The Empire Strikes Back


Artist: Roger Kastel
Format: UK Quad (30"x 40")
Condition: Fair
Year: 1980

Description
A major Star Wars rarity, this being the "Gone With The Wind" style-A Quad for "The Empire Strikes Back", illustrated by the American artist Roger Kastel. The Star Wars producers & distributors quickly established a tradition of changing their minds about the advertising campaigns for their films, resulting in different posters being printed to promote the same film (ie, the Chantrell & Hildebrandt Quad designs for "Star Wars" & the different A & B-style Quad versions for "The Return of the Jedi"). "The Empire Strikes Back" campaign was initially based on Kastel's poster design, the central imagery obviously influenced by the GWTW poster (note the poster for the 1969 re-release for comparison - courtesy of www.moviepostermem.com). George Lucas apparently wanted to highlight the romantic tension between Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) & Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) & Kastel obliged with this misty & somewhat ethereal design. This Quad, however, was only displayed for a couple of weeks at most in central London before quickly being replaced by the better known Tom Jung style-B Quad (shown here courtesy of www.moviepostermem.com). The majority of Kastel's posters were exhibited on the London Underground & the few surviving examples from this source have invariably been cropped to 27"x 40". The example here, however, remains in uncropped form though it has suffered from some sun fading. It has been cleaned, de-acidified & linen-backed.