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11 things you may not know about "Star Wars"

lisaandjacob.com — He read "The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film" so you don't have to.

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  • fuzzynyanko, on 10/10/2007, -4/+91I would love to see a clip of the R2D2 robot going wild onto the Jesus set
    • cculver, on 10/10/2007, -1/+34Now there's a sentence you just don't hear everyday.
    • OSXpert, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15I was under the impression that Kenny Baker was inside controlling everything?
      • jstohler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20Sometimes, and sometimes it was a remote control. Sometimes it was a bunch of hamsters, caffeine pills and a roll of duct tape.
    • laelfrog, on 10/10/2007, -5/+2Pictures/video or it didn't happen!
  • sjbdallas, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22Hmm, i thought we knew #8 already. The equator seemed to be where ships come in and out of.
    • SenorCardgage74, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Honestly, Im a big ol SW nerd and this is the first Id heard of that.
      This book is a MUST HAVE for SW geeks by the way. Or film geeks at all really.
    • Matteos, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1I did.
  • j4son, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2Anyone else getting an error?
  • UtopiaInTheSky, on 10/10/2007, -10/+1Dead already.
  • lindseylu, on 10/10/2007, -2/+32One thing you didn't know about Star Wars: It all actually happened. Here, I have proof...

    http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c201/occasionally/DSC02816.jpg
  • simplynix, on 10/10/2007, -11/+891. In between the second and third drafts, Luke was changed to be a girl.

    Looks like they never changed it back....

    Zing!
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17And in the original draft, Luke, Anakin, and Darth Vader were three different, unrelated people. And Luke was an old general.
  • robzienert, on 10/10/2007, -3/+22A bold move by a sadly bored man with nothing better to do. Thanks for your service.

    "Praise Jesus! ... Is that a robot?"
  • antiorblkflag9, on 10/10/2007, -0/+36In between the second and third drafts, Luke was changed to be a girl. (p. 40)

    Thank god the re-wrote that, I don't want a Luke - Han love scene.
    • Mautty, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1I dont know I think it would be kind of hot!
    • vofuse, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8But you would definitely want a Luke-Leia love scene.
    • Jakyll, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19it would give a whole new meaning to "Han shot first"
    • OwdenBowden, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1But I thought Luke was a girl
    • DarthMalcontent, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I'm not sure the movie would have worked with Lucy Skywalker.
    • mrjefflewis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Does rule #34 work on Digg?
  • billymonster, on 10/10/2007, -11/+3dead after 45 diggs?
    they need to read 11 things you didn't know about reliable web hosts.
  • phuzzy3d, on 10/10/2007, -3/+14Some cool and interesting facts, I love when R2D2 wonders off into the "Jesus of Nazareth" set.
    • mal5305, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5i doubt a robot "wonders" much. it may wander though...
  • outbreakofevil, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6Interesting article. I wish there was more written for each point, though. Dugg.
    • etandrib, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5I'm glad I didn't have to read that book just to glean these facts from over 300 pages of notes.
  • FeartheKnighted, on 10/10/2007, -3/+55 11 things you may not know about "Star Wars"
    I read the entire "The Making of Star Wars," you don't have to. Here are some little-known facts documented in this ridiculously thorough book:

    1. In between the second and third drafts, Luke was changed to be a girl. (p. 40)
    2. Because of its size and proximity to the Tunisia-Libya border, the Sandcrawler set was searched by the Libyan army to make sure it wasn't a secret Tunisian military weapon. (p. 157)
    3. The R2D2 robot went out of control and wandered into the set of Franco Zeffirelli's "Jesus of Nazareth," which was also filming in the Tunisian desert. (p. 159)
    4. Alec Guinness got mad and almost quit when, midway through production, George Lucas decided that Obi-Wan Kenobi would die. (p. 166)
    5. During the entire production, only two people were fired and no one quit. (p. 255)
    6. Carrie Fisher stood on a turntable to film the R2D2 hologram message. (p. 257)
    7. After playing the part of C3P0 for the entire production, Anthony Daniels was almost replaced during voice-over recordings by someone who could make the character sound more like an American used-car salesman. (p. 265)
    8. The trench that the rebels fly through isn't the one that runs around the equator of the Death Star. It's one of 18 vertical trenches that start halfway up from the equator and run toward the north pole. (p. 280)
    9. The motion picture review board rated "Star Wars" a G, until the studio went back and demanded a PG rating. Also, some of the raters fell asleep during the screening. (p. 289)
    10. Lucas and Steven Spielberg swapped profit points on their two movies, "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," each believing the other's would do better. (p. 298)
    11. Twentieth Century Fox's stock jumped 450% immediately after the movie came out. (p. 301)
  • NegativeTwo, on 10/10/2007, -9/+8underwhelming.
  • MonsterChaOS, on 10/10/2007, -6/+4Good Read. Dugg!
  • eradicator, on 10/10/2007, -0/+299. The motion picture review board rated "Star Wars" a G, until the studio went back and demanded a PG rating. Also, some of the raters fell asleep during the screening. (p. 289)

    Isn't that how we got the "Owen & Beru BBQ" scene?
  • codwif, on 10/10/2007, -18/+4http://duggmirror.com/movies/11_things_you_may_not_know_about_Star_Wars/

    #1 In between the second and third drafts, Luke was changed to be a girl. (p. 40)
    #2 Because of its size and proximity to the Tunisia-Libya border, the Sandcrawler set was searched by the Libyan army to make sure it wasn't a secret Tunisian military weapon. (p. 157)
    #3 The R2D2 robot went out of control and wandered into the set of Franco Zeffirelli's "Jesus of Nazareth," which was also filming in the Tunisian desert. (p. 159)
    #4 Alec Guinness got mad and almost quit when, midway through production, George Lucas decided that Obi-Wan Kenobi would die. (p. 166)
    #5 During the entire production, only two people were fired and no one quit. (p. 255)
    #6 Carrie Fisher stood on a turntable to film the R2D2 hologram message. (p. 257)
    #7 After playing the part of C3P0 for the entire production, Anthony Daniels was almost replaced during voice-over recordings by someone who could make the character sound more like an American used-car salesman. (p. 265)
    #8 The trench that the rebels fly through isn't the one that runs around the equator of the Death Star. It's one of 18 vertical trenches that start halfway up from the equator and run toward the north pole. (p. 280)
    #9 The motion picture review board rated "Star Wars" a G, until the studio went back and demanded a PG rating. Also, some of the raters fell asleep during the screening. (p. 289)
    #10 Lucas and Steven Spielberg swapped profit points on their two movies, "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," each believing the other's would do better. (p. 298)
    #11 Twentieth Century Fox's stock jumped 450% immediately after the movie came out. (p. 301)
  • Niddik, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19"The motion picture review board rated "Star Wars" a G, until the studio went back and demanded a PG rating. Also, some of the raters fell asleep during the screening. (p. 289)"

    Apparently the MPAA was more lenient (in more ways than one) back in the stone age.
  • indyGuy, on 10/10/2007, -7/+16I didn't realize they switched Luke BACK to a male...
  • entropystool, on 10/10/2007, -2/+25R2 rolling around with the 12 deciples. Sounds like another potentially bad opportunity for SNL to screw up a good bit.
    • nottanner, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2I buried your comment for not knowing how to spell disciples. I also stopped reading the sentence as soon as I saw that egregious error.
      Too bad, it might have been a good joke.
  • mistergoomba, on 10/10/2007, -3/+214. Alec Guinness got mad and almost quit when, midway through production, George Lucas decided that Obi-Wan Kenobi would die. (p. 166)

    i read on IMDB that it was Guinness' idea to kill off Obi-Wan...
    • NSMike, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16I heard elsewhere something similar, that Guinness allegedly hated Star Wars, and wanted to get out of the production so he convinced Lucas to kill off his character to get out of the project or any sequels.
    • iamnos, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Not sure why you're getting dugg down:
      http://imdb.com/title/tt0076759/trivia
  • SpaceMonkeyZero, on 10/10/2007, -3/+15If it's from lisahandjob.com it's gotta be good!

    oh wait... lisaandjacob. Damn dyslexia.


    Whoever Stopped #7 should have stopped Jar Jar
    • ProvoloneNinja, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16Guess what anni. Meesa all sparkly glowy. yaaaaaaaaaaaaay annie yaaaaaaay!!!
      • jstohler, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Dugg for Robot Chicken reference.

        "OK, let's build this reactor!"
  • xOKxWhy, on 10/10/2007, -14/+0Buried as inaccurate, because I already know all this stuff
    • Mautty, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2How is that working out for you. You know the douchbagitus. I'm just kidding there cowboy I'm sure you not a douchbag at all.
    • NSMike, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Buried for failure at literacy. "May not know" does not mean that you cannot possibly know it.

      1. (used to express possibility): It may rain.
      2. (used to express opportunity or permission): You may enter.
      3. (used to express contingency, esp. in clauses indicating condition, concession, purpose, result, etc.): I may be wrong but I think you would be wise to go. Times may change but human nature stays the same.
      4. (used to express wish or prayer): May you live to an old age.
      5. Archaic. (used to express ability or power.)
  • fleischner, on 10/10/2007, -2/+20Dugg for simply saying "you may not know" instead of the usual "you didn't know."
  • hella81, on 10/10/2007, -5/+8*11 things you really don't need to know about "Star Wars"
  • ladyarcher85, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1What is Star Wars? :p
  • Armor1901, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10Did you guys know Harrison Ford was a carpenter when he got his acting start?
    • spritom, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Lucas talks about that in his interview with Leonard Maltin which was included on the VHS trilogy a long time ago and maybe elsewhere.
  • kamau84, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1According to this (http://www.starwars.com/databank/vehicle/sandcrawler/?id=bts) the only real parts of the sandcrawler that were built life-size were the two treads and the lower hull. I doubt the sandcrawler could even be searched.
    • jstohler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2There's a picture in the book that makes it look impressively big even though the top is missing.
    • bubba9999, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1set, not crawler.
  • GruffPelt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Other things you may not know:

    - Harrison Ford was never considered for (and didn't really want) the role of Han Solo; he came in to help George Lucas do reading for other actors and when the Han Solo role was still open near the end of casting, the other actors convinced him and George that he was the best choice for the role
    - At one point in early script development, Han Solo was a large reptile and there was no Chewbacca
    - At another point in script development, the Jedi were the evil ones and "the Darth" were the "protectors of peace, justice and intelligence"
    - The script produced just before filming had the droids as Imperial agents who join the rebel cause late in the movie
    - To give the other actors something to play against, David Prowse (Darth Vader) spoke Vader's lines, but the script was changed several times before James Earl Jones recorded his lines
  • cuoops, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I knew most of those. I guess from watching all those extras on the dvd's.
  • jamesallen74, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2That's 2 minutes of my life I will never get back. Has anyone noticed HBO has turned into the Star Wars network, re-running it OVER and OVER and OVER. It's losing it's magic because of it. And I admit I like the 70s version before all the enhancements.
  • schmuckman99, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Another thing I heard was that Luke was going to be a midget "no lie" as was his sister (remember Willow?). Also that one idea instead of the ***** ewoks was to have the battle in Return on the wookie home planet which would have been 1000000000000000Xs better than the hairy yellow brick road turds, throwing rocks, feces and sticks at stormtroopers.
  • ortucis, on 10/10/2007, -11/+2Another thing (one that is different from your thing) I have heard read and seen is that Star Wars is overrated crap.


    BTW there is no underrated crap so..
    • schmuckman99, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0I thought I may get hit with some comment from a bored 2nd grade english teacher with nothing better to do..
  • zeroesandones, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0Lucas and Steven Spielberg swapped profit points on their two movies, "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," each believing the other's would do better. (p. 298)

    So Lucas lost big time on that "swap".?
    • meatmcguffin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Maybe we should all band together and send him a few bucks before he loses his house
    • Gorrondonuts, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4In a biography of Stephen Spielberg on A&E, Spielberg said they gave each other 2% of their earnings of their own movies. Steven said he is still making money.
  • AmericanArab, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Another thing is that George Lucas was killed in 1990 by Rick McCallum and so the wizards at ILM made a Lucas replica. This explains every bad thing that happened to the franchise afterwards!!!!
  • lougoose, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Coolest thing that isn't on the list:

    Vader means Father.
  • yureigal, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Now, if he left Luke as a girl (or Lucia)... maybe it would have been Hans dream come true.. LOL. Two girls.. one guy and a wookie.
    • CarloLedbetter, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Two girls.. one guy and a wookie.

      I consider myself pretty open-minded. but that is too weird for me.
  • howthaheck, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1ok, I'll digg. not the most excitng news, but I never thought about the x-wing trench fact before. it made me revisit the ending.
    • Necaradan666, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0I knew this already...doesn't it show the trench when the rebel commanders are planning the assault?
  • neuralzen, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1#12 - Did you know that Star Wars was written based on Joseph Campbell's book "Hero With 1000 Faces" which is about the archtypical hero stories told in different religions and mythologies, with different cultural contexts and symbols, depending on the society. Star Wars follows the archtype to a T....and it makes sense as Joseph Campbell and Lucas were friends, and he considered Campbell is mentor.
    http://www.films.com/id/11017/The_Mythology_of_Star_Wars_with_George_Lucas_and_Bill_Moyers.htm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
  •  

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