HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE OTHER TARKIN AND HOUSE MAKES A HALLOWEEN SPLASH ON FILMFAX PLUS COVER!

TODAY WE ARE MARKING a birthday of an actor, that just a few years ago any Cushing or Star Wars fans and the actor involved would never have believed if you told them, how the three would connect! When the idea of bringing Tarkin back to the big screen, this  actor was very busily working in a UK soap drama... and then come the beginning of December2016 he was thrust into the spotlight, following huge anticipation for the arrival of the STAR WARS movie, #ROGUEONE. But remember, Henry wasn't just playing any character though, this was a role that would split the opinion of Cushing fans, movie goers and Star Wars Followers, the world over....  A Job Well done, Mr Henry 😉 A VERY Happy Birthday to you, have a great day!

A FOOTNOTE to this post, as it  appears on the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE  'On the subject of Tarkin CGI' 'This is one of those little nuts that is never going to be cracked. I think, like all things about film, it depends on your personal perspective... on the week Rogue One was released I did a live ...hour long...interview on WGN radio about the film. I knew, it was going to be tricky. The angle really was 'What do you think? should they have done it, was it ok to put a CGI Cushing of Tarkin in the film?'... and I stand on what I said back then. You'll never please everyone no matter how good the CGI is.. but more to the point, they had the OK of Cushing's estate to do it . . knowing PC well, I trust their judgement. As for the point of, 'It ain't REAL!'... well, I hate to burst your bubble, but hey, this is Star Wars.. it's a fantasy, nothing you are seeing up there is real.. it's a movie.vWould Cushing have ok'ed the idea? Well, as you would have seen from many posts we have shared with here, we are talking about a man who 'created' toy theatres and model actors, he spent months making figures, painted water colours and oils, spent time on the floor setting up his model soldiers, re-enacting battles in his 'miniature gaming', re-creating . . you decide... ;)' - Marcus (pcas)

OUT NOW! ISSUE 155 of the magazine '#FILMFAX' has the cast of the 1983 film 'The House of the Long Shadows' #VincentPrice, #ChristopherLee, #PeterCushing and #JohnCarradine... as part of their #Halloween issue, there is a feature on the film . . . it got a bit of a slapping on its release and after years of a grotty quality VHS release finally made a grand re entrance on blu ray.

ABOVE AND BELOW: 'The House Of The Long Shadows' : The House That Armstrong and Walker built!' Parts ONE and  TWO HERE!

DEPENDING on which release you buy, the extras will range from very good to 'well that is just weird' ... I will say no more. Nice cover. But that pose of Cushing, always looks cut and pasted to me...

HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR FACEBOOK LAST WEEK

LAST WEEK, PETER WAS TREDING FOR QUITE A WHILE! #TRENDING and Mask! TWO great things making me smile today. Tarkin trending..who would have ever thought it? And discovering the plaster cast that Peter had made of his face for the make up in 'Top Secret' with Val Kilmer, was instrumental in bringing the #Tarkin effects to #RogueOne! It's a #happyfriday

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER LAST WEEK :

No performance from 2016 was met with quite the fascination of Guy Henry's turn in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — and he wasn't even one of the few actors not involved in the film's worldwide media blitz.
 

The British actor was tasked with playing Grand Moff Tarkin, with his performance capture work and visual effects wizardry helping resurrect the character played by the late Peter Cushing in 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope. Rather than recasting the role, Industrial Light & Magic recreated Cushing's actual likeness for a performance not quite like any in film history. 

Reached by phone in Great Britain Friday, Henry spoke about the unprecedented responsibility he felt to honor Cushing ("It was genuinely frightening"), his offer to let director Gareth Edwards recast him ("I won't be offended") and speculation that the story of Carrie Fisher's Leia might continue through such technology. ("He declined to comment on Fisher, but did offer this of the technology: "I think and hope it won't be a commonplace thing.")

During the 18 months you kept this a secret, did your family know what you were doing?

The very, very closest of my family and friends — I graciously allowed them into the secret, because I think I would have gone mad otherwise. My name began to be associated with it occasionally. People would ask. At work, [the team behind the BBC One series] Holby City had to know I was doing something in it, but even my agent, when I was asked to meet Gareth Edwards, she didn't really know why. They didn't tell her. It was quite a responsibility really, and I'm glad it was kept secret right up until the very last moment.

How did Gareth Edwards and Industrial Light & Magic's John Knoll convince you this would all work out?

 
I felt I couldn't feel too responsible in the sense of the way that it looked. I had to trust John Knoll and Gareth and the team, who were convinced they could make it work. Vocally, I'm not a mimic. I'm genuinely not an impressionist. I'd be doing my very best to do my Tarkin, the rolled "r" and the voice as best I could, and Gareth would say, "OK relax on that. Just be a bit more Guy now." I had to trust that they saw something in the reel of my work that convinced them it could be the tribute to Cushing everyone wanted it to be. It was very, very frightening, in all seriousness.

Did the reshoots affect you much?

Because the story was changing all the time, I kept thinking I had finished. "The responsibility has lapsed. Thank God, I can lie down." Then they'd say, "Actually, can you come in next week and do half a line here and half a line there?" It was genuinely frightening, because I didn't want to let down a huge movie, and equally, I didn't want to let down Peter Cushing.

Do you remember much about what changed and when you finally ended your work?

It was quite difficult to remember what the last bit was. I would literally be called back to do half a line a bit differently. Half a line that had a bit more stress to it because something else had altered slightly what had happened to a different character. It was immensely detailed. It's something of a blur.

Did you have doubts this would work?

Normally as an actor, you are you pretending to be another person. Here, I was me pretending to be Peter Cushing pretending to be Tarkin. I said at one point, "I won't be offended if you feel the voice isn't good enough or isn't right or is too young." There is a famous impersonator here called Rory Bremner. I said, "I won't be offended if you want to get him. I just want it to be good. Don't worry if you have to ditch my voice." They stuck with me gamely.

When did you finally see what it would look like?

They snuck me in to show me [early]. I thought, "We might be all right here." It was only after the London premiere I knew for sure it worked. I'd had several glasses of white wine. I wasn't able to eat, I was so frightened. "If I haven't done good enough here, it's going to be so sad. That would be very bad." I don't mean bad career-wise. I had not done any interviews. "Don't bother about my name." I'd be referred to as a stand-in and a voice double who was a disaster, and I could go on. But I didn't want to let Peter Cushing down.

Have you heard from the Cushing estate? One of its executors has praised your performance.

I haven't first hand. If that is the case, which I gather it is, I'm so delighted. The reason for doing it was honorable. When people were talking about the ethics of bringing someone back who was long dead, I could see that if it was done for the wrong reason or something a bit seedy or just for the sake of it, that would have been wrong. When John Knoll pitched the film, obviously Tarkin is such a big part of the original. Not to have Tarkin in it would be just a shame, and I think they have done it very honorably.

Before Carrie Fisher's death, Lucasfilm said Tarkin was a special case and it likely wouldn't be done again. Do you think this will become more prevalent in other Hollywood films?

MORE ON TARKIN: Some of the more eagle eyed of you out there spotted this quick shot in the video feature we posted a few days ago about the technology behind the creating of Cushing's Tarkin for Rogue one. In the background of one shot, we see a set up of Guy Henry, as Tarkin.... and the back of Princess Leia! A shot obviously not featured in the film, Rogue One. Weird? Odd? What do we make of that??

FREDDIE JONES' Professor Richter is a masterclass in pathos and madness. In 1969 Richter was Cushing's Frankstein's latest creation off the slab . . and it was Richter was reigned down the ultimate in revenge on his creator, Frankenstein. Does this make him our Monster this week ...or just another victim of the Baron's quest to create life…!

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THE MAN WHO WOULD BE TARKIN . . .AND CUSHING TOO!

IT IS WONDERFULLY TOUCHING to hear and see the name PETER CUSHING on the radio, on television and in newspapers over the last two days.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

ONE NAME THOUGH that we mentioned quite early on during the 'smoke and mirrors' of the months leading up to the Cushing / Tarkin reveal in #ROGUEONE was GUY HENRY. We learn now, it was he who helped to make the magic in bringing, Cushing and Tarkin back to the big screen. The UK television listings magazine, The Radio Times has published a feature on how Tarkin's Ressurection came about and Henry's role in the scenes that has everyone talking . . . . The following are some extracts from the feature :  

REASONABLY EARLY ON, Ben Mendelsohn’s new villain Director Orson Krennic is brought to meet his superior officer – Governer Wilhuff "Grand Moff" Tarkin, played in the original 1977 by veteran Hammer horror actor Peter Cushing. Obviously, it makes total sense for Tarkin to be there – the film is set only shortly before the original Star Wars, and he was in charge then – but Cushing passed away in 1994, so you might have expected director Gareth Edwards to recast the role. 

BUT THAT'S NOT what Edwards did. Instead, audiences may be surprised to see Cushing once again performing the role, brought back to the screen more than 20 years after his death through a combination of live-action acting, cutting-edge special effects – and an actor from the UK BBC tv series, Holby City.“It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears from [special effects and animation studio] Industrial Light and Magic,” Edwards told Radio Times of Cushing’s return. “John Knoll, whose idea it was to make this film, pitched the idea of doing the opening text of A New Hope as a movie, to Lucasfilm.

“AND HE'S ALWAYS been very aggressive pushing the envelope with what visual effects can do. We were talking about it, and you sort of lay out the movie, and as you start laying it you go ‘you know what, you’ve gotta have these certain characters in there, and I dunno how we’d do it'. “John was always like ‘no we can do this, we can do it, we can do it,’” the director recalled. “He was very confident, and we… you know, to be honest, a lot of people were nervous the whole time, like ‘is this gonna happen?’ And then we went all or nothing in.”So with the effects idea committed to, the team just needed an actor to portray Tarkin’s physical presence before being altered in post-production – and in a surprising development, they looked no further than classic BBC hospital soap opera Holby City.

“IT WAS PLAYED BY an actor called Guy Henry [above], who’s in Holby City, and he was amazing,” Edwards revealed. Rumours of Henry’s involvement have been circulating round Rogue One for some time, as well as the possibility that he could play a younger Grand Moff Tarkin – though no-one predicted that he would be bringing Cushing’s version of the character back so directly.

“IT WAS A MASSIVE THING FOR HIM, it was very gracious of him, because essentially he’s doing this big performance and getting zero credit for it,” Edwards went on.“He was gonna be totally replaced, and then had to keep it all secret. So, um, that was a big ask.”Still, in the end we have to say Henry pulled it off rather well – and without giving too much away, we can say that his Tarkin is not the only original series character to come back with a little movie magic.process for all of that as well.”

'AS FAR AS WE ARE CONCERNED, it’s time, effort and copious special effects money well spent.' - Radio Times December 2016. #ROGUEONE is in cinemas everywhere now.

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