He seems a really good guy too. Aparently no one else coudl play Chewie. They had someone else in the costume once, and everyone saw it was nothing like it.

As I exited the theater, walking by the crowd waiting for the 3AM crowd, I got an evil idea…
Channeling Homer Simpson, I blurted out, “I can’t believe Obi Wan and Qui Jon are gay!”

Stepping out of the theater to the symphonic strains of the End Titles, three years seemed like an eternity… and little did we know that that future was to bring a giant slug and metal-bikini’d Princess, feral teddy bears defeating a legion of ‘the Emperor’s BEST troops’(!) and Vader absolved of his sins in the bluey-glow of the Jedi afterlife. (Am glad at least that that little orphan Ani, an orange frog Stephen Fetchit, and Jedis too DENSE to sense the Dark Side right NEXT TO THEM was in the distant cinematic future far, far, away…)

Thank the Force that ESB was made in collaboration with others, and not fully subject to its own Maker’s whims: that Lucas had Kurtz to reign him in instead of McCallum’s enabling— that he had Kasdan and Brackett to hone and edit the story ideas of the burgeoning SW “mythology” in a tight script—and that he handed the reigns to Irvin Kershner instead of directing it HIMSELF.

Thanks, ESB for broadening my conception of what was “Science Fiction”: robots, Martian colonists and demon-saviors of Earth were fine, but I guess what I really needed was some Space Opera in my SF diet! And great thanks to John Williams’ score for the film: buying the soundtrack for my SW Collection opened my ears to Orchestral Music— “Vader’s March”, “Yoda’s Theme”, “Han and Leia’s Love Theme” introduced me to musical motifs, leading to Beethoven, Wagner and beyond…

Guess I better rewatch it again now. :)

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, NEVER for attack.

http://www.noosfere.org/mezieres/pages/cinema/rencontres.htm

Also, for me, it’s a geek trifecta because I turned thirtyten today. Other notable geek birthdays today: Al Franken, Fairuza Balk and Mr. T!

Slight demerit: it’s also Jeffrey Dahmer’s birthday. No day is perfect. Awesome, yes, perfect, no.

— Rob

There’s a ton of information about this ever-evolving claim in the book THE SECRET HISTORY OF STAR WARS:

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/book.html

Most interesting revelation from the Brackett draft, which was written from Lucas’ outline: Darth Vader was not Luke’s father, proving GL really didn’t have as much planned out ahead of time as people would be lead to believe.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0102824/