Director of "Star Wars" George Lucas: biography, the history of the creation of the first movie star movie

The first film, which tells of the incredible adventures of Luke Skywalker, called Star Wars came out on big screens almost 40 years ago. The success was simply deafening not only among spectators, but also among critics, as the 7 Oscars won. It's hard to believe that the director of "Star Wars" George Lucas once showed the script to friends and heard from them urgent recommendations not to engage in this "absurd" project. Fortunately, Lucas did not abandon his idea and after the success of the first picture he shot five more episodes of the famous star saga. How did the shooting of the very first film of the epic film take place and what did the director do before getting to know the "big" movie?

Life of Jorge Lucas before the "big" movie

The director of the Star Wars was born a year before the end of World War II - in May 1944. His family lived in sunny California, his father was a small entrepreneur.

Since childhood, Lucas was known in the nature of being addicted. His first passion was racing. Cars and garages - that's what he was interested in, he did not think about directing. But the predilection for racing turned into a car crash for George - at the age of 18 he nearly died while driving his Autobianchi Bianchina.

After that, the future director of the film "Star Wars" went to study in college. However, acquaintance with the films of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, as well as with the cult director Francis Ford Coppola gave the young man a new passion - cinema.

The first films of George Lucas

Director of the movie "Star Wars" from the very beginning of his career gravitated toward the genre of fantasy, in particular, the theme of people's lives in the distant future.

For example, the first of his feature films was the picture "THX 1138", which takes the viewer to the XXV century. With a budget of 777 thousand dollars, the anti-utopia at the box office collected 2 million. This is an insignificant figure for Hollywood, but it's amazing that the picture in just a couple of years became cult, and the idea (the story of people deprived of emotions performing computer orders) began to be used in Other films ("Cyborg", "Equilibrium", etc.). And some parts of the film (sound tracks, citations, abbreviations) penetrated into the mass culture.

The future director of "Star Wars" before the release of the famous star saga produces another tape - "American graffiti." Youth comedy Lucas with a budget of 775 thousand dollars was able to break into the category for "Oscar", and in 5 categories.

Origin of the idea

It was during the shooting of "American Graffiti" that George Lucas began work on the scenario of "Star Wars". He seriously "got sick" of the idea of creating his own world, where everything, from names and up to the way of life, would have been invented only by him. Lucas practically does not part with a notebook, in which he marks everything that only comes to mind about the plot. Unclear word combinations from professional vocabulary or from other languages, unfamiliar sounds helped Joc Lucas to model unusual names for his characters: Yoda, Vader, "Wookiees." The script for the first part of the film directed the "Star Wars" for 6 years: the names of the characters changed, the relationship between them, the plot twists.

Before George Lucas began working with Twentieth Century Fox, he planned the entire cast for the film among Japanese actors. But the film company's bosses insisted that Hollywood stars play the main roles. The budget of the film was not large, so the screen tests were conducted in conjunction with another project, headed by director Brian De Palma: the same actors were auditioned simultaneously for two pictures.

The role of the alien princess could play Jodie Foster, but was approved by Carrie Fisher, Luke Skywalker became Mark Hamill. Harrison Ford was not thrilled with the text of the script, so as an old friend of Lucas allowed himself to swear hard at screen tests - it made the director make sure that he did not have to play the role of Han Solo, it's enough to be yourself.

Shooting the first movie star movie

"Star Wars-1" Lucas started shooting in March 1976 in the Tunisian desert. It was not without excesses: on the first shooting day, the hurricane destroyed all the scenery, which then recovered in an accelerated mode. Actors worked for 10-15 hours a day. Then the shooting was transferred to the pavilions "Elstree" (London studio) and passed according to the usual 8-hour schedule.

The director of "Star Wars" continued to receive reproaches from Harrison Ford about the "terrible" text, in the end he allowed the actor, at his discretion, to change the lines - the main thing was to make sense.

Postproduction

Director of the film "Star Wars" finished editing the preliminary version in early 1977. Only Steven Spielberg positively assessed his work, while other colleagues advised to put the film on the shelf and forget about it. Lucas decides to remove from the movie one character - Biggs Darklighter and reshoot in the California desert some scenes. But Mark Hamill (the lead role) falls into a car accident, and the shooting breaks down. It was necessary to produce on the screens originally the footage.

The reaction of moviegoers

The first movie of the movie was called simply Star Wars: the director of the Star Wars was not sure that the shooting would continue, so he did not add the serial number of the episode to the title of the film.

In May 1977, at the "Chinese Theater", the viewer finally saw for the first time the fantastic world created by George Lucas. The actors who performed the main roles became objects of adoration; Fees from showing the tape at the box office saved the company 20th Century Fox from the impending ruin; George Lucas immediately got "good" for the shooting of the second film, and funding increased from $ 11 million to $ 18 million. So the whole era of "star fever" began, which continues to this day.