Quite a find from the vault: an early poster design for “Star Wars II,” indicating that the story ideas kicking around at the time were far more fluid than Lucas and his cronies would have you believe today. Apparently they intended to introduce some third faction, at odds with the Imperial Empire and the rebellion (if the targets of the laser fire are any indication), who flew around in tiny Star Destroyers. Of particular note is the unfamiliar spaceship on the right, which didn’t make it to the final version of the film. Clearly they had some different ideas about ship design on the table; I would speculate there might have been a fan of 2001 A Space Odyssey’s signature spaceship Discovery somewhere on the team.
The biggest discovery for SW fans and poster afficianados is, of course, the confirmation of a decades-old rumor. We finally have proof that the popular graphic element of really wide Roman numerals got its start in ILM’s heyday and not, as widely believed, in the production of Lethal Weapon I I I.
6 comments:
Dammit, I wanted the I's to be much further apart at the end there, but the blog's text program keeps squishing them back together. Go read it again and pretend it looks that way.
I love it! This totally reflects our 12-year old hopes and dreams. I can recall just like it was yesterday the endless conversations I had, mostly with Octopunk, about Star Wars II. The build up to Empire was half the fun. We were sure we'd see the Clone wars. We finally did, 28 years later.
I also love that Jordan's passion for 2001 was alive and well even back in 1979.
Where's the Enterprise?
Sir, I would not include the Enterprise. You go too far there, sir!
Otherwise, yeah, octo's totally correct about the Kubrick influence. I think I probably believed it to be fair game, given my feeling that the TIE fighter had a great deal to do with Kubrick's space pod.
What about a Viper?
Cobblers, I say to you, sir! Cobblers and more cobblers! The Viper's just an X-wing with 1 wing snapped off anyhow.
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