The biggest headline of the week, without question, was the casting announcement that officially confirmed original trilogy stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker were returning for Star Wars: Episode VII. To celebrate the news, The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has dug deep into their vaults to share the original casting announcements for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, which date all the way back to 1975 with small blurbs in the LA Times, Variety and Box Office Magazine.

Things kick off with an announcement of the movie, followed by the casting of the main leads. There is even a photo of a movie ticket from an advanced screening, which you can check out here:

Star Wars Scheduled: After two years of preparation, George Lucas and Gary Kurtz will begin production in January 1976 on The Star Wars, an outer space action adventure.

Alec Guinness has been cast in one of the major roles in Star Wars. George Lucas' $8,000,000 sci-fi fantasy film for 20th Century Fox, which began filming Monday in Tunisia.

Guinness will play a bearded old desert rat who was once a leading general in galactic wars. Cast will also include three large roles for relatively unknown young performers who haven't yet been announced.

Mark Hamill's Debut: Mark Hamill makes his feature film debut in the lead role of Star Wars, George Lucas' scifier now lensing n London for 20t Century Fox. Hamill, 24, will play Luke Skywalker in the $8,000,000 outer space comedy-adventure.

Actor has lots of TV credits, including regular roles on General Hospital and the brief-lived series The Texas Wheelers, as well as acting in several telepix. He joins Alec Guinness in the cast, and two more major roles, a young woman and a man in late 20s, are still to be firmed.

Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, have been added to the cast of Star Wars. Ford will appear as Han Solo, a tough starpilot of a pirate starship. And Ms. Fisher will portray Leia Organa, a young rebel princess senator from the planet Alderaan.

Peter Cushing joins the cast of 20t Century Fox sci-fier Star Wars, lensing in England with about two weeks of principal photography remaining. The veteran horror film villain plays Grand Moff Tarkin, evil governor of the Imperial Outland Regions.

Also added to George Lucas' pie was David Prowse, former British weightlifting champ and also an alumnus of horror pix. Prowse played the Frankenstein monster twice on screen, and in Star Wars plays a huge masked villain.

You are cordially invited to a special preview of Star Wars Tuesday evening, May 24 at 8:30 pm.

"Dear George, Last Week Star Wars moved ahead of Jaws in domestic film rentals. Your hyperspace performance package really did the trick. Congratulations to the Cantina Crowd and all the forces of your imagination that made Star Wars so worthy of the throne. Wear it well. Your Pal, Steven Spielberg