Early concepts
13 Jun 2018 -
The Millennium Falcon started out as "the Pirate Ship". It's earliest conceptions vary from the ugly to the elegant. Here are a number of very early Millennium Falcon concepts, which gradually evolved into the 'Linear Millennium Falcon'
The linear Millenium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon's original design was markedly different from the one we know. The StarWars Sketchbook, concept drawings (several of which appear below) and interviews with the model makers in a recent CINEFEX magazine, all confirm that the original Millennium Falcon was the linear design later called the Blockade Runner! (without the characteristic hammer-head).
George Lucas rejected the design late in the day citing too great a similarity to Space:1999's Eagle ships. The highly detailed six foot model then acquired a hammer head (perhaps to offset this similarity) and became the Blockade Runner.
The Blockade Runner itself then suffered serious scale related problems, and a whole new hammer-head had to be built before it became the 150metre Correllian Corvette we know today
George Lucas rejected the design late in the day citing too great a similarity to Space:1999's Eagle ships. The highly detailed six foot model then acquired a hammer head (perhaps to offset this similarity) and became the Blockade Runner.
The Blockade Runner itself then suffered serious scale related problems, and a whole new hammer-head had to be built before it became the 150metre Correllian Corvette we know today
Quite a number of the difficulties with the "saucer and mandible" Millennium Falcon arise directly from the linear design heritage.
Numerous features of the linear ship are carried directly over to the later design. Note the dorsal and ventral gun turrets, the big radar dish, the cup-like cockpit and the side access docking ports towards the aft end, just ahead of the MASSIVE engine assembly. All these would appear again.
One feature that would disappear was the VERY obvious escape pods from the linear ship. These pods would get written into the opening sequence as the means of the droid's escape. The reference to escape pods on the Falcon (when first landed on the Death Star) was NOT modified with the new design however. This has led to some confusion on the part of most 'blueprints' of the Millennium Falcon as we'll see later.
One feature that would disappear was the VERY obvious escape pods from the linear ship. These pods would get written into the opening sequence as the means of the droid's escape. The reference to escape pods on the Falcon (when first landed on the Death Star) was NOT modified with the new design however. This has led to some confusion on the part of most 'blueprints' of the Millennium Falcon as we'll see later.
The flying hamburger
George Lucas rejected the original Millennium Falcon design as too similar to a Space:1999 Eagle. The designers were totally lost, needing a key vessel in just a few short weeks, where to turn for inspiration? the story goes that Lucas waved his lunch at them, a hamburger with a bite taken from it, and said "Use this!".
Lucas initially visualised the ship flying in the VERTICAL plane, 'like a giant sunfish', with the cockpit rotating a bit like the later B-Wing design..
Once the current saucer-with-mandibles concept became adopted, there was still work to do, just no time to do it in!
The cockpit was originally concieved of as being 'in-line' with the internal corridors, centred with respect to the 'side-wall' of the hull. The "StarWars Sketchbook" makes it perfectly plain that the cockpit, ramp and side 'hatches' (docking rings) would all line up with the internal deck.
Somewhere along the line, the cockpit moved to an outrigger design, which is more visually exciting, and the deck height issue became VERY confused!
Somewhere along the line, the cockpit moved to an outrigger design, which is more visually exciting, and the deck height issue became VERY confused!
The model was a rushed job, carried out jointly by a number of modellers, each with his own style. The result gives us the 'modified-patchwork' look we all associate with the Millennium Falcon.
The Millennium SUNFISH?
Whilst there are no concept sketches or model shots to indicate it, it is a fact that an early conception of the 'hamburger' Millennium Falcon had the cockpit rotating, so that the ship would fly in the VERTICAL plane! Whilst not used, this concept was later recycled for the ROTJ B-Wing fighter.
In the absence of any graphics to back this statement up, I present here two quotes, first from Mark Cotta Vaz and Shinji Hata "From StarWars to Indiana Jones":
In the absence of any graphics to back this statement up, I present here two quotes, first from Mark Cotta Vaz and Shinji Hata "From StarWars to Indiana Jones":
Since the Falcon figured in so much action, both as a blue screen model effect and as a live-action prop, its importance necessitated many designs. Lucas even considered having the ship fly vertically through space. Although the ship became a horizontally powered craft, there are occasions in the trilogy when the Falcon is piloted as originally conceived, such as the flight through the Death Star tunnel in Return of the Jedi
- and the next from "Cinefex" magazine #65, where Kevin H. Martin is quoting ILM staffer and model maker Lorne Peterson:
Among the largest the blue screen models was the Millennium Falcon - whose redesign by Joe Johnston was purportedly inspired by Lucas' idea of a hamburger in space. 'The original concept called for the Falcon to sail like a giant sunfish,' explained Lorne Peterson. 'It would lift of on its horizontal axis, then rotate into a vertical configuration and fly upended on edge with the front mandibles pointed forward. We never actually shot it that way, though, because George decided he liked the look of it flying horizontally. But because of that original notion, the cockpit was capable of rotating so that the crew would be in the correct alignment for looking ahead in flight.
So there!
The sunfish idea was first mentioned to me by Mr Peter Briggs - a Hollywood scif-fi/action/horror screenwriter who lives in London. I didn't believe him at first and ignored the suggestion for a long time, the the CINEFEX article proved him 100% correct! My apologies!
The sunfish idea was first mentioned to me by Mr Peter Briggs - a Hollywood scif-fi/action/horror screenwriter who lives in London. I didn't believe him at first and ignored the suggestion for a long time, the the CINEFEX article proved him 100% correct! My apologies!