VIII: A Droidy Timeline

The timeline.

August 1972. Walter Murch, sound editing American Graffiti, asks director George Lucas for reel 2, dialogue track 2. Or “R2-D2”.

1973. George Lucas works on early drafts of the Star Wars script. The droids appear around this time, though known variously as A-2 and C-3, and Artwo-Detwo.

1974. Production artist Ralph McQuarrie produces his first drawings of a squat cylindrical robot with a dome-shaped head.

31 January 1975. McQuarrie completes the first production painting for the film: “Artoo and Threepio leave the pod in the desert.” Artoo is shown walking along, swinging on two legs like crutches.

April 1975. In the UK, temporary art director Elliot Scott, essentially brought on at this point by Fox for cost estimation purposes, hires John Stears for mechanical effects. Stears is thus the first member of the British crew to be hired for the production itself.

July 1975. Production designer John Barry and set dresser Roger Christian are interviewed for possible roles.

August 1975. Ben Burtt is hired, almost right out of film school, to gather sounds for what he later calls "sound design". John Barry and John Stears begin work at rented space in Lee Studios in West London. This is a small studio facility owned by the Lee Electrics light equipment rental company.

September 1975. Roger Christian and carpenter Bill Harman construct the first two wooden R2-D2 prototypes at Lee Studios as mockups. The old Lee Electric 1000 watt lamp used as R2’s dome, and an aircraft reading lamp for a projector, are found by Christian. The geometry of this lamp bell defines the shape of R2-D2's head from this point on.

26 September 1975. Interim "engagement letters" written by producer Gary Kurtz's assistant Bunny Alsup for John Barry, Leslie Dilley, Roger Christian, Bill Harman, John Stears, and Pat Carr. Note that some if not all of these individuals have already been working on production by this point.

1 October 1975. Performer Kenny Baker confirmed as being available to play R2-D2.

2 October 1975. John Barry travels to Tunisia to begin location reconnaissance.

6 October 1975. Sculptor Liz Moore, who sculpted the Star Child from Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey, starts work on C-3PO and the stormtrooper head.

11-13 October 1975. George Lucas and Gary Kurtz arrive in London, and set up shop at the Fox Studios offices in Soho Square, London. The photo of Lucas standing next to the second wooden prototype, over at Lee Studios, is believed to have been taken around this time.

21 October 1975. George Lucas and Gary Kurtz travel to Djerba, Tunisia.

11 November 1975. Actor Anthony Daniels cast as C-3PO.

14 November 1975. John Stears and the art department leave Lee Studios and move to EMI Elstree according to department minutes. This occurred right after Christmas according to Roger Christian.

17 November 1975. Bill Harman winds up work. Star Wars is assigned the production number E/76/1 by EMI Elstree Studios.

19 November 1975. Anthony Daniels has his body casting done.

5 December 1975. Anthony Daniels signs his contract.

13 December 1975. Twentieth Century Fox board reluctantly greenlights (ie: commits to fully fund) the picture after pressure from film division president Alan Ladd, Jr and protracted negotiations with Lucas, Kurtz, and their lawyer. Robert Watts meets with Peter Childs (Childs Screen Services) and Ted Ambrose (Ambro Designs) about serving as draughtsmen/draftspeople on the film.

Late 1975. Date unknown. John Stears approaches Peteric Engineering at Shepperton, the company that would actually build the aluminium R2 droid bodies. Stears speaks with Peteric's manager Paul Oliver.

8 January 1976. Blueprint #60, R2-D2’s dome, is completed by draftsperson Peter Childs at EMI. Initial cross-sections (50-series) produced at this time. Leslie Dilley's drawings are cited as being the direct visual origins of the blueprints, though we have no record of these.

January 1976. Date unknown. Blueprints sent to Peteric Engineering, who begin construction on the aluminium R2 units.

14 January 1976. Initial film tests of R2: the original Lee Electric lamp dome fitted with a fibre optic lighting strip. Film footage of the tests, which must have been done to see if the fibre optics were bright enough to work, still exists.

16 January 1976. Head of Department (HOD) meeting is held. Minutes indicate that:

“Peteric Engineers would be coming over to the studio on Thursday, January 22nd with the metal robots. George Lucas should view these. The Art Dept. are working on the head and leg. The eyeline holes now seem to be okay. The Art Dept. have talked to Kenny about coming in to practise walking in the feet. Kenny is due to have a fitting with the boots on Tuesday. It should be decided on Thursday how many of each item is required.”

The reference to Peteric and the metal robots presumably means that in-progress work would be brought for evaluation, especially since the art department hadn’t finished the “head and leg” yet.

20 January 1976. Blueprint #67, R2-D2 front view, is completed by Peter Childs.

23 January 1976. Revised blueprint #67, R2-D2 front view, is re-issued. "Top section of leg modified". These plans are sent to Peteric Engineering, who have been working from the previous blueprints up until this point. Peteric's David Watling has noted in interviews that they had to scrap their previous work on the droids when the revised blueprints arrived.

5 February 1976. Special Effects department HOD meeting held. Minutes include the following comments:

“Threepio is the major problem for the Art Dept., John Barry could not say for sure when 3-PO would be ready hopefully two weeks from now (19th February). Gary Kurtz thought we should leave time for Kenny to practice and a little extra time for any changes that have to be made he does not want the mechanical problems to overpower the others.  R.2. (sic) John Barry said that the head would have to be bigger because it is very tight on Tony at the moment. Batteries have eyes.” “Airfreighter (sic). … Also 10 robots and other essentials such as laser swords may be fitted into personal charter. FREIGHTER TO DEPART ON 16TH MARCH. … The aircraft is a Trident 3.”

Note: in 2015 Gary Kurtz said, “The last group of material - the landspeeder and costumes and the robots and all the rest of that - went over on a chartered Lockheed Hercules C-130 and unloaded. We shot for three weeks and got back on the charter and flew back to England.”

16 February 1976. Second of two convoys of lorries/trucks heads from England to Tunisia (via ferry from Italy). Droids are not aboard as they’re not ready.

25 February 1976. Anthony Daniels scheduled to attend a costume fitting. This took place in the "Star Wars Wardrobe Room", which was room 49 by stages 1 and 2 at EMI Elstree.

February-March 1976. Date unknown. C&L completes the machined detail parts and the RC droid's drop-down leg mechanism. Peteric completes and delivers the metal droid bodies. John Stears' team starts working on installing lighting and, in the case of the RC R2, motors and radio control equipment. The exact timeframe here is not known; we only know from Watling that the total amount of time spent by Peteric was about 10,000 hours.

Early March 1976. Fox still has not committed the full budget, which has slowed production considerably. The money was finally agreed to “a week before we started shooting”, according to Lucas. "Fox (did not put) up the money until it was too late. Every day (during filming) we would lose an hour or so due to those robots, and we wouldn't have lost that time if we'd had another six weeks to finish them and test them and have them working before we started."

Possibly March 1976. John Barry instructs Roger Christian and art director Les Dilley to build a replica R2-D2 from fibreglass, since he was concerned that John Stears would not be ready in time with the metal R2 droid, particularly the RC R2 that Stears' team was motorizing. Date unknown.

12 March 1976. Kenny Baker scheduled to “report to the Art Dept”, presumably for more R2-D2 costume fittings.

13 March 1976. Production officially starts in Tozeur, Tunisia. John Barry and Tony Waye travel to Tunisia with other crew members, where they were scheduled to stay until location filming was complete.

15 March 1976. An unpainted but externally complete Kenny droid, built by Peteric, is tested with Kenny Baker inside at EMI. The umbrella and binocular droids are tested as radio-controlled units. Completed C-3PO tested. Film footage of the tests still exists, and the clapperboard indicates the date.

18 March 1976. 16mm documentary footage is filmed at EMI Elstree. This includes, “John Stears in charge special effects fitting R.2. part”, “Close shot of front leg mold of radio controlled robot”, “Close shot plaster foot of robot”.

Mid March 1976; date unknown. A chartered freight plane is used to ship the last critical props and equipment to Tunisia. The gear is then trucked out to the Sandcrawler/homestead set. According to an interview with C&L’s Neil Anderson the plane lands roughly, and the RC R2 sustains damage in the process; damage which affects the droid's leg-latch mechanism.

20 March 1976. The principal cast fly from Heathrow to Djerba-Zarzis, Tunisia, aboard a chartered British Airways jet. The next day they drive to the small town of Nefta, on the edge of the Chott el Djerid salt flat.

20-22 March 1976. There is a photo of John Stears and others on the salt flats, working on three metal droids. The unfinished fibreglass shell is to the right of the photo, so he knew about its existence at this stage, and it hadn’t yet been fully dressed to play R2. The fibreglass droid was presumably dressed at some point between 20-22 March. Reports from principals are ambiguous as to whether the white fibreglass body was prepared prior to filming, or on the first day of filming. Roger Christian suggests it was worked on the night before.

22 March 1976. Principal photography begins on Chott el Djerid with the droid auction scene in front of the Sandcrawler set. Believed to be on day one of shooting: the RC R2 faceplants, because its middle leg latch fails to engage during a 2 leg to 3 leg transition, leading to permanent damage to the droid. Footage of the agonizing incident is filmed by Peter Shillingford as part of his on-set documentary work.

23-25 March 1976. Around this time one of the trucks catches fire, and two droids (of types unknown) intended for the homestead set are damaged and unusable.

24 March 1976. Robot argument/Tatooine arrival scene is filmed.

25 March 1976. The burning homestead scene is filmed, as is the now-deleted Luke and Treadwell scene.

1976. Liz Moore dies in a tragic car accident in the Netherlands, during production on the film A Bridge Too Far. She was just 31 or 32, and never lived to see the rapturous reception her work on C-3PO would receive. Anthony Daniels dates this event to sometime before 25 March 1976 (ie: he reports the crew learned of her death on 25 March during filming in Tunisia) However, I have also seen 13 June 1976 and 13 August 1976 as possible dates for her death.

26 March 1976. Capturing the runaway R2 at the edge of Sidi Bouhlel canyon.

29 March 1976. Filming the “Jawas zap R2” scene in Sidi Bouhlel.

30-31 March 1976. Filming the Sandcrawler scenes at Sidi Bouhlel, including sucking R2 into the belly of the beast. This latter shot involved dropping the stunt droid and then reversing the film.

1-4 April 1976. Mos Eisley city scenes, including a lot of shots with roaming droids, filmed in Djerba.

2 April 1976. “The droids you’re looking for” scene filmed in Djerba, with the RC R2  (with green stripes) and the Frankendroid painted yellow, crossing the road.

4 or 5 April 1976. Tunisian filming completed, the bulk of the cast and crew return to Britain by air.

7 April 1976. Filming resumes at EMI Elstree in the UK. Homestead and garage interior sets filmed.

8 April. Frodo awakens in Ithilien and the surviving members of the Fellowship are fully reunited.

9 April 1976. Garage oil bath scene filmed.

23 April 1976. Interior of Obi-Wan’s “hovel” is filmed, including the hologram scene.

5 May 1976. The mouse droid scene is shot.

12 May 1976. The scene of R2 extinguishing a fire aboard the Falcon is shot.

13-16 May 1976. Filming moves to Shepperton for the award ceremony scenes.

26 May 1976. A joke scene involving R2 sticking his claw into a socket and getting zapped by mistake is filmed. The scene is dropped, but the concept reused (and refilmed) for ESB.

7 June 1976. The scene of the droids inside the sandcrawler is filmed at EMI.

9-14 June 1976. Rebel hangar shoot at Shepperton.

29 June - 16 July 1976. Blockade Runner interior sequences filmed.

16 July 1976. The sequence of Leia hiding the plans in R2-D2 is reshot; the day before Carrie Fisher returns to LA. Following intense pressure from the studio, principal photography officially concludes.

23 July 1976. Post-production photography starts, including a stand-in for C-3PO in the Blockade Runner and some R2-D2 footage.

Mid-late 1976. Date unknown. At some point after filming at EMI concludes, the RC R2 and the “Identities” droid are shipped to ILM in Van Nuys, California.

August 1976. Film editor Richard Chew starts at Lucas' house at 52 Park Way in San Anselmo, California, where Marcia Lucas is already at work. English film editor John Jympson, who had been working on the film during shooting at EMI, had been fired earlier, and a new edit needed to be assembled.

July or August 1976. Ben Burtt sets up a sound editing suite at Park Way, to assemble his found recordings. (conflicting dates mentioned) As Ben Burtt's sound elements are introduced to the picture the editors start relying more on R2-D2 reaction shots, since he now has an expressive voice.

September 1976. Fox, after much cajoling from Kurtz and Lucas, agree to supply an additional $20K for pickup shots. The additional cantina monster footage, extra material for the Greedo scene, extra footage of R2 in the desert, and miscellaneous small cutaway pickups are later filmed using this money.

16 October 1976. Film editor Paul Hirsch joins the Park Way editing team. The work of the three editors highlights a number of areas where additional footage becomes required, and thus extra “pickup” footage needs to be shot, in addition to the known incomplete sequences that could not be shot in Tunisia.

Late 1976. Date unknown. ILM's Bill Shourt rebuilds parts of the RC R2, improving its mechanical reliability and adding audio cassette playback.

January 1977. Sound editor Sam Shaw and team start work on foley effects. This includes work on the motor noises made by R2-D2 and C-3PO; sounds not produced by Ben Burtt.

11 January 1977. Mark Hamill is badly injured in a serious car accident.

Mid-January 1977 to early February 1977. Pickup shots filmed in various California locations. The RC R2 and the “Identities” droid were both used for Death Valley location shoots to fill in the Tunisian sequences. Jawa sequences, also filmed in Death Valley with Californian schoolchildren, are believed to have been shot in January 1977. Owing to Hamill’s injuries the landspeeder shots are filmed with a stand-in for Luke, and at a distance.

Possibly 24-25 January 1977. Additional cantina aliens, mostly designed by Rick Baker, Phil Tippett, and others, were filmed in Hollywood on North Las Palmas Avenue, at Hollywood Center Studios. An R2 was present at the studio, but it's not known if the Leia's hand/R2 dome pickup was filmed here or at ILM.

25 May 1977. Star Wars premieres in the USA.

Post May 1977. Once filming was complete, the RC R2 was revised again to support remote-controlled dome rotation. Thus no footage in the actual movie show the RC R2 with its head turning via motors, but media appearances post-release do.

3 August 1977. ILM-modified RC R2 used for the footprint ceremony at Mann's (as it was then known) Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles. It's often incorrectly stated that Kenny Baker was in attendance, but the robot used for the ceremony was the RC R2. Anthony Daniels as C-3PO was present, and Darth Vader was played by Kermit Eller (not David Prowse).

16 September 1977. The Making of Star Wars, as told by C-3PO and R2-D2, TV documentary, broadcast on American TV. Includes making-of footage shot during production, and new footage of the RC R2 driving around and spinning its head rapidly.

References

Christian, Roger. Cinema Alchemist: Designing ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Alien’. Titan Books, 2016.

Daniels, Anthony.  I Am C-3PO - The Inside Story. 2019.

Hirsch, Paul. A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away... My Fifty Years Editing Hollywood Hits - Star Wars, Carrie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Mission: Impossible, and More. Chicago Review Press, 2019.

Miller, W.R. The Star Wars Historical Sourcebook Volume One: 1971-1976. Pulp Hero Press, 2018.

Rinzler, J.W. The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film. Aurum Press, 2007.

Additional information gleaned from clapperboards in documentary and unused footage, scans of meeting minutes auctioned to the public, notes on original blueprints, and so on. Thanks to Mark Kiger, Robert Jackson, and Hunter Maurice for additional information.