Russell Walks to Illustrate Indy Promos

According to billingsgazette.net, fans will soon see a lot of Indiana Jones promotional artwork coming from Russell Walks, an artist who Star Wars fans may recognize from the Star Wars Celebration Art Shows and the Topps Galaxy trading card series. For Indy, it looks like Walks will be illustrating for Dr. Pepper, Kellogg’s, and others.

His work for the film includes a life-size cardboard standee of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones – yes, the one featuring an expression with “slight undertones of happiness.” Using promotional shots provided by LucasFilm and poses from members of his fan base, Walks created the piece after a little bit of struggle, mostly with those slight undertones.

He did 10 or 15 sketches until he was finally satisfied with the expression. From there he did a value drawing, with a full range of tonal values in black and white. Walks usually prefers to hand paint his artwork, but because of the tight deadlines on the “Indiana Jones” project, he did most of the color in Adobe Photoshop, then added brush strokes and “the twinkle in (Ford’s) eye.”

Check out the full story here, and learn more about the artist in starwars.com’s official artist profile.

Kasabian frontman buys droids

Brit band Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan shelled out some serious dough to add replicas of R2-D2 and C-3PO to his growing sci-fi film memorabilia collection.

According to The Sun:

Tom has paid 8,000 British pounds to have the life-size R2-D2 and C-3P0 models made and they are both exact replicas from the film. They now have pride of place in his flat, which is full of cool stuff from cult movies. Tom spent around 10,000 British pounds earlier this year on the actual BMX they used in E.T. – and he also has a life-size model of E.T.

Read more about Tom’s collection here:
Singer’s £8k on C-3PO & R2-D2

Learn more about why Tom loves Star Wars in our interview with him here:
Britpop Band Kasabian Reveals Love for Star Wars

Be sure to catch the rest of Kasabian taking a tour of Lucasfilm in the Presidio here.

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SOURCES:
The Sun, ClubJade.net

Pop Candy Digs Vader’s Lightsaber

USA Today’s Pop Candy blogger and one of our favorite Star Wars fans — Whitney Matheson — blogs about her favorite movie props. Along with David Bowie’s crystal ball in Labyrinth and Indiana Jones’ fedora, Darth Vader’s trusty lightsaber tops the list.

1. Darth Vader’s lightsaber, the Star Wars franchise.
Maybe I should’ve picked Luke’s saber, but let’s face it: Vader’s is red, it’s rebellious, and it’s way cooler. Of all props, to me, this might be tops.

Read the full list here on Pop Candy:
Talk back: What are the most awesome movie props?

DIY AT-AT Baby Stroller

As previously reported, this Imperial stroller was quite a hit at Celebration IV. So we tracked down the proud owner of the baby AT-AT — Rick Russo — to find out how he tricked out his child’s stroller making it one sweet fan kid ride.

Why did you decide to transform your baby stroller into a mini AT-AT?

We have a new baby, so it was like I had a legitimate excuse to do something fun and geeky. The AT-AT is one of my favorite vehicles from the saga and it really lends itself to the shape of the stroller. I had other ideas, like doing a tauntaun or a dewback, but did not have the time to design something that would be safe and not tip the stroller.

What materials did you use to make it?

Foam board, a boat-seat cushion, sponge-type material used for packing fragile equipment, dowels, zip ties, modeling putty, floral wire, a tube from shrink wrap roll, BBQ skewers and the best thing — ballpoint pens for the chin guns.

Star Wars Ink: Shane Turgeon Talks Tattoos

Over 70 fans competed in the Star Wars Tattoo show at Celebration IV, showing off skin art featuring everything from full-back portraits of the Sith to funky Tiki-inspired Jed Masters. The contest’s organizer, Star Wars fan, tattoo aficionado Shane Turgeon talks about the contest, tattoos and his new Star Wars skin art book The Force in the Flesh.

Bidder Pays $950 for Empty Box

On May 28, while most fans were packing up their hard-won figures and prints to make the trip home from Celebration IV, a few hardcore collectors stayed back to battle it out for rare toys and other items pulled from Lucasfilm’s Licensing Archives — including a rare Kenner shipping carton that originally held four remote-controlled Jawa Sandcrawlers.

Now, while the Sandcrawlers themselves are quite valuable and among the most coveted of early Kenner Star Wars toys, what made this somewhat non-descript shipping carton so unique was who it was addressed to back in 1979: one George W. Lucas Jr. of San Anselmo, CA. Final price paid for the empty box: $950. All proceeds benefitted the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Let Them Have Star Wars Cake!

Feeling blue because you missed out on eating Star Wars 30th Anniversary cake with a room full of fans at Celebration IV Opening Ceremonies? Well, thanks to an industrious fan, you too can capture that lost moment in time with this oddly endearing collectible — a slice of Star Wars cake preserved in resin.

Stroller of the Dark Side

Even younger fans like to travel in an Imperial fashion. Spotted at Celebration IV, these parents tricked out their stroller to show off their love for Star Wars.

Read all about it here.

SOURCES: Thingamababy; BoingBoing; ClubJade

Astromechs in Action

A showcase of some of the amazing astromech droids crafted by the R2 Builders, including clips from the Extreme Droid Challenge and proof that R5-D4 should have been a daycare supervisor. Kids love him.

[splashcast GOGL3239PC]

Fan Film Winner Profile: Essence of the Force

As the winner for the Best Action Award with his film Essence of the Force for the Fan Movie Challenge presented by Lucasfilm and AtomFilms, Nevada-based filmmaker Pat Kerby discusses the challenges of making an impressive action film on a tight schedule when your Sith Lord has a day job.

What prompted you to make a Star Wars fan film? How has George Lucas and his films influence your work?

George Lucas’s films were a big inspiration to me. Once I decided I was going to be a filmmaker I paid close attention to what he did. I learned that good casting and a good story are very important. I admired his independent spirit of filmmaking, for the most part working outside of the Hollywood system. I hope he continues to work to revolutionize filmmaking. The distribution system needs revamping!

What is the backstory regarding your film? Where did you get your idea?

One day my wife asked me to do something and I told her that I’d try. She said, “There is no try, there is only do” — butchering the quote from Yoda. As I started to explain what Yoda actually said, it hit me that that phrase would be a great punch line for a Mountain Dew commercial. I pitched the idea to some friends, and we decided to do it. I had met Thomas Dupont, a brilliant swordsman who worked at the King Arthur’s Tournament show at Excalibur in Las Vegas at the time (he has since become the sword master on Pirates of the Caribbean, and your very own Indiana Jones 4), and had been wanting to work with him. He loved the idea, and after that everything just fell together. The Las Vegas filmmaking community came together to support the project, and after a month or two of pre production, three nights of shooting, and about six months of post (between regular jobs), we had a product that was a nice demo for myself, Thomas, and the whole Vegas filmmaking community.