Wednesday, 1 September 2021

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: BEAST OF BURDEN!

Gary Kurtz and a second unit film close-up shots of C-3PO (Anthony Daniels in half-suit) attached to  Peter Mayhew's Chewbacca as they race to the East Platform.

Navigating the various Cloud City corridors, the race is on for our freed heroes - can they get to Boba Fett's ship and rescue Han before it can take off?

In a long Friday filming day wearing the yak hair costume under hot studio lights, and with the 50 pounds weight of the Threepio puppet atop/attached to him, Peter Mayhew would collapse doing a corridor hard right move during filming of the chase sequence, and be sent home by the producers for the rest of the afternoon. Though his stand-in would wear the costume for additional scenes shot later that day, Mayhew's unique height/body language /double jointed walk as Chewbacca meant that the non Mayhew footage seen in dailies was ultimately abandoned and reshot once the actor was back on set after the weekend.



Reunited with Artoo, Chewbacca barkingly urges the droid to catch-up.

Peter Mayhew has to cool down in a filming break, with help from L-R: Brian Lofthouse (props), Barbara Richie (hair) and Rosemary Worth (costume assistant) holding the fan.


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