MARK HAMILL TALKS!

Our good friends at the STAR WARS COLLECTORS CLUB site have kindly sent us their YOUTUBE posting (with thanks to the original recording source: a fan named "IG-88") of a rare Mark Hamill interview done sometime between 1981 and 1983 for a breakfast TV programme in New York, where he briefly chats about the upcoming JEDI (where he looks forward to a life beyond playing Luke Skywalker), his work on the Broadway stage and his life/career.

It's worth a look. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhvdAk3q0c4

And check out some of the other SW rarities on their channel page.

CLASSIC IMAGE: THE NAME'S SOLO...HAN SOLO!

Here's three great shots (above and below) of Harrison Ford having a little fun posing outdoors at Han Solo- we thinks its somewhere on the studio exterior grounds outside SHEPPERTON STUDIOS, during either May (for the Throne Room medal finale) or June 1976 (during the X-wing hangar sequence). Other info in cyberspace says that the photos were shot in the US at Van Nuys behind the then ILM building (but what would Ford be doing there? I'm not aware of any extra material being shot in the US that needed him). The images, of which one similar was used in J.W. Rinzler's excellent MAKING OF STAR WARS hardcover from 2007, came from a recently sold rare contact sheet from that classic time, when Ford was still a star in the raw. It is unknown who took the photograph-possibly Gary Kurtz, David Steen or John Jay?

With thanks to Chris Baker for the images.

On other things related to Han Solo, one of the big surprises of Celebration V was a new fan film about the adventures of the space pirate, alongside Chewbacca. I never got round to seeing it at the event, but everyone who saw it said it was great, and I now totally agree with them! Brilliant work and thanks to everyone who was involved in it (thanks to Andy Dukes for the link):

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/The_Solo_Adventures_3D_133788.asp


And then there’s that great recently re-discovered Bobbie Wygant 1977 interview with Harrison Ford, before he came to dis-own STAR WARS, that’s well worth a look:

http://vimeo.com/13336321