williams). Will the real Boba Fett step forward? Actor Jeremy Bulloch originally played Boba Fett in the series, but was unavailable for the Star Wars: Special Edition scenes. Lucas had toyed with idea of creating him digitally, but instead let lucky ILM animator Mark Austin don the feared bounty hunter's armor for pick-up shots. What's the sound of one wookie clapping? The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner was a Zen Buddhist. The Production "Luke! Light that match not!" A fire at Elstree Studios outside London burnt down the extensive sets just a month before shooting began on the Yoda scenes. Pigs in Space: Yoda puppeteer Frank Oz occasionally amused Empire's stressed-out crew with sudden comic appearances by his Muppet alter ego Miss Piggy. Hush-Hush: Afraid that the crew would leak The Empire Strikes Back's BIG secret, Lucas reportedly had David Prowse say the words. "Obi-Wan is your father." Bitter Ending: The long-standing antipathy between George Lucas and Hollywood erupted shortly after the release of The Empire Strikes Back. The Director's Guild of America fined him $250,000 for not putting director Irvin Kershner's name in front of the Star Wars sequel. Though the dispute was settled out of court for $35,000, it cemented Lucas' distaste for Tinseltown: He soon moved his company's entire operations to Marin county in Northern California, and resigned from the DGA and the Motion Picture Academy. Odds & Ends Space Junk: Mischievous ILM effects technicians allegedly hung a sneaker and a potato among the asteroid belt in The Empire Strikes Back. The Scandinavian Connection: Principal photography for the outdoor Hoth scenes was done in the remote ski village of Finse, Norway. Frank Oz is the voice of Yoda and the Swedish Chef on The Muppet Show: Coincidence or fate? Next: Return of the Jedi >> The Cast A proud spokesman of the Scruffy-Looking Nerfherder Euthanasia Society: Supposedly, by the time Return of the Jedi rolled around, Harrison Ford had so tired of his Han Solo character that he begged George Lucas to kill him off (the character, that is). What's Wookie for "I Quit"? Peter Mayhew gave up acting entirely within a few years after Return of the Jedi wrapped. Working as an orderly at London's King's College Hospital when he was discovered, he later found employment in the lumber industry. Play it again, R2-D2: Kenny Baker nearly didn't accept the role of R2-D2, since he was already a member of a successful British musical troupe (he is reprising his role for Episode I). Quick Change: During the Star Wars shoot, it took over 2.5 hours to fit Anthony Daniels into his C-3PO costume. By Return of the Jedi, the time had been reduced to 45 minutes. She must Tae-Bo: Femi Taylor, the actress who portrayed Jabba's ill-fated first dancer Oola in Return of the Jedi, was in such good shape that she returned15 years later to shoot more footage for the special edition. The Production What could have been.... Lucas wanted to hire Steven Spielberg to helm Jedi, but since it was a non-union production, the E.T. director feared angering the Director's Guild of America and removed his name from consideration. Beware the teddy bear's wrath: So frustrated were the diminutive actors playing the ewoks in Return of the Jedi (then officially titled "Revenge of the Jedi") that they reportedly walked off the set, only to return within hours wearing shirts saying "Revenge of the Ewok." A Tale of Two Tatooines: The Tatooine scenes in Star Wars: Special Edition and Episode I were filmed in the same spot in the Tunisian Sahara desert, but Return of the Jedi's Tatooine scenes were filmed outside Yuma, Arizona. AKA: While filming in Arizona, the entire production of Return of the Jedi operated under the false title "Blue Harvest." Lucas even went so far as to manufacture crew jackets and T-shirt bearing the false title. Join Jabba for the all-new Tatooine Carnival Desert Cruise, featuring Cathy Lee Snoodles! Over 60 feet tall, 40 yards wide, and 50 yards long, the Arizona replica for Jabba's barge in Jedi remains the largest on-location set ever constructed until Titanic. The tortoise does outrun the hare: Rather that create an expensive camera rig for the dizzy speeder bike chase through the forests of Endor, Jedi's camera crew had a single steadicam operator walk at a normal pace with the camera running at 1/30 normal speed. The result? Multiply your average walking speed (4 mph) by 30 = 120 mph! Odds & Ends Tales of the City: Effects designers based the more jagged sections of the half-completed second Death Star on the San Francisco skyline. Next: Episode I >> The Story Next, you're gonna tell me Chewbacca looks like a Shi Tzu: Darth Maul, Episode I's most fearsome villain, bears a striking resemblance to an Oni, a fearsome demon of Japanese legend. Similar parallels can be seen between Darth Vader's helmet and the traditional samurai kabuto helmet. The Cast "Look what I got you for Christmas!" "Wow! My very own tow cable!" Episode I star Ewan McGregor 's uncle Denis Lawson played the cult-beloved rebel pilot Wedge Antilles in the first three Star Wars films. The Production Well, Samuel L. Jackson only just became available: The original 1976 draft of Star Wars was called The Story of Mace Windu, but that titular character will not appear until Episode I. Must have been payback for ILM's Twister soundwork: During the Tunisia shoot, a monsoon storm destroyed much of the Episode I set, leveling buildings and scattering costumes. Maybe not: A similar storm leveled sets during the filming of Star Wars. Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi: Phantom Menace's principal photography took place at Leavesden studios outside London, where principal footage for the James Bond adventures GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies was also filmed. Just like that Runaway movie: Often during the Phantom Menace shoot, remotely controlled wheel-powered droids like R2-D2 would spin out of control and disrupt the set. Fourth time's the charm: Each live-action location scene in Episode I was filmed four different times; once with the actors and blue-screen-matted stand-ins, once with just the actors, once with just the stand ins, and once with just the set. New Jedi style: Stunt coordinator and expert swordsman Nick Gillard created a new style of fencing specifically for Episode I based on traditional Japanese Kendo fencing and several Western swordfighting techniques.