'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' trivia and fun facts

The communicator that Qui-Gon Jinn uses in one of the scenes that take place on Tatooine, is actually a female razor blade.

The sets were built according to the height of the characters while the rest was computer generated. Liam Neeson that cost the set crew an extra of $150,000 for finishing the construction.

The underwater monster that we heard in the Gungan city at the beginning of the film, came from the cry of the daughter of one of the technicians. Her father recorded her as she wept and then digitally modify the sound.

The film was sent to theaters under the title 'The Doll House' to prevent it from being hacked.

Initially Benicio Del Toro was going to play Darth Maul but ended turning down the role when George Lucas decided to eliminate most of the character's dialogue.

During the shooting of the movie Ewan McGregor used to make the lightsabers sound, which then had to be removed in post production.

George Lucas challenged viewers to find the two scenes filmed digitally instead of 35mm film.

George Lucas got the main plot of the film from a draft that he wrote in 1975 for 'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope'.

Once characterized Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley were so much alike that even Knightley 's mother struggled to distinguish her daughter when she visited the set.

During the filming a sandstorm destroyed part of the Tatooine sets that had been built in the Tunisian desert. George Lucas took it as a sign of good luck because the same thing happened during the filming of the successful Episode IV, 'A New Hope'.