It’s been gestating for a while, taking a look at ten of the actors behind a variety of roles in the original trilogy and finally it hits screens down in London. It’s Elstree 1976.
Friday 09 October 2015 18:15
Picturehouse Central, Screen 1Sunday 11 October 2015 15:00
Cineworld Haymarket, Screen 1Director Jon Spira
Producer Hank Starrs
Screenwriter Jon Spira
With David Prowse, Garrick Hagon, Jeremy Bulloch
UK 2015
101 mins
Sales The WorksWhen George Lucas began work on a mysterious project named Star Wars in North London back in 1976, no one could have predicted how it would go on to shape cinema as we know it, least of all the legions of on-screen extras. In this affectionate documentary, we meet ten of those bit performers who appeared, however fleetingly, in Lucas’ box office behemoth. Rather than the standard ‘making of’ – the likes of which have been seen countless times before – Elstree 1976 paints an intimate portrait of these performers, examining how their brushes with Lucas shaped the paths of their lives. With a cast ranging from Darth Vader himself (or David Prowse as he’s better known to his friends), to a performer whose character was cut entirely from the finished film, this is not so much a film about Star Wars as the story of a group of people united by one life-changing experience.