REMEMBERING CARRIE FISHER PLUS THE MOMENT TARKIN HIT A TONGUE-TWISTER!

TODAY, WE ARE REMEMBERING  on her birthday the lovely Carrie Fisher a woman, who was never dull, touched all she met, was a mountain of energy and fun and yet sadly, like many of us, carried another life, that sometimes worked against her, making even the sunniest of days, dark and exhausting. Many here of course will know her connection to Peter Cushing, through the movie, STAR WARS 

WITH CUSHING playing the evil TARKIN and Carrie the vulnerable PRINCESS LEIA Tarkin, together they played a key scene, with Peter cranking up his performance, as the cruel and most Machiavellian of characters in the Star Wars universe. Carrie later shared how difficult it had been for her to find the motivation, to hate Peter's Tarkin. She too,like many before her, had been charmed and moved, by his kindness and manner on set, it was quite a task to actually say those lines. Even though she left us a wonderful library of work on screen and on the page, it's a weird feeling, knowing, she isn't around to cheer us up and make us laugh in her interviews. As a teen she was my first crush, she dazzled and shone very brightly . . on screen and in life, a real Princess! 😊 We remember Carrie today . ..

MARK HAMILL ON THE CUSHING CGI AND NO TO ITS USE FOR LATE CARRIE FISHER AND LEIA

MARK HAMILL doesn’t think re-casting late Carrie Fisher in Star Wars: Episode IX is a good idea. The actress who passed away on December 27, 2016, after going into cardiac arrest at the age of 60 has left a prominent role in question for both fans and the makers. In an interview with Collider, Hamill, who portrays Carrie Fisher’s on-screen sibling Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, said that Fisher as Princess Leia is irreplaceable.

”First of all, I don’t know what the specific plans were for that character but just the way Han Solo was more prominent in [Episode] VII, Luke more prominent in VIII, we assumed Leia would be more prominent in IX, especially since the dynamic of having Kylo Ren as her son,” Hamill said. “I think it would be tough recasting Carrie because she is so indelibly linked to that character.” SAYS MARK HAMILL

NOTABLY, the Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson has already confirmed that the makers don’t want to alter Fisher’s final performance, ultimately positioning her for a return in Episode IX. But the fact that Lucasfilm won’t attempt to digitally recreate the actress in any way, has left fans questioning about the character’s future.

“They’ve already ruled out of a computer-generated performance like they did with Peter Cushing [in Rogue One] so, gee, that’s gotta be a real, not insurmountable problem, but I know that the script had been in development so that when we lost her they had to go back to square one,” Hamill added. “But she is irreplaceable, you know, as far as I’m concerned.”

RECENTLY, some Star Wars fans came up with an online petition pleading the filmmakers to cast Meryl Streep to play the role of Leia in Star Wars: Episode IX But there is one person in particular who is not for the change: Mark Hamill.

HAMILL has posted about his devastation over losing his space sister on countless occasions. He also said in a previous interview he is not able to watch Luke and Leia's scene in Last Jedi. Kathleen Kennedy of Lucasfilm has gone on record saying Last Jedi would be Fisher's Star Wars film, meaning no CGI or repurposed material in following installments.

NOW, everything stands in the hands of co-writers J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio. It will be interesting to find out how they handle Leia’s character in Episode IX when the film lands in theaters on December 20, 2019

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: CUSHING WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS . . .

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! OUTRAGEOUS. FUNNY. WONDERFUL. Peter Cushing would have LOVED THIS..

REMEMBER! IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA

REMEMBERING CARRIE FISHER ONE YEAR ON . . .

IT STILL SEEMS quite surreal writing this, one year on. A year today we lost CARRIE FISHER. The shock rippled around the world, and I am sure today, many will again feel that disbelief. Many here of course will know her connection to Peter Cushing, through the movie, STAR WARS. As Tarkin, they together played a key scene, with Peter cranking up his performance, as the cruel and most Machiavellian of characters in the Star Wars universe. Carrie later shared how difficult it had been for her to find the motivation, to hate Peter's Tarkin. She too,like many before her, had been charmed and moved, by his kindness and manner on set, it was quite a task to actually say those lines.

WHILE CREATING the banner for today's post, I dug though many hundreds of images of Carrie in file. They were ALL magical. They ALL projected her sense of fun, wickedness and love of life. Many were taken long before she started that painful and disabling struggle, that tripped and distracted her later in life. There were so many photographs, picking one, was just too difficult, picking TWO, was really no easier. Just like the fact she is no longer here, it's just not good enough . . . She really stands as one of the brightest STARS, not just in that Star Wars Galaxy, but in the lives of so many that she continues to touch. And today, we remember CARRIE FISHER, as one very special star, who still shines . . . .

REMEMBER! IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA

TWO TARKINS TWO SHOES TWO SLIPPERS TWO CITIES AND TWO LEIA'S : #THROWBACKTHURSDAY!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: HEADS YOU WIN! Totally weird tale of

 attending to TARKIN!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY:The late Carrie Fisher with Peter Cushing and George Lucas plotting and blocking their scene on the set of the Death Star at Elstree film studios in April 1976.

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: SLIPPERS OR SHOES? Of the four days days that Peter Cushing spent on set shooting his scenes as Grand Moff Tarkin for #STARWARS in April / May 1976 at Elstree film studios, I have never been able to put a time line on when exactly he changed his ill fitting boots, for those legendary slippers. ALL the behind scenes photographs that are available of him shooting his scenes, where he is without his Tarkin boots, he is wearing what appears to be his black leather day wear shoes, presumably a pair of carpet slippers, were not around to slip into? 

THE FOOT WEAR in the above photograph, can be seen to be made of leather, with a typical leather tongue. Shoes? If we are to presume that the BROWN SOFT MATERIAL slippers in the glass display case at the Cushing Whitstable Museum exhibit ARE the slippers he wore on set...I have, as yet, not in 40 years seen any photographic evidence of them in any candid photographs taken from the days of Cushing shooting . . .

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY!: PETER CUSHING'S Tarkin slippers displayed at  Whitstable  Gallery and Museum . .

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: TWO LEIA'S Carrie Fisher and her stunt double Tracey Eddon on the set of Return of the Jedi.

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA. 

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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CARRIE FISHER DIES AT 60

2016 HAS BEEN a year that has at times had me struggling, but the terribly sad news of the passing of CARRIE FISHER has me speechless and extremely sad...Sleep well, Princess....

BEST WISHES TO CARRIE FISHER

NEWS BREAKING: We would like to send our very best wishes for a speedy recovery to CARRIE FISHER who was taken into hospital earlier today . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARRIE FISHER

WISHING CARRIE FISHER  a Very Happy Birthday today!

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#TOOCOOLTUESDAY : TIMING, TARKIN, CARRIE FISHER AND A COOL BUST!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY Peter Cushing on VAN HELSING, vampire hunter . . . who he played FIVE times on the big screen from 1958 until 1974.

 

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: Jordu Schell's bust of #PETERCUSHING up close and personal! It's a #TOOCOOL  likeness to Peter in the role of #GRANDMOFFTARKIN from #STARWARS. Schell uses uses latex for most of the monster masks and busts he makes. This bust is made of silicone, as many of his hyper-real figures are. Silicone being more translucent than latex, adds to the sense of realism. Additionally, the eyes in this piece ARE glass eyes (custom created by David Hoehn), something which Jordu typically doesn't use in his monster masks either. Each hair was individually punched by hand, and the clothing was custom made. #TOOCOOLTUESDAY 

#TOOCOOTUESDAY It's such a pity that Peter only had a few opportunities to play .... comic roles and black comedy... though he did often try to inject a little humor into his roles and work..

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: Both Alec Guiness and Peter Cushing admitted to understanding little of the script and the language of film, #STARWARS while working on it. Peter often joked that he had no idea too, what a 'Moff Tarkin' could be. However, he knew a great role when he saw one, no matter what the character maybe called. Peter admitted he took the role of Grand Moff Tarkin in #STARWARS for pretty much the same reason, why he chose any role, 'I thought my audience would like to see me in that role!' ...we certainly did!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: Carrie Fisher said little on record about her time working with Peter Cushing, but what she did she...was interesting. Veronica Carlson had the same problem back in 1969, in 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'

 

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