课文内容

　　Birth of a LegendA long time ago, in a place far, far away, a promising film student at the University of Southern California won an internship at Warner Brothers’studio. There, the aspiring filmmaker met Francis Ford Coppola, who helped him to produce an experimental sci-fi flick called“THX 1138.”

　　The film was not exactly a blockbuster.1 But it did help that film student to win the backing of Coppola and the help of another studio--Universal--to make his next movie: a little film about American teenagers growing up in the rock-'n’-roll-and-fast-cars era of the early 1960s. That little film was“American Graffiti"--one of the most successful movies in Hollywood history. And that unknown wunderkind?2 That was George Lucas.

　　In 1973,“American Graffiti”took off like the Millennium Falcon and made Lucas a millionaire. Instead of resting on his bank account, Lucas took the money and directed his energies toward his next project: a space opera that combined the science fiction serials3 of the 1930s and 1940s with neoclassical music and futuristic special effects. It was kind of like“Flash Gordon”meets“Lohengrin.”

　　As with“American Graffiti,”the studio that backed this project had no faith in it whatsoever. It came as a total surprise then,--to everyone except Lucas--that“Star Wars”became a megahit.4