George Lucas' Star Wars is a massive space epic that has become one of the most successful and influential franchises in film history. Launched in the seventies and eighties and resuscitated at the turn of the 21st century, the series of films was constantly improving in the field of special effects and turned into an unusually lucrative trading film industry.
How it all began
After the second full-length picture of Lucas, made on a tiny budget, the 1973 drama American Graffiti, suddenly became a huge box office hit and was nominated for five Oscars, the director got creative freedom to do something as risky and potentially expensive. what Star Wars has become. The largest television company Fox agreed to provide support for the next project of the screenwriter and allocated nearly ten million dollars to produce the first picture.
The starting point for the creation of Star Wars was the desire of George Lucas to translate into one story and film the idea of a Western in space - an adventure action movie with chases, gunfights, with the opposition of evil and good. The idea appeared in childhood, which the future director spent on his family’s nut farm in Modesto, watching comics and television series about Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. From these and similar comics, Lucas borrowed laser swords, beam pistols, interstellar flights and space battles, ancient costumes with cloaks. With the help of Star Wars, J. Lucas wanted to resist the pessimism and cynicism that prevailed in American society during the Vietnam War and economic instability. The director wanted to return to people, especially children and adolescents, faith in a happy future, desire to dream and desire to fulfill their dreams.
Writing a story
But the transition from the draft to the final script took more than one year. In fact, the initial drafts are now unrecognizable even for the most dedicated fans. For example, in the early versions, Luke Skywalker was a gray-haired old general, and Han Solo was an alien with a frog appearance. The director of "Star Wars" Lucas tried his best to edit the script, the idea took control of his life, he carried a notebook with him everywhere, writing down various strange names and names that suddenly came to mind. At first, the story was inconsistent, inharmonious and rich in scenes that were too difficult and expensive to shoot, but each time the narration improved, and ultimately, the fourth version of the corrected script was used for filming.
Unusual casting
Things were not going smoothly with the cast, the Fox wanted to see the stars in the lead roles, and George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was new to the cast. The director teamed up with Brian De Palma and arranged a general audition with him. So the actors who came to audition for George Lucas for the film "Star Wars", at the same time auditioned for the dramatic thriller De Palma "Carrie". After the preliminary casting, fifty people were selected. Future celebrities such as Nancy Allen, Amy Irving and Sissy Spacek claimed the role of Princess Leia, but Carrie Fisher was the most suitable. However, the rest also did not remain without work, these actresses can be seen in the movie "Carrie".
Luke also caused a lot of trouble to Lucas, not a single name of a celebrity who could play a character came to the mind of the director. One of the applicants was William Katz, but Mark Hamill was eventually selected. Lucas wanted the characters of the actors to match the characters of the heroes. Perhaps that’s why he did a strange thing when he immediately refused all the casting participants the role of Han Solo and sent for a man who did not claim this role - Harrison Ford, with whom the director had a long-standing friendship.
An interesting case occurred with Alec Guinness, when he threw the script from where it came from. Sir Alec could not refuse to play a character resembling a cross between a Japanese samurai and a sorcerer Marlin.
Resounding success
Lucas's Star Wars film has been in production for nearly four years, including filming taking place in the desert of Tunisia and the Death Valley of California. Finally, on May 25, 1977, the premiere of the painting took place at the Chinese Theater. The next day, all three novice actors woke up famous. Although Lucas' Star Wars was featured in only 42 cinemas and had a final budget of $ 11 million, the film from around the world brought in more than $ 513 million in profit. Taking into account inflation, the picture took second place at the box office, losing only to Gone With the Wind. In addition to commercial success, Lucas' Star Wars was well received by critics and was nominated for 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The film won in six, mostly technical, categories.
New Hope
The story begins with the phrase "Once upon a time, in a far, far galaxy ...", which appears at the beginning of subsequent films, including many of the Star Wars spin-offs. The plot of the film takes place nineteen years after the formation of the Galactic Empire, by the time construction of a weapon capable of destroying entire planets, the Death Stars, ends. Princess Leia, the leader of the rebels, managed to abduct and dump the blueprints of a superweapon with which you can destroy the "Star". However, Leia herself was captured and taken into custody on a warship operated by Darth Vader. Young farmer Luke Skywalker accidentally finds these blueprints and contacts the old recluse Obi-Vanon Kenobi. He trains Luke and says that his father, the great Jedi, was killed by Darth Vader. Later they meet Han Solo, the smuggler and captain of the starship Millennium Falcon, on which the heroes try to rescue the princess from captivity.
The most popular movie saga
Three years later, on May 21, 1980, all in the same “Chinese Theater” a successful continuation of the project entitled “The Empire Strikes Back” comes out. The plot also takes three years, the story begins with a crushing defeat of the rebels in the battle with the forces of the Galactic Empire on the planet Hoth. Khan, Chubbaka and Leia, having separated from the rest of the resistance, are trying to escape from the troops of Darth Vader. At this time, Luke is being trained by Master Yoda on the planet Dagoba. However, having felt that his friends were in danger, he sent them to help. During a fight with the dark lord of the Sith, Luke learns the terrible truth about his father.
Defeat of the Empire
“The Return of the Jedi” - the last film from the original trilogy - has become one of the most anticipated sequels in the history of cinema. Its premiere took place on May 25, 1983. The events of the beginning of the film take place on the planet Tatooine, about a year after the actions in the "Empire". Luke and Leah manage to free Han Solo from the clutches of criminal king Jabba the Hutt. Meanwhile, the Galactic Empire, under the leadership of Darth Sirius, is working on the construction of a new, more powerful Death Star to defeat the rebels. The Alliance begins a crucial operation to prevent the construction of weapons and prepares an attempt on Palpatine to put an end to the Sith Empire.
The Skywalker Saga
After technological progress reached the level necessary for Lucas to shoot the prequel trilogy, on June 26, 1997, he began producing the first episode of The Phantom Menace. The plot introduces us to a young and unusually talented slave boy named Anakin Skywalker, who has an unusually powerful connection with the Great Force. He becomes the Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi, meets his love in the person of Queen Padme Amidala and secretly marries her. Emperor Palpatine convinces Anakin to go to the dark side in order to save Padme from death during childbirth, since it is precisely such a death of his wife that Skywalker increasingly sees in a dream. Anakin becomes Darth Vader, takes part in the destruction of other Jedi, and enters the fray Obi-Wan, but is defeated. He remains scarcely a living cripple, then they put him in a mechanical suit. "Star Wars. Episode I: The Phantom Menace "was released on May 19, 1999. Then, on May 16, 2002, Episode II: Attack of the Clones was released, and May 19, 2005, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released.
Reliable receiver
In October 2012, it became known that George Lucas had sold the rights to Star Wars and Indiana Jones to Disney. The transaction value was estimated at 4.05 billion dollars. About half of this amount, Walt Disney Company paid to the founder, chairman and CEO of LucasFilm, and the director received the rest of the shares in shares of Walt Disney itself. Under the terms of the agreement, the “mouse house” gets all the rights to the Lucas Star Wars franchise, as well as his achievements on possible films and other projects and technologies of “LucasFilm”. Many were surprised by the scriptwriter's deed.
So why did George Lucas sell Star Wars? In one of his interviews, he stated that for 35 years he had great pleasure in watching how Star Wars was passed down from generation to generation. Now is the time to pass them on to a new generation of filmmakers. Lucas always understood that Star Wars would survive him, and believed that it was necessary to organize a program during his lifetime. He decided to step back from the fate of Star Wars and focus on producing low-budget experimental and documentary films.
New launch
On December 18, 2015, the first part of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens prequel trilogy was released. The film tells the story of old (Princess Leia and Captain Han Solo) and new heroes: Rei scavenger girl, Finn stormtrooper deserter and Dameron's best resistance pilot. Two years later, on December 15, 2017, the sequel, the eighth film of the main saga “The Last Jedi,” about the adventures of Rei, a girl sensitive to the Force, was released.
In addition to paintings with a linear narrative, Disney released films with a secondary plot. This is Outcast One. Star Wars: Stories 2016 and Han Solo. Star Wars: Stories »2018.