Black Angel: fans get chance to be involved in Star Wars fantasy film

Short film commissioned by George Lucas to be made
Striking back: Black Angel was made to accompany The Empire Strikes Back

The director of a short film commissioned by George Lucas to precede the first Star Wars sequel is to fulfil a dream of turning it into a full-length fantasy epic – 35 years later.

And Roger Christian, 71, is inviting fans to help make it happen with a crowdfunding campaign offering perks including the chance to win a real Stars movie negative, appear as an extra or take a paid mentorship in the film production process.

Christian made the original 25-minute short, Black Angel, for £25,000 to accompany Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Long thought lost, a negative was found in Los Angeles in 2011 and, once digitised, became the top short film on iTunes.

Now John Rhys-Davies, who played the dwarf Gimli in Lord of the Rings, and Rutger Hauer, from Blade Runner, have been lined up to star in the £10 million feature film version which is set to be shot in the UK, Morocco, Belgium and Hungary this autumn.

The £66,000 crowdfunding scheme will pay for extra costumes and sets although most of the finance is already in place.

Christian, who won an Oscar for set decoration on the first Star Wars, received a second nomination for production design on Ridley Scott’s Alien before directing his own films including Nostradamus, said it was more about giving opportunities to get into film and involving the fans.

The film-maker, who was born in Shirley, Croydon, and now lives in Toronto, said: “For somebody ambitious, this could be their ticket. When I was young, I wrote so many letters and got turned down or non replies. I didn’t know how to get into the film industry and it was all I wanted to do.”

He eventually got an introduction by chance when hitching a lift. But even then no one wanted the film he wanted to make.

“My burning ambition was always to do a fantasy historical epic but nobody would touch it then. Now Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit has created an audience and Game of Thrones has ignited it beyond belief,” he said.

“And with the Black Angel negative being found at the same time that Star Wars is being made again, it’s all just snowballed. I finally get to make my passion project.”

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