Ever since the Disney acquisition of the biggest franchise on the planet, Star Wars has been hot on everyones lips. Not that its ever been out of our sight in the past near four decades, but with the production of its third trilogy and spin-offs, Star Wars hysteria is starting to bubble once again. George Lucas opus has been a definitive part of contemporary pop culture since its release. Half of todays filmmakers credit it for their cinematic inspiration and ultimate ambitions. And for the most part they are a magnificent set of films, full of adventure, menace and heart that incite a childhood wonder in every generation. Every part of their history is legend. From development difficulties to production hell, release phenomenon to the extended universe lore. If any film is chock-full of well documented and entertaining behind the scenes stories and tribulations, its the Star Wars films. We have to wait over a year for Episode VII, but as theyre shooting it at the moment, theres no doubt that all kinds of charming shenanigans, frustrating struggles and moments of inspiration are going on right now that will later become a concrete part of film history. So join us in a list of 25 awesome facts about the making and world of one of cinemas greatest treasures.
25. The Music In The Cantina Scene Is Called Jizz
No, that isnt a joke. Whether its a joke on Lucas behalf or simply an innocent and unfortunate piece of nomenclature we cant be sure, but in the Star Wars canon, the music that the band Figrin Dan and the Modal Nodes play in the iconic bar scene is called jizz. Its obvious to see where its derived from, and its a genre that is described as upbeat and swinging. The artists that play jizz are called jizz wailers and it also has sub-genres that include jizz-wail, aubade and glitz. Wonder if they have jazz too. They do however have a similar and less juvenile sounding genre of music called jatz.'
24. R2-D2 Used To Have A Foul Mouth
In early drafts of the script, R2-D2 could speak proper English, and had a rather foul vocabulary. Although all of R2s English speech was eventually removed, many of C-3POs reactions to it were left in. Suppose those beeps are substituting something or other. Ben Burtt claimed that R2-D2s voice was the most difficult challenge in his work on the original trilogy. He struggled to make it have character and personality, unhappy with what he tried on a small electronic synthesizer. The end result was 50% synthesizer and 50% Burtt doing baby-talk, as he considered R2-D2 to be like a toddler. Quite far from the filthy original vision indeed.
Recently graduated from University of Hertfordshire with a Film & Television Production degree. Usually found watching films, listening to music, writing for whatculture and writing reviews for awardscircuit.com and my blog.
