How did Star Wars get made?

Welcome to History's Not Boring! Today, Mira and Finn are traveling back to the 1970s to uncover the secret origin of the biggest movie ever! Did you know that almost nobody wanted to make Star Wars? When a young director named George Lucas pitched his idea for a grand space adventure, every single movie studio said no! When he finally got a tiny budget to film in the harsh sandy deserts of Tunisia, everything went wrong. The robot suits kept breaking down in the heat, and even the actors thought the movie was going to be a giant flop! But George Lucas didn't give up. Against all odds, the movie premiered on May 25, 1977, and became an overnight sensation! People waited in lines all the way around the block just to see it. It changed movies forever, introducing the world to lightsabers, the Force, and the ultimate villain, Darth Vader! Grab your popcorn and jump into the hyperspace lane with us. You'll learn all the behind-the-scenes secrets of how this impossible space epic became a massive pop culture legend!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn. We don't have any special shout-outs today, but we do have a totally epic adventure. Since it's Star Wars Day week, may the fourth be with you, we are diving into one of the greatest stories in movie history.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Whoa, we're talking about Star Wars.

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Yes, I love spaceships. We sure are, but get this, the biggest space adventure ever almost didn't happen. Listen to this shocking fact. When the first Star Wars movie opened in 1977, it was only shown in 32 theatres in the entire United States. Only 32 theatres? But Star Wars is everywhere! Why so few? Because the movie studio thought it was going to be a giant embarrassing flop. But from those 32 theatres, it exploded to make over$775 million worldwide in total lifetime gross.

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$775 million? That's like enough to fill 20 school buses with dollar bills. How did a movie nobody wanted become so incredibly huge?

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Grab your lightsaber and strap into the Millennium Falcon fin, because we're about to travel back to the 1970s to find out exactly how it happened. Let's set the stage. The year is 1973. A 29-year-old movie director named George Lucas has an idea for a space adventure. He wants spaceships flying at light speed, knights with laser swords, and a terrifying villain in a black mask. Sounds awesome! Did the movie studios love the idea? Not at all. Back then, science fiction movies were usually seen as cheap and silly. George's early script had a really long, weird title. The Star Wars, from the adventures of Luke Starkiller.

unknown 1:58

Haha!

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Luke Starkiller? That sounds like a completely different guy. It does. When George pitched his idea, United Artists said no. Universal Studios said no. Even Disney said no to Star Wars. Disney passed on Star Wars. They literally own it now. I know, right? Finally, an executive at 20th Century Fox named Alan Ladd Jr. believed in George. But the studio only gave him a budget of$11 million. Is 11 million a lot for a movie? It was a tiny budget for a movie with aliens and giant space battles. To save money, the special effects team, called Industrial Light and Magic, had to build miniature spaceships out of old plastic model kits. They literally glued tiny pieces of toy tanks and submarines onto a five-foot model of the Millennium Falcon to make it look real.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Wait, the famous Millennium Falcon is made of little toy tank parts? That is so clever.

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To film the desert planet of Tatarine, they couldn't just build it in a studio. The cast and crew flew all the way to the real-life desert country of Tunisia in North Africa, where filming officially began on March 22, 1976. So they just set up their cameras in the sand? Was it hard? It was a complete disaster from day one. First, it rained. And not just a little sprinkle. It was the first major rainstorm in that specific desert in 50 whole years. The dry sand turned into a giant, sloppy mud pit.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

A mud pit?

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That completely ruins the desert planet vibe. It totally did. They had to ask the local Tunisian army to help pull their heavy equipment trucks out of the deep mud. And then the robot started breaking down completely.

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Oh no, not R2D2 and C3PO.

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Yes. Anthony Daniels, the actor inside the gold C3PO suit, was baking in a hundred degree Fahrenheit heat, and the stiff metal suit kept cutting his legs. But poor R2D2 had it even worse. The little robot was driven by a remote control, but it kept picking up signals from local Tunisian radio stations. The radio made R2D2 go crazy. Yes. The crew would try to drive R2D2 straight, but the radio signals made him spin rapidly in circles and crash into rocks. Finally, they just tied an invisible wire to R2D2 and pulled him across the sand on skis. They pulled him on skis. That is so funny. To make things crazier, they built a Jawa's sand crawler set that was 90 feet long and two stories high. The country next door, Libya, saw this giant metal box in the desert, thought it was a real military tank, and almost started a war. The crew had to quickly move it away from the border.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

If they almost started a war and everything was breaking, how did they finish filming?

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George Lucas and his crew just refused to give up. They worked 15-hour days in the heat, but even after they left the dangerous desert, the problems followed them back to the studio in England. What went wrong in England? The actors were really confused. Mark Hamill, who was a 24-year-old actor playing Luke Skywalker, and Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo, didn't really understand the story. They thought the dialogue about the force sounded completely ridiculous.

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Han Solo and Luke Skywalker thought Star Wars was a joke.

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They did. A lot of the movie crew in England thought they were making a silly kids' movie that was going to totally flop. George Lucas was under so much stress trying to finish the movie that he actually got sick and had to be rushed to the hospital with chest pains.

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Oh no, poor George Lucas. He worked so hard. Did the special effects work out at least?

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That's the amazing part! A special effects genius named John Dykstra invented a brand new robotic camera called the Dykstra Flex. It allowed the camera to swoop around those five-foot spaceship models perfectly, making them look a hundred feet long on the big screen. That's brilliant! So they tricked our eyes. Exactly! But the movie studio, 20th Century Fox, was still panicking. They were convinced the movie would lose millions of dollars. So, when Star Wars finally opened on Wednesday, May 25th, 1977, they only dared to put it in 32 theatres across the whole country. But they were wrong, right? What happened on opening day? It was like an absolute explosion! People started lining up around the block. Fans brought sleeping bags and slept on the concrete outside the theatres just to buy a ticket. The movie made$1.5 million in its very first weekend.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Whoa! From just 32 theatres to the biggest movie ever.

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Yes, it quickly expanded to over a thousand theatres and earned an unbelievable$775 million across its lifetime. It changed pop culture overnight. Suddenly, kids everywhere were pretending to have lightsables and practicing their heavy Darth Vader breathing.

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I do that all the time. Luke, I am your father.

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Actually, here is a mind-blowing fact. Darth Vader never says, Luke, I am your father. He actually says, no, I am your father. It's one of the most famous misquoted lines in all of history.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

No way! My whole life is a lie. What else don't I know?

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Well, here's another weird fact. Do you know how they made the iconic swooshing sound of the lightsaber? The sound designer, Ben Burt, made it by mixing the hum of an old broken television set with the buzzing motor of an old film projector.

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He made the coolest weapon sound in the galaxy out of a broken TV and a projector. That is totally genius.

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History is full of happy accidents. And the funniest part? George Lucas missed the opening day entirely because he was working in a sound mixing studio. A few days after the opening weekend, he went on vacation to Hawaii with his friend, director Steven Spielberg. While sitting on the beach, they brainstormed an idea for another movie. Indiana Jones. Alright, Finn, it's that time. Get ready for the Star Wars history quiz!

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Okay, I've got my brain powered up like a lightsaber. I'm ready. First question.

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How much money did the studio give George Lucas to make the movie? Next one. What desert country in Africa did they film in to create the planet of Tatooine? Question three. What exact date did the movie open in theaters? Here's number four. How many theatres did the movie open in on its very first day? Last question. Which robot kept spinning in circles because its remote control got scrambled by radio signals? Great job! Let's see how you did with the answers. The first answer is they gave him a budget of exactly$11 million.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Such a tiny amount for such a huge space movie.

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For question two, they filmed the desert scenes in the country of Tunisia.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Haha, the place that turned into a giant mud pit.

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Number three, the answer is, it opened on May 25th, 1977. The ultimate Star Wars birthday. Question 4. It opened in just 32 theatres. That still blows my mind. And the final answer is: it was R2D2 who got scrambled by the radio signals.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Ha ha! Beep boop, spinning in circles.

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I loved learning about this today. It just proves that even if everyone tells you your idea is silly, you should never, ever give up.

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Yeah, George Lucas had a tiny budget and a bunch of broken robots, but he still made the best space adventure ever.

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Speaking of the best ever, if you're enjoying our podcast, we'd love it if you could leave us a five-star review. Make those stars shine as bright as a Jedi's lightsaber.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, it's really easy. Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the stars. It really helps us out.

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Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games and cool historical activities waiting for you there.

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It's like an awesome history playground. And hey, if you want your name on the show for a shout-out, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.

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We love hearing from you guys. Thanks for exploring a galaxy far, far away with us today. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye, everyone. May the force be with you!