All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S01E01.A.New.Hope.Part.I.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

[FILM CLICKING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: In 1976...

here in Tunisia,
North Africa...

this tiny town of Tataouine

and other locations
all over the country...

became less of a wretched hive
of scum and villainy

and more of a harrowing
film shoot location.

MARCIA: It's like waging a war
when you're out
in the middle of the desert.

NARRATOR: Besieged
by inexperience...

DYKSTRA: Nobody knew
what we were doing.

NARRATOR: ...and questionable
decisions.

-MAN: Cut!
-What am I doing here?

I am not liking this.

George is getting
crosser and crosser

as I get it
wronger and wronger.

NARRATOR: And on this shoot,
everything went wronger.

The crew didn't understand
what we were making.

MARCIA: Brian De Palma said,
"George, you gotta get rid

of that Force thing.

He does not know
what he's talking about."

We were always on the verges
of just blowing up.

[THUDS]

NARRATOR: And this is the story
of how one man's

often controversial vision...

I don't like George's choices
of the aliens.

NARRATOR:
did very much blow up.

MARCIA: George went, "Oh, God.
Now I have to make a sequel."

[YELLS] No!

-What have we here?
-[CHUCKLES]

NARRATOR: Sending shockwaves
around the world...

A lot of directors
didn't want to do the sequels.

... for decades to come.

It was bought
by a local music shop

and they were using it
as a trash can.

NARRATOR:
And the first three movies...

-[EVIL LAUGH]
-[MCDIARMID] And I did ask

George, "Does he come back
in any other form?"

And he went,
"No, he's dead."

NARRATOR: To the
three prequels,

which had their
own set of problems

both on the screen...

He was especially stunned
by all the criticism of Jar Jar.

[BLOWS RASPBERRIES]

NARRATOR:
and on the page.

It wasn't connected.
Random thoughts.

George--I don't know
why he does these things.

DANIELS: When I read the script
in my hotel room,

I threw it into the corner
of the suite.

NARRATOR: So, strap in...

This is where the fun begins.

... and hold on tight...

-Punch it!
-[GROWLS]

...as we dig deep...

Carrie Fisher pulled out
half an hour's worth of hair

for hair and make up
to primp it back in.

NARRATOR: to discover
the gems...

KAZANJIAN: It's the only time
I've ever heard somebody

tear into George Lucas.

NARRATOR:
and reveal the secrets...

The way he dealt
with my leaving him...

was to decide
that I never existed.

NARRATOR: On
Icons Unearthed: Star Wars.

Don't even go there.

[EXCITING MUSIC]

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR:
From the beginning of time

the story of humanity
is one of struggle,

love, and hate.

War and peace.

But it's the relationship
between parents and children,

fathers and sons that really
captures our imaginations.

And one particular story
more than any other.

No, not that one.

That's a different kind
of father and son story
altogether.

ButStar Wars is the story
of a father and a son

both on-screen and off.

How one young Californian
was driven to greatness

through conflict,
perseverance,

and the greatest motivation
of them all...

It's about the hope
that there could be

a resolution to that
incredibly painful relationship.

[LUKE ECHOING]
I know there's good in you.

George's father was a
small-town--small business man

in Modesto, California.

NARRATOR: And as it happened,
George Lucas was a small boy
in that same town.

TENUTO: George Lucas was born
on May 14th, 1944.

His dad was George and his mom
was Dorothy Bomberger.

His father's working
a great deal

in order to take care
of the family.

[DIAL WHINING]

George was part
of that generation that

didn't have TV for the first
part of their childhood

so he listened
to science fiction

radio dramas growing up.

NARRATOR:
Until the radio gave way
to a new kind of square box.

TENUTO: And he begins watching
what was very common content

for kids at that time,
movie serials from the 1930s

that got put on television.
Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers...

NARRATOR: Pretty soon it became
obvious George was watching
a little too much TV.

TENUTO: George didn't like going
to school as a young kid...

NARRATOR:
What he did like was cars.

TENUTO: It was really what
he thought he was going to do.

He thought he was gonna be
a professional car racer.

NARRATOR: His love of speed
was about to bring George

to the first major
turning point in his life.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

TENUTO: In 1962,
in his senior year,

he was struck by another
teenage driver

at 90 miles an hour.

The car
flips over four times,

hits a walnut tree,
and he was thrown
from the vehicle.

[HOSPITAL MACHINES BEEPING]

BENNETT: So, George
is in the hospital recovering
from a near-death

experience and he thinks,"Wait,
maybe there's a reason
I was spared."

NARRATOR: Thanks in part
to that walnut tree,

the young George Lucas had
acquired a sense of destiny.

TENUTO: He begins to realize
he wants to do

something meaningful
with his life.

-NARRATOR: But what?
-He decided to go to college

which is something
he never
really intended to do.

NARRATOR: Or,
in George's father's case,

something he didn't want
him to do.

His father owned
a stationary store.

When you have a father
who owns his own business,

it's like, "Join me
and together we can control
this stationary empire."

He did not get the approval
that any young man wants

-from his father.
-George and his dad

clashed a lot.
I don't think his dad

had much expectations
for George.

NARRATOR: But he did have
plenty of advice.

POLLOCK: "Own
your own business.

Don't work for other people.

Make your own
financial decisions."

NARRATOR: Putting some distance
between himself and his father,

George set out
to prove him wrong,

but he quickly found
a new family of sorts

at the University
of Southern California.

George was a transfer student

from Modesto Junior College
and I was in
the Cinema Department

and George showed up and said,
"Tell me what goes on here."

And George begins to think,
"Huh...movies."

NARRATOR: George was clearly
in the right place

even if the titles
of his student films

suggested a proclivity
for mathematics.

THX 1138, 4EB.

NARRATOR: Which won George a
National Student Film Festival.

Incredible.

KAZANJIAN: George
was creative.
He thought out of the box.

He was a rebel.

NARRATOR: George was on
a lot of people's radars.

I knew
he was an intuitive genius.

NARRATOR: And momentum
continued to build

for this rebellious,
intuitive genius.

His love for film making
was soon joined

by a romantic love
when he started dating

Assistant Editor
Marcia Lou Griffin.

When George and I were dating,
we used to go to films a lot.

We saw 2001and George
was very inspired.

He thought, "I can make a movie
in outer space

with spaceships
that look real."

He decided he wanted to make,
like, a new type of sci-fi film.

LikeFlash Gordon,
but in the '70s.

NARRATOR: But first,
the young and bold George Lucas

would need to get his foot
in the door at Hollywood

and in 1968,
he did just that.

Warner Brothers was giving out
internships and he ended up

getting assigned a feature
that was being made then...

A musical called
Finian's Rainbow.

[WOMAN SINGING]

MORTON: which was being
directed by
Francis Ford Coppola.

TENUTO: The two of them form
a relationship

that's very similar in a way
to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

LUKE SKYWALKER: Why don't you
outrun 'em? I thought you said
this thing was fast?

Watch your mouth, kid,
or you're gonna find
yourself floating home.

TENUTO: Where you have this,
sort of, the older,

slightly cynical,
more experienced Coppola

very much being, like,
an older brother figure
to George Lucas.

NARRATOR: And from then on,
George was under
Coppola's umbrella.

MORTON: Lucas worked
on the filmThe Rain People

and filmed
a making-of documentary

called Filmmakerwhich
was about
Coppola and the process.

COLLOLA: All I want to do
is get the film going.

Uh, look, you can imagine
Warner Brothers financing

a picture when they
haven't read the script

and they don't even know
who in the hell the people
who are in it are?

And, so, George
told Francis his girlfriend

was an assistant editor,
and so Francis said,
"Well, bring her in."

And that was my first feature
film assisting.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

You don't
think at the time

anybody ever thought
that this was going to be

a transitional time
in American film

with all these younger people
coming in.

And that was our friends
and all of a sudden

wewere making
all these movies.

Coppola was a really big deal
at that point.

NARRATOR: And Warner Brothers
made a really big deal

with Coppola signing him up
for seven pictures.

One of which was destined
to become a reboot

of George's post-apocalyptic
student film.

MAN: THX 1138.

NARRATOR:
Produced by Coppola

and written, edited,
and directed by George,

he set out to make
his first feature

with his now wife,
Marcia Lucas, by his side.

He was editing it
and I was his assistant.

And he would call me over,
"Does this scene work for you?

Does that scene work for you?"
He was always asking my opinion.

TENUTO: He has always been
an experimental filmmaker.

Everything about that film
challenges you.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

And then Coppola told Lucas,
"You can't make these cold,

impersonal science fiction films
and expect to get an audience.

You have to do something
with emotion.

No, you're wrong.

And, famously,
Lucas said something like,

"It's not hard to make
people cry.
I'll show you. I can do it."

NARRATOR: And George knew
exactly where to go

for an emotional story...
back home.

But he decided to make a movie
about his youth.

NARRATOR: This coming-of-age
film focused on an idyllic
version of George's youth.

CURL: We are going to remember
all of the good times
is what we're gonna do.

NARRATOR: But it was
just a movie after all.

Good-bye, son.
Call us when you get there.

NARRATOR: George's reality
was quite different.

His father did not respect
the Entertainment Industry.

So, no matter
how big a success you are

in the Entertainment Industry,
it's not the same

as success
in a respectable field.

NARRATOR: But George's father's
disapproval was soon replaced

by the disapproval
of the studio because

with Coppola busy
onGodfather II...

George is left to deal
with the studio on his own

which he was not a fan of.

In fact, that experience
cemented his dislike
for the Hollywood Studio system.

NARRATOR:
Yet despite the difficulties...

BENNETT: American Graffiti
isn't just a hit,

it is a blockbuster.

It earned $140 million
at the box office.

It remains
one of the greatest

profit-to-cost ratios
of a film ever made.

And that was the genius
$700,000 movie.

NARRATOR:
George Lucas had arrived.

BENNETT: American Graffiti
is printing money

and now George
is the hottest director in town.

He was offered a lot of films.
He turned down every one

because he has
this ambitious project.

"I really wanna make
a sci-fi film

and re-invent the genre."

NARRATOR:
George gets to work...

[BENNETT ECHOING] Like a new
type of sci-fi film.

NARRATOR: on an idea
he seemed destined to make.

[BENNETT ECHOING]
Flash Gordon in the 1970s.

NARRATOR: This idea
was actuallyFlash Gordon.

He made an inquiry into
the rights of Flash Gordon...

[WHOOSHING]

-he was turned down.
-[WHISTLING, CRASH]

NARRATOR: Luckily for us all,
-Whoo-hoo!

Dino De Laurentiis
had beaten George to the punch

which left George
with only one option.

He decided to make
his own space opera.

BENNETT: So, George is
thinking, "Okay,
I make a space opera

even more successful
than American Graffiti,

I could make my own
independent studio."

NARRATOR: And this almighty
concept poised

to change cinema history
was called...

TENUTO: Was actually titled
The Journal of the Whills.

He puts down on paper sort of
a two-page summary.

NARRATOR: Well,
really more of a first-draft

of a first draft which George
would soon toss out anyway.

So, exactly what the Whills are,
is a little bit fuzzy.

NARRATOR: But an altogether
different story
was slowly coming into focus.

TENUTO: In January of 1973,
George has written a summary

of what he's envisioning
now namedThe Star Wars.

It's the story of a General
named Luke Skywalker

who helps a princess who,
at the end of the story,

turns out to be a demigod.

[CHIMES]

George, at this stage,
is putting together

a 14-page treatment
that he's gonna bring around

to the studios
to shop Star Wars.

NARRATOR: The first studio
was Universal.

Because Universal had
the first right of refusal
after American Graffiti.

NARRATOR:
And refuse they did.

Next up was United Artists.

BENNETT: And they also passed
onStar Wars

because everyone thought,
"Ah, sci-fi...

ehh... that's dead."

[GUN SHOTS]

TENUTO: There aren't a lot
of big science fiction films
made at this time.

Really the only big ones are
The Planet of the Apesfilms.

So, by picking sci-fi,
everyone thought

that George was just making
a big, huge mistake.

NARRATOR:
And there was another problem.

MORTON: Nobody could
really grasp what it was

so he felt in order
to make it clear to people,

he needed something visual.

TENUTO: So one of the things
George does

is he brings in Ralph McQuarrie

who produces about
a dozen illustrations.

NARRATOR: And what was
really nothing more

than an element of George's
sales pitch

became something much more.

McQuarrie did the first designs
of C-3P0 and R2-D2.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

A dozen of those paintings were
the art direction of the movie.

TENUTO: So he brings this idea
to 20th Century Fox.

NARRATOR: Specifically to
the office of an unlikely lad.

Alan Ladd Jr. was the son
of the movie star Alan Ladd.

Alan Ladd Jr. is frantically
searching for a film

that will get a young audience
into the theaters.

NARRATOR: Because
20th Century Fox's audience
was as old as the hills.

♪ The hills are alive

The studio almost
went into bankruptcy

and then they came out
of bankruptcy
with The Sound of Music.

NARRATOR: With the studio
hanging on by a thread,

Alan Ladd Jr. bet it all
on this young director

who had made one failed
sci-fi movie...

[CHUCKLES]

NARRATOR: and one hit
non-sci-fi movie.

Alan Ladd Jr. saw an early
screening of American Graffiti

and he was really impressed
with it

and his basic approach was,
"I want to be in business
with George Lucas."

NARRATOR:
George Lucas' space opera

had found
its first audience.

An audience of one who was
prepared to back his vision.

Although, not entirely sure
what The Star Warsis,

he inks a deal
with George Lucas in 1973

and the agreement is
that Lucas will be paid

$15,000 to develop the story,

$50,000 to write the script,

and $100,000
to direct the film.

NARRATOR: So, George just had
to whip up a script.

Easy since he already
had the story.

He sold the film to Laddy
as The Dirty Dozen

-in outer space.
-[SPANISH GUITAR RIFFS]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[GUN SHOT]

NARRATOR: But the script
became a lot of things.

It took him, actually, about
four years to write the script.

NARRATOR: But only about a year
to ink what would

turn out to be
an incredibly consequential
contract with Fox.

What he really wanted
was the rights to the sequel.

NARRATOR: Because like his dad
had always taught him...

POLLOCK: Retain control
and ownership!

Always his goal.

The biggest lesson
from his businessman father.

NARRATOR: To which Fox said,
"Sequels? What sequels?"

He was interested in doing
a sequel if it worked out.

He felt
he had enough material.

NARRATOR: Oh,
and there was one more thing.

He asked
for merchandising rights

and Fox gave it to him easily
because they didn't think

there was going to be
any market for a sequel

and no value in the
merchandising.

NARRATOR: And for that
we can than none other

thanDoctor Dolittle.

I think it'll be so much
that all the family,

including the animals,
are going to want to see.

NARRATOR: TheDoctor Dolittle
toys did little sales

sealing the fate
of movie merchandise.

It spectacularly bombed
to the point where

no manufacturers wanted
to get involved in a heavy way

with movie merchandising.

BENNETT: George wasn't
interested in more money.

He just wanted the rights
to make any sequels
that could be made.

NARRATOR: It was a gamble

and right now it was all riding
on one script

with more than one problem.

We all felt he needed
a female character.

That doesn't sound too hard.

And so George wrote
the first female heroine.

NARRATOR: The helpless
Princess demigod became...

CHRISTIAN: A feisty princess
who takes on the Empire.

She's the first female
superhero, I think.

NARRATOR: But one thing
the early scripts

forStar Wars did contain...

was something that was
nothing short of cosmic.

He believed that,
the young people are drifting,

they have no faith,

they are seeking
some kind of a message

that gives their lives
a purpose.

NARRATOR:
George Lucas believed he had

a universal message
and he called it...

-The Force.
-The Force?

NARRATOR: Yes, the Force.

MARCIA: I was raised
Christian Scientist.

We used to say, "Man
is spiritual and not material."

And the Force is something
that is spiritual.

It's an energy field
created by all living things.

And, so, when he had the Force
written into the movie,

I knew how important that was.
It had to be important.

It was the glue
that held it all together.

NARRATOR: George had conceived
a Bible for a new cosmology,

but he still needed
some Apostles

to write the scripture.

So, George was fantastic
with narrative plot.

He wasn't so fantastic
at writing dialogue.

[BEEPING]

TENUTO: Dialogue is not
his strong suit

and, so, Gloria Katz
and Willard Huyck come in--

they worked on
American Graffiti,

and they punch upStar Wars.

About 80% of The Star Wars
final draft is their writing.

MARCIA: When I read it I said,

"This is great.
This is really working.

I love this."
And then George said,

"I'm making this movie
for ten-year-old boys."

And I thought, "This is a movie
ten-year-old boys are gonna
love,

but I didn't think the rest
of the world was gonna love it.

NARRATOR:
With a script ready to roll,

Star Wars was due on screens
in under two years

and George
still didn't have a producer.

All he knew was that
it wasn't going to be him.

So, George really didn't like
handling money

and scheduling,
so he hired a producer
to deal with all of that.

NARRATOR: Gary Kurtz,
who George knew

fromAmerican Graffiti
was signed on to produce
in early 1975.

George had 100%
of the creative development

and Gary Kurtz had 100%
of the logistics.

NARRATOR: And after the
staggering financial success

ofAmerican Graffiti,
having Gary on board

could only be a good thing.

Oh, Gary.
Gary was an odd bird.

NARRATOR: But, still,
George and Gary were solid.

So, no problems there.

And as for the editing...

Marcia would do it, of course.

No, I was not
gonna edit Star Wars.

We're gonna be on location
in London and Tunisia

and I wanted
to be a lady of leisure

and I wanted to have a baby
and George said,

"Yeah, I guess we can afford
to have a baby now."

NARRATOR: Instead, that honor
would go to a British editor

not that
they were anywhere near

having anything
to edit yet.

They obviously knew,
as Star Warswas shaping up,

that they were gonna need to do
special effects.

NARRATOR: Make that
extra special, special effects.

Normally in special effects
in the past,

the camera stood still,
but the model moved.

Instead, George wanted
the camera to move.

He wanted that
for the dogfights

and he wanted that
for the special effects.

NARRATOR: What Lucas imagined
was the classic

World War II film
Dam Busters in space.

TENUTO: There had
never been a dogfight

in a science fiction film
before.

NARRATOR: And, so,
with it never being done...

Who's gonna do this?
Lucas realizes if it's gonna

be done, they're gonna
have to do it themselves.

NARRATOR:
George's first call was

to visual effects maestro
Douglas Trumbull.

MORTON:
Trumbull did not want to do

the effects forStar Wars
'cause he didn't wanna do
another space picture.

He then referred Lucas
to one of his assistants,

John Dykstra.

DYKSTRA: Right out
of college, I went to work
at Trumbull Film Effects.

DYKSTRA: I was a
freelance photographer

becoming visual effects guy

who got invited to work on
a movie that had

aerial dogfights.
I was young and dumb enough

to go,
"Sure, I can do that."

NARRATOR:
Well, time will tell.

Working out of
a rented warehouse in Van Nuys,

the team's
first act of creation

wasn't a piece of film,
it was a piece of branding.

You had to have a name
for the company

and it didn't want to be
a movie company name.

I said, "Well,
we're in an industrial area,

so we should be
Industrial Lighting and Magic.

NARRATOR: Which turned out
to be appropriate

because John and his crew
were about to create

a new industrial standard.

There was a huge amount
of design and invention that

had to be done because
traditional camera techniques

were not suited to doing
that kind of work.

NARRATOR: Which meant literally
reinventing the camera.

And he had to do so on only
a two-million dollar budget.

DYKSTRA: It was sketchy
because we had to build stuff

from scratch.
It's like taking off

in an airplane
and completing the construction

of it while you're in flight.

NARRATOR: While John's team
began creating a
whole new world,

Lucas began looking
for people to fill it.

He did casting calls
in New York.

NARRATOR:
But it was the director

who clammed up
during the auditions.

BENNETT: George
was terrified of casting.

He wouldn't look at the actors.
He wouldn't talk to the actors.

NARRATOR: At least he could
get away with doing half a job

by doing a dual casting call
with his director pal

Brian De Palma...

[SCREAMING]

who was looking for actors
for his upcoming movie.

MORTON: So, they were basically
seeing all the young actors
in Hollywood

for bothCarrie andStar Wars.

TENUTO: He wanted unknowns
in those roles.

He didn't want to have actors
recognizable to the audience.

MAN ON INTERCOM:
Who is this?

NARRATOR:
Many up-and-comers auditioned.

Han Solo could easily have been
Kurt Russell.

"What's that
little droid carrying around
that's so blasted important?"

NARRATOR: But for George Lucas
the choice was obvious.

Then he came home
from New York one day.
He was so excited.

He found the perfect actor
to play Han Solo.

It was Christopher Walken.

Can I confess something?

NARRATOR: The same unique
Christopher Walken,

who would go on to play the
psycho brother inAnnie Hall.

I just thought,
"He's not a soldier of fortune

handsome hunk
that I envision Han Solo to be."

NARRATOR: Marcia had her heart
set on another actor.

You gotta use Harrison Ford.

Han Solo. I'm Captain
of the Millennium Falcon.

MARCIA: I just thought he had
a lot of screen presence.

I thought he was handsome and
I thought he was charismatic.

I'm not gonna
take an impossible chase
across the galaxy.

NARRATOR: Casting consultant
Fred Roos agreed,

but Lucas didn't want
to re-use actors.

And he was like,
"I don't wanna use you

because I've used you
in American Graffiti."

NARRATOR:
So, Fred hatched a plan.

MORTON: Harrison Ford
was actually hired

at the studio to build--
I believe it was, a doorway

for the offices
that they were building

and that was actually a trick
on the part of Fred Roos.

So it was on George's mind
and they started to ask him

to read with the other actors.

NARRATOR:
That doorway would literally be

Harrison Ford's
door to stardom.

This is not a game, you know?

TENUTO: Harrison Ford does
read with 50 or 60 different
actors and actresses.

NARRATOR: And when it came
to the Princess...

The Princess?

ironically in also
castingCarrie...

[SCREAMING]

They cast Carrie.

TENUTO: Carrie Fisher the
daughter of Eddie Fisher
and Debbie Reynolds.

-"Hiding is useless now."
-She had done Shampoo.

-Are you?
-Am I what?

-What are you talking about?
-Making it with my mother?

And had made
a really big impression.

I'm Luke Skywalker.
I'm here to rescue you.

NARRATOR: And for the man
who would eventually
save the galaxy...

WOMAN: Luke!

NARRATOR: that was nearly
this golden-spun head of hair.

MORTON: William Katt was
a contender for Luke Skywalker.

NARRATOR: But more of
a contender forCarrie.

So instead,
a little-known TV actor
was looking to move up.

Fear is their greatest weapon.

Lucas really liked him
pretty much right away.

NARRATOR: But when it came
to Obi-Wan Kenobi...

George--He originally wanted
Toshiro Mifune to play Obi-Wan.

Who basically played a kind
of Obi-Wan Kenobi-type character

inThe Hidden Fortress.

[GRUNTS]

That didn't work.

NARRATOR: Because Fox wanted
the reassurance
of at least one big name.

And Alec Guinness,
at that time, was a very
well-respected actor.

I fear to do it.

BENNETT: Alec Guinness
read the script...

Very interesting.

and decided he hated it.

The line I've always heard.

He said,
"The dialogue is ropey."

Which, I think,
means "not great."

NARRATOR: But before
Sir Alec Guinness
went on his merry way...

-MAN: Go about your business.
-[PHONE RINGING]

POLLOCK: Fred Roos
got on the phone with him

and explained to him
what the film was gonna be

and how pivotal the role
was gonna be

and that made Guinness
finally agree to do the film.

EDLUND: Once I heard
that Alec Guinness was hired,

you know, the thing
is gonna be a blockbuster.

NARRATOR: Easy to say now

because at the time
there were plenty more actors
who needed convincing.

3PO

I didn't
want to be in his film.

NARRATOR: The cast was
coming together reluctantly.

I had a very bad feeling
about big films--Hollywood.

And then to meet somebody
who was exactly the opposite

of what I'd assumed.
He wasn't a pot-bellied,

cigar-smoking, kinda,
"Oh..." loudmouth, you know?

He was George.
Small. Kind of diminutive.

Gentle. Shy.

Wearing one of the worst
checked shirts I'd ever seen.

NARRATOR: George had only
a couple of questions.

"You're an actor?"
"Yes."

"Um...[STAMMERS]
You're good at...mime?"

"Quite good."
"Uh-huh."

Like, "What do I say to this man
with whom I have
nothing in common?"

NARRATOR:
And if George's awkwardness

wasn't confusing enough, then
the room's decor certainly was.

Looking around the office,
they had paintings

of weird stuff around the room.

There was a big ball thing.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

And then there was
a black helmety thing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

And then there was
some spaceship zooming.

And then, in the distance,
there was this figure.

NARRATOR:
Not just any figure.

This painting,
created by Ralph McQuarrie

to help sellStar Wars
to the studios,

well, Anthony Daniels
was buying it, too.

The Ralph McQuarrie
concept painting was so...

uh...I don't--even to this day
really have the word for it.

NARRATOR: But after
seeing that Anthony knew
exactly what to say to George.

DANIELS: "Please,
may I play the part?"

Imagine saying that!
And George went...

"Sure."
And that was the beginning.

NARRATOR: The biggest actor
on the set,

physically at least,
will be the man
no one would see.

MORTON: David Prowse
was actually a body builder

who then segued into acting.

-[THUNDER ROLLS]
-They were looking for

big actors
to play Chewbacca...

-[ROARS]
-and Darth Vader.

[EXHALES HEAVILY]

And Prowse chose Vader
because he said the villain

was gonna be
the more memorable character.

NARRATOR: Now,
to bring the practical world

ofStar Wars to life,
Lucas would need

-a set decorator.
-Which in that time was

in charge of props,
vehicles, interiors of the set,

weapons, everything.

NARRATOR: Lucas approached the
young Roger Christian.

The two had a similar vision
for the world ofStar Wars.

CHRISTIAN: My impression was
a space ship should be like

an old car in a garage
that you've kept going

and it's dripping oil
and all of this.

Little did I know at the time,
I was actually describing
the Millennium Falcon.

NARRATOR: Roger was hired,

but he had to do it
on a nearly impossible budget.

I had $200,000 to set decorate
this entire film with.

That's the real trick,
isn't it?

[CHUCKLES] When I read
the script and did my breakdowns

of what we required,
I thought,

"Well, I can't do
this conventionally.

This is never gonna work."

Plus, we didn't have time.

NARRATOR:
On March the 22nd, 1976

Hollywood landed on the desert
sands of Tunisia

for the first day of filming.

What a desolate place
this is.

George Lucas' set was quiet
and a little tense.

VICTORIA:
So, they start filming
and they chose this place

because it hardly ever
rains there

-and it rains there.
-[THUNDER ROLLS]

We're talking winds, floods,
all that jazz.

Well, I know
the sets were blown away.

Even parts of a sand crawler
ended up a mile away.

The whole thing turns into mud.
We couldn't work.

NARRATOR:
Isolated with few resources,
in the middle of nowhere.

George had to make do
with what he could
to try to catch up.

At one point they even managed
to drop the Vista Vision camera.

The silence was like...

We're in the middle
of nowhere.

MARCIA: You know,
it's like waging a war

when you're out in the middle
of the desert and you have

to feed people
and transport people.

NARRATOR: Or,
as Sir Alec Guinness put it...

He said, "Filming isn't
usually like this.

You'll be in other films and
you will find them different."

NARRATOR: Star Wars
might've been different,

but at least the actors
had each other

and their daily allowance,
or per diems...

He pulled me over and he said,
"Have they given you
your per diem yet?"

I had no idea
what a per diem was.

NARRATOR: And he also
had no real idea

what he was
getting himself into.

DANIELS: I was kind of
in this carapace.

This shell
and I think the scary thing was

with an allen key closed that

and my neck is now
in a metal ring.

CHRISTIAN: He realized
when he got that suit on,

he couldn't go to the toilet.
There was nothing.

Don't get technical
with me.

We were all kind of
making it work.

Hugely complicated.
I remember walking over

to the Sand Crawler--
wobbling over, really,

and within
about three steps...

[CLANGS]

...crushed my plastic shoe
into my foot.

-Aah!
-NARRATOR: But C-3P0

wasn't the only droid
having malfunctions.

CHRISTIAN: With R2-D2,
most of the running was done

with us pulling him
down a wooden track.

Put a bit of sand up
and pull him along.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Anthony Daniels was getting

to know Kenny Baker, the actor
who played R2-D2 off camera.

He was delightful
'cause he was an entertainer.

NARRATOR: But on camera,
the two barely communicated.

'Cause Kenny, in that egg,
with all the equipment in it

and everything,
couldn't hear him.

So, he would speak to him
and he wouldn't get a reaction.

DANIELS: We didn't really have
a relationship.

It was odd because on screen,
obviously,

we had a huge relationship,

but it had to be all in my mind.
It had to be...

improvised.

I've just about
had enough of you.

NARRATOR: The only thing
clunkier than the droids

-was the dialogue.
-I couldn't say the first line

-because it made no sense.
-Vaporators?

AS C-3PO: "My first job is
programming binary load lifters,

very similar to
your vaporators..."

Blah blah blah. [GROANS]

[NORMAL VOICE]
And I got it wrong three times.

All George would say is,
"Do it again faster."

-"Do it again faster."
-Of course I can, sir.

And George is kinda getting
crosser and crosser

as I get it
wronger and wronger.

And he looked at me dead faced,
"Don't worry about the voice.

You can say
anything you want.

We can fix it later.

NARRATOR: That was fast
becoming a mantra on the set.

He's not an actor's director.
He's a visual filmmaker.

To say to an actor--
You can say anything you want.

The rest of the actors
look at you like,[CHUCKLES]

"What's going on here?"
Right?

And over the course
of the weeks that followed,

Mark, Carrie, and myself
would sit there going,

"God, this is never
gonna work."

NARRATOR:
Even the cool and calm-headed

Sir Alec Guinness was pushed
to the brink.

DANIELS: He did have a bit
of a tantrum one day

when, I think,
delays had just gone on so much

that he sort of blew up.

NARRATOR: And the crew
began to turn on each other.

DANIELS: I was standing there
and suddenly I'm getting

these...yeah.
And it's coming up very loud.

NARRATOR: In the shadow
of the Sand Crawler,

cinematographer Gil Taylor
and producer Gary Kurtz

were having a bit of a row.

And Gil is saying,
in totally certain terms,

"Who is lighting this movie?

Because if I'm lighting
this movie,

you...good-bye."

NARRATOR: The mounting stress
and confusion

were even showing on screen.

-We're doomed.
-[BEEPING]

3PO lives in a world
of confusion...

You think they'll
melt us down?

and panic and disdain
and otherness.

And, I think,
it probably helped.

NARRATOR:
But the chaos and setbacks

certainly weren't
helping George.

He was complaining
about the robots falling over

and the Jawas were running
around like little kids

and they were supposed to be
evil characters.

-[INDISTINCT WHISPERS]
-He said, "My days,

I get up in the morning,
and I've got a rucksack

and they fill it with rocks
and it's so heavy

I'm stuck on the ground.
Well, throughout the day

I manage to get rocks out
and right at the end of the day

I can stand up again and they
fill it up with rocks again.

How did we
get into this mess?

I got the sense he hated it.

NARRATOR: The machinery
ofStar Wars

was literally falling apart
in the desert.

I don't think I can make it.

NARRATOR: The logistical
problems were nothing

compared to the massive holes
in George Lucas' script

which was still shifting
like the desert sands.

[BUZZES]

In the shooting script,
Obi-Wan lives.

If you strike me down,
I shall become more powerful.

[WHIRRING]

And he stays around
until the end of the film,

but after they escape
from the Death Star,

he doesn't really have
much to do.

You should not
have come back.

NARRATOR: Oh, yes, he should
'cause Obi-Wan
needed something to do

and the second act
needed a turning point.

And I thought, "Well,
I've got some ideas, George."

NARRATOR: And finding it
would prove to be

a turning point
for the entire franchise.

MARCIA: I said,
"But I really have this idea

that I think could work
because of the Force.

'May the Force be with you.'"

NARRATOR: The Force
was already with Marcia.

Like a true Jedi,
she understood it's potential.

I said, "What if Darth Vader
kills Obi-Wan Kenobi...

-[WHIRRING]
-[SCREAMS] No!

and Obi-Wan Kenobi disintegrates
when they're escaping?"

George said,
"I like that idea."

NARRATOR:
What Marsha wanted to unlock

was more than
just a good death scene.

It would work because
when Luke is listening

to Obi-Wan
when he's in the trench run,

he hears Obi-Wan tell him...

OBI-WAN: Use the Force, Luke.

MARCIA: And in the script,
Obi-Wan was in the Rebel War
Room talking to Luke.

But I said, "He can still say
all that stuff he needs to say
to Luke."

OBI-WAN: Let go, Luke.

And George said,
"I like that idea."

And, so, I sort of pride myself
on killing Obi-Wan Kenobi.

[LAUGHS]

NARRATOR: With the script
still in flux,

the production headed
to Elstree Studios in England.

Happy to escape
the desert heat.

It was hotter
than being in the desert.

NARRATOR: The English facility
had the seven sound stages

Star Wars needed
and it was cheap.

UK at that time was exactly
half the price of America.

NARRATOR: And, so,
theMillennium Falcon
took shape

in the English countryside.

She may not look like much,
but she's got it
where it counts.

NARRATOR: Wanting to give
Star Wars that dusty,
Western feel,

Roger got down and dirty.

CHRISTIAN: If I'd buy
scrapped airplane junk,

I could make the universe
that we wanted.

-NARRATOR: And so...
-CHRISTIAN: I bought mountains

because it was cheap.
No one wanted it.

I started with
the Millennium Falcon cockpit.

I found some old
fighter pilot seats I bought

and I stuck those in
at the back.

NARRATOR: Junk parts
were the key to everything
from R2-D2's dome...

We went round the back
of the studios and found

-an old lamp top.
-to Luke's binoculars.

I found three different camera
parts and glued them together.

NARRATOR:
which led to the light sabers.

CHRISTIAN: This was a battery
casing for a Graphlex camera

which were the cameras
that the press used

[GRUNTS, ROARS]

NARRATOR: For the Tusken
Raiders more primal weaponry,

-the gaffi sticks.
-I found that totokia
warrior stick.

I'd never
seen anything like it.

I drilled the end and stuck
a Medieval mace in.

NARRATOR:
But after all this digging

the oldest piece of junk
that Roger would use

had already been
dug up for him.

The Prop Master one day told me
to go up in the attic
in the prop room.

There was a full-sized
dinosaur skeleton

Well, that's become
the Krayt Dragon now.

[CHUCKLES] And we
couldn't afford to take it back.

-We left it there.
-C-3PO: Hey! Heyyy!

-[CHUCKLES]
-NARRATOR: On set...

the cast was starting to feel
much like those dinosaur bones,
stuffed in an attic.

Millennium Falcon,
the cockpit is like this big.

It's better on this side of it
than this side.

MAN: It's better on this side.
There on your right.

-DANIELS: It was sweltering.
-Here's where the fun begins.

I'm standing there dribbling...

feeling disgusting.

Feeling sweat dripping
every shot.

Between shots somebody would
come up to Mark Hamill and go...

"Okay."

NARRATOR:
Shooting on English soil,

Lucas found he could ill afford
even the slightest delay.

You had to stop at 5:30.
Then they'd pull the plug

even if you're in the middle
of dialogue.

They didn't care. Boom.

If you were going to go longer
on a particular day,

you had to get the Union Guilds
to vote yes.

CHRISTIAN: Gary Kurtz always
said, if you wanted to
get some decisions

about next day,
we would go to the pub

'cause they'd always
be in there.

Most days they didn't give
George the extra time.

Most of the crew didn't really
understand what we were making

and they were not very
supportive to George at all.

BENNETT: George didn't really
understand his English crew

and the feeling was mutual
because they also disliked him

and they had
no respect for him.

George says, to this day,
that only five people

stood by his side
and I was one of those.

And the rest of the crew
fought him, mocked him,

disparaged the whole project.

NARRATOR: Worst of all,
Director of Photography,
Gilbert Taylor

simply didn't
share his director's vision.

It started on the first morning.
I witnessed it.

George was looking
through the viewfinder

setting up a shot.
He said, "What are you doing?"

to George.
"That's my job.

You look after the actors,
I'll set up the shots."

NARRATOR:
Now, Gil wasn't just anybody.

He had an E-type Jaguar
and he would leave the studio.

He had a scarf
trailing off behind.

It was like a cartoon.
It was great.

NARRATOR:
George on the other hand

didn't find any of it funny.

People were rude to him.
I felt really bad for George.

The only person that,
like, he felt he could vent

his frustrations to was
the one key American,
Gary Kurtz.

NARRATOR: But George
had his own complaints

when it came to
his hand-picked producer.

"What is happening?
You're supposed
to have my back."

NARRATOR: And, so,
after everything that had

led him to this point,
all George could ask was...

"Why are these things
happening to me?"

NARRATOR:
With the British crew
resisting

George Lucas'
creative endeavors,

American producer Gary Kurtz
was getting resistance
from George.

BENNETT: For Lucas,
everything was a setback.

And poor Gary is over here
trying to keep George happy

while also trying to stick
to schedule and budget.

NARRATOR: But Gary Kurtz
wasn't keeping anyone happy

and there was simply
no pleasing Gilbert Taylor.

I think he resented being on
this science fiction film

that he didn't know
anything about.

NARRATOR: Shooting on the
Death Star set

soon resulted
in the death of something else.

CHRISTIAN: The first day
on the Death Star,

the big conference room,
he walked off said,

"I can't light this."
And walked off the set.

But this was
a common occurrent every day.

NARRATOR:
Increasingly isolated

on his own film
and under pressure,

George's health
began to suffer.

DANIELS: George became,
as days went by,

more and more suppressed
and depressed

by all the weight
of the big movie.

NARRATOR: The was no respite,

and early samples from
his English editor

weren't giving anyone
a new hope.

MARCIA: And we screened
some of the cuts

and I was not very happy.

The editor was cutting
without talking with George.

NARRATOR: But after the studio
started seeing those early cuts

it was George
who needed a talking to.

When Alan Ladd Jr. saw
the assembled footage

done by the English editor,
he actually took George aside

and said, "I'm getting
a little worried."

NARRATOR:
Suddenly George's entire dream

was on the line.

There's a danger of George Lucas
getting removed

-from his own production.
-And George told him,

"I know what I'm doing

and this is not
what I want it to be."

NARRATOR: George was
increasingly finding himself
worried sick.

Literally.

While filming,
George is not eating well,

he is not sleeping well,
and he's getting sick a lot.

There were these stories
about a couple of key scenes,

he coughed during
and ruined the take.

And he was really mad
at himself for that.

NARRATOR: But even if it was
all unraveling in London,

at least George could rely
on his crack hand-picked

visual effects team at ILM
who by now

were well on their way
to making progress.

[UPBEAT MUSIC SLOWING DOWN,
DISTORTING]

We've now gone nine months
and we've spent

$1 million and we haven't got
a single frame of film yet.

NARRATOR: Months of blue screen
and blue-sky thinking

got ILM almost exactly...
nowhere.

We were spending money
like crazy.

Nobody knew
what we were doing.

Dykstra's having some issues
with his motion-control cameras

and he's thinking, "Meh,
I don't have to tell
George this right this second.

NARRATOR:
'Cause they were talented

and would figure it out...
eventually.

We basically knew
that we could mold technology

to create the art.
It's like trust in the Force

to make these kind of ideas
play on the screen.

NARRATOR: But even the Force
wasn't gonna save

the rapidly
disappearing budget.

They had used quite a bit
of the special-effects budget

on the R&D, and
getting the place set up.

[WHIRRING]

And George came home and he
was so depressed and worried.

He had hoped there were gonna be
quite a number of shots

and apparently
there was only one.

The pod dropping out of the ship
and it cuts in about a second.

NARRATOR: A large chunk
of the special-effects budget

had effectively paid
for just one completed shot.

He felt sold out, lied to,

he really felt
he had been played by Dykstra.

It was like,
"Are they gonna finish it?"

'Cause it--They had no idea.
We weren't even certain.

And the studio was, like,
extremely paranoid

because here's a bunch of these
kind of long-haired guys--

[CHUCKLES]

MORTON: The board at Fox
thought, like, "We're not gonna
make that much money

and this thing
is costing so much."

So there was a lot of pressure
to speed it up.

They sent their own
production people down

to find out what
all these hippies were doing
out in Van Nuys.

NARRATOR: What they discovered
was less a production house
than a fun house.

We had a hot tub
out in the parking lot

and it was full of cold water
because it was so hot.

We had an escape slide
from a 727.

EDLUND: You could
get up on the roof

and then slide down that
into the hot tub.

Everybody was sliding down
the slide in their underwear

and bathing suits
and that's when

the production people
from Fox showed up and said,

"Is this what we're paying for?"

NARRATOR: But the one person
who really needed
a way to cool off

wasn't getting any relief.

George actually became
so stressed out

that he ended up
in the hospital.

[MACHINES BEEPING, WHIRRING]

NARRATOR: Over at Fox,
Alan Ladd Jr. had discovered

his production had already
been put on life support.

Alan Ladd Jr. is called
before the Fox Executive Board.

So they tell him, you know,
"You better get this done.

We're gonna pull funding
on this film."

Ladd says to Lucas,
"You've got a week.

This film
has to get finished in a week

because I'm going to be going
back before the board.

They're pulling the plug
on the movie."

NARRATOR: As George Lucas
lay in a hospital bed,

his entire world
on the brink of collapse...

[POLLOCK ECHOES] Make your own
financial decisions.

[MARCIA ECHOES] I don't think
his dad had much
expectations for George.

NARRATOR: Could it be
that his father was right
after all?

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

[MUSIC PLAYING]