Black Angel (found short fantasy film; 1979): Difference between revisions

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Premiering exclusively in Australian and European cinemas in 1980, prior to screenings of ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'', was a short fantasy film titled '''''Black Angel'''''; it was written and directed by Roger Christian (in his directorial debut) and was financed by George Lucas (on a budget of £25,000) as a gift to Christian for his work on 1977's ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'', for which he served as set decorator. The 25 minute film sees Sir Maddox, a knight returning from the Crusades, arriving home only to find that his village has been both raided and destroyed and its population devastated by the outbreak of an unknown illness referred to only as 'the sickness'; Maddox vows revenge against the raiders and sets out to find them. After later slipping on a muddy riverbank, he is plunged into a lake, where he nearly drowns, but is fortunately awoken by the voice of a mysterious girl, who he then encounters after emerging; she reveals that she is being held captive by the so-called 'Black Angel', a black knight who Maddox then endeavours to conquer in return for the girl having saved his life.
Premiering exclusively in Australian and European cinemas in 1980, prior to screenings of ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'', was a short fantasy film titled '''''Black Angel'''''; it was written and directed by Roger Christian (in his directorial debut) and was financed by George Lucas (on a budget of £25,000) as a gift to Christian for his work on 1977's ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'', for which he served as set decorator. Shot in Scotland in autumn of 1979, the 25 minute film sees Sir Maddox, a knight returning from the Crusades, arriving home only to find that his village has been both raided and destroyed and its population devastated by the outbreak of an unknown illness referred to only as 'the sickness'; Maddox vows revenge against the raiders and sets out to find them. After later slipping on a muddy riverbank, he is plunged into a lake, where he nearly drowns, but is fortunately awoken by the voice of a mysterious girl, who he then encounters after emerging; she reveals that she is being held captive by the so-called 'Black Angel', a black knight who Maddox then endeavours to conquer in return for the girl having saved his life.
 
In the decades following the film's very limited theatrical release, it gained notoriety amongst ''Star Wars'' fans as a lost film,





Revision as of 10:44, 15 November 2014

Black Angel’s title screen, as taken from the restored film's 2014 iTunes release.

Status: Found

Date found: 19 May 2014

Found by: Universal Studios, Roger Christian


Premiering exclusively in Australian and European cinemas in 1980, prior to screenings of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, was a short fantasy film titled Black Angel; it was written and directed by Roger Christian (in his directorial debut) and was financed by George Lucas (on a budget of £25,000) as a gift to Christian for his work on 1977's Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, for which he served as set decorator. Shot in Scotland in autumn of 1979, the 25 minute film sees Sir Maddox, a knight returning from the Crusades, arriving home only to find that his village has been both raided and destroyed and its population devastated by the outbreak of an unknown illness referred to only as 'the sickness'; Maddox vows revenge against the raiders and sets out to find them. After later slipping on a muddy riverbank, he is plunged into a lake, where he nearly drowns, but is fortunately awoken by the voice of a mysterious girl, who he then encounters after emerging; she reveals that she is being held captive by the so-called 'Black Angel', a black knight who Maddox then endeavours to conquer in return for the girl having saved his life.

In the decades following the film's very limited theatrical release, it gained notoriety amongst Star Wars fans as a lost film,









Roger Christian himself, for years, tried searching for the original negative, but was unsuccessful. After roughly 30 years of the film being lost, Christian publicly announced in December 2012 that he had been recently been contacted by an archivist from Universal Studios, who had come across a copy of the film.

When asked about releasing the short,[1] Christian replied "probably the best way is a downloadable version". He tweeted[2] on January 11, 2013 that "the negs are all still in LA", that it "then has to be digitized, timed and maybe sound done" and that it'll "be a few months" before it is ready for re-release. On July 28th, in a craveonline.com interview[3], Christian revealed that 2 of the heads of PIXAR had recently contacted him, having read about Black Angel's rediscovery, and had offered to restore the film completely, free of charge. He confirmed that he had indeed taken them up on their offer, (or, at least that was the impression that he seemed to have given), and that they were currently working on it in conjunction with Skywalker Sound. When asked about a possible ETA, Chrisitian replied that "It'll be done this year, for sure".

UPDATE 14 Sep: For the first time in over 33 years, Black Angel is finally being publicly screened again - on October 13th at the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival![4] Despite reports to the contrary, it has been officially confirmed that the restoration was actually done by Athena Studios, not PIXAR. The below title screenshot was released for the event, and is the public's first glimpse at the digitally restored version of the legendary short film.

UPDATE 28 Oct: Following the screening of Black Angel at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Athena Studios have recently released two short clips from the film, giving fans a tantalising glimpse into the notoriously rare featurette.

File:Black Angel (1979) - 2 Released Clips
The two released clips from the short, courtesy of Athena Studios.

References