Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the new This Week In Star Wars. Let's look back at what cool stuff happened between June 15th and June 21st in the world of Star Wars, shall we?
June 16th, 1938 - Michael Culver born. Yessir, Captain Needa, who was very good at apologizing, has a birthday this week. I was always impressed with the head vein acting he did in Empire. He really sold Vader's brutal fury.
June 18th, 1938 - Michael Sheard (aka Admiral Ozzel) born. Lotsa force-choke fatalities for those who came into being this week, so if you're celebrating a birthday then watch the fuck out! I love how petty Admiral Ozzel was. Like most of the smaller characters in the original trilogy, this part was cast perfectly. Sheard brought so much to his small amount of screen time. I can only hope the bit part casting is as on-point in the new Star Wars films.
June 15th, 1976 – Variety announces Peter Cushing and David Prowse cast in Star Wars. Movie news worked quite a bit differently back then. This announcement came while the film was well underway already. It's fun looking back at the world pre-Star Wars fever, like how Prowse was listed as playing “a huge masked villain.” It was a simpler, more innocent, time.
June 16th, 1976 - Alec Guinness' last day of shooting on Star Wars. It was a pick up shot, completing a scene on the Millennium Falcon where Obi-Wan feels Alderaan's demise. What's funny about that is that Guinness thought he blew it. If you remember, Obi-Wan reels back and puts his hand on his forehead, which Guinness later called an “unpardonable cliché.” So, his very last shot in Star Wars was what he considered his worst bit of acting in the whole movie. We don't agree with you, Mr. Guinness, wherever you are.
June 15th, 1978 - Lawrence Kasdan brought on to rewrite The Empire Strikes Back. The wheels of production were already starting to roll and Lucas was well behind thanks to a disastrous draft from Leigh Brackett. He couldn't go back to her because she got sick and died shortly after turning in her draft. Lucas did a quick rewrite, but knew he couldn't focus on writing and all the business of funding and scheduling the Star Wars sequel, so he turned to young Lawrence Kasden.
Kasdan was writing Raiders of the Lost Ark for Lucas and Spielberg at the time, but hadn't turned anything over yet. When Lucas asked him if he would be willing to do the next draft of Empire, Kasdan said “George, don't you think you should read Raiders script first? How do you know you want me?” He said, “Well, I just get a feeling about people. If I hate Raiders, I'll call the whole thing off.” Obviously Raiders turned out pretty well and the rest is history.
Kasdan himself thinks it was his strengths in writing people that cemented his involvement since he had virtually no genre experience whatsoever. But Lucas wanted rich characterizations for the sequel.
That photo is from a deleted scene, by the way. Luke got a facial and they cut it out of the theatrical version? How dare they!
This is also date by which all three leads, Ford, Fisher and Hamill, had officially signed their contracts to appear in Empire. Big day for Star Wars.
June 20th-22nd, 1978 – Ralph McQuarrie turns in “X-wing in Bog.”
What a fantastic piece. It's amazing to me just how close McQuarrie's work above is to the finished scene. I mean, it could be fan art it's so close to what we ultimately got. Just goes to show how instrumental McQuarrie was to the look, feel and tone of these films.
June 20th, 2014 - Rian Johnson rumored to write and direct Star Wars Episode 8.
Disney and Lucasfilm didn't confirm this until pretty recently and even then they didn't address the original rumor from Deadline that he was going to be writing and directing both Episodes 8 and 9. I like that every new film gets a new director, but wouldn't be upset if Johnson got more than flick.
For my money hiring Johnson is still the most exciting aspect of the new trilogy so far. Johnson has an ear for character dialogue, a true cinematic eye and an instinct for performance that just about has me foaming at the mouth to see what he brings to Star Wars.
And that's it for this week. Next week features landmark moments in the creation of Boba Fett, Darth Maul and many other big moments in Star Wars History. See ya' then!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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