IT WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY... COMETH 'THE STAR WARS'!

It was fifty years ago today, that a young and talented filmmaker named George Lucas, afresh from his writing/directing duties on what would soon be the smash hit musical comedy drama/ pop culture classic American Graffiti, would put pen to paper in creating the first thirteen-page story synopsis of what was to be his planned modern take on the space fantasy adventure genre - The Star Wars...

I wonder what happened with that...?!

George Lucas in the early 1970's.

The world owes Lucas a great debt now and forever more for creating such an incredible legacy and universe of excitement that continues to entertain, delight, and influence audiences in such positive, inspiring and hopeful ways...

Thank you, George!

HAPPY 78TH BIRTHDAY, GEORGE LUCAS!

There are people who make great movies, and there are people who make great and ground-breaking movies, and George Lucas's superb film-making instincts are purely in the latter camp, particularly with his creative and artistic first success with American Graffiti, from which the seeds of an incredible space fantasy would soon be sown...

STAR WARS AFICIONADO sends the very best to George Lucas on his Birthday! Once again, thank you for creating such an enduring and beloved universe!

HAPPY 45TH ANNIVERSARY, 'AMERICAN GRAFFITI'!

On set for an American movie classic. Image: UNIVERSAL.

His good friend Francis Ford Coppola dared him to write and direct a light and quirky comedy after the sad failure of his high concept sci-fi drama THX-1138. And that's exactly the kinda challenge that the young George Lucas would soon thrive on, delivering to cinemas in 1973 one of the lowest budget made yet commercial box office hits ever with American Graffiti, and truly kicking off the Hollywood careers of Ron (Ronny) Howard, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Richard Dreyfuss and the unforgettable Charles Martin Smith.

Shot in an incredibly fast and night shoot stressful 26 day schedule, costing a mere million dollars (part of a bundle of low budget films by Universal made to appeal to modern seventies audiences), it's no surprise that the film was such a big hit.

But even then, however, in those days at Modesto, California, Lucas had dreams of a space adventure, and a war in the stars...

Happy 45th Anniversary this month to AMERICAN GRAFFITI!

CLASSIC ART: THE 'STARKILLER' THAT WAS...

Showing its roots as a deliberate homage celebration to the classic fantasy comic/book adventures of FLASH GORDON and JOHN CARTER, this is the cover to a very special, and very rare, auction collection piece (belonging to early STAR WARS spacecraft designer Colin Cantwell), of George Lucas's original epic, altogether very different screenplay draft for the film from the early seventies, when it was evocatively known as Adventures of the Starkiller! 

The cover art by Esteban Maroto was actually lifted from an earlier 1972 tribute piece that the artist did for Flash Gordon (titled "Even legends May Die"), the iconic sci-fi hero who inspired The Star Wars and its main character of Luke Skywalker. As we all know, Lucas had prior tried and failed to buy the rights to the classic space hero and had to create his own superior universe. 

More on Colin Cantwell's rare auction pieces (including other work on 2001 and the BUCK ROGERS TV series) can be found here: 

Unseen Star Wars artwork and designs come up for auction, in pictures - Telegraph

EXCLUSIVE: Video Interview with Colin Cantwell on ’74/’75 Star Wars Prototypes & Never Publicly Shown Concept Art, The Apollo XI Moon Landing with NASA & CBS, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, WarGames and More : The Original Prop Blog – Jason DeBord's TV and Movie Prop Collecting, News, & Authentication Memorabilia Resource

With thanks to Chris Baker for the heads-up on this.

BEHIND THE SCENES: CREW TREATS

An assortment of rare behind the scenes promotional/crew/office goodies from STAR WARS and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (plus AMERICAN GRAFFITI) recently auctioned off by producer Gary Kurtz.

THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL. 'AMERICAN GRAFFITI' TURNS 40!

Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) and friend in AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Image: UNIVERSAL.

Forty year ago, George Lucas's modest little film about fast cars, teenagers undergoing a right of passage, and stealing brew, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, arrived in cinemas and quickly made an impact with viewers around the world with its great cast, terrific soundtrack and all-round innocent nostalgia. It put Lucas firmly on the directorial map, and rightly so- leading to even bigger and better things in outer space, and also established the careers of Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Candy Clark and Charles Martin Smith, whose Terry the Toad had so many great comedy moments.

Oh, and there was that young hothead, almost on the verge of giving up the difficulties of Hollywood, who wanted a little bit more money from Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz for playing his role of upstart drag racer, cowboy-hatted Bob Falfa- carpenter, actor and soon worldwide hero icon- Harrison Ford!

▶ American Graffiti Trailer - YouTube
▶ American Graffiti (7/10) Movie CLIP - Must Be Your Mama's Car (1973) HD - YouTube

Check out this great anniversary feature on the film's original release on the DIGITAL BITS website: Where Were You In ’73? Remembering American Graffiti On Its 40th Anniversary

OUT NOW ON US BLU-RAY: "AMERICAN GRAFFITI"

Debbie (Candy Clark) and Terry the Toad (Charles Martin Smith) await the new AMERICAN GRAFFITI Blu-ray! Image: UNIVERSAL.

George Lucas's seminal film tribute to his Modesto youth, of girls, cars and music - AMERICAN GRAFFITI - has finally arrived on US Blu-ray and the review verdicts for it are very good.

Check out this review here from the popular BLU-RAY.COM site: American Graffiti Blu-ray

The US release is apparently region-free, so an official UK version of the movie is unlikely.

UPDATE 5/8/2011: My good buddy Chris Baker has let me know of this terrific blog site totally dedicated to the film from super-fan Jeff Hamrick. Check it out here:  http://jeffsallgraffitiallthetime.blogspot.com/2011/08/american-graffiti-lost-and-found.html?spref=fb

A SUMMER OF FUN! THE RETURN OF "AMERICAN GRAFFITI"

One of the lovely and nostalgic posters for George Lucas's pre-STAR WARS triumph: AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Image: LUCASFILM/UNIVERSAL.

George Lucas's first "feel good" movie of the seventies, the low budget but soon worldwide commercial hit AMERICAN GRAFFITI, which, on its first release, quickly made stars out of Ron Howard (who would go on to be the main lead of the GRAFFITI-esque series HAPPY DAYS), Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat and Candy Clark, is on late tonight/early morning on the UK's ITV 1 channel (and coming to Blu-ray States-side in May of this year), and if you've never seen it, with its life story loosely based around George Lucas (who was apparently reminiscent of the film's glasses wearing lovable nerd Terry the Toad (played by Charles Martin Smith)) and all the youngsters that went out car cruising late-night in Modesto, California in the late fifties and early sixties, its well worth catching-its a lovely film (produced by Gary Kurtz), beautifully made (and very documentary style in places-a real Lucas trademark even then), with great performances from everybody (including a young Harrison Ford as a cowboy hat wearing drag-car racer), plus a fantastic, then revolutionary, music soundtrack compendium from all the greats of the time, despite Universal Studios then inability to see the film for what it was (they even wanted to name it A Slow Night in Modesto as they hated Lucas's title!).

Want some cheering up as we approach Spring-time? Then catch AMERICAN GRAFFITI and you'll find it certainly hits the spot!