Tuesday 15 March 2022

'STAR WARS' AT 45: A TATOOINE DAY IN THE LIFE...

At work within the distant vaporator fields, Luke Skywalker is soon distracted by a sight in the skies above.

With a very young Luke Skywalker at the Lars Homestead now revealed in the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi mini-series, here's a look back to the icon hero's originally planned introduction in the original Star Wars of 1977- the memorable sequence, now a legendary deleted scene, that would see a bored Luke working to repair a moisture vaporator, with help from a soon malfunctioning Treadwell droid buddy, out in the Tatooine wilderness. Shot at the Tunisian salt flats of Nefta between 23rd and 25th March, 1976, Luke's task is interrupted via a mysterious sight in the clouds...


Luke, wearing a floppy goggle hat that would not be seen in the completed film, adjusts a control box linked to the malfunctioning vaporator.


Great deleted establishing image.

Temporary lens flare for visual reference -it was planned that ILM would provide an optical insert replacement had the scene not been deleted relatively early in the film's US post production phase.

Looking up, distracted.


Another scene from the deleted footage.


Posed publicity image from the scene.

Close-in posed image of Luke using his macrobinoculars.

Luke leaves the now malfunctioning Treadwell to its own devices.

Publicity image taken linked to the scene.


A great behind the scenes shot captured between takes. Note the technician attending to the Treadwell droid. Image: Kurtz/Joiner Archive.

Treadwell droid photo image taken on Death Star set at Elstree during Summer 1976- presumably for later potential magazine publicity linked to John Stears' work on the film.

The blue Treadwell would also return for active duty in The Empire Strikes Back, presumably the original version built by John Stears and his UK practical effects team (held in storage after prior 1976 filming?), for a fun little moment atop the Millennium Falcon, where it would confer with an irritated Han Solo within the Hoth Rebel base.

The deleted scene as rendered by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin for the original Star Wars Marvel Comics adaptation, published from the end of 1976 onwards.

And here's several posed images linked to Luke at the vaporators.

Luke poses for some repair work.

A shot not originally released in the seventies, showing Luke without his leg 'wrappings'.

This posed image of Luke wearing his poncho was likely taken during a filming break at one of the Lars Homestead vaporators, later in the Tunisian filming.



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