American movies of the early '70s reflected the skepticism and harshness of the nation. With the Vietnam War and Watergate came a wave of disillusionment and antiheroes displayed in movies like Chinatown and The Godfather. When Star Wars debuted in 1977, it was like a breath of fresh air — the film was unlike anything else in theaters at the time. George Lucas, who considered himself separate from corporate Hollywood, took to studying old legends and mythology rather than current politics. Star Wars became a timeless hero's journey with larger than life heroes rather than a snapshot of one dark moment in time.

Today, Star Wars is a well-established and respected franchise, but it hit a lot of roadblocks during production. George Lucas was a relatively unknown director, the movie was incredibly costly, and few people could envision the film the way Lucas did. They feared a situation similar to Lucas' THX1138, when Warner Brothers feared the film's failure and asked Lucas to return their $300,000 investment. It's a wonder the movie ever got made, with so many complaints about the story, budget, and crew. Even though the odds weren’t in its favor, here is the story of how Star Wars was made.

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Pre-Production and Writing the Script

George Lucas and Alan Land Jr. Discussing their upcoming Film
Lucasfilm

Lucas faced a lot of problems while writing the script for Star Wars. First, the setting and characters were incredibly complicated. The idea of the force was difficult to define. In fact, for a long time it was really just a magical relic (Kyber Crystal) instead of a universal energy throughout the galaxy. Secondly, many Hollywood executives struggled to buy into Lucas's vision. Science fiction was thought of as an outdated and unpopular genre. Universal hadn't released Lucas' American Graffiti yet, because the executives disagreed with the director's style, casting a shadow of doubt on Lucas' abilities as a filmmaker.

Thankfully, Alan Ladd Jr, president of 20th Century Fox, saw American Graffiti before its release. He disagreed with Universal and asked to help make Lucas' next film. Ladd Jr. remained an important and powerful ally to Lucas and Star Wars through every phase of production. His faith in the film never wavered despite criticism from every other member of the board.

When Lucas finally put his first draft of the script together, it turned out to be 200 pages long. He decided to start with just the first third of the script. Lucas knew he needed help showcasing his vision and the film's scale to the board. He hired Ralph McQuarrie to draw storyboards for his pitch meeting in color. McQuarrie made sure to include references to Lucas' scale so that the board members could appreciate the magnitude of the intended visual shots. The combination of McQuarrie's art with Lucas' story worked just as they'd hoped. Lucas left the meeting with an approved eight million dollar budget.

Casting

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George Lucas wanted to hire less recognizable actors, but the road to discovering new talent is a long one. He looked for "individual screen presence" and "on-screen chemistry" among all the applicants for Star Wars. Finally, after countless auditions, Lucas chose Mark Hamill for his "integrity and intelligence," Harrison Ford for being "smug" with an aging cynicism, and Carrie Fisher for her confidence and regal air. However, the studio wasn't happy with the risks associated with putting inexperienced actors in such starring roles. So they brought on Sir Alec Guinness to play Obi-Wan Kenobi. Guinness would act as a mentor both on and off the screen, keep the youth on track, and please the studio.

Filming and Locations

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In 1976, the cast was finally ready to begin shooting on the sands of Tatooine, or at least in North Africa. Right away they had problems with weather. One day into filming the desert flooded with rain. They had difficulties with sets blowing down and machines not working. When the storms cleared up enough to start filming, the weather became unbearably hot — especially for the actors in elaborate costumes.

Even after shooting on location ended, and the actors returned to an indoor studio, there were problems with the script. The actors found the dialogue to be wooden and unrealistic for natural conversation, difficult to perform with emotion or speed. On top of everything else, everyone on set struggled to imagine what the film could look like with special effects and the extent to which special effects could change their reality. Even Lucas was disappointed with the slow development of special effects at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).

However, each of the actors did their part to make the set enjoyable. Guinness stepped up as a mentor, and his endearing and cheerful attitude encouraged everyone else on set to remain just as professional. Additionally, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill played off of each other's sense of humor to bring excitement to the set, constantly trying to make Lucas laugh (even though Lucas himself seemed to find that distracting and a little annoying). Eventually, Lucas wrapped filming with all the footage he needed.

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Post-Production and Industrial Light and Magic

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The new hires at ILM had the enormous task of carrying out something that had never been done before, and most of them had only worked on smaller production companies and commercials. They struggled to create Lucas' vision, and eventually Lucas himself stepped in to help. They decided to use old WWII aerial footage as a reference, copying the same flight patterns and beats of the historical footage with scale models of Star Wars ships. This foundational piece gave everyone a clear common goal, and helped turn around the special effects.

Editing the film together posed similar problems. The first rough cut of the film was too similar to other films of the time. The shots were all slow and wide. Lucas felt that tighter shots and faster cuts were needed to bring suspense, excitement, and mystery to the film, but once again, the editing team struggled to understand his vision. Lucas decided to re-cut the entire film from scratch.

The Release and Legacy

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After the film was finally complete, most major movie theaters didn't want to play it. With a small marketing budget, few people knew what Star Wars was. The marketing team had successfully targeted a niche market of science fiction fans at comic book conventions, but most of the original trailers didn't capture the movie's magnitude. Even though theaters didn't want to play Star Wars: A New Hope, they did want to play The Other Side of Midnight (slotted to be one of the summer's biggest movies). Fox determined that in order for theaters to show The Other Side of Midnight, they would have to play Star Wars as well.

The studio finally persuaded 43 theaters to show the film. Once the film finally opened, it earned $1,554,475 in the first weekend. It went on to earn more money at the box office than any other movie up to that point, making more than 70 times its initial budget.

Lucas was very worried about protecting the rights to the sequels. He had no interest in the studio inhibiting his creative vision again. Lucas took out a loan from the bank and financed the entire sequel, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back, by himself. The film continued to face difficulties with production; however, after more nail-biting events, Lucas' investment paid off with another successful movie.

George Lucas went on to make numerous sequels and series for the Star Wars Universe. He recently sold the rights for Star Wars to Disney for more than $4 billion in 2012. Under Disney's brand, the Star Wars universe has only continued to grow, and three more series are expected in this year alone!