FLASHBACK: CELEBRATING THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF "STAR WARS"

John Alvin's spirited poster leads the Tenth Anniversary celebration charge for STAR WARS.

With the apparently imminent news from REED of their CELEBRATION VI convention, presumably planned for 2012 (the Thirty Fifth anniversary of the original STAR WARS, the Tenth for EPISODE II and the Fifth of THE CLONE WARS), there will soon be lots for fans to celebrate and for costume fans to get into their best Stormtrooper and Jedi outfits for!

Until then, however, I thought it might be nice to go back in time and do a mini flashback to 1987 and the very first major anniversary event of any kind linked to STAR WARS: the Tenth Anniversary. The period of STAR WARS inactivity between the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI in 1983 and the re-invigorated interest in the saga with Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy books in 1991 may have been a long one, but this bright spark of joy was the first signpost for a great many ambitious things to come.

As well as interview footage from the time, enclosed are some nice images and info on merchandise and events linked to that great and memorable year which was well celebrated by STAR WARS fans in the US.

Enjoy the CBS FOX VHS tape release celebration trailer: YouTube - Star Wars: The First Ten Years 1977-1987 Trailer

A Tenth Anniversary feature on US TV: YouTube - Star Wars Feature - Today Show 1987

Surely the highlight of the year had to be the massive STARLOG magazine organised convention-A Tenth Anniversary Tribute to STAR WARS and George Lucas- which took place in Los Angeles during the weekend of 24th May 1987, and saw participation not only from many of the films luminary behind the scenes talent and cast, but also had a very rare appearance from Lucas himself, who talked at length to the 9,000 plus fans crammed into the auditorium about the saga-past, present and future- and answered questions from the audience. Darth Vader returned, voiced by James Earl Jones, and he would also prior introduce Lucas's appearance on stage (check out this brilliant clip:  YouTube - REAL Darth Vader Standup Intro To George Lucas).

The much missed UK magazine STARBURST magazine had several reporters covering this historic and much beloved event. Check out this PDF for more information:STAR WARS 10TH ANNIV

If anyone out there has any further specific memories of the event, or has additional pics/info, please share them with us. And, beyond the US, if anyone else celebrated the Tenth Anniversary in their own countries please get in touch and tell us about it -we'd love to hear from you...

The lovely limited edition FIRST TEN YEARS poster.

The distinctive Vader cover for the then new OMNIBUS edition of the movie adaptations.

The limited edition BLACKTHORNE PUBLISHING three part STAR WARS 3-D comic, with a story written by comics legend Len Wein, and inside art drawn by Patrick Zircher.

Limited edition badge pin utilizing character drawings first done for JEDI in 1983

STARLOG magazine celebrated the saga in style with a fantastic special issue, packed with rare photos, artwork and behind the scenes info and quotes.

They also produced this lovely brochure for a special celebration convention that year which saw guests from the films and behind the scenes mix with the fans for a memorable event.

A look inside the brochure which contained may personal tributes from STAR WARS cast and crew members, as well as rare photos and then previously unpublished B/W artwork from EMPIRE's Vader/Luke duel by Ralph McQuarrie.

A selection of guests who attended the event, including George Lucas and Irvin Kershner, Peter Mayhew, Gary Kurtz and Charles Lippincott, Anthony Daniels signing for the fans and Ralph McQuarrie.

Back in his Threepio costume, Anthony Daniels (with Artoo), and George Lucas toast and unveil the enormous Tenth Anniversary card signed by the fans for the event. Image: Dan Madsen

When Great Makers meet! STAR TREK creator Gene Roddenberry makes a surprise appearance on stage and congratulates Lucas on the creation of the STAR WARS universe. Image: Dan Madsen

A SUMMER OF FUN! THE RETURN OF "AMERICAN GRAFFITI"

One of the lovely and nostalgic posters for George Lucas's pre-STAR WARS triumph: AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Image: LUCASFILM/UNIVERSAL.

George Lucas's first "feel good" movie of the seventies, the low budget but soon worldwide commercial hit AMERICAN GRAFFITI, which, on its first release, quickly made stars out of Ron Howard (who would go on to be the main lead of the GRAFFITI-esque series HAPPY DAYS), Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat and Candy Clark, is on late tonight/early morning on the UK's ITV 1 channel (and coming to Blu-ray States-side in May of this year), and if you've never seen it, with its life story loosely based around George Lucas (who was apparently reminiscent of the film's glasses wearing lovable nerd Terry the Toad (played by Charles Martin Smith)) and all the youngsters that went out car cruising late-night in Modesto, California in the late fifties and early sixties, its well worth catching-its a lovely film (produced by Gary Kurtz), beautifully made (and very documentary style in places-a real Lucas trademark even then), wth great performances from everybody (including a young Harrison Ford as a cowboy hat wearing drag-car racer), plus a fantastic, then revolutionary, music soundtrack compendium from all the greats of the time.

Want some cheering up as we approach Spring-time? Then catch AMERICAN GRAFFITI and you'll find it certainly hits the spot!

"THE ANATOMY OF "STAR WARS""

Image: KURTZ/JOINER ARCHIVE

Great news for UK STAR WARS fans in the celebrations run up to the Blu-ray launch, as the website Lightsaber Rattling has this great news on a new event taking place in May- THE ANATOMY OF STAR WARS weekend- involving Producer Gary Kurtz (above, in 1976, with Kenny Baker as Artoo) and 20^TH CENTURY FOX executive, Sandy Lieberson.

Check out the details here:

http://lightsaberrattling.blogspot.com/2011/03/star-wars-event-news-anatomy-of-star.html?m=1

If any UK readers get a chance to attend the event, please get in touch with AFICIONADO and tell us about all the info learnt from it!

UPDATE: 20/5/2011. Ian Croft sent a detailed synopsis of the event to THEFORCE.NET. Read it here:
TheForce.Net - Latest News - The Anatomy of Star Wars Class - Reviewed

STAR WARS: BEHIND THE SCENES FILMING NOTES FROM "THE ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA SHOW" 27th/28th NOVEMBER 2010

Compiled by Ian Trussler and Scott Weller

It’s that time of the year again, and here’s some more rare STAR WARS behind the scenes info gathered from the event (previously known as COLLECTORMANIA) for you to enjoy:

Vivienne Chandler (X-wing fighter pilot (pictured above): EPISODE VI): Spent 3 days working on ROTJ. She only filmed scenes in the cockpit set, which she thought looked a bit cardboard, against bluescreen, and had at least a page and a bit of scripted dialogue. All the days she filmed she was with just one other actor, a male pilot, whom sadly she cannot remember the name of. She doesn't recall any other women filming as Rebel pilots. She enjoyed her time on the film and also stated that she attended a screening of the movie that did contain her scenes and was philosophical about their subsequent deletion. This was her first ever convention/signing and she found it fascinating and awesome.

Trevor Butterfield (Bossk, other roles – EPISODE VI): He spent 38 days working on ROTJ, much of which was spent as Bossk within Jabba’s Palace and within the Sail Barge interior sets. He was wearing the same Bossk costume as Alan Harris had previously worn on EMPIRE, he was lucky that it fit him. The well known photo of Boba Fett and Bossk from Jabba’s palace was not a posed publicity shot but was an actual scene he recalls filming. He also believes that in that photo/scene it may well be Alan Harris wearing the Boba Fett costume as he remembers Harris did some stuff as Fett on JEDI. Sadly, most of his Bossk footage was cut from the movie. Also on JEDI he played an Endor Rebel soldier in the Falcon cockpit scenes with Lando and Nien Numb, another Rebel during the Ewok Celebration and was also a Klaatu guard who escorts Luke from the Rancor pit. He previously had worked on EMPIRE for 3 weeks playing Stormtroopers and Imperials.

Matt Doran (Elan Sleazebaggano- EPISODE II): The very pleasant Matt recalled that he worked on AOTC for only one day. He got the job as he was originally in the casting process for various voice-over work on the film (though he was not involved in any of the auditions for Anakin Skywalker (later played by Hayden Christensen)), but then ended up being involved in the live action where he and several other selectees were slotted into certain parts of the film. Matt was lucky enough to have one of the classic scenes early on in the movie, and recalled enjoying working with Ewan McGregor.

Paul Weston (various stunt aliens – ROTJ): A long experienced stuntman and co-ordinator with credits as far ranging as TV's SPACE: 1999 and the JAMES BOND films, Weston worked on JEDI for about 4 weeks, filming only in Yuma location. He was contracted via Peter Diamond to shoot the whole movie in ELSTREE and Crescent City locations but broke his leg in Yuma doing the stunt where Lando and the Nikto guard fight and fall off the skiff. Prior to the accident, he played a variety of Jabba's alien henchmen for the Sail Barge scenes. The actual stunt he broke his leg on was performed with Billy Dee Williams stunt double. After the accident LUCASFILM honoured his contract despite his inability to work and he enjoyed a holiday in the Beverley Hills hotel after leaving Yuma.

John Coppinger (various aliens in EPISODE I, part of the Jabba the Hutt operating team for EPISODE VI): For EPISODE I he was working as part of Nick Dudman’s creature workshop re-creating aliens for the Mos Espa scenes. He was approached to play the part of the Wookiee Senator in the Senate scenes because he was the tallest of the crew. For the scene he wore a vintage archive Chewbacca suit that was modified with white hair and had a rebuilt face mask as it was in a fairly poor state of repair. He spent a day on the blue screen senate pod set being filmed by second unit, so George Lucas was not present. He was filmed in three separate segments so the composite shot could be created, so he actually appears as all 3 Wookiees in that scene. For JEDI he was hired by Stuart Freeborn who he knew from working on the SUPERMAN movies. Freeborn particularly liked the fact that John had previously worked at the Natural History Museum, recreating dinosaur skeletons. He was principally the clay sculptor for the Jabba puppet and went on to operate the remote control eyes as part of the team who bought Jabba to life.

Ahmed Best signs for the fans. Image: Ian Trussler.

Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks – EPISODEs I – III, THE CLONE WARS): The actor revealed that he will be in more Season Three CLONE WARS episodes upcoming, and has recently finished recording duties for Season Four, too. It was fans negative reaction towards the previous voice over work from another actor portraying Jar Jar (who didn’t want to do any more episodes for the character after his original commission expired anyway) that saw LUCASFILM cave in to pressure and bring Ahmed back – they realized that the character didn’t work without his unique voice skills. When making EPISODE I back in 1997, Ahmed had no idea how much a distinguished and popular actor Brian Blessed, playing Boss Nass, was, continually referring to him as “the Bird Guy” from the FLASH GORDON film that he had always enjoyed as a kid! He confirmed that there were other Jar Jar related scenes from EPISODE II that had been filmed but cut, but only one extra scene with him was filmed but deleted from EPISODE III, where he says “hello” to Anakin and Palpatine at the Senate Building as they are conferring about lies concerning Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padme.

Gary Kurtz (Producer - STAR WARS and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK): Gary revealed that he has not been involved at all on anything to do with the upcoming STAR WARS films on Blu-ray, though on the extras front, as far as he is aware, apart from the deleted scenes, the additional material will pretty much be all the documentaries and supplemental features found on previous releases in other formats.

CLASSIC IMAGE: DEATH STAR BATTLE STATIONS!

As alarm lights blaze and sirens fill the air within the corridors of the Death Star, elite TIE fighter pilots rush to their ships, ready to engage the attacking Rebel X and Y-wing ships, in this deleted scene from STAR WARS, filmed by Gary Kurtz's second unit at some point in July 1976 at ELSTREE. A partial clip from the deleted footage would later be used in RETURN OF THE JEDI.

I'd have love to have seen a sequence where we see the pilots actually get into their TIE ships and take off. In the film we see Vader and his wing men depart the docking bay, but there's a great moment in the MARVEL comic strip adaptation of the time (above image) where we see Vader actually getting into his ship.

I wonder if that was just writer Roy Thomas/artist Howard Chaykin's visual idea, or whether there was a scripted scene that was possibly filmed? Or perhaps the scene was planned for but unfilmed due to time and money pressures. Perhaps the Blu-ray will solve the many mysteries once and for all...

CELEBRATION V: GARY KURTZ

Legendary STAR WARS and EMPIRE Producer Gary Kurtz (pictured above with Mark Hamill and a dummy Yoda on the Dagobah set for the 1979 filming of EMPIRE) was one of the star guests of CV and his stories about the behind the scenes making of the films and working with the stars were very illuminating-he has a brilliant, razor sharp memory on the films- and always worth catching. I was unable to see his one-man talk (and if anyone attended it please get in touch and let me know what was discussed, so I can add it to the blog) but his panel on the making of EMPIRE alongside Jon Berg, Ben Burtt and Lorne Peterson was an enjoyable one.

Now, Kurtz, alongside longtime STAR WARS archivist Jason Joiner, has set up a new website that shows some of the collection that the two have assembled over the years-Joiner himself has many props from all three Classic films, whilst Kurtz, a superb photographer, has his own unique collection of behind the scenes materials which are often used at UK signing events for STAR WARS actors autographs, like the popular LONDON FILM AND COMIC CON and COLLECTORMANIA (also run by Joiner). This site is still in the early days but should prove interesting over time.

Here's the link: http://www.kurtzjoinerarchive.com/index.html

Kurtz was also interviewed by the LOS ANGELES TIMES prior to CV about his work on the two original films, the early plot line for JEDI, why he left the Saga (and working with George Lucas), and his opinions on the recent Prequels.

Here's the link:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/08/star-wars-was-born-a-long-time-ago-but-not-all-that-far-far-away-in-1972-filmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer.html

We wish Gary and Jason all the best with their site, and that the formers upcoming film, PANZER 88-more news as and when we get it- is a big success.

Thanks to Chris Baker for the heads up on both these news items.

CELEBRATION V: THINGS WE LEARNED...

Originally, THE CLONE WARS Supervising Director Dave Filoni had planned that the previous 2003 and 2005 CARTOON NETWORK CLONE WARS animated character of Durge was to have returned and been a major enemy in Season One and Two, but instead George Lucas wanted to have a new and different villain, and introduced the cooler bounty hunter, Cad Bane, instead.

Filoni has prepared a time line for the events of THE CLONE WARS, incorporating events from the previous CARTOON NETWORK animated seasons, which will eventually be released to fans.

THE CLONE WARS voice actors were often very surprised at some of the things they signed for fans at CV. There were limited edition cast and crew pieces handed to them that they had actually never received or knew of, and that they now really wanted to have! Some members of the cast had not even seen the UK theatrical release posters for the one and only (at least so far) animated movie! Additionally, all of the actors love their characters, and some would love to contribute more dialogue and story material for the series, but at the end of the day its Lucas's universe and he decides the ultimate direction of story and characters in the lead up to events in EPISODE III.

Ben Burtt worked on the sound design for the original ALIEN, directed by Ridley Scott. He recalled that he met Scott in a limo one late night in Los Angeles-it was the only time the two could meet then-to discuss the creation of a terrifying and highly disturbing noise for the alien space ships distress call which is picked up by the human crew of the Nostromo. At the end of the day, despite lots of work, the sound effect was not considered successful by either Burtt or Ridley Scott and, by that time of its completion, the scene where the transmission is played would be cut from the film (though the completed sequence is on the deleted scenes of the DVD release, and I personally think its a pretty good sound!).

The "Wilhelm" scream, as far as Ben Burtt can track it down, may have come from an actor from an old-time WARNER BROTHERS adventure film, whose character is attacked and eaten by an Alligator.

As has been previously established, the sound of the Garindan snitch at Mos Eisley for STAR WARS was the voice of John Wayne speeded up. At the time in 1976, Ben Burtt had access to a movie studio sound vault and managed to sneak his voice from one of these films into the first movie.

When Sound Designer Matthew Wood had completed his work on REVENGE OF THE SITH, Lucas and Producer Rick McCallum asked him to stay on with his STAR WARS duties for what was originally planned as eight test episodes of what would become STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS.

Carrie Fisher revealed that her Bounty Hunter characters of Boushh had no name when she was filming JEDI. In all likelihood the name was given for the PALITOY/KENNER toy figure release in 1983.

Apart from the white droid later known as CZ-3, Anthony Daniels did not play any other background droids in the original STAR WARS filming of 1976.

Ben Burtt revealed that the sound of the Talz creature heard in the Mos Eisley cantina for STAR WARS was originally planned for the treadwell droid that breaks down in the first introduction to Luke Skywalker, in the Tatooine desert, for STAR WARS.

At THE MAIN EVENT, Lucas confirmed that Darth Sidious did indeed kill his master Darth Plagueis prior to the events of EPISODE ONE, which the character, as ever brilliantly played by Ian McDiarmid, alluded to Anakin Skywalker during the opera scene of REVENGE OF THE SITH.

The title of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was thought up by Gary Kurtz during an Italian press conference for STAR WARS. He told the press then that STAR WARS II would have a B-movie esque- title in homage to that genre, and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK simply rolled out of his mind. The title stuck-at the time, Ben Burtt was surprised at the choice.

The most difficult sound design that Ben Burtt ever undertook for any of the STAR WARS films is still Artoo Detoo-due to the worries in providing a unique sound effects voice for the character that audiences would be able to relate to. It was a task that took a long time-over six months-to achieve successfully. He still has many sound effects recorded for the original STAR WARS from 1976/77 that haven't been used, that are in his personal archives and at LUCASFILM, which may one day be used elsewhere.

Presumably due to Anthony Daniels not being available for a short period, Tom Kane was the voice of Threepio for a little bit of one of the episodes of the CARTOON NETWORK animated micro-series in 2003.

John Morton (who played Rebel pilot Dack and, for one scene only, Boba Fett in EMPIRE) no longer acts-instead he works in a position of organisational work linked to US Homeland Security. He still visits the UK from time to time and is a keen sports rowing expert and aficionado. He worked on EMPIRE for several months at ELSTREE (including the scene of the assembled pilots seen with Princess Leia in the hangar bay) and enjoyed it. His filming work was done in between bouts of shooting for SUPERMAN II-where he played the US Astronaut inside the Earth lunar vehicle destroyed by the Kryptonian super villains-of which the first batch was shot by director Richard Donner, and the next, a year later, was by replacement director Richard Lester.

Talking to dealers at the event, it looks like there will be very little merchandise or celebrations for STAR WARS Thirty-fifth anniversary in 2012, with the next Celebration geared for THE CLONE WARS and, most likely, the Thirtieth Anniversary of RETURN OF THE JEDI in 2013.