Shortly afterward, the discussion grew heated and turned into an argument, with tragically fatal results.
A more extensively damaged version of Luke’s prosthetic hand from ROTJ, which was abandoned in favor of a simpler makeup appliance.
What is that thing? We hardly see it at all in the film. Looks like the sort of thing Kenner would make a toy out of.
What shot is this for, I wonder?
“The penitent AT-AT is humble before God…”
I’ve heard that the script was changed during shooting to alter Luke’s last name to Skywalker. The revised surname wasn’t added in pickups, it was part of principal photography.
However, I’d be extremely curious to know if there was alternate footage with the original name.
There are also alternate takes several Tatooine scenes with Luke wearing a poncho, and not wearing the yellow jacket during the Yavin medal ceremony. But info about these is strangely hard to find, even when almost every other aspect of SW has been talked to death.
Funny how red Carrie’s hair looks in that pic. And why is George wearing those incredibly bulky gloves?
Darth Vader only has one outfit. It’s made of head-to-toe black leather and he hardly ever takes it off. He wears it all the time, and his house is on a sweltering volcano planet with rivers of molten lava.
Forget Tarkin’s foul stench, imagine how bad Vader must smell.
Objection, Your Honor! The car in that video is spinning clockwise relative to the normal front orientation. The car in the ROTJ effect above is spinning counterclockwise. QED that is not the same car!!! 😉
(nobody mention George Lucas’ “Professor of Flopology” hat from Temple of Doom)
It does very much seem they flipped a car (or a stripped-down chassis of some variety) as part of that shot.
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the forest…”
Oh man, I’m getting Battlefront 2 flashbacks. 😄
It is the same model, same cockpit set, and same full sized prop. We can assume that in the year between TESB and ROTJ that someone went back to Bespin to get it. The new official canon is that Lando and Luke went back after they found out Han was delivered to Jabba. Luke looked for his saber, but retrieved his X-wing.
Alternatively it would be pretty easy to have a different X-wing painted to match the original.
The X-Wing thing has never bothered me for exactly this reason. The markings on Luke’s X-wing are clearly from a template used by various squadrons across the Alliance. Luke’s identical pilot helmet in ESB and ROTJ, on the other hand, is something of a headscratcher.
And come to think of it, why didn’t the X-Wings in ROTJ have colors that matched their squadron designation? In SW 1977 the X-Wings of Red Squadron were painted red and the Y-Wings of Gold Squadron were painted yellow/gold. ROTJ changed the squadron names but not the paint jobs.
I have a copy! I’ll have to look through it and see if there’s anything of note.
JEDIT: Nope, no new images in the book as far as I can see.
‘George Lucas Apparently Went “Apeshit” Over Harrison Ford’s Classic Line “I Know” From Empire’ - https://geektyrant.com/news/george-lucas-apparently-went-apeshit-over-harrison-fords-classic-line-i-know-from-empire-strikes-back - with quotes from Irvin Kershner and Harrison Ford (with video interview of Ford, by Jon Favreau).
That’s apparently from one of Irvin Kershner’s last interviews before his death.
To quote Kershner more fully:
[Irvin Kershner said:]
“George saw the first cut and said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. That’s not the line in the script.” I said ““I love you, too’ was not Han Solo.” Han Solo was a rebel. George felt that the audience would laugh. And I said, that’s wonderful, he is probably going to his death for all they know. We sat in the room and he thought about it. He then asked me, “Did you shoot the line in the script?” I said yes. So we agreed that we would do two preview screenings once the film was cut and set to music with the line in and then with the line out. At the first preview in San Francisco, the house broke up after Han Solo said I know. When the film was over, people came up and said that is the most wonderful line and it worked. So George decided not to have the second screening.”
Apparently Lucas was worried the audience would laugh in a way that took them out of the movie. Fortunately people understood that it fit Ford’s character well and worked in the dramatic circumstances - so they laughed but thought it was excellent.
One thing that’s to Lucas’ credit IMO is that he’s always been very worried about what sort of things might break audience immersion.
Originally the scene at the end with the Force ghosts only had Ben and Yoda. Producer Howard Kazanjian suggested adding Anakin’s ghost. Lucas agreed and recalled Shaw for a day of filming. For the sake of secrecy, the call sheets listed Shaw’s character as “Bob Brown”.
Here’s the early Vulcan orange-sky design - still with at least one giant moon:
Kind of the reverse of what happened on Forbidden Planet. I recall a Cinefantastique article saying the FP script called for a chartreuse sky, which was faithfully depicted in the cyclorama on set. But there were also B&W storyboards of the surface of Altair IV, which called for a “blue-black sky” with “large planets” against a starry backdrop.
Hopefully if there’s a new 4K master of FOTR, Saruman will be Saruman the White again rather than Saruman the Faintly Greenish.
Apparently the latest T2 Blu-ray “remastered” release has some censorship:
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=642906
I hate the depressing frequency with which digital re-releases lead to digital censorship. Are the old “non-remastered” versions of the film preserved already?
Over in the Star Trek 'verse, Vulcan has no moon.
Now I understand why JJ Abrams turned Vulcan into Alderaan in nuTrek.
The Ugly Models Agency still exists:
https://www.ugly.org/
A rare case of Ralph McQuarrie having an off day. Though maybe he was taking ideas from Joe Johnston’s designs here and incorporating them into his own art in a rather haphazard way.
ATMachine said:
Looks like Leia’s Hoth hairstyle may have been different originally, with two long dangling plaits instead of a crown braid.I think she also played a background extra (female rebel soldier). A completely different character to Leia - hence the different hairstyle - and costume.
“And this background extra will be played by Harrison Ford wearing a fake mustache.”
In the photos I posted above George Lucas is meeting with toy executives from Kenner. Gotta get the merchandise out on time, after all! 😉
The eyes on the helmet remind me of the eyes painted on the prow of ancient Greek ships. Would make sense if Boba Fett was originally supposed to kill Han or Leia in Greek tragedy fashion, leaving Luke as “the character who survives Star Wars III”.
(Or maybe Fett could actually be Luke’s lost sister and they get together Game of Thrones-style, with fateful consequences in an Episode IX set 20 years or so later.)
Apparently there were two different designs of the Boba Fett helmet with “eyes”:
The version with lower eyes and pupils evidently came first, followed by a more stylized design placed higher up on the helmet. The Boba Fett Fan Club site has an excellent rundown of the variations.
wrong thread
This one’s pretty interesting. Those markings weren’t on the helmet in the finished film so I’m guessing this is from a costume test or something like that.
Back in the day the Boba Fett fandom knew all about how his armor changed color between films, and about various costume tests, both this one and the all-white version. Interesting how that sort of thing gets forgotten generationally.
Always fun to see Jim Henson in SW photos.
Indeed. 😄
