At the AT-AT’s birth: the improvising of a ‘Star Wars’ icon

[jkno]

http://www.sfchronicle.com/movies/a...hp?t=6eef926a1e0a4808f6&cmpid=twitter-premium

 

[Friendly flyer]

Cool, thanks!

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Great article, thank you!

Joe Johnston confirms a very basic design concept that is IMO present throughout the OT and what I think was not kept alive in a lot of the PT designs.

"There was a long period of drawing where ‘anything goes.’ We tried wheeled vehicles, hovercraft, tank-like treaded vehicles,” Johnston says. “I personally felt that wheels and treads were too Earth-based, not exotic enough for the Empire. I remembered seeing a U.S. Steel brochure while I was in the industrial design program at Cal State Long Beach.”

Joe Johnstons designs are to me the essence of what made Star Wars so accessible for so many different people. It is strange but yet familiar. Something that really could be.