What's your favorite little known STAR WARS fact?

1)4 LOM stands for FOR LOVE OF MONEY. 2)During the evac scene in TESB a bespin guard can be seen running around with what appears to be an ice cream maker.3)The galaxy that Obi Wan looks at in the jedi archives(the one right by where Kamino should be)is the same galaxy seen at the end of Empire.

The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720 to 1.

There are only three female speaking parts in the original trilogy - Aunt Beru, Leia and Mon Mothma.

Well, four if you count Jabba's dancing girl. But that's a stretch.

The names of Jabba's skiff guards are Klaatu, Barada, and Nikto, which are the words that were uttered by Klaatu in "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

Plus, every one of the little yellow dashes on Han's pants in ANH were embroidered on. Good detailing.

LATER

"There are only three female speaking parts in the original trilogy - Aunt Beru, Leia and Mon Mothma."

What about the "Stand by, Ion control" lady from ESB? One must give credit where credit is due.

R2-D2 stands for Reel 2, Dialog 2

There's a potato in the asteroid field and a shoe in the Endor space battle.

That C-3P0 is gay....

but Artoo-Detoo......

.....is not....

\Paul Harvey saying - good day!

*The man who tells Leia that they must close the doors on Hoth, thus effectivly closing out all hope of Han and Luke surviving, is John Ratzenburg.

*Anakin's Theme is really just a upbeat, more melodic version of The Imperial March.

*The pod used in 2001 can be seen in Watto's junkyard.

*When Qui-Gon is reluctantly accepting to take Padme into town with him, a spacecraft that resembles the shape of Elliot and E.T. on his bike can be seen taking off from the spaceport.

*The head of General Grevious was fashioned after a hairspray nozzle.

Actually, one of Grievous' incarnations was fashioned after a spray-bottle, but George ultimately didn't approve it.

And while, Artoo-Detoo is not gay.....

.....he is....


..........a raging alcoholic.............

In ROTJ, when Admiral Ackbar is watching the Super Star Destroyer crash, you can hear one of the cheering Mon Calamari shout "Die, dickheads!!"

Also, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalkers father.

...That there were actually more physical models (of vehicles as well as evironments) made for the PT than the OT.

Excerpt from "Love and War" by Judy Duncan, Cinefex #90:

"...The sail ship lands in a small hangar, the interior of which was built as a miniature in the final days of production. Exteriors were 3D matte paintings. After a brief meeting between Dooku and Darth Sidious, the movie cuts to the interior of the Jedi temple, where a somber Yoda, Obi-Wan and Mace Windu consider the impact of the impending war. Yusei Uesugi provided the dramatic sunset view outside the temple windows, augmenting a photographic element with matte painting. "I knew, from thirteen years of being a matte painter, that it is impossible to paint a sunset like this," Uesugi said, "and that photographing a real dramatic, beautiful sunset was going to be essential. So for almost half a year, Masahiko Tani and I went outside every evening, looking for that gorgeous sunset to photograph. By the time we had to start working on these shots, we had taken about three hundred pictures; but none of them were very good, and I was starting to get nervous."
About that time, Uesugi took his vacation, visiting a friend in Tokyo. Coincidentally, his friend had taken a number of digital phtographs of a very dramatic sunset. "It was the sky on September 11 that he had photographed," Uesugi said. "The skies were so dramatic, he had thought to himself that it looked like the end of the world. Then, few hours later, he found out what was going on in New York. He was kind enough to let us use those digital images for these shots."..."

Yeah, that's a real good one.

Even lesser known is that the background plates and footage for the Pod race in TPM were shot in Southern California, specifically at Death Valley. I found the exact sites with 2 of my friends and they will be covered in a book we're working on (now scheduled for 2007 publication).

Is it a book about the real-life locations used in the Star Wars Saga?

Because if that's the case then the prequel chapters are probably going to be pretty thin, right?

From imdb.com

It's definitely much more thin than the OT stuff. And it would probably be near non-existent were it not for Tunisia and Italy.

Actually, here's an interesting bit of trivia: AOTC actually featured more location shooting than TESB. And TPM included the most on-location filming of ANY of the six films, including ANH & ROTJ. ROTS has the least.

My favorite fun fact, and it's missed by many, is that the celebration music from the end of The Phantom Menace, is the same melody of the Emperor's Theme in Return of the Jedi. Not that happy of an ending after all.

I suppose Auggies Municipal Band when on to write themes for the Empire after Revenge of the Sith. Work is work when you're in a band.

You win.

I thought ROTS had no location shooting of any kind?
Oh wait, didnt he film in Tunisia? One shot or something like that, so they wouldnt have to go back for ROTS a couple of years later...

Hey, you're right! I never noticed that before.

Is it only me or in ROTJ, after 3PO says something (he's on the floor) two Ewoks say,

"Hey man that guy's wise" then other Ewok replies "Yeah he is"

I shit you not, put in your DVD/VHS right now.

I always took that to be a Chip and Dale riff....

3PO also says "Naboo" when talking to the Ewoks. Of course it was probably just an interesting sound that Ben Burt had him say or something to that effect. But it cracks me up when he says it now.

*ANH was originally rated G before Lucas inserted the shots of the burnt remains of Owen & Beru.

*Kurt Russell tested for the part of Han Solo.

*Lucas seriously considered for a short time to use an all midget cast.

* Luke's original name was "Starkiller" but was changed days before shooting began.

* Peter Cushing's boots were too uncomfortable so he wore slippers instead.

*Han Solo's character was originally writen as a green-skinned lizard like alien with no nose.

This is the first year since 1977, that both Lucas and Spielberg each have a genre picture out.

Apparently, the OT wasn't that good either. Who knew?

David Lynch chose to direct Dune instead of Jedi

Spielberg was the original choice to direct RotJ but the DGA wouldn't allow it. They also fined Lucas and co. for not putting credits on the start of Empire even though they didn't mind for ANH. Also the fact they filmed a scene of Luke on Hoth from just outside the hotel is pretty neat. Most of my SW trivia know-how is from the DVD's so I doubt there's anything you guys don't know already. Also, the way they made the waterfall of Naboo palace in TPM was pretty neat.

[Is there even an upside to the DGA?]

That would be 2002.

Well, he did say genre picture. Catch Me If You Can is not exactly in the same genre as Attack of the Clones.

I remember about a year or two ago, when it looked like we might be getting both a new Star Wars and Indiana Jones film in the same summer. That would have made for an awesome blockbuster season.

Minority Report was released during the summer of 2002.

D'oh

For some reason I thought Minority Report was 01. Ah well. Thanks for the correction.

Yeah I noticed that when I was a kid and everytime I tell my friends they watch it and laugh.

One time, George Lucas got caught in a wet paper sack and could neither write nor direct his way out of it.

I keed! I keed!

I'm hoping that you mean "...before Lucas insterted the shots of the burnt remains of Owen & Beru AND the shot of the bloody, severed arm on the cantina floor."

I can't imagine ANH getting a G rating with the the arm scene still being in there EVEN IF you removed Ol' Uncle and Aunt Smokey.

That severed arm was such a Kurosawa/Yojimbo homage that I don't believe it was added later as an afterthought. I'll bet Lucas had that scene in mind before he'd even settled on what would cut the arm off.

That ultimately George Lucas' favorte word is "ultimately".

Not really a "SW FACT!" but more an observation that always makes me smirk - if you listen out on Return of the Jedi (the unrestored version only) right at the end where the heroes are assembled in a photo-shoot like manner, the last thing you'll ever hear from a Star Wars character is Princess Leia giving a right dirty laugh. It's right up there with Palpatine's evil chuckles.


Back on a "SW FACT!" track though, the guy who played Dack plays Fett during the "He's no good to me dead" scene.

Porkins actually has had a lucrative movie career (outside of his brilliant turn in Star Wars) including appearances in Batman (Eckhardt) and Raiders (Gov't Spook.)

And continuing the Indiana Jones connections, outside of Porkins and Harrison Ford, we have:

General Veers (Julian Glover) played Walter Donovan in Last Crusade.

Admiral Ozzel (Michael Sheard) played Hitler in Last Crusade as well.

Nope. It was G until the burnt relatives showed up.

Take it for what it's worth as there's not much in the way of corroboration but it's a fun idea:


Ancient steel-bladed Jedi sword on Ben's wall -

There's a pair of metal dice hanging in the Millennium Falcon's cockpit.

I am pretty sure what happened was the DGA wanted Lucas to put opening credits on ANH, he said no, they fined him something like $10,000, he paid it and quit the DGA.

The DGA didn't care about what Lucas did when Star Wars was probably going to be a flop. They said it was okay that he not have the credits at the opening. Then with Empire they had a problem with it. They tried to have Empire pulled from theaters and fined Kershner a couple hundred thousand dollars, which Lucas paid. That's when Lucas quit the DGA and the Writers Guild (I think) and called them all pirates. He pretty much gave the finger to Hollywood after that.

That's the way I heard the story.

Yoda's facial lines and wrinkles are based on a photo of Albert Einstein.