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/

Image: STARWARS.COM