The Lost Film That Accompanied Empire Strikes Back

An anonymous reader writes "'Alien' and 'Star Wars' art director Roger Christian was given £25,000 by George Lucas in 1979 to make a 25-minute medieval B-feature called 'Black Angel.' This spiritual tale of a knight on a strange quest was inspired by Christian's near-fatal fever when he fell ill in Mexico making 'Lucky Lady.' 'Black Angel' made a huge impression, not least because it shared the dark tone of 'Empire Strikes Back.' John Boorman showed it to the crew of 'Excalibur' as a template for how he wanted his film to look, and 'Black Angel' went on to influence films such as 'Dragonslayer' and 'Legend' throughout the 1980s and beyond. But it has not been seen by anyone since 'Empire' finished its theatrical run. Two weeks ago Roger Christian unearthed a print of a film that was thought lost forever, and in this interview he talks about 'Black Angel,' and provides the only picture from the film that has ever hit the Internet."

Comments

Re:Star Wars

[ElectricTurtle]

Holy Roman Empire? You think that there were arenas in Germany during the middle ages? Remember the mnemonic: 'The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.'

Re:Star Wars

[esocid]

Sad that the editors of Slashdot had to claim it was a film that accompanied Empire Strikes Back when it was nothing even close to that. Crazy what they'll do for a few extra bucks in advertising views huh?

Que?

If you are old enough to have seen the original release of The Empire Strikes Back at the cinema in 1980, you almost certainly remember the extraordinary short film that preceded it. Otherwise you won't know a damn thing about it: with not one picture or accurate plot summary anywhere on the web, Black Angel has become a bit of an internet holy grail in itself.

FTFA