Not so long ago, in a theme park in Marne La Vallée...
As the writer and director of the Jedi Training Academy, I was recently invited to come out to Disneyland Paris to host a special Star Wars conference. The evening took place at the Discovery-land Theater during the Star Wars Night festivities surrounding the release of the latest Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, and words cannot describe the experience!
Although I have seen the more recent Star Wars trilogy, I am really a fan of the first films, inexorably linked as they are to my youth, so you can imagine the thrill it was for me to meet and talk to some incredible personalities who have been a part of the Star Wars adventure right from the very start! Here are a few little tidbits from my conversations with them:
Robert Watts, the producer, only discovered last year that part of the reason he was hired to work on Star Wars was because Stanley Kubrick had personally recommended him to George Lucas!
Jeremy Bulloch, aka Boba Fett, played several other "unmasked" roles in the Star Wars films, including Captain Colton in Episode III, revenge of the Sith.
Robert Blalack, who shared the the Oscar for "Best Effects and Best Visuals" for his work on Episode IV, almost didn't take the job because he didn't want to be tied down for two years.
As for Patrice Girod, renowned specialist in all things Star Wars, he had lots of wonderful anecdotes to share, but my favorite was this: at the time the first film came out, 2Oth Century Fox was worried about how audiences would react to the fact that Chewbacca wasn't wearing any pants!
Below, you'll find the entire conference. Hope you enjoy the chats with these wonderful personalities as much as I did!