There is a chance that, had things worked out slightly differently, George Lucas would never have made Star Wars. That's because before he started work on the saga, he had first sought to direct an adaptation of Flash Gordon, a serial from the 1930s. The licence wasn't available, however, and the rest is movie history. Despite the fact he couldn't actually make a Flash Gordon movie, Lucas took a number of elements from it and worked them into Star Wars. The two heroes, Luke and Han, are his take on the heroes on Flash Gordon and Prince Barin, while their enemy, the Emperor, is very much based on Ming the Merciless, with the Death Star similar to his planet Mongo. There's a number of other influences as well, such as the city in the sky (Cloud City), the battle between Rebel and Imperial forces, fighting spaceships, soft wipes between scenes, and even the famous crawl text that appears at the start of each movie.
NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far.
A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.
