UP ON THE SCREEN, A horse gallops in pursuit of a speeding truck. Its rider wears a hat and is armed with a coiled whip. As beast and vehicle draw level the man in the hat leaps from the saddle of his mount. We’re witnessing an electric piece of stunt work – the smallest error in timing could be fatal. One heart-stopping second later he clings to the side of the truck as the wheels race and rattle beneath him. Our daredevil hero has dazzled us again.
Familiar? Of course. But this isn’t a celebrated action beat from Raiders Of The Lost Ark. We’re watching Chapter 11 of Zorro Rides Again, the 1937 Republic Pictures serial that promised “12 punch packed episodes” for the Saturday matinee crowd. George Lucas knew this sequence well. Immortalised on a lobby card, it provided direct inspiration for Raiders, a movie crafted as tribute to all those plucky, breakneck adventures that thrilled him as a kid.
“What inspired me to make Raiders was a desire to see this kind of movie,” Lucas stated in 1981. “You sit back and say, ‘Why don’t they make this kind of movie any more?’ And I’m in a position to do it. So I’m really doing it more than anything else so that I can enjoy it. I just want to see this movie.”
SMITH AND JONES
If distraction has a name, it’s Indiana Jones. Or should that be Indiana Smith, Lucas’s original choice of moniker for his tomb-plundering hero? Perhaps, at first, there was no name, simply an itch – an urge to escape the pain of scripting a sprawling interplanetary saga the world would ultimately know as Star Wars.
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Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av SFX UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Making Alien - Jaws in Space - Forty-five years on from its original release, Alien continues to terrify. We dissect what arguably remains the most chilling instalment in the saga
The seven-strong crew of the commercial mining spacecraft the Nostromo seal their fate after reluctantly responding to a mysterious distress signal on a hostile planet. Here, a face-hugging alien from a derelict ship impregnates and later kills executive officer Kane (John Hurt) after its offspring is birthed onboard. After being unleashed, the fearsome newborn with acid for blood proceeds to dispatch the remainder of the crew.Ridley Scott's much more convoluted prequels have yet to reveal how the knowledge that led to this initial interception was acquired. However, the premise of the original Alien is perfect in its uncomplicated purity.
PURE AND SIMPLE
IN THE FINAL PART OF OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, SHOWRUNNER RUSSELL T DAVIES TALKS RELAUNCHING DOCTOR WHO
TO CAP IT ALL OFF
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE BBC SERIES THE TRIPODS
FRENCH REVOLUTION
THE WALKING DEAD SPIN-OFF SHOWRUNNER DAVID ZABEL ON BEING GIVEN THE TOUGH TASK OF REUNITING DARYL AND CAROL IN FRANCE
SILENT KILLERS
THE DIRECTOR OF HOLLYWOOD'S SPEAK NO EVIL REMAKE ON HORROR, COMEDY AND JAMES MCAVOY
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
THE GHOST WITH THE MOST RETURNS FINALLY - IN BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
TEENAGE DREAM
JOE LOCKE HITS THE ROAD RUNNING
MOB RULE THE PENGUIN
GOTHAM'S UP FOR GRABS IN BRUISING NEW CRIME SAGA BUT WHERE IS THE BATMAN?
SEASON OF THE WITCH
AS MARVEL TELEVISION CARVES OUT A NEW PATH FOR ITSELF, WE SPEAK TO CREATOR JAC SCHAEFFER, PLUS A CAST OF STARS LED BY KATHRYN HAHN AND JOE LOCKE, ABOUT THE MAGIC OF WANDAVISION'S SPIN-OFF AGATHA ALL ALONG
Ghouls Allowed
Even silence can't save you at this year's Halloween Horror Nights