Sunday 31 March 2013

THE CLONE WARS SEASON FIVE- ON UK TV IN APRIL


Finally, Season Five of THE CLONE WARS officially arrives on UK TV weekdays from 8th April, on CARTOON NETWORK at 10.30am.

The Clone Wars Season 5 Trailer - YouTube

Meanwhile, with rumoured news of the "bonus content" of the cancelled Season Six being the previous season's unseen Clovis story arc, plus the official site's clip-shown episode arc lead-in to Order 66, there's still one more adventure apparently uncompleted: linked to the eventual fates of popular bounty hunters Boba Fett, Cad Bane and Aurra Sing. Show your support for the series and help put the friendly pressure on DISNEY/LUCASFILM to get this last adventure, and any others still on the drawing board, finished: write to BOB IGER, DISNEY STUDIOS, 500 S BUENA VISTA ST, BURBANK, CA 91521.

BEHIND THE SCENES: FIGHTING STYLE!


Off-camera, Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard helps Ewan McGregor film his closeup lightsaber fighting shots, during the now classic Theed Hangar three-way duel from EPISODE I- this is a slightly different image to the one we're normally used to seeing in the popular magazines of the time.

Happy Birthday today to Ewan McGregor, now hitting a still youthful 42, and Nick Gillard.

Check out AFICIONADO's classic interview with all-round nice guy Nick Gillard- one of the most detailed and exhaustive you'll ever get on the behind the scenes lightsaber stuntwork- here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B80ITjM31EVRdXNhMWlRZ0VwQ0E/edit?usp=sharing

Note: To see this PDF feature in its highest quality, it's best to download it directly to your desktop.

Saturday 30 March 2013

BEHIND THE SCENES: PAST AND FUTURE COLLIDE


With George Lucas and Jamie Harcourt slightly distracted, cameraman Ronnie Taylor (in white jumper) and an unknown colleague get ready to film a portion of the Luke/Threepio dialogue scene within the small but nicely set-decorated home of Obi-Wan Kenobi, in this rare behind the scenes image from STAR WARS filming at Elstree circa April/May 1976. Note Anthony Daniels not in his full golden costume for the close-up filming.

Prior to the revised filming drafts, Luke was to have used Threepio's on/off switch in this scene- an idea that was ultimately used for comic effect in The Empire Strikes Back. The idea also made it into Alan Dean Foster's 1976 film novelisation.

On this set, and with Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, the historical seeds of the Prequel Trilogy, and the then evocatively sounding The Clone Wars, were sown.

EPISODE III 2004 movie trailer containing previously unused outtake footage of Guinness/Kenobi: Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith Teaser HD - YouTube

Thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

AFICIONADO CLASSIC BEHIND THE SCENES INFO PART TEN


A costume design interpretation of Chewie by John Mollo for EMPIRE.

INFORMATION FROM CELEBRATION EUROPE - 2007

Compiled by Scott Weller (with thanks to Ian Trussler for additional info)


John Mollo started his work as Costume Designer on STAR WARS in December 1975 and finished in May 1976. Of the two films he worked on, EMPIRE was the hardest for him, due to the challenge of having to top the first film and also due to the fact that George Lucas wasn't around for a lot of the crucial costuming decisions-Mollo had greatly enjoyed working with Lucas on STAR WARS and the relationship wasn't the same with Irvin Kershner on EMPIRE.


British Darth Vader mask sculptor Brian Muir remembers being involved in the detailing and construction of Threepio's hands for one scene, recalling Anthony Daniels coming into the ELSTREE workshop one lunch time during filming so that moulds could be done of the actor’s hands for the creation of the metal ones.



Mark Hamill revealed that both he and Harrison Ford were very protective of he characters they played during the making of the films. On EMPIRE, Harrison wasn't happy with the news that the Millennium Falcon had previously been owned by somebody else.



Robert Watts recalled that the huge stage at Shepperton Studios for the Award Ceremony and X-wing hangar had previously been used for the epic early British sci-fi movie THINGS TO COME.



Joe Viskocil's favourite explosion amongst the many that he created for the first film is the destruction of the last TIE fighter during the sentry ships attack on the FALCON. Viskocil would also work on the pyrotechnic explosion scenes of the Walkers for EMPIRE. Re-confirming what Julian Glover had previously indicated, the ramming of Hobbie's Snowspeeder into Veer's Walker was never filmed (2012 Note: Though an insert shot of the Walker command deck interior was indeed filmed without his prior knowledge- presumably with doubles-as seen on the 2011 Blu-ray). Only the explosion for the head of the Walker, which became another Imperial Walker destroyed by Luke Skywalker, rather than Veers, was shot by Viskocil at ILM.



Michael Culver's scenes as Captain Needa were filmed in a week:just another part for the jobbing actor.



Angus MacInnes, Gold Leader in STAR WARS, confirmed that all his scenes shot for the movie were in the finished picture-there was nothing cut. On WITNESS he actually performed the dangerous stunt in which Harrison Ford traps his corrupt cop character in the grain tank-having pretty much been told that he no other choice but to do it by the director/production people!!

John Scoleri and his people behind the beautiful Ralph McQuarrie book are now in negotiations to do something linked to Joe Johnston's work for ILM. (As of 2013, still no news on this worthy and deserving project.)



Warwick Davis revealed that, when he was cast as the then un-named Wicket, all the Ewoks had already been found for the London ELSTREE studios filming and that they had not planned on having any others. Patricia Carr, assistant to Robert Watts (who can be seen in the REVENGE OF THE EWOK film), however, saw talent in Warwick and hired him.



Though J.W. Rinzler is not aware of any good archive material within LUCASFILM on the creation of the Darth Vader costume in 1976 (from a conversation AFICIONADO had with him at CELEBRATION IV), documentary film footage DOES exists, previously used in a SKY TV 1999 UK documentary on STAR WARS, of the face and half body casts of Dave Prowse with the costume being worked around them. Vader sculptor Brian Muir, and his enthusiastic wife, re-confirmed that this footage still exists. Due to some incorrect/lack of information in the recently published MAKING OF STAR WARS book, a retraction regarding Brian Muir's work will appear in any future re-print/new editions of the book. (Something that never happened with the books paperback reprint.)

For the scene in STAR WARS, shot in Tunisia, where Artoo follows Threepio into the Lars Homestead igloo, it was originally filmed that Artoo would follow behind Threepio, but when the robot controlled droid constantly kept ramming into Anthony Daniels posterior whilst in costume, the scene was eventually filmed with Threepio side by side with the little droid as they came to the end of the location exterior set. 


Jay Laga’aia revealed that, for EPISODE III, Lucas was apparently quite insistent that he be available for filming on certain dates but this proved difficult for the actor due to his stage commitments to THE LION KING musical that he was also in at the time in Australia. Eventually, a compromise was reached but by the time of the film’s release, pretty much all of his footage shot for the movie never made the final cut!



By the way, did anyone speak to David Ankrum, the original voice of Wedge for STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE? Anyone got any info on him?

Friday 29 March 2013

AFICIONADO ARCHIVE: THE STARS OF '99!

It's back to the summer of 1999 now, as the world awaited the new Prequel STAR WARS films. The popular US film-magazine PREMIERE was one of the first titles to have access-all-areas material linked to the film, it's stars and its ground-breaking behind the scenes making. They also did four quite beautiful covers on the films key heroic characters, and one alongside the Saga's creator, George Lucas.

Great days they were, and it's going to be fun seeing all the new STAR WARS actors/characters gracing the various magazine covers in a few years time...


OF TROLLS AND MEN. BEHIND THE SCENES ON 'WILLOW'

Images: 20th CENTURY FOX.

In a break between shooting epic action, WILLOW stars and firm friends Val Kilmer and Warwick Davis, plus director Ron Howard, have fun with one of the chimpanzee-like Trolls. Don't forget, the special edition anniversary Blu-ray of the family favourite film is still available, here: Willow [Blu-ray] [1988]: Amazon.co.uk: Val Kilmer, Warwick Davis, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, Billy Barty, Ron Howard, George Lucas: Film & TV

And watch out for a surely very funny on-screen reunion between Kilmer and Davis, talking about a WILLOW sequel, in a one-hour special of the latter's previous docu-comedy: LIFE'S TOO SHORT, showing this Easter Saturday on BBC2- 10pm. Clip: Val Kilmer in Ricky Gervais's 'Life's Too Short': Watch first clip - TV News - Digital Spy


Thursday 28 March 2013

CLASSIC INDY: ARACHNID BUDDY!


Escaping a deadly beheading trap - "The Penitent Man kneels before God!", our fearless Indiana Jones discovers an equally lethal tarantula has now taken a shine to him, in a deleted scene moment from INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE.

All three classic INDY films are being shown late-night on London's largest IMAX theater this Saturday, March 30th (with RAIDERS being shown digitally (truly not to be missed!) and the uncut version of TEMPLE OF DOOM-its first time on the UK movie screen).

For more details and bookings, go here: ODEON BFI IMAX - Indiana Jones All Nighter - Tickets | Film Trailer | Preview | Release Date

ROT AT 30: TALKING ACTION!


An unknown actor/stuntman dressed as an Imperial Stormtrooper watches as Stunt Coordinator Glen Randall (with cap on) goes through an upcoming action scene with Carrie Fisher and director Richard Marquand on the Endor Bunker outdoor set, built for exterior filming at Crescent City during the May 1982 filming of RETURN OF THE JEDI.

Check out Ian Trussler's adventures searching for JEDI's California location filming here:  


With thanks to Chris Baker for the photo.

Wednesday 27 March 2013

ROTJ AT 30: THE ART OF ATTILA FAZEKAS


STAR WARS debut in Hungary caught its citizens imaginations just as quickly as anywhere else in the world, and some fine poster art and comic strip work has emerged from it since the late seventies. One of the most distinctive has to be from the accomplished pensmanship of Attila Fazekas, who created his own superb STAR WARS adaptation back in 1982 which proved nearer to the film version visually than anything done in 1976 by Howard Chaykin-who brought his own distinctive and evocative sci-fi style to the material for MARVEL COMICS back in the day. Fazekas then went on to do an adaptation of EMPIRE which was also well received, and is now in the process of doing an official version of JEDI, which LUCASFILM have given permission to via the Hungarian STAR WARS Fan Club.

Some of the incredible art pages for the new adaptation. Image via Kepregenyblog.

The original first official 1983 comic adaptation of JEDI by MARVEL wasn't able to show key scenes that were then being filmed in ultra top-secret conditions in London, like Yoda's passing into the Force, or the final reveal of Anakin Skywalker, so it'll be great to see these classic moments, and many more, get the artwork telling they so richly deserve. Perhaps one day, the official SW site will publish the entire strips in conjunction with Fazekas and the Club.

Check out this great blog for more info and samples of Fazekas great SW work:   Attila Fazekas And The Legal Bootleg Star Wars! — ComicBitsOnline.com


Tuesday 26 March 2013

BEHIND THE SCENES: HORROR ON MUSTAFAR


Ewan McGregor films the all-important scene where the shocked and repulsed Obi-Wan sees his once friend Anakin Skywalker consumed in flames on Mustafar.

Determined that this important scene was played and acted as well as he could, McGregor asked for the bare minimum of noise possible on the soundstage so as to effectively deliver his dialogue and emotions. It turned out to be one of the great moments in the entire STAR WARS movie series...

Monday 25 March 2013

CLASSIC ART: DARK SIDE RISING...


Darth Vader makes his formidable presence felt, backed up by shockwaves of Stormtroopers and TIE bombers, in Tom Jung's cleverly constructed, and now iconic, poster work for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in 1980.

In his The Making of The Empire Strikes Back book, author J.W. Rinzler, states that it would be several months before this poster mades its debut in cinemas, after the Gone with the Wind style poster handled by Roger Kastel. That is actually incorrect in relation to the UK. At its London Royal Premiere in May,  the Jung poster art was used as the focal image atop the ODEON Leicester Square cinema building (I saw the film there in its opening week), and the poster could also be found in select London Underground stations (I also recall varying versions of Kastel's poster appearing at Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road, in particular).

With thanks to Steve McGarrigle: The Empire Strikes Back Premier - Odeon Leicester Sq 1980 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sunday 24 March 2013

BEHIND THE SCENES: TO MOURN A MOTHER...


A sad time for the Skywalker family as they gather together for the funeral of their beloved Shmi. The beginning of the end for Anakin Skywalker is further cemented with this scene filmed in Tunisia, from EPISODE II.

Saturday 23 March 2013

AFICIONADO CLASSIC BEHIND THE SCENES INFO PART NINE


LONDON FILM AND COMIC CON - EARLS COURT, LONDON-SATURDAY 19TH AND SUNDAY 20TH JULY 2008


COMPILED BY SCOTT WELLER

Another great event that AFICIONADO attended-with a nice INDIANA JONES flavour on Saturday. It was fun to meet all the stars, all of whom were extremely friendly and enthusiastic.

Here’s some info I managed to find out that you guys and gals might like. On a less positive note, one thing that was a shame is that a major official title like TITAN's STAR WARS INSIDER was once again not present at another fact-filled event with first time STAR WARS signees, whom could have interviewed by them in greater detail!

The woman who first kissed Han Solo: Jenny Cresswell.

JENNY CRESSWELL (KNOWN AS JENNY-THE CANTINA WOMAN WHO KISSED HAN SOLO IN THE FIRST STAR WARS’S DELETED SCENES)


Now living in the Isle of Wight, Jenny made her first convention appearance at LFCC and was thrilled to be invited. She recalled being on the set of the first film for several weeks, found the filming conditions in the cantina horrible as there was a lot of smoke even when they started early at 5am in the morning. Before STAR WARS, she appeared regularly as a hostess on the SALE OF THE CENTURY quiz show for several years before being asked to meet Lucas for a role in STAR WARS.
 


Asked if Harrison was a good kisser she couldn’t remember, though he was pleasant enough-not yet a big star. Mark Hamill was lovely and when Sir Alec Guinness came on set everyone was quiet. She recalled he had such a wonderful presence and was a very nice man to go with it.
 


Her costume was a brown suede jacket and she had brown boots. Though she can’t remember costume reference photos being shot, they may well have been and she’s sure that other photos of her on set do exist-she did the film, as far as she is aware, before her stint during pretty much the whole run of the second season of SPACE:1999 in which she played a Moonbase Alpha Command Centre member-at the end of the season, when it looked like it would go to a third, creator/producer Gerry Anderson offered Jenny a full time lead part in the show but then a short time later the series was unexpectedly cancelled!

She had a terrific time working on SPACE: 1999 and enjoyed the variety of the episodes and all the different stories and designs and new things that had to be done on a weekly series-she was disappointed when the second series moved away from it’s adult/family mid evening Saturday time slot to a dreadful kiddie Sunday afternoon slot. She still has the security photo badge her character worn on her top during season two.

 One episode of SPACE she found particularly memorable as the alien shapeshifter character Maya (played by Catherine Schell) had to transform into her, so she also had to play another version of her regular role-in a scene which led to the character going crazy, which she found a challenge to film. 




 

The alien citizens of Mos Eisley's streets.

ANNETTE JONES (MOSEP THE CANTINA AND MOS EISLEY STREET ALIEN-STAR WARS)



Another really nice, bubbly lady bursting with enthusiasm and thoroughly enjoying her first STAR WARS signing. She was in her twenties when she worked on the first film, and was contacted for a part through the agency she was contracted with at the time-THE CENTRAL CASTING AGENCY in London. Did two costume fittings for the character-she was the creature that had the red beard whilst another actor (presumably Erica Simmons) played the one with the white hair who can be seen walking about in the Mos Eisley street scenes. At the time she was making STAR WARS she went out with one of the film crew and had a great time. The costume took about an hour to put on and she recalls posing in the costume with the Freeborn family for a group monster image. She doesn’t recall ever taking the costume off whilst she was filming her scenes (which were over a week on both the Mos Eisley street and in the Cantina) and may have eaten food and had drinks whilst still wearing it. In the Cantina she sat next to a friend of hers who played a crocodile-like creature.
 
Sadly she didn’t really get to the meet the main actors-it wasn’t really encouraged-if they talked to you it was fine but not really vice versa.
 


Saesee Tiin: a new Jedi for EPISODE ONE. Image: via TheRealGingerPrince.

KHAN BONFILS (SAESEE TIIN-EPISODE ONE)



His first convention, Khan was a very friendly, quietly spoken man. His make-up for the character of Saesee Tiin for EPISODE ONE only, took four to five hours at LEVEASDEN and normally took a couple of hours to take off at the end of a days filming. There were other generic scenes of the Jedi Council shot that never made the final cut. The actor was on set for a week in total. He sat next to Yoda, which he thought was very cool. At the moment, as well as auditioning for other roles, Khan has taken up a music career. (Note: Khan was recently seen as playing one of the villainous Silva's henchmen in the 2012 James Bond movie SKYFALL.)
 
 


Eeth Koth (Hassani Shapi) makes his first appearance in EPISODE ONE.

HASSANI SHAPI (EETH KOTH-EPISODE ONE ONLY)


A very friendly, enthusiastic man who had driven down to the event just as he was completing filming in Birmingham for a new drama. He recalls being on the EPISODE ONE set for three weeks filming his scenes in the Jedi Council at LEAVESDEN. They filmed lots of generic footage of the council members-close-ups, long shots, them with Neeson and McGregor, and of course, Yoda. He liked McGregor and had some drinks with him-Ewan was very gregarious and a party animal. Hassani very much liked working with him.
 


JAY BENEDICT (DEAK IN THE LOST ANCHORHEAD SCENES OF STAR WARS, AND NEWT’S FATHER IN THE DELETED SCENES OF ALIENS).

A refined looking man with the face you’ve seen on TV a lot but can never quite work out in what, Benedict worked on the first STAR WARS film for 2-3 days. Originally offered a day’s work on the film by his agent who told him it was some kind of unusual space movie that he’d be working on. He went out for lunch when filming began with Mark Hamill whom he liked a great deal, and recalled that all through the lunch they had,  which Benedict enjoyed, all Hamill could talk about was the film he’d recently seen- ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEXT and about how great Jack Nicholson was in it. He also recalled being on set, playing some on some sort of electronic type pool table, meeting Koo Stark before she became linked to Royalty, and being paid £75 for his work. He is still friends with Garrick Hagon and has worked with him and his wife, Lisa on other projects.
 


A Wampa is felled by Rebel forces in a deleted scene from EMPIRE.

TERRY RICHARDS (THE ICONIC SWORDSMAN FROM RAIDERS, PLAYED THE WAMPA IN EMPIRE’S DELETED ACTION SCENE AT ELSTREE)

Recalling his Tunisian action stint as the swordsman, Terry recalls that in the film world that shot, the original plan for the Indy versus the Swordsman, was considered a “luxury” shot-one that could be improvised and played around with: the script simply said of their confrontation-“they fight”, though Richards thought the amount of stunt fighting that could be done with a whip against a sword was quite limiting at the time. 


STAR WARS-wise, 
he only worked on THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. In 1979, Richards had the distinction of playing the Wampa snow monster for interior action sequences of the Hoth Rebel base filmed at ELSTREE STUDIOS. As Des Webb, the original actor who played the creature in the Finse filming, was not a very strong man, it was decided that Richards would don the creature costume for the scene where it bursts through a secluded cave corridor and attacks Rebel officers. Richards recalled that the suit was a nightmare-that he wore the stills previously by Webb in Norway and that the interior of the mask was constructed almost like a scaffold with the actors jaw rigged to mechanics that moved the creature jaw outside. The sequence saw him having to throw Rebel soldiers around the set and at one point, the Wampa costume was set on fire-Richard recalls the Rebels using a flame thrower like weapon at the creature. Sadly, the resulting footage, shot over a week and supervised by David Tomblin, never made the final cut of the film as the creature’s head was seen to bobble too much when moving in the dailies. It just didn’t look convincing enough and had to go… 
 


In other stunt work, in the world of James Bond look out for him in TOMORROW NEVER DIES-he’s the bearded bald guy that beats up Pierce Brosnan in Elliot Carver’s studio at the beginning of the film.


SONNY CALDINEZ (MEAN MONGOLIAN ASSOCIATE TO TOHT IN RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (SHOT FROM BEHIND BY MARION), AN ICE WARRIOR IN NUMEROUS EARLY DOCTOR WHO TV SERIES EPISODES)


The actor, primarily known in science fiction circles for his work on DOCTOR WHO, playing numerous Ice Warrior monsters across nearly nine years, and working with three doctors-Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker), Caldinez, who also played a mean Mongolian in the Ravenwood bar action scene in RAIDERS, recalled that he originally went up for an interview to play Darth Vader for STAR WARS in 1975-on the very same day that Dave Prowse had his in London. They were both together in the corridor, and both had interviews with Lucas, but in the end Prowse won the gig because he was taller. Caldinez has no regrets about Prowse winning the part and thought he did a very good job.
Caldinez recalls he had an enjoyable time working on DOCTOR WHO over that lengthy period from the mid sixties to the mid seventies-the fibre glass Ice Warrior costume he inhabited in numerous stories was very uncomfortable and he sweated buckets, but he enjoyed working with everybody-particularly citing out Jon Pertwee as his favourite actor to play the Time Lord-for a such a physical, active man who lived life to the full, Caldinez is still shocked that a man as fit and vibrant as Pertwee died back in the mid nineties. 
 
On his stint on RAIDERS, Caldinez recalls that though Harrison Ford works with snakes, he doesn’t like them as much as we would believe and didn’t enjoy working on the Well of Souls set. In fact, the crew apparently played a practical joke on Ford involving a box/crate of snakes during filming which apparently had the actor hurrying off the set uncomfortably!!

MALCOLM WEAVER (MONGOLIAN BADDY WITH TOHT IN RAIDERS (THE SMALLEST OF THE GROUP), STORMTROOPER IN RETURN OF THE JEDI, QUEEN ALIEN IN ALIENS

Best known as one of the Death Star commanders killed by a Stormtrooper disguised Han Solo in STAR WARS-his blaster demise trimmed down from the 1997 SPECIAL EDITION onwards. Weaver, contrary to fan reports, revealed to me that he didn’t take part in any of the RETURN OF THE JEDI Yuma action sequences (he jokingly thought that he might have upset the stunt co-ordinator and that’s why he never went out there with the rest of them!!), though be did play a Stormtrooper for the movie-which he found very uncomfortable and not enjoyable to work in at all. Sadly, due to the passage of time, there was very little else about his work on the film that he could recall (and at one point he mentioned a car accident that he had). He also couldn’t actually remember when he filmed his scenes. Malcolm was one of the operators inside the giant Alien Queen puppet built for live action filming at Pinewood for James Cameron’s ALIENS (which he spent six weeks on). He was body casted for that scene so that the part of the suit he was operating in fitted him properly..
.

Dietrich (Wolf Kahler) is after Indiana Jones once again...

WOLF KAHLER (DIETRICH IN RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK)


A very straightforward person, at his first signing event, he recalled that he spent three months filming on RAIDERS. He only remembers one cut scene with his character-that of his having an argument with Gruber. Of the kind of work he does now, he’s very happy with what he does and loves playing German characters of all kinds, especially fun nobility parts-especially the 1980’s SHERLOCK HOLMES episode he did - A Scandal in Bohemia- working with Jeremy Brett as Holmes and the lovely Gayle Hunnicut as Irene Adler-Kahler enjoyed working on it and found the late Jeremy Brett, who many feel to be the definitive actor to have played the part, to be a very dedicated and gracious man on set.
 


Nick Gillard on the EPISODE I set with Ray Park.

NICK GILLARD (STAR WARS PREQUELS STUNT CO-ORDINATOR, A GERMAN IN INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, THE ALIEN QUEEN IN ALIENS, CIN DRALLIG IN REVENGE OF THE SITH)


As ever, a thoroughly nice chap, highly talkative and happily signing and posing for photos with fans, he recalled that the original length of the Anakin/ Obi-Wan duel filmed was fifteen minutes long, of which the original version of the fight with stunt actors rehearsing the moves still exists on tape. The fight was heavily re-edited in the final version and not all of it made the final version, sadly- a shame as he thought the original version was one of the proudest moments of his stunt career. He recently worked on the Angelina Jolie adventure film WANTED (which he found a tough and thoroughly demanding film to work on, and he hasn’t seen a full theatrical version of it, yet, either!), and is currently back to doing stunts on TV-he is going to be working on the new re-make of the highly popular British ITV series MINDER. He was indeed asked by Mark Hamill, whom he had facial and physical similarities to at the time, to be his double for RETURN OF THE JEDI. Though he was on set in 1982, union regulations prevented him from doing this, despite Hamill’s request, and Colin Skeaping stayed on as Hamill’s film/stunt double.
 
Regarding future projects, Gillard's film directing debut as an action director has not yet happened. Hayden Christensen has sadly pulled out of the film he was to have done with both Gillard and Sam Jackson (though Jackson is still keen to be involved with Gillard on the project if it materializes).
 
Gillard also recalled his time operating the mammoth Alien Queen prop for ALIENS-he was at the front end of the operation of the creature, whilst Malcolm Weaver was handling another part of it.
 


DEEP ROY (YODA IN ONE SCENE FOR EMPIRE, NUMEROUS ALIEN PARTS IN RETURN OF THE JEDI, THE OOMPA LUMPA IN TIM BURTON’S WILLY WONKA REMAKE)

His most recent acting job has been spending nearly six weeks on the set of the new JJ Abraham’s top secret STAR TREK movie re-vamp. He very much enjoyed working on it and was very impressed with how it looked visually. Sadly, he couldn’t reveal much about the plot but said that he is playing a goodie-an alien engineering assistant to Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (being played by SPACED’s Simon Pegg).
 Deep Roy confirmed that he did indeed play Artoo for a couple of scenes at ELSTREE, but he couldn’t remember if it was for EMPIRE or JEDI (or both). He jokingly recalled that he only did it at times when Kenny Baker had been drinking too much in the ELSTREE BAR (which is fast becoming a legend in AFICIONADO circles with the amount of people who enjoyed being in it over the years!!). Deep always reluctantly did those extra Artoo scenes as he didn’t like robbing his friend Baker of the work.
 


BILL WESTON (IMPERIAL STORMTROOPER- STAR WARS, SOLDIER IN RAIDERS, STUNTMAN ON NUMEROUS JAMES BONDS)

A terrific guy, with a very good memory of the films he worked on, the stuntman recalls that he played a Stormtrooper towards the end of shooting of the original film (presumably he was referring to the Blockade Runner scenes)-and that the first film was the only one he ended up working on. The Stormtrooper outfit he wore was way too small and he only just fitted in it.
 
Bill was involved in one of my all time favourite fight scenes in the James Bond 1987 film THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS-where he plays an agent who inadvertently walks into one of the villains, Necros (as played by Andreas Wisnewski) who has infiltrated a British safe house and has a brutal fight with him in a kitchen. I complimented Weston on that-it’s a terrific sequence, and he recalled that he was pretty much instrumental in working out the choreography of that sequence on set, shot after much of the film’s beginning in Germany was in the can, and in the way the burn make-ups would be done when the agent’s face is half scorched on a cooker.
 
Additionally, the actor playing Necros was worried about injuring Weston so the stunt man had to time the fight moves carefully to make sure that the actor looked superior to him when filmed. Weston also has another classic fight sequence in ea early episode of the BBC-1 1970’s/80’s series BLAKE’S 7 (series one, episode two-SPACEFALL), in which he fights actor Paul Darrow playing Avon. Weston was amused to hear from me that the fight from that episode has sadly been cut over the years on it’s VHS release by the BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CENSORS because there were several dangerous blows in the fight that they were worried could be copied.
 
 
Weston also appeared in RAIDERS, during the Tunisia filming and was the guy in the bike that went over into the pond during the truck chase. He also recalls that the compliment of soldiers getting into the truck at the beginning of the sequence doesn’t match the amount eventually seen clambering on its exterior to get Harrison Ford later in the action sequence!!!
 
As a working stuntman on TITANIC, a joking Weston was very surprised that, with all the physical difficulties imposed on both the main cast and crew, that no one ever shot James Cameron for being so demanding and perfectionist- and aggressive- about everything.
 


LYNNE HAZELDEN (X-WING PILOT-RETURN OF THE JEDI, ALSO APPEARED AS A BACKGROUND ARTIST IN SEVERAL BONDS, AND SUPERMAN III)

A friend of Richard Bonehill, who played numerous parts in two of the STAR WARS films, the charming, bouncy and enthusiastic actress humorously recalled that  a lot of extras that worked on films during her time as a background artist on many big films, were actually criminals-not in a  modern gangster kind of way but more like shady Del Boy/ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES types trying to sell stolen watches!
 
She was recalled back to the JEDI filming for an insert scene showing her in her pilots gear (orange for X-wing) dancing with an Ewok for the finale celebrations-sadly the footage never got used, but a still photograph of that scene exists-an off-duty moment of the actress with the little person playing the Ewok.
 


According to Lynne, there were more female background extras on JEDI because the UK film/TV unions lobbied the STAR WARS team for more women to be used in the movies. She didn’t do any cockpit scenes for the movie-she has been mistaken by fans for another actress who did them-it was just the scene in the briefing room.
 
That scene was a challenge to film because you had to be very careful with eyelines for filming, keeping in continuity and in the right positioning. There were many takes done-she doesn’t remember if it was Marquand or David Tomblin who directed her scenes.
 
The actress also played a fighter pilot for the scene in the Rebel Hangar Bay, towards the end of JEDI’s UK filming, where she accidentally got into trouble when she unintentionally walked over a line she wasn’t supposed to when they were filming a scene that had some tricky photography-it had taken a while to set the shooting of the scene up and Harrison Ford gave the actress a bit of a grumpy look when it happened. 
She got the role because she was told to go there and take part in it by her agents/casting people-it was as simple as that-sometimes she would be working back-to-back on films.
 
Her other appearances would include SUPERMAN III, the James Bond film OCTOPUSSY (she was one of the circus audience members) and DIE ANOTHER DAY (where she was part of a group attending the outdoor launch of the villains space satellite in the arctic). On OCTOPUSSY, the actress was thrilled when a still in costume Christopher Reeve popped in one lunch time to visit the filming on the Bond set.
 

More info on the actress can be found at: www.markdermul.be
 
 

CARRIE HENN (NEWT IN ALIENS)


The ex actress/co-star of ALIENS was very polite, and revealed that she worked on the film for a staggering nine months total (from filming to post-production). Her family was living in England at the time the film was being made, as her father was a military man stationed there. Sadly, she hasn’t seen much of Sigourney Weaver in a while (though she did sit next to her at the ALIEN III premiere in the US). As far as the aliens went, they weren’t really scary to work with-they were just men in suits to her when she was little!!

The lovely Karen Allen poses for a publicity image for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
KAREN ALLEN (MARION RAVENWOOD IN RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, AND INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL)

What can I say..I always wanted to meet her. And she is Marion Ravenwood- the moment she gave me that smile-that warm, cheeky smile that comes naturally to her. Karen was a real crowd pleaser-chatted and talked to people and signing hundreds of autographs. I asked her, when she got the script for CRYSTAL SKULL, if she had to make any changes or revisions in case there were any moments that were out of character for Marion. She said there weren’t any and it was pretty much as we saw in the film. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to meet John Hurt or get his autograph, but Karen’s will do for me!!