Fortunately, the Star Wars fans that plan to breathe new life into the Lars homestead do not have to travel to a galaxy far, far away, since the saga was shot here, on Earth.
The fans came up with this initiative two years ago, but could not take action immediately because of the lack of funds. After all, a trip to Tatooine would cost quite a lot, provided that we even had the means to get there, anyway. These fans, however, knew where the Tatooine scenes were shot back in the ’70s, so they had an idea about where to head to. With the support of Lucas Arts’ Head of Fan Relations and of the fans, of course, the Star Wars saviours, as they are referred to, raised $10,000 in ten months and proceeded to restoring Luke Skywalker’s home.
“Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” from 1977 was not the only movie from the saga to feature the Lars homestead, as it also made an appearance in ”Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones” (2002) and ”Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith” (2005). However, nobody cared about it afterwards and it was left at the mercy of deserts winds and extreme temperatures. Nobody except Mark Dermul and his team, that is.
Restoring the homestead did not take very much time. The team reconditioned it in a week, and the progress that they made each day was shot and posted on Mark Dermul’s YouTube channel. While not extremely time-consuming, the restoration was nevertheless a challenge, as the team had to work in 46-degrees Celsius heat. However, from what we can see in the pictures and in the following video, we believe it was totally worth it. Maybe this will encourage more people to restore structures from all over the world that were used in movies.
The tricky part about this restoration project is that the team, coordinated by Mark Dermul, reconditioned both the interior and the exterior of the iconic Star Wars igloo, but these are 250 km apart in the Tunisian desert. A short clip found on Mark’s YouTube channel demonstrates movie magic. The team is first shown outside the Lars homestead and then inside. Considering the distance between the two places, this could very well be interpreted as magic by unknowing people.
Additional info and pictures related to the Save the Lars Homestead project can be found on Mark Dermul‘s website.
If you liked this post, please check these 8 reasons why the Dark Side rules and these Star Wars propaganda posters.
