Last week, the first behind the scenes from Star Wars: Episode VII was released into the wild, showing director JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy standing proudly beside R2D2. The picture is below, and it's pretty cool, is it not? But who are the two unidentified people standing behind everybody's favourite astromech droid? Well, they are Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples, two massive Star Wars fans, and members of the R2-D2 Builders Club, a group of people from all over the world who work together to build real life versions of the Star Wars robots, R2-D2 in particular. But they are a long way from building droids in their garden sheds (I do not know for certain that they built any droids in their garden sheds), now that they are working full time on Star Wars: Episode VII in the Pinewood Studio's workshop.
The full story of how they got the job, relayed in full in the latest Star Wars blog entry, is a fan's dream, with Kennedy meeting the pair at Star Wars Celebration Europe this past summer. "She posed for pictures with us, looked at all the droids we'd built and was very complimentary", says Steeples, "I'd mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the U.K. were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by (executive producer) Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation." The pair are focused solely on astromech building, mainly down to their past expertise, as keeping the droids in working condition during the production is quite a task, as they are filled with gears, lights, and electronics. Towersy, who built the R2-D2 shown in the picture , backs this up, saying, "We have a good knowledge of Artoo, with a large stock of parts for reference and drawings, plus we know what is involved throughout the whole building process, as well as potential problems we need to avoid."
Hats off to these guys. Years of hard work has finally paid off, and they are working on franchise they obviously love. I'm not jealous at all!!
The full story of how they got the job, relayed in full in the latest Star Wars blog entry, is a fan's dream, with Kennedy meeting the pair at Star Wars Celebration Europe this past summer. "She posed for pictures with us, looked at all the droids we'd built and was very complimentary", says Steeples, "I'd mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the U.K. were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by (executive producer) Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation." The pair are focused solely on astromech building, mainly down to their past expertise, as keeping the droids in working condition during the production is quite a task, as they are filled with gears, lights, and electronics. Towersy, who built the R2-D2 shown in the picture , backs this up, saying, "We have a good knowledge of Artoo, with a large stock of parts for reference and drawings, plus we know what is involved throughout the whole building process, as well as potential problems we need to avoid."
Hats off to these guys. Years of hard work has finally paid off, and they are working on franchise they obviously love. I'm not jealous at all!!
