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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