Geek Tyrant posted this very cool look at a piece of lost Star Wars history. This is the original suit for the Rancor monster who attacks Luke under Jabba’s Palace. Originally, they were going to rock it old school Godzilla style, but ended up scrapping it (thankfully). Here’s what GT had to say:
The original concept for the Rancor creature in George Lucas‘ 1983 Star Wars film Return of the Jedi included a guy in a costume, just like Godzilla. They ended up scrapping the idea and used a miniature wireframed puppet. According to the guy who posted the photo on Reddit (Join_You_In_The_Sun), “Dennis Muren of ILM wanted to avoid a ‘muppet look’ and shot at high speeds and sometimes backwards.” I’m glad they didn’t go with the costume, because it just doesn’t look as menacing.
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Killing Time 
Thank God for the dodging of this particular bullet. Though I have to say—even if they had gone with the suit there would still be people opining that it looked better than CGI!
It’s funny how today you can have an actor like Benedict Cumberbatch providing the movements of a monster like Smaug. Things have come full circle from the days when Godzilla was a man in a suit.
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Well, God bless Andy Serkis, because his Gollum has made motion capture performance something that people take seriously. I’ve seen some of the footage of Cumberbatch’s Smaug mo-cap and it’s awesome (and kind of hysterical). The rancor is one of the most dated-looking F/X in the original trilogy though it was cutting edge in 1983. Somewhere in the sequels and spin-offs I would go nuts if they visit Dathomir where the Rancors come from and where Force-Witches ride them like horses.
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Wow, I’m flattered. Sure, why not? Hit me up on twitter @sleeplessdave or on the facebook page: facebook.com/killingtime2014 and we can talk more about it.
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