The Empire Strikes Back Uncut

The Empire Strikes Back Uncut!

The Empire… what? Yes, “The Empire Strikes Back Uncut” is a geek project to remake the whole movie – scene by scene – only with fans – who will star themselves in a full movie playing in their favorite scenes. It sounds like something as the movie “Be Kind, Rewind”, and that is the idea. Using a camera and much criativity, the project has started and you can learn more about it just clicking here. Check out for updates on the official Facebook page.

According to their site, “Star Wars Uncut is a crazy fan mashup remake of the original Star Wars movies. It is the brainchild of Casey Pugh, a developer dedicated to creating interactive experiences on the web. In 2009, Casey was inspired to use the Internet and an ever-ready pool of passionate Star Wars fans to crowdsource the classic film Star Wars IV: A New Hope. This pet project turned into a labor of love and creativity on a large scale. Nearly a thousand fans came together to participate and the resulting movie is equal parts fun, kooky, and dearly nostalgic.”

In 2010, the project has started with hundreds of Internet users remade “Star Wars: A New Hope” into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. The finished product, “Star Wars Uncut,” won an Emmy in 2010 in a relatively new category, interactive media, heaping new attention onto a project that its producers call a “user-directed broadcast.” The award is all the more remarkable because, in a world in which television heavyweights like HBO and NBC mount big-budget campaigns to win Emmys, “Star Wars Uncut” is just a hobby for its creator, Casey Pugh, a 29-year-old Web developer who lives in Brooklyn. You can read all The New York Times post here. You can watch Star Wars: Uncut online on their own site and know a little bit of what you can wait for “The Empire Strikes Back Uncut”!

From left, Casey Pugh, Annelise Pruitt, Jamie Wilkinson and Chad Pugh with their Emmys for “Star Wars Uncut.” Photo: The New York Times.

The teaser for “The Empire Strikes Back Uncut”:

The Empire Strikes Back 34th Anniversary

It was 34 years ago. We were taken to others places as Hoth, Dagobah and the Cloud City. We were introduced to Yoda, Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett. We learned much more about the Force and about who was Luke’s father. C-3PO told us about the chances of surviving an asteroid field…

According to Wikipedia, following a difficult production, “The Empire Strikes Back” was released on May 21, 1980, and initially received mixed reviews from critics, although it has since grown in esteem, becoming the most critically acclaimed chapter in the “Star Wars” saga and is considered one of the greatest films ever made. It became the highest-grossing film of 1980 and, to date, has earned more than $538 million worldwide from its original run and several re-releases. When adjusted for inflation, it is the 12th-highest-grossing film in North America. Read more about “The Empire Strikes Back” on Wikipedia and IMDb.

To mark the 34th anniversary of the release of “The Empire Strikes Back” in cinemas, I ask how much you remember about Episode V:

Use the Force! If you fail, the answers are in the end of this post.

01) ‘I’ve found them… repeat, I’ve found them’ were the words that signalled that Luke and Han were found after their night in the frozen wastes of Hoth. But what was the call sign of the officer who said it?
a) Rogue Two
b) Rogue Three
c) Rogue Five

02) Deep inside the Hoth base, Han tells Leia: ‘You like me because I’m a …’
a) Rascal
b) Scoundrel
c) Nerf Herder

03) According to C-3PO, what are the odds on successfully navigating an asteroid field?
a) Three million to 1
b) 3,720 million to 1
c) 3,720 to 1

04) To which Han replies:
a) I’ll take those odds
b) Never tell me the odds
c) Then I’m a dead cert, kid

05) Why was it impossible for the Millennium Falcon to go to light speed?
a) The hyperdrive motivator was damaged
b) No-one could remember how to do it
c) Han accidentally blasted the hyperdrive motivator

06) On Dagobah, who does Luke see in the vision in the cave?
a) Obi-Wan Kenobi
b) Leia
c) Darth Vader

07) ‘I don’t believe it,’ says Luke when Yoda raises his x-wing from the swamp. How does Yoda respond?
a) Believe it you must
b) I don’t believe it either
c) That is why you fail

08) On Dagobah, after a training session with Yoda, Luke Skywalker sensed a cold feeling coming from a cave. What did Yoda reply when Luke asked him what was in it?
a) Only what you take with you
b) Your destiny
c) Your fear

09) And in what material is Han frozen?
a) Carbon dioxide
b) Carbonite
c) Carbon monoxide

10) Which of Luke’s hands is cut off by Darth Vader?
a) His left hand
b) His right hand
c) Both hands

11)What insult did Princess Leia NOT use against Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back?
a) Nerf Herder
b) Laser Brain
c) Junk Dealer

12) By her own admission, who or what would Princess Leia rather kiss than Han Solo?
a) A droid
b) A wookie
c) A Tauntaun

13) When left hanging below Cloud City, whom does Luke call for first?
a) Leia
b) Han
c) Ben Kenobi

14) What were the last words spoken on Dagobah ?
a) No, there is another
b) May the Force be with you
c) I will return, I promise

15) Which actor did not appear in the original cinema release, but was edited in for the DVD release?
a) Ian McDiarmid
b) Peter Cushing
c) Alec Guiness

Photo Gallery:

Answers for the Quiz:

01-a
02-b
03-c
04-b
05-a
06-c
07-c
08-a
09-b
10-b
11-c
12-b
13-c
14-a
15-a

SW Picture of the Day

Vader: There is no escape! Don’t make me destroy you. Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You’ve only begun to discover your power! Join me, and I will complete your training! With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the galaxy.
Luke: [angrily] I’ll never join you!
Vader: If only you knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Vader: No, I am your father.
Luke: [shocked] No. No! That’s not true! That’s impossible!
Vader: Search your feelings; you know it to be true!
Luke: NOOOO! NOOOOOOOO!!!

17 May 1980 (USA Premiere) – 17 May 2014. The Empire Strikes Back 34th Anniversary!

May the Force be with you!

R.I.P.: H.R. Giger

Hans Rudolf Giger
5 February 1940, Chur, Graubünden, Switzerland – 12 May 2014 (aged 74), Zürich, Switzerland

Alien designer H.R. Giger dies at 74

The Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott’s Alien, H. R. Giger, has died aged 74. Giger died in hospital on Monday (12) after he fell down stairs at his Zurich home.

Source: BBC News.

Born in 1940, Hans Ruedi Giger was best known for his ‘Xenomorph’ alien in Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece for which he won a visual effects Oscar in 1980. He studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich and was known for creating strange dreamscapes.

Meticulously detailed, Giger’s surrealist paintings were usually produced in large formats and then reworked with an airbrush and usually feature scenes of humans and machines fused together. Giger described his style as “biomechanical”. One of his pieces in particular – Necronom IV – inspired the alien killer in Sir Ridley’s hit film. He also worked on Alien 3 (1992) and, more recently, appeared in a documentary about director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unmade film of the book Dune.

Stewart Jamieson a friend and colleague of the artist said it was “natural that people will look at Alien as being his biggest impact because of its attention but his legacy is far more than that”. “He was one of the primary surrealist artists of his generation,” he told the BBC. “He never considered himself a film designer, he was an artist and Alien was a different canvas for him to work on.”

British film director Edgar Wright tweeted: “RIP the great HR Giger. The Swiss surrealist who made night terrors into unforgettable art. We will miss you.”

Giger’s vision of a human skull inside a machine appeared on the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s 1973 album, Brain Salad Surgery. He also designed covers for Debbie Harry’s solo album, Koo Koo.

Despite the dark nature of Giger’s work, Mr Jamieson said: “The old adage that you can’t judge a book by his cover was appropriate with him. He was a very sweet man. The first time we met, I was amazed by how generous and shy he was.” In 1998, Giger opened his own museum in Gruyeres, Switzerland, which alongside his own paintings and sculptures, displays works from his own art collection from the likes of Salvador Dali, Dada and Ernst Fuchs. The museum is run by the artist’s wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger. In December 2004, Giger received the prestigious award, La Medaille de la Ville de Paris, at Paris City Hall.

Last year, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle, along with fellow inductees, David Bowie and JRR Tolkien. His work has also been exhibited around the world, including recent retrospectives in Hamburg, Germany, Moscow and Istanbul.

Film Contribution:

Dune (designs for unproduced Alejandro Jodorowsky adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel; the movie Dune was later made in an adaptation by David Lynch.)
Alien (designed, among other things, the Alien creature, “The Derelict” and the “Space Jockey”)
Aliens
Alien 3 (designed the dog-like Alien bodyshape, plus a number of unused concepts, many mentioned on the special features disc of Alien 3)
Alien: Resurrection
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Killer Condom
Species (designed Sil and the Ghost Train in a dream sequence)
Batman Forever (designed radically different envisioning of the Batmobile; design was not used in the film)
Future-Kill (designed artwork for the movie poster)
Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (creature designs)
Prometheus (the film includes “The Derelict” spacecraft and the “Space Jockey” designs from the first Alien film, as well as original extraterrestrial murals created exclusively for the new movie. Unlike Alien: Resurrection, the film credited H. R. Giger with the original designs.)

Read more: Wikipedia.

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Artwork:

SW Picture of the Day: Mrs. Fett

The Force is strong with this one!