Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the new This Week In Star Wars.
If you're new 'round these parts, This Week In Star Wars looks back at important moments in the creation of the Star Wars universe.
This week has some interesting moments, including the very first time the words “Star Wars” were put in a legal document and the announcement of the rather pulpy title to what is now generally considered the best Star Wars film ever made. Let's get to it, shall we?
August 3rd, 1911 - Alex McCrindle (General Dodonna) born. McCrindle was one of the hundreds of working actors who joined up with this crazy little space opera. His career saw a lot of UK TV work and tiny parts in bigger productions, like Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. By all accounts General Dodonna should have been like most of his big screen appearances... a few days work and then back to obscurity, but his little part happened to be in one of the only true blue original cinema phenomenons.
It certainly helped that Dodonna seemed to be the guy in charge once we got to see the actual Rebel Alliance and that he was the one to describe the strategy behind the Death Star attack, but there's something about Star Wars that makes every single character glimpsed on the screen a person (or alien) of interest.
Coincidentally, one of the biggest roles McCrindle had was in 1981's Eye of the Needle starring Donald Sutherland and directed by one Richard Marquand, whose next directorial outing would be Return of the Jedi. Star Wars is behind everything! It's all connected, man!
August 3rd, 1971 - United Artists registers the title “The Star Wars.”
Now this is a story. The first time the words “Star Wars” was put together on a legal contract was on this very day in 1971. United Artists registered the title as part of a deal with young George Lucas to make a cheap-o hot-rod flick called American Graffiti. The negotiations were for two pictures. First American Graffiti and then a “second picture.” While the “second picture” contracts didn't specify Star Wars, they still registered the title with the MPAA.
At this time Lucas was resigned to the fact that his passion project, a little thing he was working with Francis Ford Coppola on called Apocalypse Now, wasn't going to fly so he figured he'd focus on Graffiti. However, UA didn't end up liking Lucas' script for Graffiti and his deal, including the “second picture” option ended up at Universal, where Graffiti was greenlighted and produced. Universal passed on his weird sci-fi thing, though. Who'd be interested in that project?
August 2nd, 1973 - Simon Kinberg born.
I should have put this in last week's column, but I mis-labeled the date in my notes, so apologies, but I'm only off by a day, so don't be a dick about it!
In a relatively short period of time Kinberg has turned into one of the luckiest geeks in Hollywood. He's not only the go-to guy for comic book movies at Fox, but he's also become Mr. Star Wars thanks to his work writing and producing Rebels. He's not just doing TV stuff, though. He's also writing one of the Anthology films and I'd bet he's part of the Lucasfilm braintrust involving all things Star Wars.
So, from all of us geeky fans, let me wish Mr. Kinberg a happy birthday. Also, please don't fuck up Star Wars. Thanks!
August 3-4, 1978 – Ralph McQuarrie starts and completes “Second view, Imperial Star Destroyer.”
That's a beaut, isn't it? A simple shot of two Imperial Star Destroyers above Hoth and I just want to stare at it for five minutes.
August 4th, 1978 - “The Empire Strikes Back” title announced by Lucasfilm.
Behind closed doors, George Lucas was sweating. At this moment in time in 1978 he was in danger of losing all the control he fought so hard to attain as the costs of his follow up to Star Wars escalated. He was juggling pre-production on the sequel while also building a Northern California home for ILM and his own Skywalker Ranch. Lucas began to fear he had spread himself too thin and he'd have to go back to Fox to ask for money, which would have meant ceding creative control. This was narrowly avoided thanks to the toy and licensing division of Lucasfilm doing well and a refilling of the coffers due to the huge success of the first Star Wars re-release on 2000+ screens. It was still a rough period of time for the man and his vision.
Publicly, though, the company exuded confidence. On August 4th, 1978 they announced the rather pulpy title for Episode V as The Empire Strikes Back. From what I've read, the reaction was mixed, at least within the company. Some thought the title was cheesy, some thought it was the perfect nod of a hat to the pulpy serials that influenced Lucas to undertake this epic adventure in the first place. Now we know it as the perfect title for the best movie in the series.
August, 5th, 2000 - Sir Alec Guinness passes away.
It's hard to imagine Star Wars without Sir Alec Guinness. Hell, it's hard to imagine cinema without Sir Alec Guinness. He brought a sense of gravity to the role of Ben Kenobi that would have played kooky with a lesser actor. Just look at all the Star Wars rip-offs that followed and tried to just plug in an older guy in the mentor part if you need proof.
His Ealing work is legendary (I'm particularly fond of his work in The Ladykillers) and he made indelible impressions with his appearances in Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, The Quiller Memorandum, The Bridge on the River Kwai and the little-seen Cuba-set wrong man kinda comedy, kinda thriller Our Man in Havana.
There's no questioning that Guinness was a fantastic dramatic actor, but what I loved so much about him was the little mischievous twinkle in his eye. He was great at comedy because of that little bit of lunacy that rested below the calm, cool surface. One of my favorite performances of Guinness' was in the murder mystery spoof Murder By Death where he played the blind butler Bensonmum. That was his film right before Star Wars and that same sly sense of humor appeared in Obi-Wan, making him more than just the wisened warrior mentor.
It may not have been a source of pride for Guinness that he would be immortalized for that role after decades of quality work, but I'm glad he took the part and helped create movie magic.
That's it for this week. Next week sees landmark moments on the publishing and cartoon side of everybody's favorite galaxy far, far away. See ya' then!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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