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Return Of The Jedi trivia

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Return of the Jedi trivia
· David Lynch was originally offered the chance to direct this episode of the series. He turned it down because he believed it was "Lucas' thing."
· Director David Cronenberg was offered the chance to direct.
· The dual stripes painted on rebel A-wing fighters were originally blue, but were changed to red because the blue made it a problem when filming blue-screen effects.
· SFX crew claim to have included a "sneaker" as one of the spaceships in a complex dog-fight scene [see also trivia for The Empire Strikes Back (1980)].
· Jabba's sail barge was filmed in Yuma, Arizona. The film crew had problems avoiding the 35,000 dune buggy enthusiasts in the area. To preserve secrecy, the producers claimed to be making a horror film called "Blue Harvest (Horror beyond your imagination)", and even had caps and t-shirts made up for the crew. A chain-link fence and a 24-hour security service could not prevent die-hard fans from entering the set and sneaking some photographs.
· The main chamber of Jabba's palace is connected to the entrance by a short flight of steps. When filming the scene where R2-D2 enters the chamber it was discovered that the droid could not roll down the stairs. In the movie we see R2-D2 approaching the stairs, then the camera moves to the left past the steps and the droid re-enters the field of view, having been manually hauled down the stairs.
· The Endor shots were filmed near Crescent City, California. Forest work was especially hard on the Ewok actors. Production Assistant Ian Bryce arrived on the set one day to find a note from the Ewok actors saying that they had all had enough and they were on their way to the airport. Bryce tried to drive to the airport, but got a flat tire not far from the set. He found another car and was about to leave when the Ewoks' bus pulled up, and all the Ewok actors got off wearing "Revenge of the Ewok" t-shirts.
· The primitive warrior tribe at the end of this film was originally supposed to be a tribe of Wookiees. In pre-production, though, the decision was made to go "cute" (probably for merchandising reasons) and, hence, the Ewoks were created (by rearranging the sounds in the word "Wookiee").
· Among the aliens in Jabba the Hutt's entourage are ones named "Klaatu," "Barada" and "Nikto," after the command given to the robot Gort in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). The aliens are not referred to by name in the film, nor do they have any lines.
· Luke's hand gets shot. Leia gets shot in the shoulder. Luke cuts off Darth Vader's hand. See also Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
· The Bounty Hunter later makes an appearance in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode where Worf and company are held prisoner by the Dominion.
· Several Ewok lines are in the Filipino (Tagalog) language.
· The film originally included a sandstorm scene that occurred after Han's rescue. It was cut because it was unnecessary and was hectic to shoot.
· The dancer that Jabba drops into the Rancor pit loses her top as she falls in.
· Carrie Fisher's birthmark (near the small of her back) is visible in the desert scene where she turns her back to the camera to swing around a mounted laser gun.
· Rumour has it that Nien Numb speaks a Kenyan dialect, and one of his lines is "One thousand herds of elephants are standing on my foot".
· It is rumored that a different ending was shot, but discarded later on. It featured the (long awaited) marriage between Leia Organa and Han Solo. Dark Horse's Comic "Dark Empire" is based on that fact and presents Han and Leia as a married couple.
· Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) plays Wedge in this film, despite the rumors to the contrary which were caused by his name being misspelt ("Dennis Lawson") in the credits of Star Wars (1977). Intense debate on Usenet prompted Jarod Nash to write a letter to Lawson, asking for clarification. Lawson confirmed that he indeed played in all three movies.
· The name "Ewok" is never used to refer to the teddy-bear creatures in the film, though it does appear in the credits.
· Darth Vader's body was played by David Prowse, his voice by James Earl Jones and his face by Sebastian Shaw.
· One of the songs that the Ewoks sing sounds like: "Det luktar flingor har", which is Swedish for "It smells of cereal here." (In fact, that line's lyrics are supposedly, "G'noop dock fling oh ah.") Another song sounds identical to a song sung in Caveman (1981).
· The title "Revenge Of The Jedi" was leaked early in production, so that pirated merchandise could be easily spotted when the film was released. The official reason for the change was that "...a Jedi would not take revenge". Some authentic pre-release movie posters actually had "Revenge", and are worth a lot of money today.
· Portions of the partially completed Death Star model resemble the San Francisco skyline.
· At the end, when Luke cremates Darth Vader, he starts the fire at big toe of his right foot. He also apparently walks around the pyre. Those details and the style of the pyre correspond to Hindu tradition.
· David Prowse, who played Darth Vader's body in three films, was unaware of the planned unmasking scene in which a different actor, Sebastian Shaw, played Vader's face.
· The name Anakin is the accusative of the greek noun Anax, meaning "lord."
· The name Palpatine was based on the name Palatine in the film, Taxi Driver (1976). It was changed to avoid legal problems.
· Kasdan and Lucas initially wanted to include the "victory over the Empire" shots on the imperial city. However, they were unable to get a satisfactory name for the capital planet of the Empire. In May 1991, author Timothy Zahn wrote the first Star Wars spin-off book, Heir to The Empire, and came out with the capital planet's name as Coruscant. Lucas was happy with the name and as the result, CG shots of victory celebration sequences of other cities, including Coruscant (where the statue collapsed) was included in the 1997 Special Edition.
· Watts, Robert Watts II, a co-producer of the film, doubles as the scout walker driver who is thrown out of the scout walker by Chewbacca.
· One of the words C-3PO uses to communicate with the Ewoks is "naboo" which is the name of the main planet in The Phantom Menace (1999)
· The victory trumpet call that the Ewoks used at the end of the Battle Of Endor was the same as the trumpet call that was used in The Ten Commandments. It can be heard when the Jews are about to leave Egypt for the Promised Land.
· The sounds of the "speederbikes" were used in Daisenki (1993) in the final battle as the UFO´s sounds.
· Princess Leia is the best shot. She never misses. See Star Wars.
· Before filming began, it was discovered that all of Darth Vader's lightsaber props had either been lost or stolen. Thus, one of Luke Skywalker's "stunt" saber props from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) had to be quickly cannibalized into a "Vader-esque" saber for this film.
· Character who has "a bad feeling about this": C-3PO. See also Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980)The Phantom Menace (1999) and Attack Of The Clones (2002).
· Wedge Antillies (Denis Lawson) is the only minor Star Wars character to survive the Battles of Yavin, Hoth, and Endor.
· Return Of The Jedi’s original theatrical release was May 25, 1983.
"May the force be with you!"
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interesting...
"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent."
Qui-Gon Jinn (R.I.P.)