The Lost Star Wars Movie
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In 1979, George Lucas was looking for a good short film to show in theaters before
The Empire Strikes Back, which was released in 1980. Roger Christian, the set decorator on the first
Star Wars
film, was commissioned to make a 25-minute film for Lucas. It was
Christian’s first attempt at directing a film, and he only had a £25,000
($50,000) grant to do it with. The result was
Black Angel, a medieval fantasy about a knight who must rescue a mysterious woman. Christian and his tiny crew shot the film in Scotland.
But
back in London, Christian's editor informed him that there wasn't
enough footage to meet the 25-minute contract. To lengthen the film,
they decided on a new option at the time, called step-printing, which
produced a slow-motion effect during fight sequences by printing one
frame repeatedly.
"It looked amazing," Christian says. Lucas was
apparently so impressed with the fight sequences that the technique was
then edited into The Empire Strikes Back during a scene with Luke
Skywalker and Darth Vader in a cave. "He liked that look." Black Angel's
stunning Arthurian appearance would also go on to influence fantasy
movies in the 1980s like Excalibur and Legend.
Black Angel was shown before
The Empire Strikes Back
in Europe and Australia, but not in America. Then the film was
completely lost for thirty years! A negative was recovered under
mysterious circumstances in 2011, and the complete restored short film
will be available for sale soon.
Read the story of Black Angel, and see a clip, at Esquire.
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