![]() ![]() Most Star Wars fans know that the movie was filmed under the title Blue Harvest: Horror Beyond Imagination to avoid publicity, but it’s less-known that the bogus title was a play on Dashiell Hammet’s 1929 novel Red Harvest, which was said to be an influence for Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, which was cited as an influence for Star Wars. Jabba’s sail barge was filmed in Yuma, Arizona. The film crew had problems avoiding the 35,000 dune buggy enthusiasts in the area. To preserve secrecy, the producers claimed to be making a horror film called “Blue Harvest” with the tagline “Horror beyond imagination”, and even had caps and t-shirts made up for the crew. ![]() ![]() ![]() A chain-link fence and a 24-hour security service could not prevent die-hard fans from entering the set and sneaking some photographs. The Jabba’s Sail Barge set on location in Yuma, AZ.ģ. Despite the credits, Richard Marquand may not have directed all of the movie George Lucas directed some footage, and Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner once hinted that Marquand’s assistant directed footage credited to Marquand, due to Marquand’s poor relationship with the actors.Ĥ. Speaking of connections to classic movies, Emperor Palpatine, making his first appearance in the flesh - he was just bits and bytes in that hologram in Empire, and was portrayed by a different actor - was at first named after a character in Taxi Driver, but his name was changed to avoid potential legal issues. The directors of the original Star Wars trilogy: Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back), George Lucas (Star Wars ) and Richard Marquand (Return of the Jedi).ĥ. And speaking of Marquand, he wasn’t the first choice for Jedi. Stephen Spielberg, David Cronenberg and David Lynch were ahead of him in line. Just imagine, for a second, Cronenberg or, better, Lynch making a movie with Ewoks.Ħ. The Ewoks occasionally speak Tagalog, although most of their dialogue is loosely inspired by Kalmuck, a language spoken in Mongolia. One of the Ewok songs once was believed to be in Swedish - with the lyrics translating, wonderfully, as “It smells of cereal in here” - but that, sadly, was based upon people mishearing the gibberish the oversized rodents were singing.Įwoks seize the clapperboard on May 17, 1982, during second unit work near Crescent City.ħ. The word “Ewok” is never actually said in Return of The Jedi, and neither were the names of individual Ewoks, although both appear in the end credits.Ĩ. “Ewok” is derived from the Native American tribe the Miwok, indigenous to the Northern California redwood forests in which the Endor scenes were shot.Ĭarrie Fisher with a very young Warwick Davis who played Ewok Wicket Wystri Warrick in Return of the Jedi. “Endor” comes from the Bible and is a village visited by King Saul before his final battle with the Philistines. Oddly enough, it also makes an appearance in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings, as the Elvish name for Middle-Earth.ġ0. Ewoks were a late addition to the Star Wars mythology. Their part in the story was to be played by the Wookiees, but by the time Lucas and partners sat down to write Return of The Jedi, they realized that, because Chewbacca could fly the Millennium Falcon, repair the ship and operate pretty much any weapon or machine in the known universe, they’d made the Wookiees too technologically advanced for the plot.ġ1. In what is either amazing planning or, more likely, complete coincidence, the one word C-3PO says to the Ewoks is “Naboo,” which was later revealed in The Phantom Menace to be the home world of Luke and Leia’s mother - and Anakin Skywalker’s wife - Queen Amidala.ġ2. The lyrics to the song the Ewoks perform at the end of the movie - the words everyone heard as “yub nub” - were written by none other than Joseph Williams, son of Star Wars composer John and lead singer with Toto. Someone, somewhere: Please make a mash-up of this song and Toto’s “Africa” as soon as possible. Ian McDiarmid in his complete Emperor’s makeup, which covered only the front two-thirds of his head. ![]()
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