Roger Christian’s Black Angel

Were you in the audience when The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980? If so – and if you lived in the UK, Scandinavia or Australia – you may remember the short fantasy film that supported it. The film was called Black Angel, and it was directed by Roger Christian, the Academy Award-winning set … Continue reading Roger Christian’s Black Angel

Roger Christian and the Making of Luke’s Lightsaber

Roger Christian, the Academy Award-winning set decorator of Star Wars, began his journey to a galaxy far, far away while working with production designer John Barry in Mexico on Lucky Lady, building rum-running sets based in 1930s America. “George Lucas arrived on one of the sets I was dressing – an old salt factory – … Continue reading Roger Christian and the Making of Luke’s Lightsaber

Cinefex 40th Anniversary Issue

I grew up reading Cinefex, the journal of cinematic illusions. As a teenager, I made regular pilgrimages to London with my movie-mad mates where I scoured the shelves of Forbidden Planet (then just a grungy little comic shop off Tottenham Court Road) in the hope of stumbling on a new issue of this strangely-shaped quarterly … Continue reading Cinefex 40th Anniversary Issue

Cinefex 145 – Now Available

There's something hot on my coffee table. It's issue 145 of Cinefex, and it's hot because (a) it's just been published; (b) it has the Millennium Falcon on the cover (signalling the presence of a drop-everything-and-read-it-now article by my colleague Joe Fordham about Star Wars: The Force Awakens); (c) it contains my first article for the … Continue reading Cinefex 145 – Now Available

Writing in Technicolor

I write in Technicolor. Perhaps I should explain. Like most writers of my generation, my writing style and sense of narrative have been greatly influenced by cinema. If you asked me to list the stories that have had the greatest influence on me, I'd be as likely to cite George Lucas's Star Wars as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, … Continue reading Writing in Technicolor

Revisiting Cinefex (16): Rick Baker

You might think that's a real ape on the front cover of Cinefex #16. In fact, it's Kala, one of the remarkable ape characters created by Rick Baker for Hugh Hudson's 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan. On the back cover is a searing close-up of the pneumatically operated 'Change-O Head #2' from John … Continue reading Revisiting Cinefex (16): Rick Baker