So film historian (and maker of an original trilogy doc, I think - definitely heard his name before) Jamie Benning has been tweeting about our mysterious lava man today, saying it’s been 40 years today since it was filmed before quickly being abandoned. Here’s the initial tweet, and I’l copy and paste from another below:
https://twitter.com/jamieswb/status/1485939204391587845?s=20
“For the role, stunt coord Peter Diamond was dressed in a racing driver’s jumpsuit rigged up with a plethora of
lighbulbs and plugged into the electricity supply. The suit and the glow of the bulbs made it difficult for him to manouevre.”
So cool! The legendary Phil Tippett replied to Jamie Benning on twitter:
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi VFX Artist Reflects on Abandoned “Lightman” Creature
Peter Diamond has his own website and talks about Lightman and his other work:
https://www.peterdiamond.co.uk/chase-1.htm
Jamie Benning is a member on here, and made the “Star Wars Begins”, “Building Empire” and “Returning To Jedi” documentaries (or “Filmumentaries”) on here years ago:
He also has done many more documentaries, shorts, interviews, and is now doing an awesome podcast interviewing many people in film and in the Original Trilogy (which oojason recommended and switched me on to).
“Lightman: a Star Wars Story”, not coming anytime soon! But would be awesome to see in the background at Jabba’s Palace in BoBF.