PROJECT ORIGINS




DR. DAVID WEST REYNOLDS

NEW YORK TIMES #1 BEST-SELLING STAR WARS AUTHOR

"I Had to persuade Roger Christian to write his memoir. Now the inside story of the early days of creating the look of Star Wars is coming to the screen in Galaxy Built On Hope".

Archaeologist Dr. David West Reynolds was so inspired by the realism of Roger Christian's "used universe" look for Star Wars that he traveled to North Africa to track down the original filming locations of planet Tatooine in Tunisia. His adventure transformed him into a Lucasfilm location scout and he went on to become a New York Times #1 best-selling author of seven Star Wars guide books.

Galaxy Built On Hope includes a look at some of the original video Reynolds shot while making his discoveries in Tunisia.


MYSTERY ORIGINS

"When I was writing my books at Skywalker Ranch I realized that none of us knew much about the man who had made all the lightsabers and blasters and other weapons from the original Star Wars film. The set decorator Roger Christian was a mystery.


LOSS OF JOHN BARRY

"Likewise art director John Barry, who sadly died from meningitis during the making of The Empire Strikes Back. They are both missing from the making-of books and documentaries, even though they won a pair of Academy Awards for their groundbreaking work on Star Wars.


A MISSING CHAPTER

"Together that Art Department made the settings of Star Wars 'foreign yet familiar.' Their work was essential in allowing a global audience to relate to the fantastic worlds of George Lucas' highly imaginative space fantasy. Their story has been a great missing chapter of the making of Star Wars -until now.


SKYWALKER RANCH ENCOUNTER

"Roger was directing the second unit on the Star Wars Prequel The Phantom Menace for George Lucas when I met him at the annual Fourth of July picnic at the Ranch. He started sharing story after story, exactly what fans had been waiting for. I had to persuade Roger that he owed it to cinema history to write a book, and later, that he had to turn that memoir into a documentary.


THE UNTOLD STORIES AT LAST

"Now we have Galaxy Built on Hope. In Roger Christian's own voice, this is the untold story of how the look of the Star Wars saga was established."

"The documentary reveals how he built its iconic weapons out of real submachine guns, medieval axes, and Pacific Island war clubs to create a look that combined wild imagination with compelling authenticity. You'll see how he got the original wooden R2-D2 to walk, helped with the design of C-3PO's eyes, and turned John Barry's sets into convincing alternate realities using the distinctive techniques of layered history he had developed working on period films."


BACK TO THE BEGINNING

"For those who sense, like I do, something uniquely special about the original Star Wars film, Galaxy Built on Hope offers a gateway back to the pure inspiration, back to the beginning of the magic."