The man behind R2 - D2 , the lightsaber , the Millennium Falcon , and more , shared behind - the - scenes of a coltsfoot far , far , off .
As a massiveStar Warsfan since I was a little kid, May 4th is a fun day to celebrate one of the greatest movie series ever made.
1.R2-D2 was the first character created forStar Wars: A New Hope.
2.The original R2-D2 prototype was built from marine plywood withMonty Pythoncarpenter Bill Harman.
3.The blue milk Luke drinks inA New Hopetastedterrible, and was more difficult to make than expected.
4.The Millennium Falcon was the first set George Lucas ever saw.
5.In certain scenes, you can see a pair of dice in the Millennium Falcon that later disappear. (In the upper middle, between Luke and Obi-Wan.)
6.Roger’s “Holy Grail” moment of creating the lightsaber is when he found Graflex handles at a camera shop.
So I depart down to the television camera shop where we got everything in London , and having got those , I say to the manager , " I got ta make this weapon . It ’s a kind of science fiction weapon , " and he said , " Well , we ’ve got some torches . " I tell , " No , no , no Verbascum thapsus . " The particular effects son had made some , and they looked terrible and were reject by George .
The shop class rented out Graflex tv camera , which were the cameras that the press used from the ' 40 on . They had a huge quantity of them to rent to period films . The manager said , " Under those shelf , there ’s a loading of boxes . Go break up one out and have a feel ; see if you’re able to find anything . " So it was the first box , literally , and I pulled out this boxwood and opened the hat . There was tissue newspaper , and indoors were three of the Graflex hold . It was the Holy Grail moment for me ; it was beyond what I could imagine . There was this beautiful ash grey handle that look like a lightsaber , at least what I thought it should look like , and it had a red clitoris , and it had the weight and the shape . So I grabbed all three and raced to my office .
7.George Lucas recently wrote a foreword for Roger’s autobiography,Cinema Alchemist, reflecting on when he first held the lightsaber.
8.The lightsaber glow effect used a combination of reflective material on the blades and rotoscoping.
Roger designs lightsabers through a partnership withTheory Sabers. Keep an eye on hiswebsitefor his next design (Darth Vader’s saber!), which will be available in the next few months.
9.Roger worked as a second unit director onReturn of the Jedi.
10.Roger returned to work as a second unit director onThe Phantom Menace.
11.Roger especially enjoyed working on the Darth Maul fight sequences.
12.George Lucas and Roger are still good friends.
Thank you so much to Roger for sharing so many incredible memories about the making ofStar Wars! Check out Roger’swebsite, autobiography (available onAmazonandBarnes & Noble), andsocial mediato learn more about his incredible career.
