20th Century Fox announced the cast of its new sci-fi production that promises to shake up the galaxy in the summer of 1977! Wait… What??? Yes! Directly from the time tunnel here are some notice press about the pre-production of Episode 4 and others curiosities from the release of the first saga movie that is turning 37 years today.
In July 14th, 1975, the 20th Century Fox announced the start date of the film, which was then called “The Star Wars.”
An early press clipping announcing the production team of “Star Wars”.
Another early announcement for “The Star Wars”:
The casting announcement for Mark Hamill, who was making his feature film debut, called his character “Luke Starkiller”.
Another casting announcement for Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher mentioned that Fisher was the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, and Ford was to play a “starpilot.”
The headline on the casting announcement for Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, shows that his role was expected to be the biggest in the film.
Veteran sci-fi actor Peter Cushing got some love from Variety in 1976. Buried in the announcement was that of the actor playing Darth Vader – “a huge masked villain” – played by David Prowse, who starring as Frankenstein twice.
One lucky fan got this ticket stub to see a special sneak preview of “Star Wars” on May 24, 1977, which was one day before the release of the film:
This advertisement from 20th Century Fox announces how the film would sound and look.
One of the early newspaper reports on the success of “Star Wars”:
This is a full-page ad that the very collegial Steven Spielberg created for his long-time friend George Lucas applauding him on “Star Wars” beating “Jaws” box office record.
All images credits for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences/ The Oscars on Facebook.
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