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The Guardian
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- 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
Business Mayor
11-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Amazon makes ‘fundamental leap forward in robotics' with device having sense of touch
Amazon said it has made a 'fundamental leap forward in robotics' after developing a robot with a sense of touch that will be capable of grabbing about three-quarters of the items in its vast warehouses. Vulcan – which launches at the US firm's 'Delivering the Future' event in Dortmund, Germany, on Wednesday and is to be deployed around the world in the next few years – is designed to help humans sort items for storage and then prepare them for delivery as the latest in a suite of robots which have an ever-growing role in the online retailer's extensive operation. Aaron Parness, Amazon's director of robotics, described Vulcan as a 'fundamental leap forward in robotics. It's not just seeing the world, it's feeling it, enabling capabilities that were impossible for Amazon robots until now.' The robots will be able to identify objects by touch using AI to work out what they can and can't handle and figuring out how best to pick them up. They will work alongside humans who now stash and retrieve items from shelving units which are manoeuvred to them at picking stations by wheeled robots – of which Amazon now has more than 750,000 in operation. Vulcan will be able to stow items on the upper and lower levels of the shelving units – known as pods – so that humans no longer need to use ladders or bend so often during their work. Robots now operating in Amazon's warehouse are able to shift items around or pick items using suction cups and computer vision. Read More Our digital addiction is costing the planet dearly | Letters The development is likely to raise fears of job losses as retailers reduce human involvement in distribution centres, which employ thousands of people. Many retailers have said that they are increasing investment in automation as labour costs rise around the world. Amazon has faced industrial action in the UK and elsewhere over low pay in its warehouses. Economists at Goldman Sachs speculated in 2023 that 300m jobs worldwide could be automated out of existence by 2030 as a result of the development of generative AI, with many more roles radically transformed. In the UK, between 60,000 and 275,000 jobs could be displaced every year over a couple of decades at the peak of the disruption, estimates from the Tony Blair Institute suggested last year. However, Tye Brady, the chief technologist of robotics at Amazon, said robots could not completely replace humans in the group's warehouses and were there to 'amplify the human potential' and to improve safety in the workplace. The self-confessed 'Star Wars geek' said the robots he helps design could be likened to R2D2 as 'an amazing collaborative robot'. 'People will always be part of the equation,' he said, while machines will take on 'the menial, the mundane and the repetitive' tasks. 'There's no such thing as completely automated. It just doesn't exist, because you always need people to understand the value of the operation, just using common sense, like, is that really doing the job?' He said having people involved could help protect against potential hacks of the system – as retailers increase efforts to protect themselves after the shutdown of Marks & Spencer's online orders following a cyber-attack. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion 'All hacking could possibly be detected by a machine, but they're usually detected by people, so having people be part of the equation is a good thing,' Brady said. He added that humans are also best for spotting more prosaic problems, such as broken or spilt items in a delivery that could cause problems for the system. Brady says that AI is helping to develop robots that can navigate complex spaces autonomously and learn to move safely alongside people and other objects. He said the latest generation of robots were able to 'ask for help' so that they could learn new ways of doing things. 'It's really exciting to bring both the mind and the body together,' he said. 'It's finally here, and it's just beginning.' For example, Amazon plans to install technology, which uses machine-learning and automation to create bespoke packaging that will cut waste. More than 70 of the machines will be installed in Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain by the end of this year, with dozens more to follow by 2027. The announcement comes as Amazon this week launched its low-cost Amazon Haul site in the UK, which promises thousands of products for £20 or less, as the group takes on cut-price operators Shein and Temu.
Gizmodo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Five Days After Star Wars Day, the LEGO R2-D2 Crashes Hard to an All-Time Low Price
Amazon celebrated Star Wars Day on May 4th (May the Force be with you…) this year and extended it into an entire week of sales. The store has brought in massive discounts on a vast range of LEGO Star Wars sets and is catering to every kind of builder and collector. Regardless of what your dream build is, whether it be the iconic Millennium Falcon, the ominous Darth Vader Helmet, or the evergreen as ever R2-D2 droid, there's a great deal for you. The LEGO Star Wars R2-D2 set is one of most popular right now on Amazon, and it is now discounted to just $79 instead of the usual $99 (20% off). See at Amazon Requirement for Star Wars Fans The LEGO Star Wars R2-D2 kit is a requirement for fans across the globe: It offers a detailed build in celebration of one of the most famous characters in the Star Wars series. In March 2024, coincidentally in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, the set brings to life the beauty and ingenuity of the crafty astromech droid. The 1,050-piece box is packed with detail and potential and offers a rewarding build that is difficult but still within reach for builders 10 and up. When built, R2-D2 stands easily over 9 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and 4 inches deep, a big display figure that will have a fine home on a shelf or desk. The model features a 360-degree rotating head, a third leg that can be removed, a periscope that can be removed to attach and an assortment of tools that can be equipped just like in the movies. The model also prompts fans to reenact fond memories or to craft new experiences for their favorite droid. The set also includes a minifigure-scale R2-D2 and, as a bonus on the anniversary, an exclusive minifigure of Darth Malak with lightsaber and anniversary display stand. This bonus addition celebrates 25 years of LEGO Star Wars and adds extra value for collectors. This LEGO Star Wars R2-D2 model for $79 is one of Amazon's best buys during Star Wars Week. With the added excitement of other major sets on sale, this week has truly felt like a second Star Wars Day for fans. If you've ever wanted to build your own R2-D2, now is the time to act (fast). See at Amazon
Evening Standard
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
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.
CBS News
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Star Wars Day at Denver International Airport 2025
C3PO and R2D2 go through security Cast of numerous Star Wars characters pose for photos. Star Wars characters parade through the airport. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On
