Geekery: ‘The Last Starfighter’ Concept Art Revealed
Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta is working on “a little something” that will bring Beta Alex, the Rylan Star League, and the Ko-Dan Empire back to the big screen.
In Nick Castle’s The Last Starfighter video game expert Alex Rogan discovers the hours he’s spent in the arcade wasn’t just fun – his piloting skills were being tested by an alien race. He is recruited to an elite group of starfighters to save the galaxy.
It holds an important place in movie history, as well as being a fan favorite. The Last Starfighter was one of the first movies to use CGI heavily in their storytelling and was the first movie to use CGI to create real-life objects. The 27 minutes of CGI in the movie was rendered using a Cray X-MP supercomputer. When compared to today’s movies, it looks like crud… but it was amazing at the time.
We won’t be watching it with 36-bit animation for much longer. Based on this series of Tweets the story is about to get re-vamped with today’s tech.
Okay, probably shouldn’t show you this so early but here’s a little something I’ve been tinkering on with my co-writer Jonathan Betuel. You might recognize the ships. Thanks to the amazing Matt Allsopp (lead concept artist on ROGUE ONE) for creating these images for us. pic.twitter.com/CIobLYYRHk
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) April 4, 2018
People seemed excited by the first tweet so here’s a tiny bit more of Matt’s concept art. Can’t show anything more after this, it’s all too spoilery 🙂 #GreetingsStarfighter pic.twitter.com/FydxLwEfrt
Advertisement— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) April 4, 2018
The concept art looks cool, but it doesn’t say much about what the script will bring to the table. Nostalgia will only take a movie so far. A good story is a must.
Is there room or need for a remake of this early 1980s classic?
