This article first appeared onDen of Geek UK.
By now, the contribution George Lucas, John Williams andStar Warscast made to cinema is well documented.
Heres a look at 10 unsung heroes behindStar Wars…
Nevertheless, the two became partners for many years.
The pair even formed the independent film studio American Zoetrope in 1979.
Lucass debut feature,THX 1138,was produced through the company.
It wasnt a huge hit, but Coppola continued to encourage Lucas to write and direct.
Despite Coppolas misgivings overStar Wars,the pair remained friends.
Lucas even took inspiration from Coppola when creating the character Han Solo.
When Lucas submitted his script to 20th Century Fox for approval, he provided copies of McQuarries artwork.
Without McQuarries concepts, its possible thatStar Warswould never have been given the greenlight.
Alan Ladd Jr.
It did not go well.
Nevertheless, De Palma proved something of a help to Lucas, that dismal screening aside.
It went on for six paragraphs with four sentences each.
Let me sit down and write this for you.
He helped me chop it down into the form that exists today.
Several months earlier, De Palma had also helped Lucas throughStar Warscasting process.
And thats the art of it.
I understood how to do that engineering and all that stuff.
So George said, Yes, go do it.
And airplane scrap at that time, nobody wanted it.
There were junkyards full of it, because they sold it by weight.
I could buy almost an entire plane for 50 pounds.
There was no concept art for any of Lukes homestead stuff.
That was all John Barry.
The Rebel Blockade runner, as well.
Ralph McQuarrie had done a painting but really these guys took it to a whole new level.
By 1976, Ford had largely given up on acting.
Small parts inAmerican GraffitiandApocalypse Now(the latter not finished until 1979) failed to lead to more work.
Before that, Freeborn played a pivotal role in bringing some ofStar Warspivotal characters to life.
Ben Burtt
So much ofStar Wars brilliance lies in its sound.
A combination of a whirring film projector and dying television set.
Those roaring TIE Fighter engines?
A mix of slowed-down elephant and car tires rushing along a wet road.
A blend of bear, walrus, lion, and dog.
Jympson was duly replaced by three new editors, Paul Hirsch, Richard Chew, and Marcia Lucas.
One of the key sequences Marcia worked on was the final assault on the Death Star.
Conversely, Marcia encouraged George to keep some ofStar Warsmore humane moments, too.
Its essential reading, and an important reminder that movie history could have been very different without Marcias input.
John Dykstra, the special effects supervisor at the newly-minted ILM.
Lucas and Dykstra later fell out, but Dykstra and his team won an Oscar for their ground-breaking achievements.
This article first ran on April 23rd, 2015.
