From starwars.com: "Though this creature was originally designed for the first Star Wars movie, budgetary and production restraints kept from it being featured on the big screen until 1997. In the Special Edition release of A New Hope, newly animated dewbacks ambled across the screens through the magic of digital animation." Now that you mention it, I do believe that a tiny model of a dewback on the horizon was seen through binoculars for about 2 seconds in the origianl version of the flick, but I don't think that counts since I had no idea what the heck it was supposed to be until '97. They certainly didn't have 2-3 minutes of pointless "Let's show off our cgi skillz" footage of random troopers riding them around for no real reason in the special edition. That didn't really bug me as much as them mucking around with Sy Snoodles and the band, but it still kinda irked me. The Hayden thing is intolerable to me. I'm in the camp that prefers to ignore the prequels completely. I guess it was kind of prickish of me to tangentize like this, but I felt my Star Wars knowledge was questioned.
Not in a galaxy far, far away. He needs to stick to handling Big Trouble in Little China. Game over man! Game over!
OK.........I confess that I sort of liked Overboard, Captain Ron and The Best of Times. Im still bitter about the $2.25 I spend to see Big Trouble in Little China.
Entertaining Kurt Russell movies: Tombstone (duh) Dark Blue (underrated) Overboard Escape from New York Big Trouble in Little China Breakdown Backdraft Vanilla Sky (wasn't "his" movie, but he did a great job) Executive Decision Stargate Silkwood (again, wasn't "his", but a good job)
I really enjoyed Kurt in "Breakdown". "Overboard" was fluffy, low IQ comedy but it was aight as it gave him and Goldie a chance to have some fun. Hell, I don't think they quit showing that movie on cable as it always seems to be on. It may have its own 24 hours a day channel. I think Kurt could have pulled off Han Solo personally. But, we will never know. Maybe they should have cast him in "Space Balls"(I think it was called?) instead.
Yeah, speaking of whom, can anyone tell me how he died? I did a lot of searches right after the Oscars the year he died (1999, I think), but couldn't find anything. Of course, I'm posting this now thinking I should just do my own google search.
Cancer I believe. One of the greatest character actors of our time IMO. Ive loved every movie he has been in (never saw Breakdown though).
I thought it was a heart attack. Dude gained a lot of weight in the mid to late 90's and he clearly was a heavy smoker from the sound of his voice.
I just remember having one of the toys of the Dewbacks back when I was a kid, and I thought they were at least glismped in the original movie. I've yet to see any of the Special Editions. And J.T. Walsh definitely died of a heart-related ailment rather than cancer (and I believe he died in 1998. I think he was dead by the time The Negotiator and Pleasantville came out). And 'Used Cars' was another very good Kurt Russell movie, in my opinion.
Ya'll are right, it was a heart attack. http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2004/08/26/j_t_walsh/index_np.html He was awesome in Good Morning Vietnam and even better in A Few Good Men.
The toy thing is easy to believe. Lucas had the foresight to lock up all the merch profits, back when there wasn't much merchandising for flicks. He mined the hell out of those rights; that's why you can buy an action figure of pretty much anything you saw in the original flicks, even characters that were on screen for about 1.3 seconds and didn't even have names. Hey kids, who wants to play with "Gamorrean Guard?!" Doesn't surprise me they made dewbacks, too.
You guys are mixing up your Paxton and Pullman. Paxton was in Aliens, like Pimp said, but Pullman was in Spaceballs.
I looked at my Star Wars video tape that I bought in 1992, and the dewback does make only an extremely brief appearance. In the distance at the beginning of the very short scene where the Stormtroopers discover the escape pod and the small piece of C-3PO, you can see a Stormtrooper sitting on a dewback. Not through binoculars, but still off in the distance and very, very brief. Enough of an appearance for a toy, though (as was just about everything, like you said. And I had to collect them all).
naw....Kurt wouldnt have messed up Han too bad....but what about that scene where they showed Cindy Freaking WIlliams trying out for Leia? OMG!...that would have been a disaster! re: the changes after seeing the A&E special, it occurs to me that I now understand why Lucas is doing all this....you just flatout couldnt do the stuff he dreamed of back in 76...If I was in his position, I also would use the current technology to make it more in line with my dream. Besides, I dont think it takes away from the movies to change a few things.....afterall....the greatness of Star Wars was never about the effects...it was the story and the characters...the effects were just a added bonus. edit: can you imagine if they had left Darth Vader's voice as the original? A Scottish Darth Vader..?
