Last week we were given our first behind-the-scenes look at Star Wars: Episode VII, which featured J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and our little blue and white astro droid. It has now been confirmed that R2-D2 will in fact be in the movie (go figure) but the cool part is, not only that, our favorite astro droid is going to be fan-made.
J.J. Abrams, Lee Towersey, Oliver Steeples and Kathleen Kennedy.
The other two guys in the photo are Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples, who are hardcore fans of the franchise, and members of the worldwide R2-D2 Builders Club. These are the kind of guys that spent their spare time building fully functional astro droids, and it seems that the dedication has paid off because they are now both working on the production as part of the Creature Effects team. According to StarWars.com:
“It all started when Kathleen Kennedy toured the R2-D2 Builders area at Celebration Europe this past summer in Germany,” says Steeples, who finished his first R2-D2 in 2007, after 10 years of collecting parts and researching. “She posed for pictures with us, looked at all the droids we’d built and was very complimentary. I mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the UK were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by [executive producer] Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation.”
Now I don’t know about you guys, but to me that’s pretty amazing. It’s always fun to hear about the little guys making it big, and I don’t think anyone is quite as excited for R2-D2 as these guys.
“It’s a dream come true,” says Steeples, “and I hope I can live up to the expectations of the thousands of R2-D2 Builders around the world, let alone the millions of Star Wars fans.”
Source: starwars.com
