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Behind-the-scenes photos of prototype Boba Fett costume, 1978
03.17.2014
11:23 am
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Here are some behind-the-scenes photos taken in June of 1978 of either a costume fitting or screentest for badass Star Wars character Boba Fett. Apparently these images were shot at George Lucas’ home.

Interesting to see Boba Fett as all white.

Redditor RandomMovieTriviaGuy brought up this interesting Star Wars factoid I did not know:

George Lucas was so sure the original film would flop that instead of attending the premiere, he went on holiday to Hawaii with his good friend Steven Spielberg, where they came up with the idea for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).


 

 
More images after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.17.2014
11:23 am
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‘Incestual Realization Of Han Solo’
02.05.2014
11:43 am
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This video may have been uploaded to YouTube in 2011, but I’ve never seen it before. As we already know, the Internet is big and still full of amusing surprises like this “Incestual Realization Of Han Solo” video.

Apparently Luke Skywalker himself even confessed to this on Digg once, but it was yanked, probably by George Lucas. Read between the lines, people!
 


 
Via reddit

Posted by Tara McGinley
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02.05.2014
11:43 am
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I’d rather watch George Lucas’ 1966 student film, ‘Freiheit,’ than any of those godawful ‘prequels’
01.08.2014
10:17 am
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George Lucas has managed to fashion one of the strangest careers in all of cinema. First, he created one of the biggest (if not the biggest) movie franchises of all time. Then, he took the legacy of that phenomenon and perverted it beyond all recognition. And as if contaminating the childhoods of a million nerds wasn’t enough, he became highly litigious, threatening to sue anyone who so much as referenced Star Wars in a fan parody—he even tried to sue lobbyists during the Reagan administration over the nickname of the Strategic Defense Initiative missile program! Yes, it’s fair to say that no one quite hates George Lucas as much as Star Wars fans hate George Lucas. The guy seems like kind of a dick.

But in the spirit of goodwill towards men, I think it’s only fair that we go back to a time when Lucas was an idealistic young film student, making movies to actually emotionally engage people. Freiheit is a short Lucas made in 1966, and it’s certainly not something you’d expect from the man who brought us Jar Jar Binks. In less than three minutes, a young man (played by—get this—Randal Kleiser, the future director of Grease) attempts to dash across the border from East to West Germany. He is shot after a near escape, and he dies with a rabble of narrations on freedom.

It’s a student film in every sense of the word—dramatic and heavy-handed, and arguably overly-literal in its messaging. It’s also really impressive. The action shots show amazing instincts. The pacing builds anticipation. The editing is crisp. Even the blue tint to the film gives a cohesion to the cinematography—what would have been a busy setting is now austere and cool. It’s almost enough to make me forgive him. Almost.
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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01.08.2014
10:17 am
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Crappy Thomas Kinkade paintings get the ‘Star Wars’ treatment
11.01.2013
04:23 pm
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Iconic kitschy shit-paintings by Thomas Kinkade get a major upgrade (that’s my opinion and I ain’t backin’ down) with added Star Wars themes by artist Jeff Bennett.

The series is appropriately titled “Wars On Kinkade.”
 

 

 

 

 
Via Laughing Squid

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.01.2013
04:23 pm
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‘Star Wars’ stormtrooper helmets customized by Damien Hirst and other top artists
10.15.2013
12:34 pm
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Stormtrooper helmets
“Spot Painted Art Wars Stormtrooper Helmet” by Damien Hirst and “Haitian Witch Doctor” by David Bailey

We’ve all seen our major cities, and probably even some rural areas, dotted with ceramic cows and horses and human hands and the like, all painted in crazy colors—a trend that has about run its course, if you ask me—but here’s a variation even I can get behind. Ben Moore, founder of the UK public art enterprise art below, in collaboration with the original designer of the iconic stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars, Andrew Sinsworth, have asked several of the world’s most renowned contemporary artists to take a stab at putting their personal imprint on the helmet. The project is called, aptly, “Art Wars,” and the helmets were on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London last week and will be showcased “for 4 weeks across billboard space on an entire platform of Regent’s Park Underground station to coincide with Frieze (17-20th October).”

Thankfully, the artists ran with the idea, and a lot of the designs show considerable cheek and whimsy. Among the artists is Mr. Brainwash, who came to public prominence as a result of Banksy’s 2010 movie Exit Through the Gift Shop; his entry appropriates Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup canvases and adds an aerosol spray top.
 
Mr. Brainwash
 
My favorite might be Jason Brooks’ homage to the legendary Formula 1 race driver Ayrton Senna (if you haven’t seen the documentary Senna, you really must):
 
Senna
 
Check out the entire range of helmets at the “Art Wars” website.
 
Stormtrooper helmets
 
via designboom

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Don’t Steal Pencils From Damien Hirst!
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen collaborate on over-priced handbag with Damien Hirst

Posted by Martin Schneider
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10.15.2013
12:34 pm
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Alec Guinness, a.k.a. Obi-Wan Kenobi, kind of hated ‘Star Wars’
10.13.2013
03:05 pm
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Star Wars may have represented a kick-start for Alec Guinness’ career as well as a wholly unexpected windfall when his share of the gross turned out to be far more lucrative than he had any right to expect. But on the whole, Guinness seemed annoyed by the whole idea of George Lucas’ space opera.

Also, he was kind of terrible at remembering people’s names.

In Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography,  Piers Paul Read gives readers a glimpse at some correspondence and diaries written by Guinness while Star Wars—later christened Star Wars: A New Hope—was being filmed.

In a letter dated December 22, 1975, Guinness wrote a friend, noting the likelihood of his next movie being “fairy-tale rubbish”:

I have been offered a movie (20th Cent. Fox) which I may accept, if they come up with proper money. London and N. Africa, starting in mid-March. Science fiction—which gives me pause—but it is to be directed by Paul [sic] Lucas who did American Graffiti, which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale rubbish but could be interesting perhaps.

 
A few months later, on March 18, 1976, he’s working on Star Wars but not having a very good time. He also has inordinate difficulty remembering Harrison Ford’s name.

Can’t say I’m enjoying the film. … new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper—and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable. I just think, thankfully, of the lovely bread, which will help me keep going until next April even if Yahoo collapses in a week. … I must off to studio and work with a dwarf (very sweet—and he has to wash in a bidet) and your fellow countrymen Mark Hamill and Tennyson (that can’t be right) Ford. Ellison (?—No!)—well, a rangy, languid young man who is probably intelligent and amusing. But Oh, God, God, they make me feel ninety—and treat me as if I was 106.—Oh, Harrison Ford—ever heard of him?

 
Yahoo was a West End production in which Guinness played Jonathan Swift—as it happens, my parents saw that play; my mother always said it was one of the most powerful pieces of acting she had ever seen.

Then there’s this diary entry from April 16, 1976:

Apart from the money, which should get me comfortably through the year, I regret having embarked on the film. I like them all well enough, but it’s not an acting job, the dialogue, which is lamentable, keeps being changed and only slightly improved, and I find myself old and out of touch with the young.

 
In his memoir A Positively Final Appearance, Guinness tells the following story:

A refurbished Star Wars is on somewhere or everywhere. I have no intention of revisiting any galaxy. I shrivel inside each time it is mentioned. Twenty years ago, when the film was first shown, it had a freshness, also a sense of moral good and fun. Then I began to be uneasy at the influence it might be having. The bad penny first dropped in San Francisco when a sweet-faced boy of twelve told me proudly that he had seen Star Wars over a hundred times. His elegant mother nodded with approval. Looking into the boy’s eyes I thought I detected little star-shells of madness beginning to form and I guessed that one day they would explode.

“I would love you to do something for me,” I said.

“Anything! Anything!” the boy said rapturously.

“You won’t like what I’m going to ask you to do,” I said.

“Anything, sir, anything!”

“Well,” I said, “do you think you could promise never to see Star Wars again?”

He burst into tears. His mother drew himself up to an immense height. “What a dreadful thing to say to a child!” she barked, and dragged the poor kid away. Maybe she was right but I just hope the lad, now in his thirties, is not living in a fantasy world of secondhand, childish banalities.

 
Clearly, Guinness was kind of being a dick here, but I’m pretty much on board with him doing this. I read somewhere that the young boy in question was grateful for Guinness’ “intervention,” but I wasn’t able to verify that.

Allegedly, Guinness was also eager to have the Obi-Wan character killed off to limit his involvement in future Star Wars movies.

Interestingly, Lucas has said nothing but complimentary things about Guinness’ involvement in the project, and, according to the Piers Paul Read biography, Lucas even pushed for the actor to receive 2.25% of the back end rather than the agreed-upon two points. I’m far from Lucas’ biggest fan, but that was a pretty cool thing to do.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Star Wars dating tips: Luke Skywalker, sex machine
Robotic French Space Disco inspired by Star Wars (1977)

Posted by Martin Schneider
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10.13.2013
03:05 pm
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The shittiest ‘Star Wars’ themed disco dance routine you’ll probably ever see, 1977
07.19.2013
04:55 pm
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Incredibly bad dance number set to Meco’s discofied “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band,” a massive hit nearly everywhere in 1977.

This comes from Dutch TV’s long-running TopPop program. I discovered it earlier this morning whilst looking for some Suzanne Ciani-related multi-media. It’s so incredibly shit that that I thought it deserved its own post.

Cowboy hats? Lassos? How does this have ANYTHING to do with Star Wars???
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.19.2013
04:55 pm
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C-3PO rapping, but don’t worry, your childhood was already dead
06.28.2013
04:21 pm
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People make so much of the terrible Star Wars prequel trilogy ruining their childhood. I just don’t buy it! First of all, you always have the option I took, which is to never speak of them again... except for now, which I only do as a public service.

Second, George Lucas has been making terrible decisions with the Star Wars brand since forever! Check out this intro video for the Star Tours space flight simulator attraction, with C-3PO rapping. Incidentally, if you still want to go on Star Tours today, you gotta get to Eurodisney. I pray they haven’t updated the intro!
 

 
Via Everything is Terrible

Posted by Amber Frost
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06.28.2013
04:21 pm
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Sushi Ewoks
06.10.2013
11:47 am
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Perhaps a little too cute for Dangerous Minds (I couldn’t help myself) these Star Wars-themed sushi Ewoks look damned delectable!

There’s a step-by-step “how to” at LydMc.

Below, elder Ewoks made from kiwis.


 
Via Nerdcore

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.10.2013
11:47 am
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Grumpy Cat, Doctor Who and Star Wars BDSM toys
04.28.2013
11:57 pm
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Grumpy Cat-inspired BDSM paddle

Etsy shop Geek Kink (based in Sacramento, CA) makes meme-ish BDSM toys. Their goal is “to make toys no man has made before.”

Like a TARDIS paddle.
 

Doctor Who-inspired Tardis paddle
 

Darth Vader inspired Lightsaber Cane Mature BDSM


Sith Lightsaber-inspired BDSM flogger
 
With thanks to Edward Ludvigsen!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.28.2013
11:57 pm
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Star Wars characters modeling fur for Vogue in 1977
04.04.2013
02:10 pm
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Ahhhh, the 70s. A decadent decade chock-full of disco dust, fur coats, Jerry Hall and Star Wars. Here’s a tribute to all of that (and so much more) summed up in a Vogue fashion spread from 1977.
 
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Via The World’s Best Ever

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.04.2013
02:10 pm
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Galactic mindbender: Watch all six ‘Star Wars’ movies at once!
03.25.2013
04:54 am
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Mike McNulty does a Nam June Paik number on the Star Wars movies. In watching all six at the same time, the viewer encounters an infinite number of possible correlations and undercurrents of meanings. It’s like a cinematic variation on the I Ching, a Tarot deck, or the collective unconscious of several million hardcore fanboys.

As a non-fan, I prefer this to watching the films individually.

Imagine this on the big screen. It could be lethal.
 

 
Thanks to Oslo Wentworth.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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03.25.2013
04:54 am
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Star Wars action figures rolling a joint
03.22.2013
12:27 pm
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Perhaps more appropriate for a 4/20 post than a 3/22 item, but I couldn’t resist this stop-motion tomfoolery!

 
Via Nerdcore

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.22.2013
12:27 pm
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If ‘Star Wars’ was a samurai movie
02.12.2013
08:51 am
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If Star Wars was a samurai movie…well, George Lucas was influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Star Wars dating tips: Luke Skywalker, sex machine


 
Via ‘Total Film’ Tumblr with thanks to Duglas T. Stewart for the clip!
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.12.2013
08:51 am
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The future of Star Wars:  Lucas vs. Disney mash-up
12.09.2012
01:39 pm
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French filmmaker Patrick Peris has mashed-up all six Stars movies plus new and old Disney films, including Marvel and Pixar, spanning 70 years. 
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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12.09.2012
01:39 pm
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