- Title: UK: ART OF STAR WARS EXHIBITION OPENS AT THE BARBICAN.
- Date: 12th April 2000
- Summary: LONDON, UK ( APRIL 12, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS SHOTS OF THE ART OF STAR WARS EXHIBITION (SOUNDBITE) (English) CONRAD BODMAN, CURATOR OF EXHIBITION, SAYING, "There's no doubt that lots of the objects in the exhibition are cultural icons in their own right. If you see the Darth Vader costume for example, you will realise that it is a substantial object in the
- Embargoed: 27th April 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVA54W4QYMOHO5UL5RYG3ZBD3QY
- Story Text: The epic sci-fi movie series Star Wars is still going strong twenty five years after it's first outing and the latest in the series, The Phantom Menace, has introduced the world of the Jedi to a whole new generation of fans.But behind the intergalactic swashbuckling that the audiences love on the big screen is an intricate design concept, and it is this that is being celebrated at a new exhibition on London.
The Art of Star Wars exhibition at London's Barbican Centre draws on the extensive Lucasfilm archives and is the first time the British public have had the chance to see the art behind the spectacular Star Wars series.
The brainchild of George Lucas, the original Star Wars trilogy dazzled audiences with it's special effects, bizarre space creatures, intricate space ships and larger than life characters.
With a few quotable lines thrown in for good measure and a storyline to appeal to all ages, the publics imagination was captured.And the magic continues with The Phantom Menace, the first in a new trilogy, set an entire generation before the first Star Wars film.
As the curator of the exhibition, Conrad Bodman explains, the art and images of Star Wars are truly ingrained in today's culture., "There's no doubt that lots of the objects in the exhibition are cultural icons in their own right.If you see the Darth Vader costume for example, you will realise that it is a substantial object in the history of art and design creative practice, it's kind of unique and relevant to our culture now, one can argue that perhaps these objects won't be icons forever, but I think only time will tell really, and it's out duty to put them on display and offer them up to people to make their own judgments."
For the new trilogy, Lucas is drawing on new talent, such as that of concept designer Iain McCaig - the man responsible for the look of the human characters in the latest film.Bearing in mind the lasting impression made by the original films, designing for The Phantom Menace could have been a daunting task."I remember I was drawing, I was drawing Darth Maul at the time.and the poster artist came by and he said, My God, do you realise you're drawing icons.And I stopped and I threw my pencil down and thought about it, and I realised that if I thought of drawing icons I couldn't draw a thing ever.No you concentrate on the story, and how the characters serve the story and get into that, and what happens to it afterwards is up to everyone else"
The Star Wars films contained their fair share of futuristic concepts, including plenty of robots - and no droid holds a fonder place in the heart of the movie going public than C-3PO (and his diminutive sidekick R2-D2).But the actor who brought the role to life, Anthony Daniels, almost turned down the part, and it was only the strength of one particular piece of art work that won him over, "The weird thing about standing in the Barbican Centre today is that it's twenty-five years since I first met George Lucas and I wasn't going to go and meet him because I didn't want to play a robot, I was a very serious actor and I was insulted even to be asked to meet him.Fortunately, they threw me in a room and locked the door with him and the interesting thing too is that it was really a painting, by Ralph McQuarrie, whose work is all round the gallery today, it was that painting that I fell in love with, it was his idea of how C-3PO might look, and then Liz Moore took hold of the idea once I got involved and then to a cast of my body made the beautiful figure that you see behind me."
The Art of Star Wars exhibition is sure to appeal to young and old, die-hard fans and interested new comers, sci-fi junkies and design fanatics, It runs at the Barbican Centre until September 3, 2000. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None