Star Wars director George Lucas: biography, history of the creation of the first film of the star movie saga

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The first film about the incredible adventures of Luke Skywalker, called Star Wars, was released on the big screen almost 40 years ago. The success was simply deafening not only among the audience, but also among critics, as evidenced by the 7 Oscars won. It's hard to believe that Star Wars director George Lucas once showed the script of the movie to his friends and heard from them strong recommendations not to do this "absurd" project. Fortunately, Lucas did not abandon his idea and, after the success of the first picture, he shot 5 more episodes of the famous star saga. How was the shooting of the very first film of the epic and what did its director do before he got acquainted with the “big” cinema?

The life of George Lucas before the "big" movie

The Star Wars director was born a year before the end of World War II in May 1944. His family lived in sunny California, his father was a small businessman.

From childhood, Lucas was known for being kindaddicted. Racing was his first passion. Cars and garages - that's what he was interested in, he did not think about directing. But the passion for racing turned into a car accident for George - at the age of 18 he almost died while driving his Autobianchi Bianchina.

After that, the future director of the film "Star Wars" went to college. However, acquaintance with the films of the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, as well as with the cult director Francis Ford Coppola, gave the young man a new passion - cinema.

George Lucas' first films

The director of "Star Wars" from the very beginning of his career gravitated toward the science fiction genre, in particular the theme of people's lives in the distant future.

For example, his first feature film was THX 1138, which takes the viewer to the 25th century. With a budget of 777 thousand dollars, the dystopia grossed 2 million at the box office. This is an insignificant figure for Hollywood, but it is amazing that the picture became a cult in just a couple of years, and the idea (a story about people devoid of emotions, following the orders of computers) began to be exploited in other films ("Cyborg", "Equilibrium", etc.). And some parts of the film (soundtracks, quotes, abbreviation) have penetrated into popular culture.

The future director of "Star Wars" before the release of the famous star saga releases another tape - "American Graffiti". With a budget of $775,000, Lucas' teen comedy was able to break into an Oscar nomination in 5 categories.

The birth of an idea

It was during the filming of American Graffiti that George Lucas began work on the Star Wars script. He was seriously "sick" with the idea of creating his own world, where everything, from names to the way of life, would be invented only by him. Lucas practically does not part with a notebook in which he marks everything that comes to mind about the plot. Incomprehensible phrases from professional vocabulary or from other languages, unfamiliar sounds helped George Lucas model unusual names for his characters: Yoda, Vader, "Wookiee". The director of Star Wars wrote the script for the first part of the film for 6 years: the names of the characters, the relationship between them, and plot twists changed.

Before George Lucas began his collaboration with 20th Century Fox, he planned to recruit the entire cast for the film from Japanese actors. But the bosses of the film company insisted that Hollywood stars play the main roles. The film's budget was low, so the screen test was conducted in conjunction with another project headed by director Brian De Palma: the same actors auditioned for two films at the same time.

The role of the alien princess could have been played by Jodie Foster, but Carrie Fisher was approved, Mark Hamill became Luke Skywalker. Harrison Ford was not happy with the text of the script, therefore, as an old friend of Lucas allowed himself to swear hard at the screen tests, this made the director make sure that he didn’t even have to play the role of Han Solo, just be himself.

Shooting the first film of the star movie saga

Star Wars 1 Lucas began filming in March 1976 in the Tunisian desert. There were some incidents: on the very first day of filming, a hurricane destroyed all the scenery, which was then restored in an accelerated mode. Actors worked 10-15 hours a day. Filming then moved to the Elstree studios (a London studio) and proceeded according to the usual 8-hour schedule.

The 'Star Wars' director kept getting rebuked by Harrison Ford about the 'terrible' lyrics, eventually letting the actor change lines as he pleased - as long as it made sense.

Post-production

The production director of Star Wars finished editing the preliminary version in early 1977. Only Steven Spielberg praised his work, while other colleagues advised shelving the film and forgetting about it. Lucas decides to remove one character from the film - Biggs Darklighter and reshoot some scenes in the Californian desert. But Mark Hamill (leading actor) gets into a car accident, and the shooting breaks down. I had to release the original footage.

Reaction of moviegoers

The first film in the saga was simply called Star Wars: the director of Star Wars was not sure that the filming would continue, so he did not add the serial number of the episode to the title of the film.

In May 1977, at the Chinese Theatre, the audience finally saw for the first time the fantasy world created by George Lucas. The actors who played the main roles became objects of adoration; box office revenue saved 20th Century Fox from impending ruin; George Lucas immediately got the go-ahead for a second film, and funding increased from $11 million to $18 million, beginning an era of stardom craze that continues to this day.