Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Oscar-Winning Set Decorator Returns to Scotland to Shoot a Full-Length ‘Black Angel’ Film
A full-length feature film, based on the 1980 short film titled, ‘Black Angel’: A Medieval Movie with a ‘Star Wars’ Connection is set to start filming soon. The director will make a return trip to Scotland to film beautiful landscapes that are needed to complete his vision. Read on for more!
In 1980, a short film ran in UK Cinemas just before the original screenings of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The film told the story of a Crusader returning home. On the way, he found himself propelled into a Heroic-fantasy world where he had to save a princess from a evil Black Knight. Director George Lucas commissioned Oscar-winning set decorator Roger Christian to create a short film that would be shown before the first ‘Star Wars’ film sequel. Lucas decided it might be an interesting companion piece to his new film ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, and gave Roger a small amount of cash (£25,000) to create his epic vision. Putting together a small production team, Roger headed to locations in Scotland that included Eilean Donan near Dornie, Bernera Barracks at Glenelg, Loch Eck in Argyll and a swimming pool in Dunoon, where underwater scenes were filmed. These beautiful scene were filmed in the final months of 1979 to shoot the short 25 minute film.
After its release in the cinemas, the film completely disappeared and nobody could seem to get hold of it. Moreover, even the director thought the film was lost forever, but an archivist from Universal Studios managed to find a copy, to the delight of fans and its director. Over the years, Christian always wanted to turn his dark fantasy adventure into a full-length movie. However, the lack of any kind of funding seemed to stop it from becoming a reality.
Well, it looks like his long-awaited vision of a full-feature length film has taken one step closer to becoming a reality and will begin shooting later this year (September through October). The double Oscar-winning filmmaker has recently revealed that he will return to Scotland to shoot scenes for his feature-length film. BBC‘s Steven McKenzie, caught up with the director and got some more information regarding the films progress and his return trip to Scotland.
With the recent television series with the same genre becoming a huge hit, the original films re-discovery, multiple screening’s of it in Scotland in 2014, and fan interest at an all-time high, the director says that it’s just the right time for this type of film to move forward with production.
“Game of Thrones has created huge interest in the fantasy genre,” said Christian. “This is the right time to be making the film.”
Much of the new full-length feature film will be shot at a studio in Budapest, Hungary where he and his production team will be able to keep the cost of the small budget film to a minimum. Although, Christian says that the film cannot work without the use of the beautiful and vast Scottish landscapes.
“I have to film in Scotland, and in late September and early October as I did the first time,” says Christian. “The quality of the natural light at that time of year in Scotland is like nothing else in the world. It allowed us to shoot scenes that would have required CGI, technology that was not available to us at that time.”
The original ‘Black Angel’ film, had heavy influence from the legend of King Arthur, and the magical King’s Wizard known as Merlin. In fantasy legend, Merlin was a creature born of pagan magic, living in a world converting to Christianity. He helped King Arthur gain Excalibur and build the legendary Camelot. Christian also says that Merlin originally inspired his sorcerer in his film.
“From Scottish legend there is a figure called Myrddin, who some people believe to be an inspiration for stories of the wizard Merlin. he said. “In Black Angel, the character is a wandering sorcerer, a half-god/half-man, who lives under the castle of Eilean Donan.”
Over the years, Christian has took time out to publish a memoir called, Cinema’s Alchemist. In the book he talks about working on Star Wars, Alien, Black Angel, other films along with his iconic creations. In fact, an entire chapter is devoted to ‘Black Angel’ and scenic Scotland.
“I went to Scotland to make Black Angel by design, rather than accident. I already knew Scotland at the time and what it had to offer.”
John Rhys Davies, Welsh star of Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones, and Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, best known for his appearance in Sci-Fi movie Blade Runner, remain attached to the production.
In the meantime, fans can enjoy the original ‘Black Angel’ cult film which played before ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ in 79′, re-discovered just a few years ago by complete chance.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, the legend has been brought back to life, and it’s still available for you to watch on YouTube today. The video has cool introduction by Roger Christian himself.
Check it out here:
We’ll keep updated on the film as we receive more information.
Black Angel was such a beautifully mesmerizing short film, and Scotland is just a magical place to shoot. I’m a sucker for medieval fantasy just as much as Star Wars so I can’t wait for this!
I’m five minutes from some of the original short’s locations. They aren’t quite as they were back then, but still really beautiful. I wonder what the new locations will be? Glencoe has to be a definite!
I just hope they manage to avoid the dreaded Scottish midge.
Sweet gaffi stick! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno
thats the guy who made battlefield earth right ? the worst ever sf film 😉
Although the magic of 80′ is almost gone (cinematography, real-amazing-noncgi landscapes, dark stories, personal visions, the greatness of simple things and simple stories…) i can’t wait for this. Hope they will make an interesting visual story.