Thread by @spaceshipsporn

Star Wars (1977): The first Millennium Falcon, by @ILMVFX modelmakers.

Aka the "Pirate Ship".

Only the cockpit and the radar dish will be recycled for "our" Millennium Falcon.

A known story. ==> thread.

The design of the "pirate ship" comes from the study model made by Colin Cantwell, from the beginning of 1975.

A design that followed the guidelines of George Lucas.

And a design that was refined by Ralph Mcquarrie and Joe Johnston.

Everyone knows the rest of the story.

In november 1975, eGorge Lucas discovered the Eagle from Space: 1999. And despite the differences, the filmmaker decided to change the design of the Falcon.

For Lucas, it was an absolute necessity: Solo's ship had to have a very characteristic identity.

The "Pirate Ship" body is recycled as a CR90 corvette, the Tantive IV Rebel blockade runner, the 1st SW ship we saw on screen.

After all, the model had swallowed nearly a third of the budget allocated to the models of the film!

Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie draw again.
It will take less than a week to design the new ship.

The "Burger" story?
More complicated ==>

https://twitter.com/PhilSzostak/status/1159588058611589120

ILM modelmakers, led by Grant McCune, build again.

The Falcon became a star among the stars.

Punch it!
(yes, that's from ESB)

End of a very, very brief summary, sponsored by a headache.

As usual, go read @Kitbashed Kitbashed if you want to know more:
kitbashed.com/blog/a-complet…

Read some books:
- Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Modelshop by legendary @ILMVFX model maker Lorne Peterson.
- Star Wars Archives by @kershed ( @TASCHEN )
- The making of Star Wars by @jwrinzler

@ILMVFX @kershed @TASCHEN @jwrinzler But! How is it possible that I spent ONE HOUR on this thread! :-D

It's funny, because I tell myself since December that no, I will not write a thread on the Falcon, because 1 / it would be too long (10 times more tweets than here, at least) 2 / others have already done it perfectly.

Then I find the picture in my archives...

The advantage is that it made me want to write long threads again. It's time to pick up and finish the one about...

Sorry, I forgot something important.

The original "Pirate ship" appeared in the comics "The Star Wars" by @jwrinzler and @mike_mayhew , published in 2013 by @DarkHorseComics and which adapted George Lucas's original draft for Star Wars from 1974.

An other thing.

My friends from @cloneweb interviewed Joe Johnston in 2017. He told them that he literally created the design of the "new" Falcon in one night.

@cloneweb That's right.
The pirate ship "body" became the CR90 Tantive IV (1975), the CR90 inspired the Hammerhead from KOTOR (2003), the Hammerhead from KOTOR inspired the Hammerhead from Rebels/Rogue One (2016).

40 years later.

https://twitter.com/westonfront/status/1171737032131002370

@cloneweb Oh, I forgot about this one. That’s from Star Wars #34, January 1980. (I was a little fetus, then ^^)

Good catch, thanks @jere7my

https://twitter.com/jere7my/status/1171820409634918405

@cloneweb @jere7my One more thing about The Pirate ship: A sketch (nov 1975) by production designer John Barry shows the interior, consistent with Colin cantwell's design. You can see a long corridor.

But the scenery was fortunately not yet built.

@cloneweb @jere7my Blueprints for the new set were drawn up on feb 1976.

John Barry: "It had to appear to fit the exterior, so it had to have a curved design, a circular corridor. George wanted it to look like a spaceship from 2001 (A Space Odyssey) that had aged 2 hundred years".

Solo (2018) <3

@cloneweb @jere7my Fun facts:
The DP20 frigate Corellian gunships (1st seen in old Marvel comics, then in 1990 SW RPG) were based on the Falcon early artworks.
They're canon.

@cloneweb @jere7my Fun facts 2: In the Sci-fi Air Show, there is a mashup of the pirate ship design with a Space 1999 Eagle. Thanks @SpacesuitMovies !

scifiairshow.com/millennium-eag…

@cloneweb @jere7my They're cannon too.
#dadjokes

@cloneweb @jere7my @SpacesuitMovies There is a "Hot Wheels Starships Original concept" toy for the Colin Cantwell's Pirate ship design.
Thanks @TooShoeWizard

https://twitter.com/TooShoeWizard/status/1172227824566054912

@cloneweb @jere7my @SpacesuitMovies @TooShoeWizard Now let's not forget that the film's storyboarders (Joe Johnston, Alex Tavoularis and their colleagues) spent the year 1975 imagining the film with the first design of the Falcon.

R2 by Tavoularis, 2nd version of the script:

Here are some excerpts from the different versions of the storyboard, which coincided with both the designs being created and the successive scripts of George Lucas.

The pirate ship leaves Mos Eisley, by @jjsketchbook :

In the second version of the script (january 1975), the pirate ship arrives in the sky of Alderaan, where there is an imperial prison in a floating city (an idea that will be recycled in ESB).

Storyboards by Alex Tavoularis.

Note the very different TIE (if it's a TIE ^^).

Storyboards by Joe Johnston.

In the hangar of the city of Alderaan, by Alex Tavoularis.

Alderaan will soon become the peaceful planet of Princess Leia, and it is in the Hangar of the Death Star that the Falcon will be forced to land.

In this drawing by Ronnie Sheperd from the second version of the script, it is through escape pods that the heroes (here Luke and Ben Kenobi) join the rebel base of Yavin 4.

(Lucas decided to kill Obi-Wan during filming in Tunisia, in the spring of 1976)

"Redo hamburger boogie". 😍

The Pirate ship in the Death Star's trench, by Joe Johnston.

Finally, the ship travels back to Yavin 4, by Joe Johnston.

For the fun:Once it was decided to recycle the body of the pirate ship model into the rebel blockade runner, it was given his hammerhead. But this opening scene's storyboard by Gary Myers (temporarily) shows the original pirate/Falcon design. Beside: the Tantive IV, Joe Johnston.

And I think it's over for this thread dedicated to the first design of the Falcon.

And if you like storyboards as much as I do, I highly recommend this J.W. Rinzler's book.

Oh, I forgot a detail, and we can't edit here.
How did the pirate ship get so many rocket boosters (which will be found on the Tantive IV)?

Here a sketch by Alex Tavoularis, the Colin cantwell's study model, and a Joe Johnston concept art. Not many rocket boosters. So what?

They were inspired by another prototype of Colin Cantwell's rebel ship. Maybe for the Falcon, maybe for the Blockade runner, the two ships having at the start the same stylistic connection.

The prototype, Ralph McQuarrie's painting and Joe Johnson's concept art:

The end.