6 That Science Movie

Chapter 6 That Science Movie When United Artists turned down American Graffiti, they also turned down George's space story, now called Star Wars. They weren't alone. So did every other studio. No one in Hollywood knew what to make of Star Wars. The first sentence of the story treatment was enough to confuse anyone: "the story of Mace Windu, a revered Jedi-bendu of Opuchi who was related to Usby C. J. Thape, padawaan learner to the famed Jedi." Huh? Alan Ladd Jr. at Twentieth Century Fox encouraged George to edit the story, and they made a deal for Star Wars in May 1973. Graffiti was released in August. By November it was a huge hit. But rather than use his new power to demand more money for Star Wars, George stuck to the original terms of the deal. However,

he did request sequel and television rights, and rights to the merchandising (the products and toys based on the movie) and sound tracks (music used in the movie). George wanted to control his vision. The studio couldn't believe their luck—what kind of merchandise could Star Wars inspire? They were happy to hand control of those rights over to George. George and Marcia moved to San Anselmo, California. Their Victorian house was also the headquarters of Lucasfilm. While Marcia edited movies for director Martin Scorsese, George worked on his script for Star Wars. It was inspired by the stories he loved as a child and the myths he'd studied in college classes. Nobody else could write it.

For eight hours a day, five days a week, George locked himself in his room to write draft after draft on yellow pads of paper. He carried a notebook to jot down ideas. When filming THX 1138, Walter Murch had once referred to a sound tape labeled Reel 2, Dialogue 2 as "R2D2." George gave the name to a droid character. One day Marcia drove home with their Alaskan Malamute, Indiana, in the passenger seat of her car, inspiring the character of Han Solo's hairy copilot, Chewbacca.

Finally, in March 1976, George was ready to begin shooting in the North African country of Tunisia and in England. The cast were all unknown actors except for British actor Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi. George planned for the movie to have great special effects. But he wanted to create and control them. So he had hired his own team, led by John Dykstra, and set everyone up in a warehouse in

Van Nuys, California. He had named the group Industrial Light and Magic, known as ILM. George had promised Fox he'd try to make the movie for $3.5 million, but imagined it would cost closer to $8.5 million. The actors who played nonhuman parts often had trouble with their costumes. Actor Kenny Baker kept falling over inside the R2-D2 costume. Anthony Daniels had trouble walking as C-3PO. Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca had to spend twelve hours a day in a body suit made of angora wool and yak hair. The rest of the cast had trouble with the dialogue. Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo,

complained that you could type lines like his, but you couldn't say them. It didn't help that George didn't particularly like working with actors. His direction mostly consisted of three phrases: "Faster and more intense," "Let's do it again, only this time do it better," or "Terrific." Just before filming began, George changed the name of his hero from Luke Starkiller to Luke Skywalker.