"STAR WARS" AT THE 1978 OSCARS

Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels and the remote controlled Artoo at the 1978 Academy Awards. Image: ABC TV/A.M.P.A.S.

With the world enjoying the aftermath of the 83rd Academy Awards last night-and congratulations to Natalie Portman on her Best Actress win for BLACK SWAN (though she'll probably be more determined than ever now to distance herself from any connection to STAR WARS!) - here's a very good quality nostalgia clip from the CINEMATRIX website showing the 50th ACADEMY AWARDS from 1978, where STAR WARS won seven Oscars but failed to win Best Picture (I'm still in shock from that result, even thirty plus years on!). Watch Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels and Artoo Detoo having fun with comedy legend Bob Hope, and presenting Ben Burtt's well deserved OSCAR, at:

http://index.hu/kultur/cinematrix/ccikkek/2011/02/26/star_wars_oscar/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvQ-ktdG5WE

Special Sound Oscars for Close Encounters and Star Wars: 1978 Oscars - YouTube

A selection of personal memorabilia linked to the event, from the collection of Anthony Daniels, that was auctioned in 2024.

Carrie Fisher at the event:

I Was Carrie Fisher’s 1978 Oscar Date: Spielberg, Lucas and a 3 a.m. Afterparty With John Belushi – The Hollywood Reporter

MONSTER AUCTION!

My good buddy Chris Baker recently got in touch with me on an event from last year that I wasn't previously aware of, and which I thought I'd pass the info and photos on. Here's what he said:

“These (attached) images are from a PIH Hollywood Auction Catalog I found online yesterday. The Auction actually happened back on December 17 & 18th of 2010, from the Saban Theatre in Beverley Hills. Phil Tippett added several pieces from his personal collection, These are the 'SW' ones from his lot

 

... wish I had a few extra hundred thousand just sitting around (lol)

    

(the images-click to blow up for more detail and caption info- are numbered in the order they were presented in the catalogue)”

Thanks for the info, Chris.

CLASSIC IMAGE: BUNKER SNARE!

On the forest moon of Endor, captured by a legion of Imperial troops, Han, Leia, Chewie and the Rebel commando team are unable to carry out their destructive mission against the shield generator protecting the Death Star. Soon enough, though, the tide will turn...

RETURN OF THE JEDI is showing today on the UK's ITV 1 HD channel this mid-afternoon.

STAR WARS: FROM THE NEWS HEADLINES....

The classic 1977 Happy Holidays full page STAR WARS advert seen in US newspapers.

Friend to AFICIONADO, mMat Hab, has kindly contacted me to let me know of a new press archive of STAR WARS related material that he's compiled and set up that fans might be interested in looking at (including a wide selection of electronic articles that have been on GOOGLE).

Here's the links.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmathab/sets/72157626078112856/

http://www.mediafire.com/?8nf4ki8vmi7n3s6

If anyone else out there in cyber space can help with rare STAR WARS related press clippings, or knows of other sites that have links to them, please get in touch.

Thanks for all the hard work and for getting in touch about this, mMat...

CLASSIC IMAGE: FRIENDS LOST AND FOUND!

Searching the dark and smelly recesses of the Jawa Sandcrawler, littered with droids old and new in various working and non-working states, C-3PO is finally re-united with his loyal Astro Droid chum Artoo Detoo in a great moment from STAR WARS.

CLASSIC IMAGE: QUEEN TO A CAPTURED WORLD!

Queen Amidala of the Naboo (Natalie Portman) can only look on helplessly as the city of Theed is surrounded and then ruthlessly occupied by the Battle Droids of the unscrupulous Trade Federation, in this hauntingly beautiful frame shot on location at the Caserta Royal Palace in Italy for EPISODE ONE.

CLASSIC IMAGE: CREEPY OBSERVER!

Pursuing the Bounty Hunter Jango Fett to the desert world of Geonosis, Obi-Wan Kenobi lands his Jedi starfighter unaware that his craft is being watched by the planets gruesome primary life-forms, in this great visual from EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES.

CLASSIC IMAGE: THREEPIO'S RESCUER!

A cloaked Luke Skywalker, last of the Jedi, enters Jabba's Palace on Tatooine to demand the immediate release of his captured friends, in this atmospheric, and very cool, shot from RETURN OF THE JEDI.

AFICIONADO REVIEW: KNIGHT ERRANT

Those Sith just don't give up! In the first of a new series, can new Jedi heroine Kerra Holt, deep in their territory, possibly save the day?

Check out our review here (contains possible spoilers): STAR WARS AFICIONADO WEBSITE: CLASSIC REVIEW: 'STAR WARS - KNIGHT ERRANT' NOVEL

CLASSIC IMAGE: SUN, SAND AND 'SABERS!

Here's a shot I had never seen before, so I thought I'd put it up on the blog. A head shaved Ray Park (you just have to look at his fighting stance to see that its him!) and Obi-Wan double Andreas Petrides (who did the leap shots of the character for the duel) make the most of the good weather on an empty part of the outdoor Mos Espa set in Tunisia to practice their lightsaber skills and rehearse the next stage of the epic finale duel for EPISODE ONE action scenes, choreographed by Nick Gillard, filmed at LEAVESDEN STUDIOS in the UK.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

CLASSIC IMAGE: WOOKIEE LEGEND!

To celebrate the welcome return of Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca in THE CLONE WARS two part Season Three finale, here's a great pic you don't see much of these days of the legendary 200 year old Wookiee from the original STAR WARS, from the characters first filmed scene at Docking Bay 94.

CLASSIC IMAGE: DEATH OF INNOCENCE!

Watched in sadness by his extended family and lover-to-be, Anakin Skywalker returns to the Lars Homestead with the body of his dead mother, Shmi, in this fateful scene from EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, filmed at the restored Nefta salt flats location previously used in 1976 for STAR WARS.

AFICIONADO COMMENT: A SNUB FROM BAFTA....

I would like to thank STAR WARS INSIDER Editor Jonathan Wilkins for getting in touch with the UK's BAFTA film fellowship to inquire why the late film director Irvin Kershner, the brilliant director of the critical and audience acclaimed THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and numerous other wide ranging and diverse films over a fifty year career, wasn't included in the tribute section of this years BAFTA AWARDS ceremony shown on the BBC last weekend. For him not to have been included I felt was an absolute insult, and BAFTA's excuse being a lack of time to include him was outright PATHETIC! A four to six second clip from EMPIRE and a pic of Kershner could easily have been done. And it certainly could have been done if they had restrained the verbal diarrhoea that often came out of the shows long running and highly smug TV presenter Jonathan Ross at regular intervals. Kershner's non-inclusion as director of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is bad enough, but worse when you consider what a popular and acknowledged film-maker and teacher he had been to the likes of many of the talents within the film and TV industry in general. I rate this insult to his friends and family, STAR WARS and film fans in general as bad a situation as it was a few years back for classic STAR TREK fans when the late DeForest Kelly, an actor of some repute before playing their beloved Doctor McCoy, with a list of classic noir thrillers and westerns behind him, as well as the six TREK movies released theatrically across the world, was also not deemed good enough for inclusion by the US Academy Awards fellowship! That, like BAFTA's attitude towards Kershner, is equally unforgivable.

Shame on you, BAFTA!

For more on this story: http://www.jedinews.co.uk/

CLASSIC IMAGE: THE THREE FACES OF PRINCESS LEIA

Here's a nice composite image that is on and off available from OFFICIALPIX, showing Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa in her acting and character journey across all three films, from captured but resolutely fiesty Princess in A NEW HOPE to lethal Hutt killer, maturing Rebel hero and Jedi-to-be in RETURN OF THE JEDI. Thirty four years on, both Fisher and Leia remain great screen icons for our time...

CLASSIC IMAGE: JAR JAR'S BIG ADVENTURE!

In one of the first live action scenes shot for THE PHANTOM MENACE at the UK's LEAVESDEN STUDIOS, Ahmed Best settles into his role as Gungan representative Jar Jar Binks in a corridor waiting area within Senator Palpatine's office on Coruscant. A brief sequence where Anakin (Jake Lloyd) and Jar Jar try to eavesdrop on Queen Amidala's first conversation with Palpatine about the invasion of Naboo was filmed but cut for time reasons from the finished film, though the scene of them running off can be partially witnessed in the finished film (image below).

CLASSIC ART: TINY WISDOM!

Here's a fun b/w late 1978 or early 1979 storyboard, possibly by the respected UK artist Ivor Beddoes during the time he worked on storyboarding for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK at ELSTREE with the late director Irvin Kershner, showing a wide-eyed and innocent, dreaming of adventure and excitement Luke Skywalker conferring with an early version of Yoda within his hut home on Dagobah.

With thanks to Ian Trussler for the image.

CLASSIC IMAGE: TARKIN'S TYRANNY!

Its amazing to see just how the kindest and most gentlest of people can play on screen baddies in film and TV so effectively. The much missed Peter Cushing being a particular case in point with his fine performance as Grand Moff Tarkin in STAR WARS. His acting and character were so great that, despite his demise with the destruction of the Death Star at the end of the first STAR WARS movie (which Cushing regretted as he wasn't able to come back for any sequels), he would return as a younger man for a brief appearance at the end of 2005's REVENGE OF THE SITH, and now, as well as his cruel and nasty adventures continuing in the Expanded Universe of books and comics, can shortly be seen as Captain Tarkin for the upcoming episode of THE CLONE WARS Season Three: The Citadel.

It looks as if evil is indeed everywhere!

CLASSIC ART: DARTH VADER STRIKES BACK!

Here's a revised commercial art version of Lawrence Noble's great work for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, of which a prior version had been originally considered as a theatrical release poster for the 1980 cinema engagements, and then finally put out as an official poster for EMPIRE's Tenth Anniversary in 1990. This new art version has substantially changed imagery at the bottom of it, including Rebel Snowspeeders and Imperial Walkers.

If you're in the UK, celebrate Darth Vader's epic return to fight the Rebels by catching the HD screening of the much beloved film this Saturday afternoon on ITV1.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: DEATH STAR DEATH POINTS!

An intriguing look at the uncompleted but prime weapon ready Death Star II, as built by ILM in 1982 for model filming use in the Classic Trilogy finale RETURN OF THE JEDI.

"You may fire when ready!"

STAR WARS: The Complete Saga auf Blu-ray: HD Clip Episode VI: TODESSTERN IM BAU - YouTube

CLASSIC IMAGE: SITH SWORDSMANSHIP!

An interesting EPISODE II image used online for a devoted STAR WARS fans desktop wallpaper, showing Christopher Lee as the evil Count Dooku flexing two lightsabers for part of a filmed but ultimately deleted duel sequence between the Sith Lord and Yoda in the Geonosian Hangar. Let's hope that one day the entire action sequence will appear on Blu-ray.

Outside of playing Count Dooku, our best wishes go out to Christopher Lee on his accepting his BAFTA fellowship award for his life and career in movies this weekend in London. It's well deserved and great to see him properly acknowledged.

CLASSIC IMAGE: THE NIGHTMARE SCENARIO

Jedi Knight Aayla Secura looks on in shock as her Clone Troopers turn their weapons against her in the final stages of The Clone Wars on the strange jungle world of Felucia. Though we all knew it was coming by the third film, ORDER 66 was nonetheless a shocking sequence and certainly one of the stand out scenes of REVENGE OF THE SITH, partially conceived with input from Steven Spielberg, accompanied by a superb and moving theme by John Williams.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

CLASSIC IMAGE: FALCON STORMTROOPER VIGIL

"Hey down there. Can you give us a hand with this?"

In the gargantuan hangar bay of the dreaded Death Star, two unsuspecting Imperial Stormtroopers stand guard over the seemingly empty captured starship, the Millennium Falcon

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

AFICIONADO REVIEW: "CLONE WARS GAMBIT: STEALTH"

Karen Miller's 2010 epic two-part CLONE WARS GAMBIT Prequel adventure for Anakin and Obi-Wan comes to paperback from ARROW BOOKS in the UK, with Part One, Stealth, out now.

Check out our review here: STAR WARS AFICIONADO WEBSITE: STEALTH

CLASSIC IMAGE: STAR WARRIORS!

Taking place on Tuesday 1st June, 1976, one of British photographer David Steen's great four cast posed studio images of our classic, iconic heroes from the original STAR WARS, the movie that started it all, which showed yesterday afternoon on ITV 1 HD in the UK and looked great, even in pan and scan.

For more on the photographers and photography for the original film, head over to our exclusive feature: http://www.starwarsaficionado.com/photographersofstarwars.html

CLASSIC IMAGE: HERO IN A HALF SHELL!

On a green screen FOX stage in Australia, resident STAR WARS icon Anthony Daniels takes a breather between filming his next EPISODE III scene-where Threepio, Captain Typho and Padme arrive by shuttle at the landing platform housing the latter's Naboo diplomatic craft.

The sequence, which leads into the as seen in the movie moment where Obi-Wan stows away on the vessel as it makes its journey to Mustafar, was ultimately cut from the film.

CLASSIC IMAGE: TUSKEN TRIUMPH!

The dangerous and distinctive desert nomads of Tatooine, the Tusken Raiders, celebrate their enjoyment of the regular Boonta Eve Pod Race, having shot at its many contestant racers as they twist and turn through the various sand swept canyons of Mos Espa.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: MARIONETTE MASTER!

At ILM, Phil Tippett makes some Go-Motion filming adjustments whilst he and his crew film the brilliantly detailed miniature Luke on his Speeder Bike for the exhilarating Endor chase sequence for RETURN OF THE JEDI.

My Life In Monsters: Meet the Animator Behind Star Wars and Jurassic Park - YouTube