Star Wars Insider US#124/UK#100 hit the UK high street on March 17th and the Official Site throws the spotlight on one of the issues articles, Making Maquettes, a Jonathan Wilkins interview with modelmaker Darren Marshall.
Insider – Which was the first character you built for the show?
Darren Marshall – It was Count Dooku. That was the very first thing we started with back in 2005. It was just a head maquette. His look was very extreme…as it still is.
Insider – Tarkin made his debut on The Clone Wars during Season Three. Is it fun to play with those established actors’ features and exaggerate them?
Darren Marshall – It’s great fun! That was one of my favorite characters to do. I grew up with all the Hammer films — which featured Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee — so that was a major one for me. I love the British bad guys in Star Wars, and both actors have great, expressive faces that work well for our show.
Insider – Your work was presented to George Lucas in the initial pitch for the show. What was his reaction and what notes did he supply?
Darren Marshall – They showed him the original maquettes that I built. Originally we did full figures of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka. The production team experimented with extreme lighting, and they took some photographs to see how the stylized features of faces would work under different lighting conditions. George responded really well to the maquettes and the pitch — which was great for us, because I was really nervous. Dave was in that meeting with George and I remember him coming out and being really excited by the reaction he got. That was a great sign for us.
