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

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{{InfoboxFound
{{InfoboxFound
|title=Black Angel
|title=<center>Black Angel</center>
|image=Black angel title.jpg
|image=BlackAngel-TitleCard.jpg
|imagecaption=''Black Angel''’s title screen, as taken from the restored film's 2014 iTunes release.
|imagecaption=''Black Angel''’s title screen, as taken from the restored film's 2014 iTunes release.
|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span>
|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span>
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|foundby=[http://www.universalstudios.com/ Universal Studios], [https://twitter.com/roger_christian Roger Christian]
|foundby=[http://www.universalstudios.com/ Universal Studios], [https://twitter.com/roger_christian 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.


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 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 art director. The film sees
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 endeavors 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 among ''Star Wars'' fans as a lost film, with not even Christian himself being able to secure a workable copy for clean-up and re-release (Christian having previously expressed a desire to undertake said re-release), until December of 2011, when an archivist from Universal Studios contacted Christian after having come across a tin of film containing the elusive movie.


A number of article interviews were conducted with Christian in late 2012 and throughout 2013, in which he revealed the discovery and reaffirmed his intentions to restore and make the film available once again, more than 30 years after it's initial release.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/2012/12/20-12-pl_blackangel/ WIRED article interview with Roger Christian.] Retrieved 01 Jan '15</ref> After reading one of the aforementioned interviews, Californian visual effects company Athena Studios volunteered to completely restore the film free of charge. Said restoration soon commenced, in conjunction with the Bay Area Visual Effects Society and Skywalker Sound and the film was finally shown once again on October 13th, 2013, at the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival, where it was well received.


Two shorts preview clips were released online by Athena Studios two weeks following the restoration's premiere screening and the film in its entirety was eventually released worldwide on May 19th, 2014 (following a selection of additional film festival screenings around the world, though primarily in Scotland), when it was made available for purchase on iTunes' digital distribution store to mass praise, going on to top the iTunes charts.<ref>[https://twitter.com/roger_christian/status/472206978253848576 Tweet from Roger Christian on ''Black Angel'''s iTunes ranking.] Retrieved 01 Jan '15</ref> Notably, it has been suggested by Christian that a feature film version of ''Black Angel'' has begun pre-production, though not a great deal of information on said planned feature has been revealed.<ref>[https://twitter.com/roger_christian/status/489827499803553792 Tweet from Roger Christian in which a planned ''Black Angel'' feature film is alluded to.] Retrieved 01 Jan '15</ref><ref>[https://twitter.com/BlackAngelFilm/status/540648540213481472 Tweet from ''Black Angel'''s official Twitter account, in which additional information on the aforementioned planned feature film is revealed.] Retrieved 01 Jan '15</ref>


==External Link==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IGuyCqQ-kA The two YouTube preview clips originally released by Athena Studios.] Retrieved 05 Mar '15


==References==
{{reflist}}


 
[[Category:Found media]]
 
 
[[File:Blackangel.jpg|thumb|400px|Screenshot of ''Black Angel'', provided by writer/director Roger Christian.]]
The short involved a Knight on the way back from the crusades getting transported to a mystical fantasy world, in which he must save a princess from the "Black Angel".
 
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,<ref>[http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/12/20-12-pl_blackangel/ wired.com page on the film, featuring quotes from Roger Christian.] Retrieved 06 Jan '13.</ref> Christian replied "probably the best way is a downloadable version". He tweeted<ref>[https://twitter.com/roger_christian Christian's Twitter page.] Retrieved 11 Jan '13.</ref> 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<ref>[http://www.craveonline.com/film/interviews/542923-exclusive-interview-roger-christian-on-stranded craveonline.com interview with Roger Christian.] Retrieved 14 Sep '13.</ref>, 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!<ref>[http://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=64816~dc929e81-dd77-4c40-bcf3-47ec6a85c146&epguid=c612d5b0-2882-4166-821c-fe5114bf8af4& Mill Valley Film Festival page on the short.] Retrieved 14 Sep '13.</ref> 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.
<gallery position="center" hideaddbutton="true" widths="695">
BlackAngel1-640x361.jpg|Released title screen image from Athena Studio's digital restoration.
</gallery>
 
'''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|thumb|center|630px|The two released clips from the short, courtesy of Athena Studios.]]
 
==References==
<references/>

Revision as of 19:53, 20 September 2020

BlackAngel-TitleCard.jpg

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 endeavors 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 among Star Wars fans as a lost film, with not even Christian himself being able to secure a workable copy for clean-up and re-release (Christian having previously expressed a desire to undertake said re-release), until December of 2011, when an archivist from Universal Studios contacted Christian after having come across a tin of film containing the elusive movie.

A number of article interviews were conducted with Christian in late 2012 and throughout 2013, in which he revealed the discovery and reaffirmed his intentions to restore and make the film available once again, more than 30 years after it's initial release.[1] After reading one of the aforementioned interviews, Californian visual effects company Athena Studios volunteered to completely restore the film free of charge. Said restoration soon commenced, in conjunction with the Bay Area Visual Effects Society and Skywalker Sound and the film was finally shown once again on October 13th, 2013, at the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival, where it was well received.

Two shorts preview clips were released online by Athena Studios two weeks following the restoration's premiere screening and the film in its entirety was eventually released worldwide on May 19th, 2014 (following a selection of additional film festival screenings around the world, though primarily in Scotland), when it was made available for purchase on iTunes' digital distribution store to mass praise, going on to top the iTunes charts.[2] Notably, it has been suggested by Christian that a feature film version of Black Angel has begun pre-production, though not a great deal of information on said planned feature has been revealed.[3][4]

External Link

References