Berlin: The Works Taking ‘Star Wars’ Doc To EFM

With just 10-and-a-half months until Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens hits cinemas with an almost-guaranteed explosion of noise, buyers at the Berlinale next month will be able to head back to a galaxy far, far away (well, north London), to where it all quietly began in the summer of 1976.

U.K.-based The Works announced Friday that it had picked up exclusive worldwide sales for Elstree 1976, Jon Spira’s documentary looking at the filming of the very first Star Wars in the U.K. capital, long before anyone had any idea of the cultural empire it would spawn, and the effects it would have on those involved. Principal photography on the film is now complete. Sales are launching in Berlin, where The Works will be screening a promo.

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Produced by Hank Starrs, Elstree 1976 features interviews with cast members and extras including Dave Prowse, who famously played Darth Vader (although James Earl Jones lent his dulcet tones) and Jeremy Bulloch, who donned Boba Fett’s now-legendary helmet. It even meets the actor whose character was completely cut from the final film.

“I’ve always been interested in those who exist on the fringes of pop culture and it’s been a wonderful, sometimes surreal, experience building relationships with the people who were inside these iconic costume and learning their incredible stories,” said Spira in a statement.

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“If you like Star Wars, Elstree 1976 will give you a whole new, quite poignant perspective on that phenomenon, but you don’t have to have seen Star Wars to connect with this film because, at its essence it’s simply a story about what happens when ordinary people find themselves unwittingly connected to something extraordinary.”