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Stunt coordinator Peter Diamond had started thinking about this duel the day he had met the director. “George said, ‘I’ve got these laser swords—I don’t want broadswords and I don’t want fencing. I want it somewhere in between,’ ” Diamond says. “So I had to create a style that was unique.”
How to set a standard.
thunderclap … Another very esoteric sound effect is what I call a ‘Wilhelm.’ This is a man screaming on a recording that has been used exclusively by Warner Bros. for about twenty-five years. It’s been used in many Westerns and horror films. I call it a Wilhelm because one of the first films it was used in was a Western called Charge at Feather River [1953], where a cavalry private named Wilhelm gets an arrow in the leg and screams—this particular scream was dubbed in for his voice although he didn’t really make the sound. I had an idea that perhaps the first time the scream was used was in a
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James Earl Jones had been chosen to do the Darth Vader dialogue, for $7,500. “George Lucas always wanted a voice in the bass register,” Jones says. “I understand that George did contact Orson Welles to read for the voice of Darth Vader before he contacted me. I was out of work and he said, ‘Do you want a day’s work?’ ”
“I really wanted to keep the whole thing American. Tony had the most British accent, so I said, ‘No, I want to make him American because he is one of the lead characters.’ I wanted Threepio’s voice to be slightly more used-car-dealer-ish, a little more oily. More of a con man, which is the way it was written, and not really a fussy British robot butler. So I tried and tried, but because Tony was Threepio inside, he really got into the role. We went through thirty people that I actually tested, but none of the voices were as good as Tony’s, so we kept him.”
“The big weekend to open movies was Christmas, ever since movies began,” Lucas says. “The second time is the Fourth of July weekend. But I said I want my film to be released in May for Memorial Day weekend. And the studio said, ‘But the kids aren’t out of school’—and I said, ‘Well, I don’t want the kids out of school; I want the kids to be able to see the movie and then talk about it so we can build word of mouth.’ They thought I was out of my mind.”
I could see this huge crowd in front of Grauman’s Chinese—limos—and I thought someone must be premiering a movie. It never occurred to me that my movie was out, because I was still working on it.
“There’s a funny story,” Edlund adds. “Joe Johnston went to the DMV one time when Star Wars had just come out, and he was standing in a line that went back to the door, and someone came in, looked at the line, and said, ‘Shit, they ain’t playin’ Star Wars here, man!’ ”
