SPECIAL EDITION CLASSIC IMAGE: THE "CAPTURED FREIGHTER"

Here's another SPECIAL EDITION image from George Lucas' revised universe of 1997 that I think works very well-a shot of the captured Millennium Falcon in one of the Death Star hangar bays. The expanse of the hangar bay is better realized, the Falcon, though a little longer at its front end, is more detailed, the floor pattern tilings match better from left to right and the bay's right side wall has continuity to Imperial design from later films in comparison to the one originally created in 1977 by effects legend Harrison Ellenshaw. No disrespect intended to the brilliant Ellenshaw, though, as, at the time his original painting was done, no real design continuity for the saga had yet been mapped out.

SPECIAL EDITION CLASSIC IMAGE: CLOUD CITY LANDING

Another lovely ILM image to enjoy from the 1997 SPECIAL EDITION's, this time from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, expanding the locations and beauty of the universe that is the STAR WARS saga, and showing the Millennium Falcon confidently making its way towards one of Bespin's numerous outdoor landing platforms. Not enough was seen of Cloud City's exterior in the final quarter of EMPIRE and this moment/extension is one of several additions that opens things up a bit more.

Could a few more picturesque sequences like this be appearing on the upcoming Blu-ray disc/special features for the film?

SPECIAL EDITION CLASSIC IMAGE: BANTHA TREK!

Our celebration of great scenes/imagery from THE SPECIAL EDITIONs continues with this fun shot from RETURN OF THE JEDI showing a Bantha herd in its natural habitat within the Dune Sea prior to Jabba's Sail Barge being seen heading to the Pit of Carkoon. It's a lovely little moment/add on to the film which shows us a bit more of these intriguing creatures, often used for transport by Sandpeople, as well as adding another bit of evocative mystery and beauty to the landscape of Tatooine.

SPECIAL EDITION CLASSIC IMAGE: DEATH STAR APPROACH!

Before the onslaught of the love them or hate them Prequels, I recall that wonderful and nostalgic brief period in 1996-1997 when the world received the return of the STAR WARS Original Trilogy, restored and souped up with CG and other then digital trickery as THE SPECIAL EDITIONS, with bated breath and a great euphoria of excitement and joy that, after twenty years, it was finally coming back to the cinemas. STAR WARS destiny had come full circle, returning to the big screen where it rightfully belonged, and it looked like it was now never going to go away into limbo ever again, and we were all happy for that. Since the original releases, however, and going into the 2000's, there has been an upsurge in fan grumblings and moans about the changes made to Lucas's new visions of the film (some opinions I fully agree with: I always consider that Han shot first! It's in the original scripts!), as well as anger and frustration at the lack of Anamorphic versions of the original unaltered, pre-SPECIAL EDITIONS, being being released on DVD and, so far, Blu-ray, and a general mild but growing dissent, criticism and hatred of the SPECIAL EDITIONs in all forms, especially with the further changes made to them with the first DVD releases of the Trilogy in 2004. It seems that Lucas, considering the most recent versions of the Original Trilogy to be definitive in his eyes (surely until the Blu-rays in September!), can't win any artistic respect these days with a lot of the fans whatever he does linked to the originals.

With next year being the fifteenth anniversary of THE SPECIAL EDITIONS, I thought it might be nice, instead of talking about the things that don't work (as everyone else seems to do online), for AFICIONADO to do an occasional series on the moments, large or small, considered improvements by Lucas to the films, that do actually work and which should be applauded and appreciated, starting off with this terrific image of the Rebel X and Y-wing fighters in space heading towards the Death Star. This new shot is great (I love the original 1977 scenes, too) and I particularly liked the faster movements of the ships and the camera panning with them, adding to the excitement of the film's final decisive conflict.

Look for more great SPECIAL EDITION shots in the not too distant future...

WAMPA: SAVAGE BEASTS OF HOTH!

Our penultimate feature celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of EMPIRE can now be found on the main site, this time linked to the filming of the Wampa ice creature sequences.

Check out the rare photo feature here:

http://www.starwarsaficionado.com/the_wampa_beasts_of_hoth.html

And don't forget, for all other things behind the scenes related to the film, our two EMPIRE special issues (from 2005 and our current BEHIND THE SCENES COMPANION) are still available as PDFs from the main site's BACK ISSUES area.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the above image.

OPINION: WHAT HAPPENED TO RICK McCALLUM?

From 1995 to 2007 he's been one of STAR WARS great ambassadors-a funny and enthusiastic showman, a veritable master of hyperbole (in both good and bad ways), dedicated independent film-maker and loyal producer to George Lucas. So where is he? What's going on with him? At CV I suddenly realised that I haven't seen him anywhere since Celebration Europe, and that was back in 2007!

His work on STAR WARS (seemingly) over with regards to the films, the new live-action SW series stalled (for now) due to budget constraints, and RED TAILS, the epic World War II story of the Tuskegee airmen, apparently in drastic re-shoots, McCallum has certainly been keeping out of the fans radar, but now I think its time someone like the INSIDER tracked him down for a good long talk. With such a big involvement with LUCASFILM and STAR WARS and INDY (he was supposed to have been the fourth films producer at one point), a really detailed, candid interview with him about all his work on the Prequels (to really find out some stuff we haven't previously been aware of on their making) and for LUCASFILM-the highs and lows-and all the other things hes been working on since, would be very appealing to read.

Somebody let Rick out of the top-secret underground bunker at LUCASFILM!

OPINION: WHAT WE DON'T WANT TO SEE ON THE NEW BLU-RAYS...

We know that LUCASFILM, and George Lucas himself, were hip deep in production on EPISODE III when they concurrently supervised and worked on the restored 2004 released DVD box set of the Original Trilogy, so we'll forgive them, and film clean-up team Lowry Digital (who did a great job on the INDY films), for some of the unfortunate errors that made their way onto the re-masters (like Luke using a green (!) lightsaber in the Falcon for STAR WARS (pictured above)), but we also hope that the Blu-rays, which LUCASFILM have so far been working on cleaning up for over six years now, along with all their other archive footage, will have none of these annoying prior glitches. And lets also hope that, by 2012, they put back Boba Fett's original voice (by Jason Wingreen), and that the original sound mix for the TIE fighter attack on the Falcon from the classic 1977 film- be it from the original 1977 release version (if only!), SPECIAL EDITION, or a new hybrid new, new version (you never know with George!)- is restored to its former glory. The 2004 sound mix version just doesn't feel right!