Sunday 22 May 2011

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...

UPDATE 7/2013: The recent J.W. Rinzler STAR WARS: BLUEPRINTS book revealed that these pieces were for a planned but cancelled merchandise project (likely an early cross-section type book/portfolio linked to the original STAR WARS).


3 comments:

daehl said...

What the heck? These sure do look like original Joe Johnston sketches, but they bare only a passing resemblance to the Millennium Falcon interior as originally seen in Star Wars. How could Joe have gotten it so wrong???

stirzy said...

The signature on these says N. Rodis, which would make these by Nilo Rodis-Jamero, not Joe Johnston.

It looks like some consideration was given to making the interior set of the falcon fit inside the exterior shape, during pre-production for 'The Empire Strikes Back'!

aficionadofan said...

Wow, your eyesight's pretty darned good, Stirzy. I couldn't see/read the signature, so thanks for the observation.