admin

Pierre Bohanna‘s earliest work on Star Wars began actually as a prop maker for The Phantom Menace. From there, he has worked on every Harry Potter movie, returning to the saga as Supervising Costume Effects Modeler for all of the recent Disney Star Wars movies.

Fascinating and incredibly talented, Pierre has some wonderful tales about things like rebuilding C-3PO, redesigning stormtroopers, and lessons learned along the way of nearly 30 years of world building.

Check out some wonderful behind the scenes photos that I had never seen before at his website: www.pierrebohanna.com

Katy Kartwheel is incredible: a multi-talented circus performer and actress, she portrayed many characters in the recent Star Wars movies, including Rio Durant in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

She was such a delight to talk to, full of a deep love for her craft and incredible stories from her time on set, working as a creature and droid performer for The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and Solo.

My interview with legendary producer Robert Watts is in this month’s issue of the Star Wars Insider #203, so definitely pick it up and let me know what you think! It is really a dream come true.

Nick Maley, aka “That Yoda Guy”, was a creature and special effects make-up artist for the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

We discuss his first interactions with the great Stuart Freeborn, as well as his myriad of experiences working on the cantina aliens, building multiple Yodas used for filming, and working on creatures like the mynock (and some secret lost characters as well)!

Head to thatyodaguy.com for a treasure trove of even more stories from Mr. Maley, and to learn about his movie exhibit in Sint Maarten.

As always, thank you to Zach McGinnis and Galactic Productions for setting this up. Head to galacticproductionsevents.com for autographs, and to see where his clients are going to be next!

My interview with legendary producer Robert Watts is in this month’s issue of the Star Wars Insider(!!), so definitely pick it up and let me know what you thought! It is really a dream come true.

Adrienne Wilkinson played Maris Brood in The Force Unleashed, and returned to the saga (alongside Sam Witwer) as the voice of The Daughter in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.

From getting her start as a senior in high school, to her work on Star Trek: Renegades, Ms. Wilkinson is full of really great stories and so much passion for her work.

Terrence Masson is an incredible visual effects artist, who worked on the Star Wars: Special Editions, The Phantom Menace and so so much more.

Mr. Masson literally wrote the book on CGI (it’s called “CG 101”), worked on projects like South Park, and now is the Chair of the MFA Computer Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

He took me to school with his incredible insight and stories. Definitely give him a follow on Twitter: @tmasson. His website is: www.terrencemasson.com

Next week is my interview with Nick Maley, “That Yoda Guy”, who helped create and sculpt so many of the creatures that we love from the Original Trilogy.

James Clyne is a design supervisor and visual effects art director at Industrial Light & Magic, who has worked on the Sequel Trilogy and Solo: A Star Wars Story, as well as other incredible movies.

Highlights of his incredible career include working with Steven Spielberg on Minority Report, collaborating with James Cameron on Avatar and Alita: Battle of Angel, and of course designing for JJ Abrams on his first two Star Trek films, and then the sequel trilogy.

Whether it is the TIE Silencer, Lando’s Millennium Falcon, or the final battle of The Rise of Skywalker, we really delve into so much of his process and inspirations.

Michael McCormick was one of the original puppeteers and sculptors of Salacious Crumb, Sy Snootles and Ephant Mon, who then left Return of the Jedi’s Creature Shop early into production, because of injuries.

This is a short, live, interesting interview, and I believe it’s his first Star Wars-related one ever. We touch on many subjects, some fun and some not-so-fun, but I hope you get a better understanding of Mr. McCormick from this, as well as of his life and his incredible talent.

Thank you, as always, to Zach McGinnis at Galactic Productions for setting this up: http://www.galacticproductionsevents.com/

Amy Ratcliffe is the author of the recent The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, as well as a huge inspiration to me.

During our conversation, we go through her career … from her The Clone Wars blog to, after years of hard work, officially writing for Star Wars, including Women of the Galaxy, A Jedi Mind, and Elee & Me.

We also delve into the creation of her “Art of” book, and the steps required to turn it into a piece of Star Wars history, working with Imagineering, Lucasfilm, and Disney Parks to bring it to life.

She is truly a blueprint for creativity in fandom. Thank you to Abrams Books for coordinating and making this interview possible!

• Purchase The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: https://amzn.to/2S3UQIb
• Subscribe to her newsletter: https://amyratcliffe.substack.com/

We’ll have a special bonus episode this weekend, the first ever published Star Wars interview with Salacious Crumb creator, Mike McCormick. So start refreshing your feeds for that!

Today I’m talking to one of the biggest inspirations for this show: Mick Garris.

Yes, you may know Mick as one of the most influential genre writers and directors of all time, or you may know him from his incredible podcast, Post Mortem with Mick Garris … but you may not know that his first job in film was as the receptionist at “The Star Wars Company” in 1977, where he answered phone calls and operated R2-D2 for the Chinese Theatre, the Oscars and, yes, even The Holiday Special.

This is such a special interview and it is a real honor to get to talk to a real Master of Horror.

If I didn’t say it enough, and you like horror and filmmaking even in the slightest … definitely check out Post Mortem with Mick Garris, on the Dread Podcast Network, as well as his vintage interviews on Mick’s personal website: mickgarrisinterviews.com

Upcoming interviews include: James Clyne, Michael McCormick (his first Star Wars interview ever!), Amy Ratciffe and Terrence Masson.

Today I’m talking to one of my new favorite people, Tom Spina, founder of Tom Spina Designs and Regal Robot. We talk all about his early inspirations, his experiences with the internet and growing a community, his restoring of original props at the Lucasfilm Archives … and what is coming up for Regal Robot (including a brand new, exclusive announcement)

The Dejarik chess sets are now on sale from Regal Robot, and, frankly, are jaw-dropping: https://regalrobot.com/

But, seriously, take some time, check out all of the incredible things they have in stock, and follow them on social media! He’s such an inspiration to me and it was so great getting to catch up and nerd out.