Luke: Leia, do you remember your mother? Your real mother?
Leia: Just a little bit. She died when I was very young.
Luke: What do you remember?
Leia: Just… images really. Feelings.
Luke: Tell me.
Leia: She was… very beautiful. Kind, but sad. Why are you asking me this?
Luke: I have no memory of my mother. I never knew her.
- Return of the Jedi
Star Wars US lobby card. 1977
(Source: noisyrobot)
Early concept work for Star Wars.
Han Solo (with the lightsaber), a female version of Luke, Chewbacca and the droids.
After completing the second draft, Lucas contemplated changing Luke into a girl, possibly because of the lack of any important female characters in this version. This change was eventually not adopted and Leia was reintroduced as a major character in the third draft.
via starwars.wikia You can read on this page the summary of the second draft of the script untitled: The ‘Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode I: The Star Wars’
Early concept drawings by Ralph McQuarrie
“George said he wanted a costume that would flutter in on the wind, sort of a dark guy in a black cape with a big helmet, like a Japanese warrior — maybe with black silk over his face or something like that,” McQuarrie recalls. “But the script had Vader crossing between his spaceship and the Rebel Blockade Runner and breaking into that spaceship from outer space, burning his way through a wall so he and his stormtroopers can come charging into this hallway. I thought, ‘Gee, Darth Vader has to function in a vacuum,’ so I suggested to George that [Vader] might have some sort of spacesuit to enable him to survive this trip through the vacuum, and George said, ‘Well, okay, give him some kind of a breathing apparatus.’ So along with the big helmet, I put a mask on him.”
“In my drawings, there wasn’t any particular thought to his scale, and I thought he looked like a little, hunched, evil, ratlike person,” McQuarrie explains. “Of course I liked my original design, but the guys on the English crew who made the costumes took it over and came up with a good idea — the concept of this huge, towering figure you had to look up at. I think that the big, tall, gigantic look was pivotal. It worked well in the film, so it’s hard to argue with.” (via a 2004 article)
George Lucas liked the mask and it became a part of Vader’s regular costume. The storyline was developed to explain this costume and Vader became a cyborg.
(Source: noisyrobot)
Conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie played an uncredited role as a rebel in The Empire Strikes Back. He passes in front of one of his matte paitings. The character was provided later a name, General Pharl McQuarrie, and some backstory. Star Wars: The 30th Anniversary Collection toy line featured a figurine of him.
via starwars.wikia
RIP Ralph McQuarrie. Thank you for your work on Star Wars. Your visionary art gave life to some of the best characters on film.
1929-March 3 2012. I just learned about his death. I didn’t know his work so well, but with some readings, I discovered that he was more important than I thought in the creation of Star Wars. And he headed the team that built another wonder of my childhood: the spaceship of Close Encounters. I salute you, Mr. McQuarrie!
(Source: legendofdaddy)
Amazing conceptual artwork for “Star Wars” by the legendary Ralph McQuarrie, who passed away on March 3, 2012.
Michael Bay to produce a live-action Star Wars movie
Remember the Star Wars toys of the 70’s and 80’s? All kinds of aliens and robots with strange names and cool spaceships. After the success of Transformers, Michael Bay seems determined to adapt the Star Wars propriety into a live-action movie. ”Scenarists are working hard to create an elaborate story with these Hasbro toys. We will know more about these mysterious characters. And we will have innovative special effects. Some figurines have little retractable plastic swords, these weapons will be made of a laser in the film. We call them lightsabers. ” There is no official casting yet, but Bay is looking for a young model to play the role of princess Leia.
