Star Wars: A New Hope (Exclusive Series) (Disney Plus)

Initial release date: May 25, 1977

Studios: 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm

Tagline: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

Plot: The Imperial Forces - under orders from Darth Vader - hold Princess Leia hostage, in their efforts to quell the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon, work together with the companionable droids R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the princess, help the Rebel Alliance, and restore freedom and justice to the Galaxy.

Cast

Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker

Harrison Ford - Han Solo

Carrie Fisher - Princess Leia Organa

Peter Cushing - Grand Moff Tarkin

Alec Guiness - Ben ‘Obi-Wan’ Kenobi

Anthony Daniels - C-3PO

Kenny Baker - R2-D2

Peter Mayhew - Chewbacca

David Prowse - Darth Vader (James Earl Jones provided the voice of Vader)

Phil Brown - Uncle Owen

Shelagh Fraser - Aunt Beru

Writer/director: George Lucas

Rated PG for sci-fi violence and brief mild language (121 minutes)

Since May 4th is also known as Star Wars Day, I originally intended to start my already planned Star Wars marathon for the Exclusive Series roughly around the same time. Due to some time constraints with my schedule, I pushed it back. Now, I can finally get this going!!

And, of course, to start the marathon off right, I will begin with the original trilogy - Star Wars: A New Hope.

Revisiting this awesome sci-fi classic is always a treat for me. After watching these films for years, I’m still amazed at how visually great the original trilogy is and how ‘A New Hope’ ultimately began the biggest science fiction film franchise in cinematic history.

‘A New Hope’ is really fast-paced and the set designs are still very mesmerizing to this very day. You can watch this film several times and still will be able to enjoy every minute of it.

You can stream ‘Star Wars: A New Hope,’ along with the other live action films in the series, on the Disney Plus streaming platform. And up next for the Star Wars marathon – The Empire Strikes Back!

Here are SEVERAL interesting tidbits for ‘A New Hope’:

• George Lucas was so sure the movie would flop that instead of attending the premiere, he went on vacation to Hawaii with Spielberg, where they came up with the idea for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ after they found out ‘Star Wars’ became a success.

• In early drafts of the script, R2-D2 could speak standard English, and he had a rather foul vocabulary. Although all of R2’s English speech was removed, many of C-3POs reactions to it were left in.

• James Earl Jones and David Prowse, who play the voice and body of Vader respectively, never met.

• Lucas’ decision to accept a lower salary on the movie in exchange for full merchandising rights was considered a fool’s gamble on his part. Toys based on movies had never been major money-earners because of the long gap between when a movie would go through its theatrical run and when any products based on it would be available. This movie, however, was such a phenomenon that it reached the holiday 1977 sales period in full swing, and changed the way movies were merchandised forever.

• Harrison Ford didn’t learn his lines for the intercom conversation in the cell block so that it would sound spontaneous.

• The first movie to make over $300 million domestically at the box office. It was also the first movie to cross $500 million worldwide in its initial release.

• When 20th Century Fox attempted to distribute this movie in the US, fewer than 40 theaters agreed to show it. As a solution, Fox threatened that any cinema that refused to show this movie wouldn’t be given the rights to screen the potential blockbuster ‘The Other Side of Midnight,’ which ended up grossing less than 10% of what this movie did.

• The second most attended movie of all time in North America, having sold an estimated 178 million tickets over its various theatrical runs. The only movie to have sold more tickets is ‘Gone with the Wind,’ with 202 million tickets.

• Darth Vader has only twelve minutes of screentime in this movie.

• The music by John Williams is ranked No. 1 of AFIs 100 Years of Film Scores.

• Lucas’ script evolved into a mammoth 200 page screenplay. Having spent a full year writing it, he was reluctant to condense it, so instead he chose to concentrate on the first third of the script, with a view to expanding the remaining two-thirds into two additional movies.

• 20th Century Fox was so sure this movie was going to be a disaster that they almost sold off their stake in the movie. They changed their minds after positive feedback from an advance screening. The profits from the movie saved the studio from bankruptcy.

• Darth Vader was the first character that George Lucas created for the story.

• At one point, George Lucas planned for the characters of Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle to be dwarves. Lucas would eventually use the dwarf hero idea in the 1988 film ‘Willow.’

• The second science fiction movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, after the 1971 classic ‘A Clockwork Orange.’

• Prior to the release of this movie, the greatest profit Fox had ever made in one year was $37 million. In 1977, because of this movie, their year-end profit was $79 million.

• While initially being released only in a limited theatrical run, ‘Star Wars’ was an unprecedented success for 20th Century Fox, soon becoming a blockbuster hit and expanding to a much wider release. It would eventually see many theatrical and home media re-releases.

• ‘Star Wars’ was re-released theatrically in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982, with the subtitles ‘Episode IV’ and ‘A New Hope’ being added in 1981. The film was digitally remastered with some altered scenes in 1997 for a theatrical re-release.

• The film remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. It replaced ‘Jaws’ as the highest-grossing film in North America just six months into release, eventually earning over $220 million during its initial theatrical run. After the first few re-issues, it remained the highest grossing film of all time until ‘E.T’.

• The release of the 1997 Special Edition was the highest-grossing re-issue with a gross of $183.3 million, bringing its total gross in the US and Canada to $460 million, reclaiming the all-time No. 1 spot.

• In 1989, the US Library of Congress named ‘Star Wars’ among its first selections to the National Film Registry.

https://youtu.be/vZ734NWnAHA