BEHIND THE SCENES: SHOOTING JAWAS!

At the Salt Flats location in Tunisia, the original Star Wars lensman John Jay captures the main group of Jawas by their Sandcrawler in between takes for this great image, which was apparently one of Jay's favourites taken for the movie way back in Spring, 1976.

John Jay at the location.

BEHIND THE SCENES: THE 'LITTLE PEOPLE' AT WORK!

Having sneakily captured the unawares Artoo Detoo in the mountain regions, those trade hungry scavengers, the Jawas, take the little droid back to their immense Sandcrawler vehicle. Originally, the scene was filmed on location in Tunisia at the end of March 1976. Allegedly, film damage discovered afterwards, and once the Star Wars film crew had left that country, ultimately necessitated the scene being reshot in the US, at Death Valley, California around Jan 1977 as part of other pickup shots and scene reshoots. 

Since there was no money or time available to find and reassemble the original Jawa Sandcrawler scaffold prop constructed by John Stears and his UK practical effects team (if indeed its sections still survived at the Elstree Studios backlot), newly shot scenes (which we understand were undertaken by Gary Kurtz and his own Second Unit) saw local children (including Tim Donaldson and Andrea Wickman-Miller) hired as Jawas carrying the droid to a similar flat area of the Death Valley US location, in which the Sandcrawler was then subsequently matted on by ILM.

The Jawa Sandcrawler scaffold prop in Tunisia.

Getting ready for night filming in Tunisia.

Colour footage as seen in early dailies footage.

A stencil link to where a matte painting was to have been added above and replacing the scaffold sections in the original Tunisia filming.

Local children play Jawas for the Death Valley reshoot- Jan 1977.

Matte painting of Jawa Sandcrawler for revised scene.

How the final scene looked in the film.

EPISODE IX: SCAVENGER STOPOVER!

Always on the lookout for their next profitable exercise in salvage hunting (as seen with their splendid appearance in the second episode of The Mandalorian), the scavenger Jawas make a stopover in the desert environs of Tatooine for this great post-Classic Trilogy release created painting from the much-missed Ralph McQuarrie. A lovely scenescape homage to it recreated in live-action - a special tribute to the important artist and his cherished SW work by Lucasfilm/ILM/J.J. Abrams - during the emotional Lars Homestead finale to The Rise of Skywalker.

THE 'PHANTOM' AT TWENTY: INSIDE MOS ESPA

Our small band of heroes enter into the unusual and unpredictable world of Tatooine's Mos Espa, a street set specially built on location fifteen miles away from Tozeur, Tunisia (a triumph from Production Designer Gavin Bocquet, his UK team (supervised by Ben Scott), and the sterling efforts of local construction talent), and one that's still around today (thanks to worldwide fan efforts that have helped maintain it). With a myriad of locals dressed and masked as varying background aliens, the exploration scenes would be lens captured in the midst of incredible and physically trying temperatures (reaching on one day up to 132 degrees!), affecting both people and equipment, during two schedule-packed weeks in the Summer of 1997.

"I could have built all of Tunisia on the backlot in England but there is a look, there is a smell, and there is an adventure for us shooting in the desert. And then you have to achieve that quality of light, the extras, the wear and tear of the costumes. And that heat... Even if you don't feel that heat when you see it, it's still a question of being there, of being a part of it. Just the experience of going there is still worth all the effort, both in economic and creative terms."

Rick McCallum - Total Film magazine - August 1999

"None of those sets had tops. We knew what we needed. But if George decided, at the last minute, that he wanted to tilt up more, we'd just slap up bluescreen so ILM could fill in the sets digitally."

Rick McCallum - The Making of EPISODE I book - 1999

Shooting on a day off, Warwick Davis has another fun cameo as a strange Mos Espa vagabond.

"It was very hot! Just very hot! A trench was dug around the shooting location in Tunisia. It was several feet deep, and was dug to keep all of the desert creepy crawlies away from our camp. Snake catchers were employed to patrol the area and make safe any locations. The cast had tents as dressing rooms, it reminded me of 'Lawrence of Arabia', the only difference being that Lawrence didn't have air conditioning in his tent!"

Warwick Davis - TheForce.Net online interview - 1999

"As difficult as it was (filming in the heat of the location), Tunisia was the place that brought back the most memories for me. It looks like Tatooine- it must be Star Wars!"

George Lucas - 1997

A special posed image taken by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair magazine's world-exclusive coverage of EPISODE I in 1999.

Jira's fruit stand stall.

Out of storage from the Lucasfilm Archive, Luke's Landspeeder from the original Star Wars would be painted green and used for background scenes.

The street set from behind.

"The trick was to have the extras rehearse their scenes without their heads on. When we were ready to shoot the scene, we'd put the heads on and keep the extras under an umbrella, with plenty of water available, until the cameras started rolling. If an extra started to feel uncomfortable, we'd just stop shooting." 

Nick Dudman - The Making of EPISODE I book - 1999

Certain street scenes would be enhanced with digital additions from ILM.

'STAR WARS' AT 40: DROIDS FOR SALE!

The Jawa Sandcrawler has arrived at its first destination of the morning: the moisture farm site of the Lars Homestead, where the gruff Owen Lars and the young Luke Skywalker go through the latest available selection of droids to negotiate purchase, no questions asked where they came from, and soon get more than they bargained for when the inimitable C-3PO - looking for a new master - and R2-D2 - a droid on a mission - enter their lives.

This sequence would be one of the first to be worked on for the film during post production by Paul Hirsch, who would improve the original cut version of the film, thanks to some additional advice from Marcia Lucas indicating that more could be gleaned from the shot footage from Tunisia. 

BEHIND THE SCENES: ANCHORHEAD AND TOSCHE STATION

Location production recce images of the eventual Tosche Station site, taken by John Barry and his team in 1975.

Here's some great images of/linked to the Djerba fishing village site in Tunisia used for the original STAR WARS, involving scenes of Luke and his young friends at Tosche Station, filmed during early April 1976, and at the end of main location photography.

Drawing of the site. Not sure if this is from the time, or a later created reference image.

Reference image of the redressed location. This angle would be used for a separate establishing shot for Mos Eisley.

Similar colour image.

Angle of the Djerba mosque from the other side, not showing the shoreline.

The classic deleted scene where Luke and Biggs say goodbye.

Also filmed for the Anchorhead scene was the earlier moment where an angry old woman screams at Luke in his Landspeeder (presumably the craft was to have been superimposed going past her by ILM).

More on the filming in Tunisia and London here: STAR WARS AFICIONADO WEBSITE: TOSCHE STATION

Angry local woman. Love the background Jawas slouched about!

It is unknown if the woman was played by a Tunisian extra or someone linked to the UK crew (I think it may be the latter). The short scene released on the 2011 Blu-ray was soundless. According to the film's UK Script Supervisor Ann Skinner's handwritten notes, the woman's line was adjusted from "I told you kids to slow down" to "I've told you kids not to go so fast."

With thanks to Ann Skinner and the BFI.

CLASSIC ART: ESCAPE BID!

The droids make their escape attempt from the Jawas in this super conceptual art by Ralph McQuarrie.

Having been captured by those pesky Jawa scavengers, our droids C-3PO and R2-D2 make their bid for freedom when the creature's mighty Sandcrawler is damaged whilst traversing a outcrop, hit by falling rocks which knock it off track, in a sequence scripted for the Second Draft of the original STAR WARS in 1975, and likely staying as a filming idea for quite a while, until its disappearance later that year with George Lucas's Third Draft. It had also been planned as a lead-in to a scene featuring a Jawa encampment - which later was scene-rearranged to become a part of the Mos Eisley sequence of Tunisia instead- a Ksours location found by Production Designer John Barry eventually used in EPISODE I. Both Sandcrawler and encampment scenes were scrapped for reasons of time and money, as well as not enhancing the overall plot very much.

McQuarrie thumbnails of the droids escaping.

Joe Johnston's later, slight redesign of the Jawa Sandcrawler. Could that be the damaged front track?

http://starwarz.com/starkiller/adventures-of-the-starkiller-second-draft/

CLASSIC McQUARRIE: A PLACE FIT FOR JAWAS!

Those pesky but lovable scavengers of the Tatooine desert, the Jawas, gets some civilisation exploration by the legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie within the STAR WARS Expanded Universe: a B/W interpretation of a Jawa Fortress.

DELETED SCENE: THE BIG LEAP!

Having been caught in Jabba's trap, Luke Skywalker, seeing the oncoming Rancor, makes a Jedi leap upwards to escape, hanging onto the above floor railings for dear life, until a couple of sneaky little Jawa brutes ram their gun butts onto his hands and he's forced back down again.

A deleted scene from RETURN OF THE JEDI that fans have wanted to see for ages, ever since they saw images of it in merchandise during the films original 1983 release. Finally, a rough B/W workprint cut of this Jabba's Palace sequence (with a man in a gorilla suit filling in for the Rancor, as size reference during 1982 filming) was recently shown at the CELEBRATION EUROPE II event, as part of promotion for the J.W. Rinzler THE MAKING OF RETURN OF THE JEDI book's upcoming electronic release in October, containing this and other additional rare footage, within its pages. Further good news reveals that the new versions of the author's MAKING OF STAR WARS and EMPIRE in this format will also contain further rare goodies.

Return of the Jedi - missing scene - Jabba Palace - YouTube

With thanks to Ian Trussler.

CLASSIC IMAGE: PARTY ANIMALS!

Jabba the Hutt's party loving entourage enjoying watching Han Solo and Princess Leia suffer at the grubby hands of their big boss, in this gallery of the grotesque from RETURN OF THE JEDI. Note the Tauntaun head hanging up on the right side wall.

BEHIND THE SCENES IMAGE: WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...

Within the hot and confined interior of the Sail Barge interior set at ELSTREE, Carrie Fisher gets ready to film her next scene as Slave Leia to Jabba the Hutt, her chained character leered and enjoyed by its surrounding drunken audience.

CLASSIC IMAGE: USED DROIDS FOR SALE!

Outside on the vast landscape plains of the Owen Lars moisture farm/household, those pesky but lovable Jawas begin to gather their odds and ends droids for possible sale, including two recent acquisitions: See-Threepio and Artoo-Detoo!

Truly another magical scene from the original STAR WARS!

CLASSIC IMAGE: A JAWA TROPHY

With several additional/re-shoot scenes filmed in Death Valley, USA in early 1977, as well as a small amount of original footage the year before in Tunisia (the above shot filmed there in STAR WARS CANYON (the large rock, behind the Jawas, was, I'm sure, in the finale of RAIDERS, too!)), here's the classic scene audiences loved upon the films original release, where Artoo is sneakily captured by those little scavengers of the Tatooine desert: the Jawas!

CLASSIC IMAGE: FRIENDS LOST AND FOUND!

Searching the dark and smelly recesses of the Jawa Sandcrawler, littered with droids old and new in various working and non-working states, C-3PO is finally re-united with his loyal Astro Droid chum Artoo Detoo in a great moment from STAR WARS.