Hello & welcome to another GK Nugget – the 1st
of 2017. I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas & New Year’s eve. The last
fortnight has been a period of monumental events over time – the USSR was peacefully
dissolved on 25th Dec 1991; 25th December is also the
birth date of Mohd Ali Jinnah (1876); India’s original superstar, Rajesh
Khanna, was born on 29th Dec 1942 while Rudyard Kipling, the famous
British poet & author was born on 30th December 1865 in Bombay,
India.
December 27th 2016 saw the death of an iconic Hollywood
actress – Carrie Fisher, who was immortalized by her role as Princess Leia in
the Star Wars films.
So this fortnight’s GK nugget is a tribute to her and the
Star Wars movies.
Here are some facts that even the most ardent Star Wars
fan might not know:
In early drafts, the script was titled “Adventures of
Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars”.
Later it was changed to The Star Wars, and then, eventually, just Star Wars.
The phrase "I have a bad feeling about this" or
"I have a very bad feeling about this" is said in every Star Wars
movie.
Yoda's species has never been named. Also, depending on
what movie you're watching, Yoda has a different number of toes. In The Phantom
Menace, he has three toes. But in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi
and Revenge of the Sith, he has four.
Introduced in The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda's facial
features were based on Albert Einstein. Even the wrinkles on Yoda's lip were
inspired by Einstein's famous moustache. Yoda actually has a first name! It was
never revealed in the movies, because George Lucas deliberately decided to leave
him with just one name to enhance the air of mystery about him. (His full name
was going to be Minch Yoda.)
Although Episodes IV and V were big hits, the studio
refused to sign for Return of the Jedi until Lucas drew out a merchandising
plan that included more toy-friendly characters than Empire did. (And that's
how Ewoks were created!)
The Ewok language is a combination of Tibetan and
Nepalese.
David Prowse, the actor who physically played Darth
Vader, was very angry that his voice was replaced with that of James Earl
Jones. Subsequently, Lucas has barred him from all Star Wars-related events,
reportedly for "annoying" him.
Chewbacca's voice is a mix of bears, walruses, lions,
badgers and other dying animals. The noise a lightsaber makes is created by
combining the hum of an old television's picture tube and the buzz of a film
projector's motor.
Originally, Jabba the Hut was not conceived as a grimy
slug, but as a fuzzy creature. Named by some as the most expensive puppet in
the world, the $500,000 Jabba the Hutt model required seven people to bring to
life.
Burt Reynolds was among the top contenders to play Han
Solo, along with Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Christopher Walken, but finally
Harrison Ford played the part.
While filming lightsaber fight scenes, Ewan McGregor kept
getting carried away and making the sounds of the weapon himself, which had to
be removed in post-production.
Lucas leaned on CGI pretty heavily in the prequels, and
it shows. There were no physical Clone Trooper costumes made for Attack of the
Clones or the rest of the prequels because every single one is a
digitally-rendered CGI creation.
Every Star Wars film has been released the week after
George Lucas’ birthday on May 14.
That’s all for this edition of the GK nugget. Here’s
wishing you a fantastic start to 2017.
See you next fortnight & ‘May the
force be with you’.