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1. Who wrote and directed Star Wars?
George Lucas
Lucas had made American Graffiti and spent years rewriting the script. He gave up part of his directing fee in exchange for the merchandising and sequel rights, which turned out to be the best deal in Hollywood history.
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2. What's Luke's home planet?
Tatooine
A desert world with two suns, where he lives with his aunt and uncle on a moisture farm. Alderaan is the princess's home, and the other two belong to the second film.
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3. Where were the desert scenes filmed?
Tunisia
In the south of the country, where the salt flats and the underground houses around Matmata stood in for Luke's home. A rainstorm hit on the first day, the first in that region for years, and wrecked the schedule.
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4. Who plays Han Solo?
Harrison Ford
Ford was a part-time carpenter who had been in American Graffiti, and Lucas hired him to read lines opposite the actors auditioning, which turned into an audition of his own. Kurt Russell and Christopher Walken were among those considered.
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5. What's the name of Han's ship?
The Millennium Falcon
It made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, which is a unit of distance rather than time, a slip that later films went out of their way to explain. The Tantive IV is the princess's ship at the start.
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6. Which actor voices Darth Vader?
James Earl Jones
David Prowse, a bodybuilder, wore the suit, and Lucas replaced his West Country accent with Jones's voice after filming. Jones asked not to be credited on the first film, thinking of it as special-effects work.
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7. Who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Alec Guinness
Guinness thought the dialogue was rubbish and said so, but negotiated a share of the profits that made him rich, and he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Mifune was Lucas's first thought for the part.
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8. Peter Cushing plays...
Grand Moff Tarkin
The commander of the battle station, who destroys a planet with a sentence. Cushing found his boots so uncomfortable that he played several scenes in carpet slippers, shot from the waist up.
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9. Which company was founded to create the film's effects?
Industrial Light & Magic
Lucas set it up in a warehouse in Van Nuys because no effects house could do what he wanted. It has worked on most of the biggest films since, and a computer division it spun off became Pixar.
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10. Who composed the score?
John Williams
Williams wrote a full symphonic score when that was out of fashion, recorded it with the London Symphony Orchestra, and won the Oscar for it. Lucas had planned to use existing classical pieces, as Kubrick had in 2001.
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11. What do Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca fall into while escaping the detention block?
A garbage compactor
Han's blaster bolts ricochet off the walls, something lives in the water, and then the walls start to move. Mark Hamill held his breath so long for the underwater shot that he burst a blood vessel in his face.
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12. Which of these was NOT in the opening crawl in 1977?
The words "Episode IV: A New Hope"
The episode number and the subtitle were added for the 1981 re-release, once Lucas had decided the film was the fourth part of a longer story. Everything else was there from the start.
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13. In the cantina, who shot first in the 1977 version?
Han
In the original cut Han fires under the table before Greedo can. The 1997 special edition had Greedo shoot first and miss, later versions tinkered again, and 'Han shot first' became the rallying cry of fans who preferred the scoundrel.
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14. How many Academy Awards did the film win?
Six, plus a special achievement award
Art direction, costumes, editing, score, sound and visual effects, plus a special award for Ben Burtt's alien voices and sound effects. It lost Best Picture to Annie Hall.
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15. Who plays Princess Leia?
Carrie Fisher
Fisher was nineteen, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, and was told to lose weight for the part. Jodie Foster and Amy Irving were among the others who read for it.
