Princess Leia looks terrific in this 80s-inspired Princess Leia poster. Boing Boing says this hip new print of Princess Leia was created by Starwars.com designer Craig Drake. You can read more about the poster here.
oday, StarWarsShop is proud to offer a limited edition fine art print of Princess Leia composed by Lucas Online's own senior designer, Craig Drake.
"I make sure lasers look good on the internet," jokes Drake, whose "The Princess" artwork print has been a personal pet project of his over the past year. When Drake first revealed the rough sketches to both the Online group and to StarWarsShop, the response was unanimous -- he must create a commercial print of the artwork, since, as children of the '80s, we all wanted one for our own collections.
For the uninitiated (or too young to remember), Drake's "The Princess" artwork is reminiscent of the pervasive style of illustrator Patrick Nagel, whose posters and prints became fixtures of interior design during the 1980s (older fans might remember the artist's famous cover illustration for Duran Duran's Rio album from 1982). There's also a hint of the guitar-strumming vamps of Robert Palmer's classic '80s "Addicted to Love" music video.
The litograph printing can be purchased here on the Starwars.com Shop.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, one young man puts his feelings of love for the Ewoks into song. Here is the Ewok Gospel, according to Brother Andrew. Can I get an Amen! Or, perhaps not.
The Times of London counts down the top ten Star Wars collectibles that should increase in value.
1. Darth Vader with double-telescoping light sabre (Kenner, 1978) - £5,000-plus
The pinnacle of Star Wars collecting, this action figure was one of the groundbreaking range from Kenner that shrunk the format from the GI Joe-standard of 12" to a cheaper and more playable 3 3/4". Each came with accessories - in Darth Vader's case a light-sabre and cape. In the short-lived and most sought-after first issue the latter was "double-telescoping", with a two part beam. Only three carded examples – on their original card mount – are known to exist.
*****
9. SD Darth Vader (Comic Images, 2007) - £6.99
"SD" stands for "super deformed" - a cute style of Japanese animation where the heads of characters account for a third to half of their height (rather than one eighth, as in life). This 7" plush representation shows a very different – huggable – side to the sith lord than the action figure which heads this list and is a big seller – now sold-out at many retailers. Chewbacca from the same line might, however, make for a more comfortable sleeping companion. A 6" Vader is now available for pre-order
10. Chewbacca and Disassembled C-3PO (Hasbro, 2006) - £3
Thanks to Hasbro's Galactic Heroes range of cheap and chunky 2" figures, two much-loved and highly collectible Star Wars characters can be yours for the price of a rip-off sandwich. Critics say that the figures are too stylised – "even the bad guys are cute" – but the toys are widely popular and some lines are already trading at inflated prices on eBay.
The list has expensive and inexpensive items and is quite interesting. See the entire list here.
George Lucas announced that another Star Wars film is headed to theaters. The animated Star Wars: Clone Wars feature film will open in theaters on August 15, 2008. A TV series will then air on the Cartoon Network and TNT.
George Lucas said, "I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell. I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward."
The Great Jawa Village Conspiracy Theory is gaining steam. Hal Wamsley claims he played the Chief jawa in Star Wars: A New Hope movie and saw an entire jawa village set that was created in the California desert. He worked on the Death Valley set of the film with the second photography unit, but was never formally credited on the film, although he is listed in the IMDB database. And LucasFilm won't say he wasn't in the film. But they do deny that there was ever a Jawa village set built in the California desert.
According to Wamsley, both he and the late Jack Purvis (who is in the movie's actual credits) played the Chief Jawa. Wamsley told me, in a 1999 interview, that many of Purvis's scenes, which were filmed in Tunisia, had to be reshot in Death Valley. Thus, the only scene in Star Wars in which Purvis appears is the droid sale at the Lars homestead. Wamsley took credit for spying on R2-D2 and zapping him, carrying the droid to the sandcrawler, putting a restraining bolt on him (the spring 1978 issue of Cinefantastique has a picture of this being shot at Industrial Light & Magic, not Death Valley (CFQ volume 6 no. 4/vol. 7 no. 1, page 90)), and directing the other jawas up the vehicle's stairs.
Wamsley said he stumbled onto the role at the age of 15, when he was still 4'8.' (After a growth spurt at age 17, he reached his current height of 5'2'. See: echostation.com) His mother was an Avon Lady, and one of her clients was a casting director who needed people of Hal's height for "a little science fiction B movie." This project, for which Wamsley never read a script or knew the name, would be shooting second-unit photography near Artist's Palette in Death Valley, California. Hal recalled being ecstatic, and "about three weeks later, [t]hey came and picked me up, and we went down there to Death Valley. We were out there for five days, and then came home for the weekend, and then went out for another five."
"An almost a two-story mock-up" of the jawa sandcrawler figures in many of Wamsley's memories. He said that the sandcrawler was featured in the background of a jawa swap meet (which, according to him, was left out of the final film, and to his disappointment, not restored in the Special Edition). He described tents made of animal hide (probably those of banthas), polygamous jawas, child jawas, and ratlike creatures being roasted over fires.
Most of the components in Wamsley's story have been denied by Lucasfilm's Steven Sansweet (see Cinefantastique August 2002 (vol. 34 no. 5, page 5)). Regarding the sandcrawler set being rebuilt in Death Valley, "that is not true," Sansweet said. "I can tell you that the jawa part of the shoot in Death Valley was a quick one. No sets were built—certainly no part of the sandcrawler set was rebuilt." As for a jawa village, "there was no jawa village scene shot in Death Valley."
It's all very mysterious. We don't know quite what to think.
George Lucas announced that another Star Wars film is headed to theaters. The animated Star Wars: Clone Wars feature film will open in theaters on August 15, 2008. A TV series will then air on the Cartoon Network and TNT.
The Great Jawa Village Conspiracy Theory is gaining steam. Hal Wamsley claims he played the Chief jawa in Star Wars: A New Hope movie and saw an entire jawa village set that was created in the California desert. He worked on the Death Valley set of the film with the second photography unit, but was never formally credited on the film, although he is listed in the IMDB database. And LucasFilm won't say he wasn't in the film. But they do deny that there was ever a Jawa village set built in the California desert.
