Most Star Wars fans are familiar with the struggles it took to bring George Lucas‘ groundbreaking 1977 film to life, but a new Vice TV documentary is revealing details even die-harders may not know.
Icons Unearthed: ‘Star Wars’ was produced by Nacelle Company, the folks behind the Netflix hits Movies That Made Us and Toys That Made Us.
The new two-part project boasts never-before-seen interviews with those who helped bring the film and its two sequels to life — including Marcia Lucas.
Now 76, the ex-wife of George Lucas was one of the editors who won an Oscar for helping shape the original film, following a production fraught with failing droids, crushing studio pressure, and a disastrous rough cut.
Nacelle Company CEO Brian Volk-Weiss, tells ABC Audio Marcia Lucas was a galaxy-sized “get.”
“There’s a very good reason you’ve never heard her speak, and that is because we got her first ever recorded interview.”
Marcia gave “great insight” into the production, revealing, for example, that 20th Century Fox wanted to shut down Star Wars so badly, it was ready to entirely cut out the movie’s unforgettable climactic Death Star battle to save money.
In other words, the film would have closed with Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie flying out of the battle station, without, arguably, one of the greatest endings in movie history.
“It would have ended in the belly of the Millennium Falcon just — ‘Hey, we did it. Yay!'” Volk-Weiss laughs. “Cut to black. Like that, that’s what was on the table.”
Instead, Lucas stuck to his guns, and to the ownership of the blockbuster franchise, and the rest is history.
Marcia Lucas also brought into focus with the “complicated” relationship Lucas had with his father — which helped inspire the fatherly dynamics between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, Volk-Weiss says.
“As complicated as George’s relationship was with his father, it was his father just over and over again saying, ‘Bet on yourself…be your own boss.’ And…I don’t think he gets any credit or not nearly enough of the credit he deserves for the risks he took over, and over, and over again…”
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.