Tatooine

Tatooine (/ˌtætuˈiːn/ tat-oo-EEN) is a fictional desert planet that appears in the Star Wars franchise. It is a beige-colored, desolate world orbiting a pair of binary stars, and inhabited by human settlers and a variety of other life-forms. The planet was first seen in the original 1977 film Star Wars, and has to date^{[until when?]} featured in a total of seven Star Wars theatrical films, three live-action television series, and four animated series.

It is the home planet of the protagonist of the original Star Wars Trilogy, Luke Skywalker, and of his father, Anakin Skywalker (who later became Darth Vader). It is also the planet where Obi-Wan Kenobi takes up residence under the name "Ben Kenobi" in order to watch over Luke during the former's exile following the events of Order 66 and Anakin's fall to the dark side. Shots of the binary sunset over the Tatooine desert are considered to be an iconic image of the film series, along with the greatest sunset scenes in cinematic history.

In his early drafts of the Star Wars story, author George Lucas changed the names of planets and characters several times. In his early treatment, Lucas opened the story on the fourth moon of the planet Utapau, the home of a young warrior called Annikin Starkiller. In Lucas's rough draft, The Star Wars (1974), the escaping droids land in a desert on the planet Aquilae; in later drafts the planet again takes the name of Utapau. Prior to production, early artwork commissioned by Lucas from conceptual illustrator Ralph McQuarrie show robots lost on a desert world, scorched by twin suns and mysterious, masked Tusken Raiders riding large horned Banthas.

George Lucas originally envisaged filming the Utapau/Tatooine scenes in Algeria (inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 film The Passenger), Libya or Iran, but these locations were rejected by 20th Century Fox. When production began on Star Wars, production designers John Barry and Robert Watts scouted for filming locations in Morocco and Tunisia. Lucas, accompanied by producer Gary Kurtz visited the Tunisian island of Djerba with them and were impressed by the desert landscape and the unusual architecture, and selected Tunisia to provide the desert planet setting. Lucas was also keen to shoot at the Hotel Sidi Driss in Matmata, a decision which extended the shoot, and consequently the budget, by a day. Filming in Tunisia began on March 22, 1976, and immediately ran into difficulty: the region was experiencing its first heavy rainfall in seven years, which disrupted the setting of an arid desert planet. The Matmata hotel consisted of a troglodyte dwelling in a large hole in the ground. Combined with shots at Chott el Djerid, near Nefta, this formed the setting for the Lars homestead and moisture farm. The landing site for C-3PO and R2-D2's escape pod was filmed in sand dunes at La Grande Dune, near Nefta, and exterior shots of Mos Eisley spaceport were shot on Djerba. The name Tatooine is not actually mentioned in the final screenplay of Star Wars—Lucas was still working on his fourth draft while scouting locations, and adapted the name from a town in southern Tunisia called Tataouine (French spelling, or Tataween spelling in Tunisian Arabic).

Certain scenes filmed on Djerba were subsequently deleted from the final cut of the film in order to improve the narrative pace. The most significant material cut was a series of scenes set in the township of Anchorhead which served to introduce the characters of Luke Skywalker and Biggs Darklighter. Lucas asked film editor Richard Chew to cut these scenes as they had been likened to "American Graffiti in outer space" by Fox executives (in reference to Lucas's 1973 film).

Footage filmed at Sidi Bouhlel in Tunisia was combined with 1977 second unit filming at Death Valley National Park in California to create the rocky canyon scenes featuring Jawas and Tusken Raiders.

When crews returned to Tunisia to film for the Star Wars prequel films in 1998, locations at Onk Jemal (Ong Jmal) in Tozeur, Ksar Ouled Soltane and Ksar Hadada, Ghomrassen were used for Tatooine scenes. Abandoned sets for the filming have been left in the desert but can be visited.

Tatooine originally featured in the 1977 film Star Wars, and was the first planet to be seen in the film franchise. In the opening scene, the planet and two of its moons are seen in space against a sea of stars, forming the backdrop of a space battle which sets in motion the events of the film. Two robots, C-3PO and R2-D2, jettison in an escape pod from a captured spaceship, the Tantive IV, and land on the surface of Tatooine. The droids lose their way in a sparse desert and are captured by small scavenger creatures called Jawas. When the robots are sold on to human settlers, protagonist Luke Skywalker is introduced as a young man living with his aunt and uncle on a farm. The hostility of the arid desert environment is emphasised by the depiction of sandstorms and the heat of the binary stars, as Luke watches a twin sunset over the sand dunes. Humans are constantly threatened by violent bandit creatures called Tusken Raiders. As the film progresses, various leading characters are introduced to the story in scenes set on Tatooine: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Later Tatooine scenes take place in Mos Eisley, a gritty bustling spaceport on the planet which is a centre of smuggling and organised crime. One of the most celebrated scenes in the Star Wars saga is in the Mos Eisley cantina, a shady saloon populated by exotic alien species. Composer John Williams wrote music for the alien band in this scene in the style of swing musician Benny Goodman, and arranged with unusual instrumentation to convey an other-worldly sound. Tatooine features once again in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, in which the story's heroes return to Tatooine to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, a fearsome gangster who dominates the criminal underworld on Tatooine.