Pre-fur Chewie

I'm posting another vintage Tavoularis because I can't get over the Chewie toys Aaron showed of the early, pre-fur Chewies which were turned into toys.

McQuarrie drawings

From Ralph's portfolio, which I used to sell the film to licensees. Color is a bit off here, this was back when I was first starting to scan. My color has improved a little, though I'm still a long ways away from some of you who do this for a living :)

These are from a batch of slides I had for STAR WARS art.

More Alex Tavoularis concept sketches

Early C-3PO, Alex Tavoularis 1975

Early Chewie, Alex Tavoularis 1975

French reviews

Le Matin review of STAR WARS, Sept 12, 1977

L'Aurore Sept 15, 1977

France Soir Oct 21, 1977

France Soir Oct 20, 1977

Le Figaro Sept 14, 1977

1983 TimeOut issue

1983 TimeOut review has some pristine quotes --

"One reason all the old folks may be dying out is that Luke (Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) have become old folks themselves."

Or --

"By Episode VII, Luke may look more like the late Ben Kenobi (Alec Guiness).

Fans of 'Star Wars' who want a lot more of the exact same formula will not be disappointed..."

That's for a review of Return of the Jedi, done in 1983....

The same TimeOut issue had a 3 page article on SW, mostly based on Dale Pollocks' Lucas' approved book.

The last thing I wanted to share with you from this TimeOut issue was an ad for Anthony Daniels appearance as C-3PO. There are a couple of interesting points about this ad page.

One, C-3PO appearance was at Forbidden Planet, a venue run by some friends of mine, Mike Lake, Nick Landau, and Mike Luckman. Don't know if the last Mike was still part of FP in 83. They had a falling out and parting of ways. This was the start of Titan publishing, who have now become giants in genre publishing. They have the exclusive book rights to things like ALIEN.

Two, look at the ad for Dial-A-video. Talk about ancient. No one even has a video player anymore. Tape business are all kaput. Gone. A thing of the past. Everything is on the net and digital.

Three, in the full page ad, you can see what I mean about the kinds of movies you used to be able to see at theaters -- Peter Greenaway's The Draughtman's Contract - an indie. Four films by Woody Allen, Goddard's Passion and another indie, The Missionary. Whoops, so indie I never even heard of it, and I'm pretty up on indies. And a Brazilian film festival. Looking at this page of movie ads makes me really nostalgic for the days when there were more than blockbusters on the menu.

This page, in a nutshell, really represents history.

Alex Tavoularis 1975 storyboard

This is another one of Alex Tavoularis's 1975 Storyboards. Quite some time ago, I shot them with my little instamatic and uploaded them. Friends who have been on my page probably recognize the images. I'm reuploading them for two reasons -- one, the instamatic captures weren't the greatest quality. Two, repetition never hurts. Or, at least not too badly :) not with Star Wars.

I rescanned them in an attempt to replicate their originals, which are pencils on tracing paper. The jpg below gets closer to capturing the original board, though the digitizing process strengthens the lines, making the pencil strokes appear more like markers.

Alex Tavoularis concept sketches

Early Alex Tavoularis concept sketch of Luke Skywalker, done in 1975, when Luke was female.

Early Alex Tavoularis concept sketch of Darth Vader, based on RMQ's sketches, done in 1975