Monday 14 September 2020

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: THE OTHER REBEL PILOTS OF ECHO BASE!


Buoyed by the news of the first transports escaping the Empire, Rebel fighter pilots rush to their assigned Speeders and X-wings within the Echo Base hangar bay, in an unused angle shot by second unit. Here's a look at some of the various Rebel pilot background extras that would be appearing over the duration of filming of the hangar bay scenes on The Star Wars Stage.

If anyone has any further names on the people who played these pilots, please get in touch.

Photo: Stephanie English.

Photo: Stephanie English.




Close-ups of some of the main and background pilots captured on film by Michel Parbot and his documentary team, then enthusiastically working for Lucasfilm on the official worldwide publicity aspects for The Empire Strikes Back. If anyone knows the names of the background players, please get in touch.





A helmet-less Christopher Malcolm as Zev.





The BBC's then new documentary series The Risk Business, including presenter Michael Rod and his film crew, covered a section of shooting on the impressive Rebel hangar bay scenes, and used several background artists (a pilot and two troopers) to stage a fake moment specially for the programme - rushing upwards into the Millennium Falcon, of which a partial, highly-detailed interior was built above the ramp long before Solo: A Star Wars Story did a similar 'official' scene with Han on Kessel that mixed interior/exterior sets with clever trick editing in 2018. The programme would ultimately air as a key part of UK publicity for the upcoming The Empire Strikes Back on BBC 1 in April 1980.

Running into the Falcon in a staged moment for The Risk Business. Image: BBC Studios.


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