Official News - page 10

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE, LEIA, HAN, CHEWIE, DARTH AND ALL THE GANG

by Hazed

On May 25, 1977, the original Star Wars movie debuted, making it thirty years old now. Those youngsters who weren't around back then probably don't realise just how significant the release of this film was. It was only shown on a paltry 32 screens at first, but it redefined blockbuster filmmaking, special effects, and Hollywood itself.

It went on to become the second-most successful film ever made. Not bad for a film made with a budget of $11m. It nearly got cancelled - the studio (Fox) had threatened to close down production when filming over-ran by more than two weeks. They had no faith in the film, hence the low number of cinemas it could be seen in at first, and were happy to sign away 40% of the merchandising rights to a canny George Lucas.

Plenty of web sites have factoids about the film as part of the 30-year celebrations. Here's two that I found interesting.

The BBC news web site has 30 pieces of trivia about the film. The Geek Trivia site has a list of some of the ways that everything might have been different: other actors who were considered for the roles, and even big differences in the first draft of the scripts. It's a fascinating look at how things might have turned out.

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