The Empire Strips Back at Riverside Studios review: this Star Wars parody is hardly titillating stuff
The audience on press night – there was of course also a gala night on May the Fourth, aka Star Wars Day – was roughly 40% female but included men prepared to do Chewbacca and R2D2 impressions and one who proudly declared a tattoo that 'says 'Rebel scum' in Aurebesh'. If you, like me, don't know that's the basic language of Lucas's universe, this show may not be for you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
30-05-2025
- The Guardian
Leslie Dilley obituary
Leslie Dilley, who has died aged 84 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, won the first of two Oscars as an art director for his work on the original 1977 Star Wars film. His creation, the much-loved little robotic droid R2-D2, with a silver and blue dome head and rocket boosters that enabled him to fly through space, appeared on screen for more than 40 years (1977-2019), spanning the first three movies and both the prequel and sequel trilogies. He recalled the 'head-scratching' challenge in those pre-CGI days. 'We started out with a cardboard drum, added cardboard arms and then tried to walk it,' he said. First he built different versions based on conceptual designs drawn by Ralph McQuarrie. Then Dilley, along with the director, George Lucas, and John Barry, the production designer on the first movie (which was later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), decided to go with one that would allow a human – short in stature – to step inside, walk and operate it. 'We brought in some actors who we thought would work, but many of them just weren't strong enough,' Dilley told Star Wars Insider magazine. Eventually, Kenny Baker auditioned and fitted the role – and the prop. Dilley was also responsible for the colour and detail of Luke Skywalker's hovering landspeeder anti-gravity craft, conceived by McQuarrie and the modelmaker Colin Cantwell, and for R2-D2's humanoid robot friend C-3PO, whom McQuarrie based on the female robot from Fritz Lang's 1927 silent classic Metropolis. After working on Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Dilley won his second Oscar for the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford as the globetrotting archaeologist. For the making of one of its best known scenes – Jones fleeing from a South American cave temple with a giant boulder tumbling at his heels – Dilley's work on set even extended to physical exertion. 'I was called upon to help with another bloke to get behind the rolling boulder, pushing it as it chases after Harrison Ford,' he said. Dilley also worked as an art director on Alien (1979) with the director Ridley Scott. He built sets based on the paintings by the Swiss surrealist artist HR Giger that inspired the screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, who jointly wrote the sci-fi horror classic about an extraterrestrial creature stalking and killing the crew of the Nostromo spacecraft. On set for another scene that has gone down in cinema history, Dilley recalled: 'When John Hurt's chest breaks open and we see the baby alien for the first time and blood is spraying everywhere, the actors' reactions were real – they were caught completely off guard, with blood on their clothing and mouths open in fright and surprise.' Dilley went on to become a production designer on films that similarly featured fantasy elements. For The Abyss (1989), whose large amount of underwater filming provided special challenges, he and a construction team turned Ron Cobb's conceptual blueprints for a huge oil-drilling platform into reality – built in a tank of water – as one of the sets in an abandoned nuclear power plant in South Carolina. For The Exorcist III (1990), he created several illusions, including a large hospital set with all the rooms and areas joined together by hallways, one of them appearing to go on for ever, but actually with consecutively smaller arches and a progressively lower ceiling. 'You can create the depth with smaller people at the back,' he said, with a laugh. He also built a 'ceiling' on the floor for the filming of a possessed woman crawling along it in the supernatural horror film. Dilley was born in Pontygwaith, Mid Glamorgan, during the second world war, and grew up in Wembley Park after his parents, Leslie, a chauffeur, and Doreen (nee Willis), returned to their home in Middlesex in 1946. From the age of 15, he studied architecture and building construction at Willesden technical college while on a plastering apprenticeship at the Associated British Picture Corporation. He did plaster work on the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love and worked his way up to become assistant art director on Kelly's Heroes (1970), The Devils, Macbeth, and The Boy Friend (all 1971) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), and an art department draughtsman on another 007 movie, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). His initial films as art director were The Three Musketeers (1973) and its sequel, The Four Musketeers (1974), and he also took that role on The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), Superman (1978), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Eureka (1983), Never Say Never Again (1983) and Legend (1985). Establishing himself as a production designer, Dilley moved to Los Angeles in 1985. On the Disney comedy sequel Honey, I Blew up the Kid (1992), he was responsible for building two replicas of the family home chosen for filming in California, one of them scaled down 43 per cent for scenes in which the toddler, Adam, appears to be 7ft tall. On that movie and several others, he was also the second unit director. His last feature film as a production designer was Little Man (2006), although he returned to Britain to work on the BBC children's television series Teacup Travels (2015-17), starring Gemma Jones as Great Aunt Lizzie telling her two grandchildren stories from ancient times. He received further Oscar nominations, for his art direction on Alien, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and The Abyss, and Bafta Cymru's 2020 outstanding contribution to film and television award. Dilley is survived by his second wife, Leslie Lykes, whom he married in 1987, and their daughters, Sophia, Ivory and EmmaJane, and son, Leslie; by Georgia, the daughter of his first marriage, to Amanda Parish, which ended in divorce; and by four grandchildren. Ivor Leslie Dilley, art director and production designer, born 11 January 1941; died 20 May 2025
Metro
24-05-2025
- Metro
Star Wars Battlefront 3 needs to have these new features - Reader's Feature
A reader reacts to the sudden popularity of Star Wars Battlefront 2 by making suggestions for how a sequel could improve on it. I enjoyed the recent articles about the best Star Wars games and the iconic TIE Fighter game, which GameCentral did for Star Wars Day recently. I particularly empathised with the bit about not even knowing whether you are a Star Wars fan anymore, given how many poor quality shows and movies there have been. And then, to my surprise, I found myself enjoying a bit of a high with the franchise, thanks to season 2 of Andor and the 20th anniversary of Revenge Of The Sith. Two very different things and you could argue Revenge Of The Sith is not a good movie but it's weird and funny and entertaining in a way bad Star Wars can be sometimes. Because it's a strange series, where you have genuinely good things, cheesy but entertaining things, and absolutely terrible things. And that goes for the movies, the shows… and the games. Obviously, that's what I'm going to try and write about now, because I was inspired by the sudden increase in popularity for Star Wars Battlefront 2, which is being played by more people now (on Steam at least) than when it was released eight years ago. I'm not entirely sure why it blew up like this, but I assume it was because of Star Wars Day and the new releases – and then people just realised that it's actually a really good game. They probably didn't know at first because it was caught up in all the controversy over loot boxes, which EA removed, and a lot of the best maps and characters came with the DLC. Even so, it was not a perfect game. As GameCentral pointed out, the gunplay is not great, and while the ship combat is fine it doesn't integrate into the ground action as well as the old PlayStation 2 game. The hope now is that EA will think about making a third game and apparently a lot of the developers are keen on making it too. Of course, it's not up to them though, especially not given how expensive a game like this would be. But there's so much more Star Wars stuff that could go into a new game now, compared to eight years ago, and it wouldn't have to rely on the awful sequels at all. In fact, I imagine most people would prefer they be left out as much as possible, especially given the upsurge in appreciation for the prequels recently. But other than the six main films I'd like to see more from The Clone Wars and Rebels, as well as The Mandalorian, Ahsoka (she's barely in the current game, beyond one set of skins), Skeleton Crew, and Andor. You'll see a lot of fans saying the game should have a 100 maps or whatever, as a reaction to the current game not launching with much content, but that's just silly. It just needs variety. With all the good stuff we've had lately you can go from prequel era sci-fi fantasy, to space pirates, to weird Force temples, to grounded fights on Coruscant, and jetpack battles on Mandalore. All of these shows have brough their own new vehicles and mounts too, so it doesn't just have to be the same old, and it doesn't matter if you've seen the shows or not because it's just cool designs at the end of the day. I'd also like to see the ability to travel from the ground to space in one map, which is something that was planned for a cancelled PlayStation 2 game but which we still haven't seen in the modern day. Basically, I want to see every possible aspect of the mechanical side of Star Wars in one game, from the weapons to the vehicles to the ships. More Trending I've nothing against Jedi being in it but I think it's important that doesn't over overwhelm. This needs to be the definitive Star Wars combat game and I really hope EA makes it. By reader Gabbo The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: 5 reasons why I'm not buying a Nintendo Switch 2 this year - Reader's Feature MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be a third party port machine – Reader's Feature MORE: PS6 is Sony's chance to wipe the slate clean and forget the PS5 ever happened - Reader's Feature
Daily Mirror
16-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Is Fortnite down? Server downtime schedule and what's new in update 35.10
More Star Wars weapons and characters are set to come to Fortnite soon, but we're going to have to sit through a touch of downtime before they arrive. Fortnite is set to engage in some more downtime to ensure that the weekly rollouts of new Star Wars content goes uninterrupted. Fortnite has thrust players into the galaxy far, far away, and though it has tried to make the experience as streamlined and as focussed as possible, it's already a mixed bag for many. The stacked Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 Battle Pass offers a great collection of cosmetics for players to unlock, but the game resting so much on weapons that work with a cooldown system rather than with traditional ammunition has disappointed many players who have been engaged for years. Either way, change is coming fast, with Epic Games revealing in Fortnite early patch notes that new content waves are coming to the game weekly to celebrate the world of Star Wars with new NPCs, weapons and abilities. It's a great time to be stuck into the game if you're a fan of the huge entertainment franchise, especially as a new, albeit delayed Fortnite update is on its way to help usher in these content boosts. We do have to get through some Fortnite downtime to see this come to life, so it bears the question – is Fortnite down? Here's what you need to know. Is Fortnite down? Fortnite downtime begins at 1am PDT / 4am EDT / 9am BST on Friday, May 16, as confirmed via a new tweet from the @FortniteStatus Twitter account. This time matches previous update downtime timings, including the Chapter 6 Season 3 downtime that preceeded the season launching. We can expect a downtime of around two and a half hours t o come with the update based on recent downtimes, with matchmaking closing down thirty minutes ahead of time to ensure that players can finish their games first. The update was supposed to roll out on Thursday, but a hiccup in the ongoing saga to get Fortnite back on the App Store in time for the patch delayed it by a day. The Fortnite Status Twitter account confirmed the delay while Epic boss, Tim Sweeney, has been tweeting about the situation with Apple. It seems Epic isn't holding out for Apple users to join the fray, as the game's account hasn't mentioned any further delays. What's new in Fortnite update 35.10? Leakers haven't had the hold on content announcements in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 in the same way they usually would, because Fortnite has already revealed what we can expect from the incoming updates across the shorter-than-usual season. Epic Games has revealed that the game will be rolling out more weekly content drops throughout the season introducing new NPCs and weapons, all held up by updates that load the game's backend with the content itself. With that in mind, the update will deliver one content drop, and another the following week. They are as follows: Friday, May 16 – Chewbacca arrives in the Item Shop and on the map, dishing out the Wookie Bowcaster. The CA-87 Jawa Scatter Blaster will appear in chests, too Thursday, May 22 – The Mandalorians arrive, offering players the chance to hire a Heavy, Scout, Supply or Medic teammate. The Mandalorian Jetpack will be unvaulted, and the Amban Sniper Rifle and Westar-34 Blaster Pistols will make it to the island too. There are more updates to come, like the appearance the Star Destroyer as a pilotable boss battle, but they will be introduced in the next update on Thursday, May 29. Until then, though, we've got some Fortnite downtime to wait through so we can get our hands on the Wookie Bowcasters.
