From the real life
valleys of Wales to the fictional desert realms of Tatooine and beyond, UK
talent Leslie (Les) Dilley’s TV series transfer to epic motion picture making
career took off in a big way in 1975, working as an Assistant art director to
the legendary Production Designer John Barry in Mexico on the film LUCKY LADY- a
comedy adventure, written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, starring Burt
Reynolds, Liza Minelli and Gene Hackman, that would eventually, and sadly, bomb
at the box office and critically wound 20th CENTURY FOX’s finances
in the process. LUCKY LADY may ultimately have been unlucky for its backers and stars, but behind the scenes it was to
prove the start of a British design renaissance, especially for Dilley. Once
Barry, much liked in the industry and recommended by that films writers to
director George Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz, was officially give the job as
Production Designer on what was then being known as THE STAR WARS, his talented,
dedicated art team quickly followed alongside him for the ride of their
lives-Dilley soon becoming fully immersed as co-art director (with colleague
Norman Reynolds) into the incredible and eventually revolutionary universe
being planned for the big screen by Lucas, whom he enjoyed working with on a daily
basis, noticing his great eye for detail and film-making.
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Early design plans for Artoo Detoo. |
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George Lucas and John Barry work out Artoo Detoo's early feet prototypes/movements with Kenny Baker. |
In those early days working on development with Roger Christian and Reynolds, at Lee
Studios in Kenzell Road, London, everything had to be built from scratch. First
off the drawing board was the huge task linked to the droid R2-D2 (which also
had the considerable input of Practical Special Effects supervisor John Stears),
then golden humanoid C-3PO (including the talents of sculptor Liz Moore (later Brian Muir), with further input from Barry, working from the early defining work of
US conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie), and the floating Landspeeder. Dilley
would be heavily involved with the Art Department in the concept of the latter (again
working from McQuarrie’s incredible concepts) and the design and development of
R2. The first mock-up
of the Landspeeder was ultimately made too big, cut down to a third of its
size under orders from Lucas, and becoming the final vehicle we known and love today, built by the British-based Ogle design and manufacturing company.
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George Lucas and Bill Welch watch Luke's Landspeeder in construction at Elstree-1975/76. |
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Another behind the scenes shot of the speeder at Elstree. |
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Generic image of the final Landspeeder, taken by Richard Edlund at ILM. |
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Another of the Landspeeder props used on location in Tunisia-March/April 1976. |
R2 started off
life as a cardboard drum, with cardboard arms developed from which a walking
test was done. Development work continued over several months- a version that a
small person could operate (in a very limited way with no major movements, as the
legs were too short and didn’t have enough movement inside them), one that
could be waddled about, and the later, often difficult to control, robot version with three legs (pioneered by John Stears).
It was also Dilley
who helped Barry and Norman Reynolds to convince diminutive up and coming
British cabaret/TV star Kenny Baker to play Artoo after much persuading, as the
majority of the other little people tested with the prop weren’t strong enough
to operate it. Baker also had the knack of adding personality to it, giving the
little droid some emotional nuance, intelligence and cuteness across the
Classic Trilogy.
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The immense Sandcrawler prop/scaffold used on the first day of Tunisian filming in 1976. |
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Lucas with the final version of Threepio, played by Anthony Daniels, in Tunisia-1976. |
On to bigger
things, Dilley drafted the immense Jawa Sandcrawler prop into construction
blueprints, eventually coming in at 120 foot long 20 feet wide and 40 feet high
as Dilley supervised its construction in Tunisia.
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The entire UK art/design team, with Ralph McQuarrie (far right), gather on the STAR WARS Soundstage at Elstree-June/July 1979 for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. |
Concluding his
work on STAR WARS by the Summer of 1976, Dilley would help Christopher Reeve
fly as SUPERMAN (again working with John Barry and Reynolds) into 1977, then opposite an
impressed Ridley Scott, paired once more alongside Set Decorator Roger Christian, as the trio
brought their considerable talents to bear on the sci-fi horror landmark ALIEN
a year later, notably with the interior of the starship Nostromo. Then, on the opposite end of sci-fi/fantasy, it was straight
back to George Lucas and Gary Kurtz in 1979 for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK-an even
greater design and construction challenge, against some very difficult filming
circumstances, than the original STAR WARS. Here, Dilley was Art Director,
whilst Norman Reynolds, following in the footsteps of the tragically passed
John Barry (who had returned to the saga for a brief period as a Second Unit
Director), was now an ambitious Production Designer.
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The Millennium Falcon prop finishes assembly at Elstree-1979. |
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The Falcon, all alone in the abandoned Rebel Base hangar. |
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The dense bog planet and swamp crashed X-wing at Elstree-August/September 1979. |
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Filming on the muddy Dagobah set was often quite precarious! |
Dilley was in the
process of supervising the all-important transfer to, and construction of props
for, March 1979 filming in Finse, Norway when he fell ill with throat and
breathing problems at the airport, resulting in him not going to the chilly
location (replaced by a thrust into the position Alan Tomkins) and instead staying in the UK alongside Norman Reynolds in the hectic
Elstree Studios, where work overseeing the films incredible sets was soon
all-consuming, such as the rebel base hangar on the ice planet of Hoth,
followed by the Dagobah bog planet (which saw in his apparently most embarrassing
career moment- after supervising the metal dome being put on top of Kenny Baker
within the Artoo shell, Dilley took a backwards step too far and fell into the
dirty water swamp, directly in front of his crewmates!)
After EMPIRE, Dilley
had the pleasure of working with another genre favourite movie director Steven
Spielberg (and Norman Reynolds) on RAIDERS OF THE LOST Ark, which arrived at
Elstree after the filming of the Sam Jones starring FLASH GORDON movie, then
went on to a continuing and spectacular Hollywood career as Production Designer
(thanks to Green Card support from Lucas and Spielberg), with hit films such as
James Cameron’s THE ABYSS, family comedies like CASPER, THE FRIENDLY GHOST and
HONEY, I BLEW UP THE BABY, and sci-fi disaster movie DEEP IMPACT.
With thanks to Chris Baker for selected images.
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