STACK April 2017 Issue 83

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12 APRIL 2017
visit DVD&BD FEATURE
Gareth Edwards was only two
when the original Star Wars movie
came out at the cinemas, but still
remembers vividly when he first saw it.
“I do remember sitting in the back of
a car after having a falling out with my
mum and dad,” the director of Rogue
One: A Star Wars Story recalls. “They
went somewhere and came back with
a box. It was a Betamax player that
played films. I remember instantly asking if we
could get Star Wars . They were already ahead
of me because my next door neighbor had it
on Betamax. We went ‘round their house to
borrow it, and I don’t think I ever gave it back.
We went home, put it in, and I felt like I knew
what I was doing for the rest of my life: I’m
watching this over and over on a loop. Every
morning I’d put it in, eating breakfast,
then I’d have to go to school.”
The first of the Star Wars standalone
spin-offs, Rogue One is set between
Episode III and IV of the blockbuster
sci-fi saga and tells the story of a group
of unlikely heroes who band together on
a mission to steal the plans to the Death
Star; the Empire’s ultimate weapon of
destruction.
Although closely aligned with the original
movie – now more commonly known as A New
Hope – Edwards was determined to give the
movie its own identity within the Star Wars
Committed Star Wars fan Gareth Edwards was determined that the first spin-off
Rogue One would have its own distinct identity. Words Adam Colby