Story of the Scene: Star Wars (1977)

How did a Warner Brothers stock sound effect become an in-joke amongst movie sound editors and movie geeks after being revived for the original Star Wars? Who screamed the Wilhelm scream?

To be frank, it’s a fairly insignificant moment in Star Wars. Luke Skywalker is on the Death Star, lair of his nemesis Darth Vader. He's fighting a running battle with the white-armored Storm Troopers and now he’s come to a vertiginous drop at the end of a corridor. He's firing upon the Storm Troopers on a similar position just opposite. One Trooper falls into the abyss between them and there’s a strangulated slightly high-pitched cry.

Welcome to the Wilhelm scream, used in over 130 films since the 1950’s.

This was the moment when it became currency again, a cult item, a moment of Hollywood history and a piece of pure Hollywood kitsch.

The man who put the scream in Star Wars is Ben Burtt. During his sound design work on Star Wars, Burtt was looking through the Warners archives. He came across an almost forgotten 3-D film called Distant Drums, made in 1951.

During a scene in which some soldiers are wading through the everglades, one is savaged by a waiting alligator. This is the first ever use of the Wilhelm Scream. Why is it called the Wilhelm scream? Burtt called it that after finding a subsequent use in The Charge at Feather River (1953) where it is issued by one Private Wilhelm (played by Ralph Brooke) after being shot in the leg.

For years it was only ever heard in Warner Bros films. It can be experienced in Judy Garland’s A Star is Born amongst many others. After Burtt started using it as a leitmotif in all of his movies it became much better known. For a long while Joe Dante employed it as a favored zombie cry in his films. More recently he has abandoned its use; now everyone is in on this former industry joke, a bit of sonic badinage between special-effects geeks.

During the editing of Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino called for a break when he was told all about the history of the scream - just as he was using it himself. By coincidence a TV channel was playing it that very afternoon, and Tarantino called time, crowding into a nearby room with his sound crew so he could watch Distant Drums.

So who screamed the Wilhelm scream? The most likely candidate is Sheb Wooley, most famous for the song The Purple People Eater which sold 3 million copies in 1958. Originally a bit-part actor, he played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in Distant Drums and was it seems hauled into Warner's for some post-production screaming.

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Cronenberg Writes a Novel

While attending the ongoing Rome Film Festival, Canadian director David Cronenberg has mentioned that he's writing a novel.

Cronenberg has already written 60 pages. It's not horror or sci-fi, but the otherwise Canada's most famous export after Celine Dion offered few details on the project. Perhaps The Dead Ringers director will write it with novelty pens fashioned from gynecological instruments.

"Based on the pages I have written we found publishers all over the world, which is very terrifying to me," Cronenberg told reporters. "It's at a very delicate phase right now, so I can't really talk about it. It's not like Stephen King, I don't know what it's like but you wouldn't call it a horror or science fiction novel at all. But what it is exactly, well, I don't know yet."

Watchmen footage HERE

Ridley Scott to make Sci-Fi film

Fox 2000 has acquired rights to Joe Haldeman's 1974 novel "The Forever War," and Ridley Scott is planning to make it into his first science fiction film since he delivered back-to-back classics with Blade Runner and Alien.

Scott intended to follow those films with The Forever War, but rights complications delayed his plans for more than two decades.

What Spielberg Does Next

The Paramount Dreamworks bust-up has left Steven Spielberg with time on his hands. Here's a list of his next possible projects:

1. Tintin
A trilogy based on Herge's comic strip about a young reporter and his clever side-kick dog Snowy who always lands in exotic forms of trouble. Spielberg has held the rights to Tintin for 25 years and he may begin lensing the first installment this fall, using 3-D performance capture technology. Peter Jackson will likely direct the second film.

2. Lincoln
The director has a draft from Munich writer Tony Kushner for a project which has been ongoing since 2001. Spielberg says he'd like to start this longtime passion project in "early 2009, because it's Lincoln's 200th anniversary." The film is expected to focus on the Civil War and star Liam Neeson in the title role as Lincoln himself.

3. The 39 Clues
An adaptation of a 'next Harry Potter' book series centers on The Cahills 'the most powerful family in the world'. Spielberg has hired screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) to kick the whole thing off. Spielberg's presence as a producer as well as director bodes well for the film.

4. The Trial of the Chicago 7
Based on the story of the seven Americans charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention, The Trial of the Chicago 7 would mark a very political departure for Spielberg, as well as for stars Will Smith and Sacha Baron Cohen. Baron Cohen will play Abbie Hoffman. Smith may play Black Panther Bobby Seale (watch out, Will), and Philip Seymour Hoffman has been considered as defense attorney William Kunsler.

5. Dinner For Schmucks
Sacha Baron Cohen and Spielberg have been conducting a mutual admiration society since they met at the 2007 Paramount/DreamWorks Golden Globes party. Already in development, this could be a rare Spielberg foray into straight comedy with a kind of Larry David feel about it.

6. St. Agnes' Stand
A wounded man on the run who, against his better judgment, stops to help a group of nuns under siege from Apaches. Previously connected to Martin Scorsese, this adaptation has been in development for about 6 or 7 years. Those in the know say Spielberg and company are very happy with it, even though it has been kept very quiet. "They talk about it less than Lincoln, but that doesn't mean anything," says one person familiar with the project.

7. Interstellar
Spielberg attended lectures at Caltech for this project based on physicist Kip Thorne's relativity, time travel, and wormhole work. Dark Knight scribe Jonah (brother of Christopher) Nolan is set to deliver a script in 3-5 weeks.

8. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
DreamWorks book exec Lisa Hamilton quietly acquired rights to David Kertzer's 1997 true story of a Jewish boy kidnapped by agents of the Papal inquisition. Tony Kushner is earmarked to adapt but is currently busy revising the Lincoln script.

9. The Children of the Lamp
This P.B. Kerr book adaptation about twins who live in Manhattan and battle with evil Djinn has not so far been ear-marked for Spielberg. At the same time, DreamWorks have not sent the drafts out to any directors - so it could be that Spielberg is eying it. Kerr's blog can be found here.

10. A musical?
The director told Time Magazine in 2002 he's set on doing a musical someday. The rank outsider.

Sulu Gets Hitched

Mr Sulu got married to his male partner on Sunday, and Lt Uhuru and Chekhov were part of the ceremony.

71 year-old Star Trek star George Takei married longtime partner Brad Altman at the Democracy Forum of the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. Sunday.

The couple exchanged turquoise wedding bands during the ceremony, which was officiated by a Buddhist priest and attended by 200 guests.

Takei's Star Trek co-stars were a part of the ceremony: Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) as best lady and Walter Koenig (Chekhov) as best man.

"May equality live long and prosper!" Takei declared after the vows.

You can read his blog here - though to be honest it hasn't recently been updated, which seems a shame

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Hollywood blogger and occasional movie-maker Kevin Smith has raved about about the forthcoming $100m blockbuster Watchmen (its official website here is suddenly unavailable at the time of writing). But there again, Kevin Smith raved about Sin City, didn't he? With the notable exception of Batman and Spiderman almost all comic book/graphic novel adaptations in recent years have been shuddering disasters - The Fantastic Four, V for Vendetta, The League of Gentlemen, The Hulk, to name but a few. Will Watchman, originally written in 1986 by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, be any different? As a film it’s had various directors attached over almost a ten year period. Some were hoping that Terry Gilliam would succeed in his long quest to make it, but too many dollar-hemorrhaging productions and too many tilts at windmills put a stop to that.

But it looks as if no-one will get to watch the Watchmen if 20th Century Fox have their way; they’ve launched a lawsuit claiming prior copyright on the project. They’re out for blood too, with industry bible Variety claiming Fox actually want the film destroyed, and not distributed at all. What seems more likely is that they’ll ask for a hefty pay-off - $25m is being discussed. On top of that they’ll be a share of the ancillary profits; Warners is already planning two spin-offs for the DVD release.

Fox has already spent $1m developing the film. When projects drag on as long as this, it seems that people forget who signed what document and when. But watch this space. Around the globe, comic book fans are planning noisy protests outside the Fox headquarters in LA and we could well see people with limited social skills moping round outside Fox's London HQ in Soho Square, fanning each other with copies of the mercifully unfilmable Swamp Thing (Alan Moore's masterpiece).

If comic books are an important part of your mental architecture, you can sign a petition here.