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Willow
Widescreen Laserdisc Jacket Notes
Val Kilmer (Batman Forever), Joanne Whalley (Scarlett), Warwick Davis, Jean Marsh and Billy Barty star in WILLOW, George Lucas and Ron Howard's epic fantasy adventure where an unlikely band of heroes unite to protect a very special baby from the Powers of Evil led by the all-powerful sorceress, Bavmorda.
Proudly presenting a widescreen THX(R)-certified laserdisc edition of George Lucas and Ron Howard's special effects masterwork, WILLOW (1988). Highlighted by Industrial Light & Magic's ground-breaking, Academy Award(R)-nominated visual effects plus a dynamic soundtrack propelled by Oscar(R)-nominated sound effects editing and James Horner's rousing musical score, WILLOW is an epic experience in sight and sound, painstakingly remastered to deliver the ultimate in home theater entertainment.
Filmmaker George Lucas first came up with the idea for an epic fantasy adventure in the 1970's.
Lucas: "WILLOW has been in my mind for about 15 years. It evolved out of some research I was doing for Star Wars and my interest in fantasy at that time."
The success of his Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, however, required the producer to put WILLOW on hold for nearly a decade.
In 1985, Ron Howard, a successful actor-turned-director (Splash, Cocoon), met with Lucas to pitch an idea for a fantasy film. Lucas declined to produce the project, but offered his American Graffiti star the chance to direct WILLOW instead. Howard agreed. Lucas, who had developed his WILLOW storyline after studying mythology and folklore from around the world, engaged Bob Dolman (WKRP In Cincinnati) to write the screenplay. Pre-production began in early 1986. Hired as concept artists were European fantasy masters Christos Achilleos and Jean "Moebius" Giraud. Seven months prior to filming, production desgner Allan Cameron (Aliens) assemble a team of craftsmen and headquartered them in England's Elstree Studios where they began construction on the dozens of sets needed to create the fantasy world of WILLOW.
Cameron: "The film is set in a nebulous time. So many things had to be designed from scratch. All the furniture and furnishings in the little igloo-shaped houses of the Nelwyn village had to be designed and built, scaled down to suit the occupants . . . . The most interesting thing from a designer point of view was to try to make the different environments as varied as possible. And because of the different sizes of the actors in WILLOW, we had to keep a sense of scale to everything. We go from Brownies, who are nine-inch-tall characters, to Willow, who is 3'4", to Madmartigan, who is over six feet tall, to General Kael, a giant. Also, we have trolls and 30 foot monsters. We had to knit them all together, visually."
To play WILLOW's heroes and villains, the filmmakers assembled an eclectic cast headed by Val Kilmer (Top Gun), Joanne Whalley (The Singing Detective), Jean Marsh (Upstairs, Downstairs), Warwick Davis and Billy Barty. They would receive on-screen support from nearly 500 extras, including the 225 little people hired to play the Nelwyn villagers.
WILLOW began production on April 27, 1987. Locations included Brocket Hall, a 1000-acre estate outside London, site of the Nelwyn village, and Elstree's backlot, where Cameron constructed most of the sets, including a three-level tavern and the Tir Asleen and Nockmaar castle facades. The action scenes involving the storming of the latter were later filmed in Snowdonia, North Wales, where 400 extras, 150 horses, dozens of stuntmen, and 200 pigs were recruited to share in the carnage.
In early July, cast and crew relocated to New Zealand for 32 days of filming in-and-around the snow-capped mountains and lakes of Queenstown. They would be joined by the nearly 500 extras and 200 horses gathered to play an army on the march.
WILLOW made its debut as an official, non-competing selection at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, followed immediately by its American Theatrical release on May 20, 1988. Nominated for two 1988 Academy Awards(R)--Visual Effects, Sound Effects Editing--and grossing over $110 million worldwide, WILLOW delivered exactly what George Lucas and Ron Howard had promised, "a world where heroes come in all sizes and adventure is the greatest magic of all."
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