ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: DEATH STAR PATROL

A patrol of TIE fighters tear across the equatorial channel of the fearsome Imperial Death Star battle station in this terrific piece of conceptual art by ILM's Joe Johnston from 1977, as seen in the STAR WARS SKETCH BOOK of the time.

Its a great image and you can just imagine Ben Burtt's brutal sound design for the craft as they race by...

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: JOE JOHNSTON'S FALCON

Here's some intriguing Joe Johnson sketches from September 1978 of the Millennium Falcon interior, and showing where everything was in relation to one another, when the vessel was to be re-built in 1979 on the ELSTREE Studios sound stages in London for the upcoming THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

A very nice piece of design history...

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: BALANCE TO THE FORCE!

Here's a few great effects reference storyboards (presumably from Joe Johnston, though David Carson and Nilo Rodis-Jamero also worked in that area for the film), circa December 1982, that we weren't able to incorporate for space reasons in our MAKING OF RETURN OF THE JEDI issue of a few years back, showing some of the previously filmed classic scenes of Luke's conflict against Darth Vader when he discovers the truth about his daughter and uses the knowledge against his son, plus the all-time classic emotional moment where Vader, back to the good side as Anakin Skywalker (of which we're all now cheering him on), throws the Emperor down the shaft (referred to in the boards as "The Pit of Death"!).

Classic material, and we look forward to seeing more storyboard goodies and incredibly rare and unseen pre and post production art of all kinds when J.W. Rinzler's MAKING OF book comes out in 2013.

Meanwhile, in the long two year wait for the official book, head over to our back issues area and find out how to get out pretty exhaustive, and reader acclaimed, MAKING OF RETURN OF THE JEDI issue: BACK ISSUE PDF CATALOG

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: SPACE STORMTROOPER

At ILM, Joe Johnston suits up in one of the then surviving UK built Stormtrooper costumes (with extra air piping) for an additional insert scene for STAR WARS filmed in 1977, showing one of the soldiers out on the Death Star surface watching as the captured Millennium Falcon is tractor beamed into one of its Docking Bays. The scene would be supervised and directed by George Lucas and quickly added onto the model work.

One of the key creative people at ILM to have worked on the Original Trilogies design front since 1975, Johnston was a storyboard artist, model maker, matte painting assistant, actor (check out his cameo in the Hoth Base Rebel Crusier Bay in EMPIRE) and puppeteer. Since departing ILM (of which he had worked on other non STAR WARS projects including Indiana Jones), he would become an acclaimed director of such interesting, wide ranging genre fare as THE ROCKETEER, JUMANJI and JURASSIC PARK 3, as well as family friendly films like the enjoyable horse race adventure HIDALGO (with LORD OF THE RINGS Viggo Mortensen), and horror films like the under-appreciated HAMMER HORROR-esque THE WOLFMAN (starring Benecio del Toro, Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins), of which Johnston took over the directing reins at the last minute from someone else who had departed the difficult project. Now, expectations are high for his next major production, currently filming in Manchester, England: the big budget film adaptation of MARVEL COMICS ground breaking superhero CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, with Chris Evans in the title role, and a strong supporting cast that includes Hugo Weaving (as the villainous Red Skull), Hayley Atwell, Richard Armitage and Tommy Lee Jones. The insider buzz on CAPTAIN AMERICA, to be released next Summer, is very positive, and lets hope that it propels Johnston ever further as a top name director of high quality and exciting movies, having gained so much top experience from his time working at LUCASFILM...

Check out the MTV website feature on CAPTAIN AMERICA here: http://splashpage.mtv.com/tag/captain-america/

BACK TO BOBA!

EMPIRE stand in/Bossk performer Alan Harris dons an uncoloured prototype costume for Boba Fett at ELSTREE during the films 1979 pre-production.

Our anniversary celebrations for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK continue on our main site, this time with a photo feature on the king of the STAR WARS bounty hunters-Boba Fett.

Check it out here: http://www.starwarsaficionado.com/fett_evolution.html

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: "RED FIVE STANDING BY"

A great ILM STAR WARS 1976/77 storyboard of Luke Skywalker in the cockpit of his X-wing, at some point during the Death Star attack. We assume the illustration was brought to life by Joe Johnston, and based around the earlier July 1976 filming of the fighter pilot cockpit scenes at ELSTREE.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: THE FIRST FALCON!

Here's a great shot you don't see often - the ILM constructed model of the Millennium Falcon as it originally looked, conceived by Colin Cantwell and refined by Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston. This version of Han Solo's lovable and eccentric smuggling vessel - "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy!" -would be scrapped by Lucas due to its familiarities with the Eagle craft then being shown on 1975 TV screens worldwide in the hit Gerry Anderson sci-fi show SPACE: 1999, and its design would be replaced and re-thought very quickly - though it would keep the already planned for UK set construction cockpit and the idea of the top and bottom gun placements - for what would be the vessel's ultimate, and best, visual appearance- the one that we know and admire today- by the end of the year and into 1976. Meanwhile, the old Falcon would transform into the Rebel Blockade Runner seen at the spectacular beginning of STAR WARS in 1977. 

The big question I have about the original version of the Falcon model is, was any test footage of it filmed by ILM prior to its shelving? And, if so, might we see it on the Blu-ray?

With thanks to Chris Baker for the above image.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: THE "LARGER WORLD" OF JOE JOHNSTON!

They say you can tell what a person is like by the state of their desk and general work area. With regards to the above image showing the incredible art of illustrator/designer and all round iconic visualist Joe Johnston (now a fine director in his own right) on the original STAR WARS and its two classic sequels, his individual area goes beyond anyones expectations and is a treasure trove of imagination, excitement and wonder. This photo is from 1976/77, when STAR WARS was in its post production genesis and shaping, and his wall is full of great and rare material, including the then unused TIE bomber (which would eventually appear in EMPIRE), unused or evolving art for the X-wing fighters, the Blockade Runner escape pod, the Millennium Falcon gun ports, the triangular classic unused (but used) Ralph McQuarrie emblem for the film when it was known as THE STAR WARS, and Johnston's T-shirt art for the X-wing that would be created for a rare T-shirt pressing for select cast and crew members then working on the film. By the wall there's the McQuarrie-like Darth Vader mask which we now know was built for a party at ILM (note the pic of Johnston dressed as Vader with John Dykstra). But, for me personally, the most intriguing item is located at the far left: a lovely piece of art showing Obi-Wan and Luke with the Death Star and a TIE fighter behind them veering upwards into space. Does anyone out there know if this artwork was actually by Johnston, or another equally talented artist, whose work seemingly never made it to fully authorised publicity use? Does anyone know the story behind its creation? Has this piece ever been released as merchandise-as a poster, as a TOPPS STAR WARS GALAXY card, or anything like that?

If anyone can help with more information, please get in touch.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: A NEW CRAWL...

Here's a great shot of the original title crawl for STAR WARS-which was so lengthy that Lucas's friends at a private, incomplete screening of the movie in late '76/early '77 declared that it was too long and almost incomprehensible to follow. With help from an uncredited Brian DePalma, Lucas would create a new, shorter crawl replacement leading into the film which ILM would shoot in a new stairway to heaven/Flash Gordon intro style homage-becoming the classic and iconic opening which would serve through five more films after 1977.

Note the original unused logo for STAR WARS here, created by Joe Johnston.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE- A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

Lovely 1976/77 reference art by ILM designer/storyboard artist Joe Johnston showing the varying sizes of the STAR WARS spaceships and vehicles in relation to each other. As always with Johnston's work its simple but elegant, very stylized and ultra cool.