How I realized I was over Star Wars completely

[jjreason]

No wonder it was fucked then. Hur Hur Hur!!!!

[Tom Foolery]

Leia kept Artoo around as her personal droid sybian. He has MANY attachments, if you get my drift.

[Ran]

Leia kept Artoo around as her personal droid sybian. He has MANY attachments, if you get my drift.

Must be a family thing: "That little droid and I have been through a lot together" - Luke Skywalker. R2 and C-3PO have had "a few adventures", too.

[Jargo]

Awww. I just read that the woman who was sculpting the 3PO costume for ANH back in 75 or 76, Liz Moore, took ill and had to leave the production. She died before the film reached cinemas. The guy who finished the sculpt, Brian Muir also sculpted the Vader helmet, and the heads on CZ-3 and RA-7. Liz's sculpt for 3PO had ears like funnels. Aside from that, the midriff roundel and the back plate, most of 3PO is Liz's original sculpt neatened up. Which is odd, because Brian Muir sculpted Vader's mask asymmetrical. A version of Ralph McQuarrie's original design for Vader was made by Joe Johnston and worn to a post production party where 'boisterous shenanigans' destroyed it.

Also I'm quite pleased to have finally discovered two photos of the Jerba creature prop. One with Carrie Fisher astride it. From a lot of BTS images that are emerging it seems to me that Carrie was quite the goer back then. Saucy minx.

Do we think Carrie has had new teeth fitted or just had her top lip rammed full of botox? I'm trying to decide which explains her odd facial palsy around the mouth these days. I think probably botox to hide the prematurely aged lip wrinkles from being a chain smoker.

Oh, just noticed that as Luke enters the cantina there are two IG-88 heads sitting by the doorway. Like empty booze barrels. Excellent. Also from looking at the blueprints fr the Void Spider speeder the bottom thruster on the design ended up on the round Ubrikkian 9000 speeder by the cantina door. The Void Spider was designed to be much more realistic looking and on the plans it mentions 'purcheased' parts which were obviously nixed to cut costs so that's how the Void Spider ended up having a bunch of cobbled together junk stuck to the bottom and looking nothing like a workable vehicle. The access ladder on the Void Spider is seen as part of the junk inside Tosche station in the deleted scene. It's on the floor just to the right of Fixer and Camie.

And if you're thinking I'm being way too geeky here, I just read 50 pages of a thread on the minute changes from version to version of the films including all the cropped frames, altered colours, timing differences by frame count and also the differences between restored shots and the re-composited ones. I'm far too casual to be that kind of geeky. Seriously, people have counted the frames in shots to spot differences in scene length. There are pages and pages on the differences in the scan lines on holographic imagery. It's scary.

[jjreason]

For sure some work has been done - likely a face lift to go along with continuing botox. I'm sure when she lost all the weight she gained there were bulldog-like jowels of loose skin that needed some attention.

[Jargo]

She hasn't lost that much has she? I didn't see her for years before she started cropping up on UK TV while being over her filming. Surely she wasn't totally spherical? I guess it depends how she lost the weight and how fast.

Maybe they just pull the loose skin back and tie it in a knot and hide it under her ponytail.

[jjreason]

Looking pretty husky here, but also appears as though she's had her face done by this time.... you decide....

[anarky]

You'd still bang fat old Carrie just to say you did. You know you would. Even you, Jargo.

[Diabolical]

You'd still bang fat old Carrie just to say you did. You know you would. Even you, Jargo.

I would.

[Jargo]

Yeah, trout pout face Carrie there. Dem's cocksuckin' lips.

Looking through pics on IMDB, it seems her face started changing round about 2002. It's really noticeable in 2006. She's always had a pouty mouth but it's her upper lips rigidity that's changed. No biggie, I'm just noting it.

Mark Hamill's face has changed more. People say his face changed after his car accident. he says he only broke his nose. I've looked at shit loads of photos and as far as i can tell the only change to him in Jedi from Empire is that his haircut is different and they had a different make-up person do his face who used more make-up and the hairstyle gives the appearance of a changed face shape because it's such a bad hairstyle. Of course now he barely looks like himself. I'm guessing there'll be some soft lighting on the close-ups in TFA.

EDIT:
Was just browsing at propstore.com and found Norman Reynolds original Endor bunker set design. He'd got the control room at the end of the main hallway where you can see a doorway in te deleted scene. Which means they built pretty much what he sketched and for the shot of the heroes breaking into the control room they just moved one hallway section and added a flat wall piece to the end of that to cap it off.
There's more NR design stuff on propstore. A bizarre image of Jabba atop a prison cage like a sprawled cat. Lord knows what discussions lead to that being drawn. An alternate tortured droid from the dungeon that looks like a cross betwen an interrogation droid and a treadwell. A very odd looking Imperial shuttle design that may have lead to the design of the Neimoidian shuttle. Another Imperial shuttle design that was later redrawn by McQuarrie or Johnston and eventually used in the clone wars series. And a schematic illustration giving the intended location of the elusive Sic Six puppet in Jabba's palace. Apparently it was supposed to be in the dungeons somewhere being operated from under the floor. The similar illustration for Hoover/Attark notes that his alternate production name was 'Dogephant'. This concludes this mornings investigations. Thank you for not paying any attention......

In the deleted scenes for ROTJ, you've got Luke finishing his new lightsaber and the view outside shows the Falcon and Luke's X-wing. In the sandstorm scene there's a Y-wing parked where they showed the X-wing to be in the precvious scene. Luke's X-wing is at the rear of the falcon not the front. Presumably Leia and 3PO used the Y-wing to get to Tatooine. So, ships in wrong places. Then in a seriously dumb move, they all take off and leave the Y-wing on Tatooine which means the rebels going up against the death star and Imperial fleet are a ship down. Something Leia as a seasoned guerilla fighter and leader of the rebellion would never have done. Then there's Luke's access ladder which he just casts aside. Firstly, how did he get it to Tatooine as it's a one piece bit of kit and wouldn't have fitted in his ships storage compartment. Secondly more waste or rebel equipment. Thirdly, he's a freaking Jedi who can backflip and jump like a flea. Why the frig does he need a ladder?

Then there's Vader trying to reach out to Luke while looking like he's having a stroke or taking a dump. Cut to Luke who's like 'Yeeeeah, that's great dad, kinda busy right now...'. all the while futzing with a highly dangerous weapon in a dark cave wearing a hood. Cut to 3PO standing outside and R2 is facing the wrong way and clearly visible in the cave entrance despite previously being shown further inside. 3PO and R2 are standing on an incline leading to the cave. next shot of them beginning to walk to Jabba's love shack they're on level ground. The whole beginning of the movie was one huge fustercluck. No wonder 90% of the sequence got cut.

[Jargo]

Apparently, during the Death Valley filming on ANH they filmed a whole sequence with a Jawa village. Tents made from Bantha skin and Jawas taking droids apart and others getting drunk. I assume this was meant to precede the slaughter of the Jawas and it sounds like the sort of thing George did. Recycle stuff into the prequels. According to the source of this information the giggling Jawas that run and hide during the droid sale are female Jawas.
Now, either this sequence was cut because frankly it's really not needed when you look at the way the slaughter is played out in the final movie. Or the footage was fucking awful. It's interesting as George kept coming back to the Jawas. He shoved them in Mos Eisley, Mos Espa, and then again in AOTC giving Anakin directions. Which does give some credence to this information about an ANH sequence. So why has it not appeared in deleted scenes or ever been mentioned? Drunk Jawas sounds awesome to me. My theory is that something fucked up the film stock either during the shoot, like bad light. Or during the developing of the footage at the lab. So the whole thing was completely trashed and couldn't be used. Just a hunch. It's pretty much the Tusken raider slaughter scene from AOTC though by the sound of it.

Finally saw the Yuzzum in Jabba's throne room. I'd seen where it was supposed to be in a BTS photo but finally saw it in that position to the left of Jabba's dias by the gaming machines as Oola struggles with Jabba, grooving away to the band he is. Also found the Rockwort creature lying on a cushion at the front of the centre booth as Leia/Boussh begins creeping through the throne room. Loje Nella/Toadstool terror is between Max Rebo and Droopy McCool when Leia and Han are captured.

Still searching for Hoover and Sic Six. Hoover is somewhere in the throne room but probably hidden among the cushions in a booth and Sic Six is probably in some unused footage from the dungeons. There's a whole sequence with a bioluminescent creature that was never used.

While freeze-framing through the battle above the Sarlaac I noticed that Mark Hamill flails around like crazy and kicks like a girl yet never even comes close to hitting anyone. Really bad framing of the action. After he jumps to the second skiff he kicks out at one guy and misses by two foot yet the stunt guy still takes a tumble. Lame. When Boba Fett hits the side of the Sail Barge before his fall into the pit, the side of the sail barge set buckles under him. You'd think after putting so much money time and effort into building that collossal thing they'd reinforce the section the guy was going to bounce off. I still don't understand why they spent so money building that enormous set piece when the only action happens on the deck and in one interior room. They could have built half and filled the rest in with matte paintings. The whole front end was totally unnecessary.

[Tom Foolery]

I find your enthusiasm invigorating. Why the second wind of interest in SW minutiae?

And I think I remember X-wing schematics that explain how the ladder works. But it's been so long I couldn't aim you in the direction of a source. I wanna say it was 3 floppy magazines that came out in late 80s/early 90s that had blueprints for various vehicles and also buildings like the Catina and the Farm.

[Jargo]

It's a weird thing to be enthusing about something that irritates me immensely. I suppose I was bored and with all this new interest in Star Wars I started looking back to see why I liked it in the first place. It wasn't the story or the characters, it was just the Galaxy that they existed in. Mostly it's love of futuristic architectural design, of alien creatures and robots and gravity defying vehicles. Then of course there's the OCD side of my personality which dictates that I have to make lists of things. I know certain characters/creatures were created for the movies but then i have to double check that they were in the movies which leads to discoveries like the alien looking Bespin guard actually being a remnant of the planned but abandoned idea of having Thranta riders in the skies around cloud city. Those Thranta riders had a particular alien look and the Bespin guard has the exact same look with his hollow cheeks and heavy brow and heavy lidded eyes. The Kaminoans riding Aiwhas are direct design evolution of McQuarries original sketches. The Aiwha are in fact just renamed Thranta.

Another reason for becoming enthused is the amount of photographic reference that's become available in the last few years. That and cleaner versions of the films which allow for proper scrutiny. Just this evening I spotted a curiosity on Endor after vader has taken custody of Luke and watched him taken away in the elevator by stormtroopers, he turns and walks back towards the AT-AT that brought Luke to him. over his left shoulder you can se an AT-AT at correct scale standing at 90 degrees to the way it should be. It's not parked at the landing pad, it's just standing there in the trees where there was no AT-AT in the overhead shot at the start of the scene where Vaders shuttle lands and the AT-AT arrives with Luke. This leads me to believe that the background is a painted cyclorama and the anomalous AT-AT is painted onto that backdrop. Remembering that the landing pad has two legs with three gantry arms on each. Vader is standing on the middle gantry facing the end of the landing pad and the anomalous AT-AT is ahead of him nose to nose almost with the honking great set piece AT-AT Luke just came out of. Silly mistake when it's probably meant to be parked at the other landing pad leg gantry but when the matte painting was made there was miscommunication of the same type that lead to the scrw up in the X-Wing/Y-Wing in the Luke builds a lightsaber sequence.

There's a possibility I may be autistic.

There's a possibility I just need to get out more...

Oh and I've decided to pop for that mega expensive blueprints book. If I don't buy it I'll only kick myself forever for not doing so and if it has nothing I need I can sell it on Ebay for an inflated sum at some point in the future when it's rarer than hens teeth.

[anarky]

I saw an article about the newest issue of the comic (#6), promising shocking details on a mystery woman. "Hooray!" I thought. "They finally put Mara back! Or at least it's Lumiya, or Bria Tharen, or someone else like that."

Nope. It's Han Solo's ex-wife.

Oh, Jason Aaron. Sometimes you're brilliant. And sometimes you're so goddamned moronic I think you must be stealing your good ideas from someone who's tied up in your basement.

[Ran]

Until I read Jargo's posts, I didn't know parts of Star Wars were filmed in Death Valley. It has been decades since I've watched any of the "Making of" shows. I worked there a few years back and something felt familiar with it. In fact, I recall making a comment about Jawa's trying to take us out when we were in Artist's Palette.