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Attendees at the 33rd annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring Star Wars creator George Lucas got a surprise from the final frontier when, of all people, William Shatner, Star Trek’s original Captain Kirk, arrived on stage to open the festivities. It happened on June 9, 2005, and it remains an indelible moment of entertainment galaxies colliding.

Shatner basked in the moment, giving a remarkably Shatner-ian performance. He hammed it up, smiled broadly, joked about his hair (comparing it to the honoree’s iconic follicles), and, yes, sang. Upon Shatner's introduction, the faces of Lucas, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Chewbacca all expressed shock. Shatner then elicited chuckles with his opening line: “Star Trek changed everything.” He then cracked, “Aren’t these conventions wonderful?” And from there, after two stormtroopers nearly carried him off the stage, Shatner engaged in his signature talk-sing warbling, delivering a...

While he might not be an official member of the Fantastic Four, H.E.R.B.I.E. is an honorary member of the team and has had a special place in fans' hearts. Fortunately, he is finally getting the big screen treatment in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Ever since H.E.R.B.I.E. was showcased in the Valentine's Day cast announcement, fans set their dream picks for the voice behind H.E.R.B.I.E. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There was a big push for Blank Check co-host Griffin Newman, while many theorized that H.E.R.B.I.E. was the role Natasha Lyonne had been cast for. Now, fans know who will bring H.E.R.B.I.E. to life, and it is a Star Wars legend.

Empire revealed that Matthew Wood, a veteran sound designer best known as General Grievous's...

Michael Mann, Rob Reiner, Kathy Bates, Aaron Sorkin, Keir Dullea, Sean Young, Barry Bostwick and Eric Braedon are headed to the 16th annual TCM Classic Film Festival this month.

Reiner will chat with Kathy Bates and Aaron Sorkin before screenings of his dramas Misery (1990) and The American President (1995), and for the closing night film, Michael Mann will be on hand for a presentation of his action-packed Heat (1995), whose memorable performances include one from the late Val Kilmer.

The festival takes place April 24-27 in Hollywood.

Other presenters announced Thursday to talk about the making of their films include Dullea for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Bostwick for The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Young for Blade Runner (1982).

Danny Huston will introduce Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) — a film directed by his father, John Huston — Alexander Payne will get the audience pumped for Ben-Hur (1959), and Paul Schrader will set up Hud (1963).

Plus, the...

The 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival has announced its closing night selection, Michael Mann’s “Heat,” which marks its 30th anniversary this year. The 1995 crime drama stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and late actor Val Kilmer; a sequel is in the works, with Adam Driver and Austin Butler rumored to be playing the younger versions of De Niro and Pacino’s respective characters.

The 16th annual festival from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a theme of “Grand Illusions: Fantastic Worlds on Film.” The festival will take place April 24 to 27, with the “Heat” screening including a conversation with writer/director Mann. As previously announced, the festival will open with George Lucas’ “The Empire Strikes Back.” TCM Primetime host Ben Mankiewicz will serve as official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival, alongside Jacqueline Stewart, Dave Karger, Alicia Malone, and Eddie Muller.

Additional festival highlights include Rob Reiner in conversation with screenwriter...

It’s mid-July and I’m sitting in my living room, wondering what Ben Burtt, a man responsible for some of the most beloved cultural artifacts of the 20th century, will think of the decor. He appears on my screen calling from Locarno, where he’s just received a lifetime achievement award. I start by thanking him genuinely for his contributions to cinema, and something in that choice of words makes him blush.

Burtt was born in Jamestown, New York, in 1948. Like many of his contemporaries, he got his start in the industry working at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, making sound effects on the trailer for Death Race 2000. From there his credits more or less read like a greatest-hits of American popular culture. In his roll as sound designer, Burtt is credited with creating Chewbacca’s roar, the lightsaber’s hum, and the crack of Indiana Jones’ whip.

Movies have countless areas of craft that require distinct talents which sadly more often than not fail to be recognized in the way they deserve to be. While directors and actors are the most prolific, there is an endless array of roles that most would argue are just as important. Aside from editors, writers, and lighting crews to name a few, sound design is perhaps one of the most important aspects of moviemaking, but is rarely given much attention to. Legendary sound designer Ben Burtt is such a special case for the art of sound design for movies as how his work has not only reached an iconic status, with the most significant work done in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, but his inventive instinct on display for how to achieve the sound effects that are known so well. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here.

This post contains spoilers for season 2, episode 2 of "Severance."

After ending its first season on a heart-thumping cliffhanger, "Severance" has returned to delve deeper into Lumon's dark web of conspiracies. While the latest season picks things up from the perspectives of the innies (who experience the unsettling aftermath of their revolt), episode 2 focuses on the outies, and how they are dealing with the incident that concluded season 1 of the show. While outie Dylan (Zach Cherry) struggles to get a new job due to his severed status, outie Irving (John Turturro) makes a covert payphone call while being tailed by outie Burt (Christopher Walken). Meanwhile, Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) is seen scrambling to salvage Lumon's tarnished reputation, which necessitates drastic administrative changes that feel more ominous than comforting.

Amid this subdued chaos engulfing the world outside Lumon's stark offices, outie Mark (Adam Scott) wrestles over potential revelations about his seemingly dead wife,...

Star Wars has always pulled from various cultures, one of which is Africa's rich history and culture. Some of that has been displayed in the Star Wars franchise. One example is the dialect spoken by the character of Nien Nunb.

Lando's copilot at the Battle of Endor and resistance starfighter in the sequel trilogy speaks a language rooted in Africa. The character speaks Kalenjin and Kiuyu languages, both from the country of Kenya.

In 1983, when Return of the Jedi was seen in theaters, as Nien Nunb spoke, audiences from that country went crazy as they were able to understand what the character was communicating to Lando. "Atirizi inyui mwi hau inyouthe ukai haha," was a line spoken by the character.

Translated it says, "What are you doing over there? All of you, please come here.'' The Kiuyu language is spoken in the Kenyan cities of Nyeri, Nairobi and Nakuru.

The Star Wars prequels remain a crucial part of the space opera franchise despite fans continuing to have a love-hate relationship with the entries. Directed by franchise creator George Lucas, the films introduced the Battle Droids who played an important role in the first installment before becoming progressively useless with each subsequent entry.

The Battle Droids were introduced in Star Wars prequels (Credit: Lucasfilm).

During a fan convention, Star Wars sound editor and actor Matthew Wood spoke about the characterization of the Battle Droids in the prequels. Wood revealed that it was Lucas’ idea to make the droids stupider in the subsequent installments. However, the filmmaker had a valid reason for this change. Here is why the Battle Droids became more useless as the Star Wars prequels progressed.

Star Wars sound editor reveals the real reason Battle Droids were so useless

The Battle Droids were first introduced in 1999’s The Phantom Menace,...

The Star Wars films contain dozens of notable cameos. Some are subtle, while others are far more obvious (Jack Black and Lizzo in The Mandalorian). But one secret cameo may rule them all: legendary western star John Wayne was in Star Wars: A New Hope, released in 1977.

You'd be forgiven for never noticing his brief appearance in the film, especially considering most fans didn't know for years that the cameo even existed. The whole thing might've been forever forgotten if not for legendary sound designer Ben Burtt, whose credits include the original Star Wars trilogy, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Blade Runner. Speaking with Star Wars Blog years ago, Burtt revealed that the character Garindan, played by Sadie Eddon in A New Hope, is actually voiced by none other than The Duke himself, John Wayne.

For those who may not remember, Garindan (also known as Long Snoot...

You can predict what a person’s reaction will be to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle by what they see as the most iconic image of Indiana Jones from the films. For some, it’s the rugged adventurer stepping into the light in the South American jungle after his whip disarms an attacker. For some, it’s the silhouetted figure at sunset overseeing a dig for the Ark of the Covenant. For others still, it’s the shot of River Phoenix receiving the iconic fedora and transitioning to Harrison Ford defiantly grinning at a common hood before taking a punch. For my part, it’s the moment in Temple of Doom where Indy goes into the Thuggee temple and a mine cart’s light illuminates his bloody, sweaty, and absolutely pissed face.

For that reason, Great Circle felt like something of a strange fit for Machinegames. There was never any doubt,...

As notable as a John Wayne cameo in Star Wars would be, his appearance in A New Hope went unnoticed for 30 years, before the full details about this cameo were revealed. The Star Wars franchise is no stranger to cameos, particularly in its current TV show era, but it was quite rare to see such appearances during the original trilogy era, when Star Wars was just starting to make a name for itself. Even so, they still managed to make John Wayne a part of the very first Star Wars movie, though his role remained a mystery for years.

In fact, this role of Wayne's in Star Wars is so mysterious that his name doesn't even appear anywhere in the credits for A New Hope. Even Wayne's IMDb profile doesn't have his appearance in Star Wars listed. Despite this, Wayne's role truly does exist, and it is an important (albeit small) part of the movie.

The "Star Wars" franchise has grown far beyond what anyone could have imagined at any point in time. If you'd asked George Lucas while he was having an anxiety attack in the middle of shooting the first film, he would have said the movie was a mess. Fans in the late '80s, when the original trilogy had ended and no new movies were in sight, likely couldn't imagine that there would be six more films on the horizon. For that matter, had you asked George Lucas what was next for the franchise after he'd completed his prequel trilogy in 2005, he probably wouldn't have believed you if you told him about the many, many, oh so many "Star Wars" TV shows we now have (not least of all when he was still disillusioned about not being able to crack the code for making "Star Wars Underworld" at a reasonable budget...

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The Wild Robot is an animated sci-fi survival adventure comedy-drama film written and directed by Chris Sanders. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by author Peter Brown, the 2024 film follows Roz, a service robot whose ship crash lands on an uninhabited island and now she must make herself familiar with her new surroundings and the local wildlife. Roz soon makes an unlikely connection with an orphaned goose named Brightbill. The Wild Robot’s voice cast includes Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Matt Berry, and Ving Rhames. So, if you loved the vibrant visuals, emotional and hilariously heartwarming story, and compelling characters in The Wild Robot here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Iron Giant (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Warner Bros.

The Iron Giant...

George Lucas created the Star Wars franchise with the 1977 original film, which was a box office hit. After completing the original trilogy, Lucas returned to the space opera saga after almost sixteen years to helm the prequel trilogy. The new era started in 1999 with The Phantom Menace, making it the first entry since the original film to be directed by Lucas.

Star Wars creator George Lucas wasn’t the first to watch The Phantom Menace (Credit: HBO).

Despite his overarching involvement with the franchise, Lucas wasn’t the first person to watch the first installment of the prequel trilogy. In an interview, longtime Lucasfilm sound editor Matthew Wood revealed how he became the first person to watch The Phantom Menace, viewing a rough cut of the movie even before Lucas, and here is what he had to say about the experience.

Matthew Wood Revealed Watching The Phantom Menace Before Star...

George Lucas helmed all three installments in the prequel trilogy of Star Wars movies, which initially received mixed reviews from critics and fans. However, the films have found a place for themselves among the fanbase with several creative choices made by Lucas for the prequels becoming much-discussed aspects, including even some small details.

The battle droids are a fan-favorite element of the Star Wars prequels (Credit: Lucasfilm).

One of the details that fans appreciate about the prequels is the depiction of the battle droids. In Attack of the Clones, the droids are at their goofy best, resulting in some hilarious fan-favorite moments that are remembered even today. Sound editor Matthew Wood revealed how one idea from Lucas made such scenes possible and here is what he had to say.

Star Wars Sound Editor Revealed How the Goofiest Droid Scene in Attack of the Clones Was Made

Matthew Wood has a...

The phrase “voice of a generation” gets thrown around a lot, but if that label were defined by sheer recognizability, it would be hard to find a better fit than James Earl Jones, who died Tuesday. The real question is: which generation?

Depending on whether you were born before or after the year 1990, chances are good that the sound of Jones’ roll-of-thunder baritone instantly conjures one of two characters in your mind: “The Lion King” father Mufasa or “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader. That means, Jones speaks, and you think either of a cosmically wise patriarch, whose ghost returns to offer his self-doubting successor an encouraging “remember who you are,” or the most malevolent dad in all the universe, a destroyer of planets determined to lure his son to the Dark Side.

Those two projects were such pop-culture monsters — Disney’s Hamlet-on-the-savannah riff grossed nearly $1 billion, while George Lucas’ sci-fi...

Steven Spielberg's 2012 drama "Lincoln" may be considered the second part of a thematic trilogy in the filmmaker's oeuvre. Spielberg, from 2005 through 2017, made three notable historical biographies that dealt with specific historical events, but which were clearly being made to comment on dramatic political events in the present.

2005's "Munich" was about the infamous bombing at the 1972 Munich Olympics, wherein Palestinian forces killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. This plan of political vengeance, however, only begets more violence, and solves nothing. Spielberg ended the film with a pensive shot of the World Trade Center towers. "Lincoln," meanwhile, took place at a time in Abraham Lincoln's life when he tried to pass the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. Written by Tony Kushner, the film was clearly a parallel comment on marriage equality. 2017's "The Post," about the notorious Pentagon Papers, was clearly a post-Trump movie. These three films are Spielberg's best.

Akiplėša (Toxic), the feature debut from Lithuanian writer and director Saulė Bliuvaitė that explores the human body and mysterious model agencies, is the winner of the Locarno Film Festival’s 2024 international competition, which was honored with the Pardo d’Oro, or Golden Leopard, in the Swiss town on Saturday. Locarno77 organizers called the movie “an incisive portrayal of teenage girls and the crushing expectations imposed upon them.”

Meanwhile, the special jury prize went to Iraq-born Austrian auteur Kurdwin Ayub for her sophomore fiction feature Mond (Moon). The film follows former martial artist Sarah who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy Jordanian family. “It’s all about sisters, no matter where they come from, and about cages, no matter where they are,” according to Ayub.

Lithuania, which has a population of about three million people but was represented by two features in this year’s Locarno international competition,...

Burtt, the man who created iconic moods in George Lucas’s sci-fi blockbuster, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien and Wall-e, explains the nuts and bolts – and hammers, ceiling fans and squeaky doorknobs – of his trade

When Ben Burtt Jr was invited to look at the concept art for Star Wars before filming began, he says he heard the lightsaber as much as saw it: it was the sound of a film projector. “I was a projectionist at a theatre,” he says. “I could hear a projector motor – not when it’s running the movie, but as it sat still: a musical humming. Fifty per cent of the lightsaber is that projector. I mixed it in with the buzz of a television tube.” So when you hear one of Burtt’s most famous sound effects, you are listening to cinema.

Yet it’s only one part of an amazing aural universe that Burtt has created,...

Arrrgghhhh! We all know the Wilhelm Scream, the iconic piece of audio that has been featured in countless movies and TV shows over the decades, but Ben Burtt, the man credited with rediscovering it for the original Star Wars movie, told THR that he had “created a monster.“

The Wilhelm Scream can be traced back to Distant Drums, a 1951 Western starring Gary Cooper. It found its way into Warner Bros.’ stock sound library and was used in many other films, but it achieved fame when Burtt put it into Star Wars as part of an in-joke with his friends.

Related Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net: Labyrinth, Spider-Man, The Nightmare Before Christmas

“It was a scream I first heard as a child. I recorded it off the television. It was in many of the Warner Bros. films in the 1950s and ’60s. It was a stock scream in their library,...

There are movie fans, and then there are “Star Wars” fans.

“‘Star Wars’ is an exception. It launched the foundation for my career and formed a fan community which has been amazingly enduring,” veteran sound designer Ben Burtt told Variety before picking up the Vision Award Ticinomoda at Locarno.

“I’ve met so many people who saw these films as children, and it inspired them to get into the movies. I can’t think of anything else that lasted that long in popularity. I will always have this ‘Star Wars’ connection.”

It came in handy when he was working on Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

“I got fewer opportunities to work on films that, well, weren’t in space. This one was very straightforward. No creature voices, no spaceships, no big sounds. But the original script had Lincoln taking out his pocket watch all the time. He would...

Ben Burtt reveals the origins of the iconic Wilhelm Scream in Star Wars, becoming a legend in the franchise. The scream is hidden in various Star Wars films and TV shows, delighting fans with its cameo appearances. From A New Hope to The Book of Boba Fett, the Wilhelm Scream lives on in Star Wars media, a nod to cinematic history.

The secrets behind the most recognizable sound effect in Star Wars history have been unveiled. Since the first Star Wars movie in release order in 1977, sound effects have become revolutionized. The franchise is known for its otherworldly sounds, noises, voices, and languages that help invest audiences in a galaxy far, far away, with this set to continue into upcoming Star Wars movies. Not only that, but the franchise's ventures into the small screen mean these sound effects have now become commonplace in Star Wars TV shows too, with one...

Ben Burtt created the sound of my childhood. He gets that a lot.

“Yeah, I hear that often,” says the legendary sound designer, creator of the lightsabre swish and Darth Vader’s electronic wheezing, the voice of R2-D2, Chewbacca and, for a younger generation, that of Pixar’s Wall-e. “I guess I altered the DNA of a lot of young people.”

Burtt, a 12-time Oscar nominee, and four-time winner — he earned Special Achievement Awards for his work on Star Wars and Raiders of the Los Ark, and Oscars for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — is being honored by the Locarno Film Festival at its 2024 edition with the Vision Award Ticinomoda, a prize dedicated to creatives whose work has extended the horizons of cinema.

“It might seem odd, giving the Vision Award to someone who is a sound designer and sound editor,” admits Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro,...

Star Wars has deeply influenced pop culture, from common sayings to collectibles, permeating everyday life and cinema. Pixar's Toy Story franchise pays homage to Star Wars with references like Darth Vader's breathing. Voice actors like Ben Burtt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Frank Oz bridge the gap between Star Wars and Pixar, creating a unique connection.

The influence Star Wars has had on pop culture cannot be overstated. From terminology like "going to the dark side" entering the common vernacular to the introduction of the fad of adults buying action figures, toys, etc., as collectors' items, Star Wars has infiltrated everyday life as much as it has cinema. However, that, too, shouldn't be overlooked. Star Wars impacts cinema with as much regularity now as it did in the '80s. This can be quite small and internal, like when Rogue One director Gareth Edwards credited the franchise as inspiration for his recent featurette,...

Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker known for the likes of Gravity, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Roma, will receive a lifetime achievement award at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.

He will receive the honor, a tribute to “film personalities with extraordinary careers,” on Sunday, Aug. 11 in the Swiss town’s Piazza Grande after audiences can catch a panel conversation with him earlier in the day.

“From low-budget films in Mexico to blockbusters in Hollywood, from adaptations of Charles Dickens, P.D. James or Harry Potter to the audacity and delicacy of modern classics, such as Y tu mamá también (2001), Gravity (2013) and Roma (2018) — which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival — Alfonso Cuarón has embodied the true spirit of a chameleonic contemporary artist able to master any assignment,” Locarno fest organizers said. “Though known for the dynamic long-takes that characterize the...

The Star Wars films helmed under the reign of George Lucas have mostly been epic pieces of masterworks tamed to the best of their abilities, especially the original trilogy. However, the prequel film series that followed wasn’t quite that well-received by fans and critics, especially the 1999 film Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

The Star Wars lore. | Credit: StarWars.com.

As it turns out, Lucas agrees as well. While the film itself went from a perfect piece to a total disappointment over time for fans, it has gone on to hold a somewhat similar position in the mastermind filmmaker’s heart as well. If anything, he himself admits that there are quite a few elements in the film that he went overboard with.

George Lucas Admits He Went Overboard With The Phantom Menace

Released in 1999, Episode I – The Phantom Menace kickstarted the prequel trilogy film series of George Lucas‘ Sw franchise.

New films from well-known auteurs such as Hong Sang-soo, Wang Bing and Ben Rivers will compete for the Golden Leopard against potential discoveries by newcomers and lesser known helmers in a competition that Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has called “a mosaic that reflects the multiple forms of contemporary cinema.”

Interestingly, all of the four first works in the 17-title competition are directed by women.

Nazzaro spoke to Variety about his choices for what looks like his most ambitious edition.

Talk to me about your opener, Italian director Gianluca Iodice’s “Le déluge” on the last days of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before their execution, with France’s Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet, who will be honored.

That was a no-brainer. It’s a hotly anticipated film, the second work of an Italian director who made a strong debut with a very personal and powerful film about [Italian protofascist poet] Gabriele d’Annunzio.

The Locarno Film Festival (August 7-17) has revealed the line-up for its 77th edition, with directors including Hong Sangsoo, Wang Bing and Ben Rivers world premiering their latest films in its international competition.

Playing out of competition at Locarno are world premieres from directors including Radu Jude, Fabrice du Welz, Aislinn Clarke, Bertrand Mandico, and Marco Tullio Giordana. Locarno’s famed Piazza Grande screenings include world premieres from Paz Vega, César Díaz and Gianluca Jodice.

Locarno’s international competition comprises 17 films, all of them world premieres, which will vie for the coveted Golden Leopard awards.

Scroll down for full line-up...

Locarno has revealed this year’s official selection.

Known auteurs Hong Sang-soo (“By the Stream”) and Wang Bing (“Youth (Hard Times)”) will now battle it out in the official selection, which will welcome 17 world premieres. Italy will be represented by Sara Fgaier’s “Sulla Terra Leggeri” and “Luce,” directed by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino. Ala Eddine Slim’s “Agora” will also be shown, as well as Ben Rivers’ “Bogancloch,” “Cent Mille Milliards” by Virgil Vernier and Saulė Bliuvaitė’s “Toxic.”

“We are very excited and happy with our selection, which we believe represents the best of contemporary filmmaking. We have taken special care in highlighting those works that, while broadening the possibilities of cinema, are also consciously trying to spark a more meaningful conversation with the audience,” stated artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, adding that the fest “continues to offer itself up as a platform for intersectional dialogue.”

The...

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival will debut 17 world premieres, including new works by Hong Sang-soo and Wang Bing, as part of its 2024 competition program. This year’s event runs from August 7 – 17.

The festival announced its competition lineups this morning. The Hong Sang-soo feature is titled Suyoocheon (By The Stream) and stars Kim Minhee, Kwon Haehyo, and Cho Yunhee. The Wang Bing feature is a France, Luxembourg, and Netherlands co-production titled Hard Times. Scroll down to see the full Locarno competition lineup, which also includes new titles from Ben Rivers, Mar Coll, and Christoph Hochhäusler.

The festival today also announced that French acting veterans Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet will receive the event’s honorary Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening ceremony on August 7. Previous recipients of the award include Riz Ahmed and Aaron Taylor Johnson.

Locarno’s separate Piazza Grande lineup features 18 titles, including Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig,...

Legendary sound designer Ben Burtt, the man behind R2-D2’s beeps, the lightsaber swoosh and Wall-e’s electronic warble, will be honored at this year’s Locarno Film Festival with the Vision Award Ticinomoda, a prize dedicated to creatives whose work has extended the horizons of cinema.

A 12-time Oscar nominee, and four-time winner — he received special achievement Oscars for his sound work on the original Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Arc and won trophies for sound effects and sound editing work on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — Burtt has created a staggering number of sounds that, in the words of the Locarno festival “have since imprinted themselves on the minds of several generations of audiences and are still imitated in school playgrounds around the world today.”

Among his achievements are the croakily iconic “E.T. phone home” — a raspy voice...

The Locarno Film Festival will honor multiple Oscar winner Ben Burtt — the sound designer, editor and voice actor behind the ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ franchises — with its lifetime achievement award dedicated to creative pioneers.

The prominent Swiss fest celebrating international indie cinema will be feting Burtt, best known for voicing Wall-e and creating Darth Vader’s mechanical breathing, with its Vision Award Ticinomoda.

1977’s “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” was one of the first films he worked on. It was Burtt who created the lightsaber’s famous hum, which he says came from a broken TV set and a film projector.

“The beeping of R2D2. The Wilhelm Scream. The swoosh of the lightsaber. Darth Vader’s heavy, mechanical breathing. ‘Wall-e’’s electronic warble. Ewokese, the language spoken on the moon of Endor. All of these came from the mind of a single man: Ben Burtt,” Locarno said in a statement.

The Locarno Film Festival will pay tribute to award-winning Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones sound engineer, editor and voice actor Ben Burtt at its upcoming 77th edition in August.

The veteran technician will be feted with the festival’s Vision Award Ticinomoda, the prize dedicated to creatives whose work has extended the horizons of cinema.

Highlights of Burtt’s career include creating iconic Star Wars sounds such as R2-D2‘s beep, the swoosh of the lightsaber, Darth Vader’s heavy, mechanical breathing and Ewokese, the language spoken on the moon of Endor.

He also created electronic warble of 2008 robot character Wall·E and modelled the rasping voice of the alien protagonist of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) on a chain-smoker he came across in a coffee shop.

Burtt has won a slew of across his career including two Academy Awards for Sound Effects Editing twice, in 1982 for E.

One of the most underrated and appreciated aspects of any project is its sound design. Music and sound effects are what bring life to any film, and despite this, they are given the least amount of credit when a film is being made. Although, in some way, this department is supposed to hide in the shadows, John Williams still managed to shine in the Star Wars franchise.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi I LucasFilm

Over the years, he has worked as a composer for every single iconic project from the franchise, as well as others outside its world. The best example of his genius would be the 1983 film, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, where he had to join hands with two other legends, Ben Burtt and Randy Thom.

During the production of the film, it would seem that one scene in particular got a little too funny for...

The Star Wars franchise gained its iconic status in Hollywood thanks to the genius vision of pioneering filmmaker George Lucas who set the benchmark when it came to the sci-fi genre. Lucas was also fortunate to have a strong team of technical experts who brought his ambitious ideas to life on screen.

A scene from Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (image credit: LucasFilm)

Sound designers Ben Burtt and Randy Thom who created the entire soundscape for the franchise, were expectedly crucial to the narratives. Speaking about the extensive research that went into creating unique languages and sounds for the non-human characters, Burtt revealed the out-of-the-box process they used to arrived at the now recognizable language of Jabba The Hutt.

How Jabba The Hutt’s Iconic Speech Patterns Were Perceived And Created

Creating Star Wars is undoubtedly a task of Herculean proportions that only a visionary like George Lucas could have achieved.

Geroge Lucas’ Star Wars franchise took the world by storm in the late 70s and 80s and continues to expand even today. Despite having three distinct trilogies and countless spin-off media, the one twist that changed the face of the galaxy far, far away came in the second installment The Empire Strikes.

The Empire Strikes Back has one of the best Star Wars twists (Credit: Lucasfilm).

The game-changing twist in the film presented the protagonist Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, with a new challenge. Therefore, it might surprise some fans to learn that the twist was kept a secret from Hamill until the last possible moment. Here is what George Lucas had to say about keeping the twist a secret from Mark Hamill.

Geroge Lucas Explains Why He Kept Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Twist Secret From Mark Hamill

George Lucas kept The Empire Strikes Back twist a...

R2-D2 is a curious character in "Star Wars" lore. It's a three-foot-tall trashcan-shaped high-tech utility knife on wheels, most often used as a navigational computer (it can be plugged into the navigational systems of small spacecraft), and only communicating using a series of beeps and computerized chirping noises. Other characters talk to R2-D2 as if it's a human being, and indeed, some of its computer language sounds a little bit like a human voice, but one might be able to question if R2-D2 possesses consciousness. 

R2's sounds were provided by long-term "Star Wars" sound designer and editor Ben Burtt, and in multiple "Star Wars" films, actor Kenny Baker operated R2's moving parts from within. The human touch leads many to rest assured that R2 is indeed a conscious being with feelings and memories beyond mere computational storage. R2's consciousness was reinforced in the 1985 animated TV series "Droids,...

Lightsabers' iconic sound: interlocking motors hum, enhanced by old TV tube noise and dry ice clashing. Actor's favorite! At-at march: stamping feet are metal shearing machines, rhythmic engine sound from an oil derrick. Tie Fighters are just elephants! Wookiee speech made of 4 bears, lion, badger, and walrus. R2-D2's voice required a year of work and experimentation - a real performance!

How were some of the most memorable and iconic sounds in the Star Wars original trilogy made? We tend to underestimate the importance of sound effects when making movies, but the best sound engineers spend months and perhaps even years looking for just the right sound. When George Lucas began work on the Star Wars original trilogy, he hired some real trailblazers - including sound engineer Ben Burtt. Since then, Burtt and his team have constantly done the rounds, revealing secrets of their stunning sound effects.

Fans may often wonder how lightsabers work,...

In the B-plot of George Lucas' 2002 sci-fi romance "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones," the stalwart Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is sent to an ocean planet called Kamino to apprehend an assassin who may be lurking there. Obi-Wan finds more than he expected, as Kamino is the home of a massive cloning facility that has been making duplicates of Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) for years. There are now millions of him. When Jango Fett catches wise to Obi-Wan's investigation, he leaves Kamino in a miniature spacecraft while Obi-Wan pursues. In order to get Obi-Wan off his tail, Jango flies into a cluttered asteroid field and begins dropping explosive space mines called seismic charges.

The seismic charges, as dramatized in the film, are cylindrical objects that float out into space, hold steady for a moment, and then explode into a flash of blue fire. There is then...

The public's consideration of George Lucas' 1999 film "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" has dipped and swerved like a roller coaster. Those of us who were alive in 1999 are likely astonished to have witnessed "Phantom Menace" go from being one of the most successful films of all time, to one of the most disappointing franchise movies of all time, to one of the most outwardly hated blockbusters of all time, to one of the most unjustly maligned films of all time, to finally being considered a vital (if clunky) part of a long-running sci-fi saga with its share of highs and lows. 

In truth, "The Phantom Menace" is rather bad. Lucas' dialogue is dry and dull, his characters staid and bland. It's the stiffest, most mannered sci-fi blockbuster one might ever see, lacking in personality, wit, humor, fun, or excitement. The story of "The Phantom Menace" infamously surrounds...

Star Wars is still a cherished part of many people’s childhoods. Beyond the nostalgia, its sheer coolness and grandeur make it perfect for the theaters. However, it’s no secret that the Star Wars universe is expansive, with a plethora of spin-offs and sequels, which amounts to a $10 billion franchise.

Hollywood director George Lucas (image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

It’s remarkable to think that the franchise remains relevant with new movies still coming out to this day. Nevertheless, it’s only natural that, despite its popularity, Star Wars has had its occasional oopsie-daisy moments. One such instance is The Phantom Menace, which even George Lucas, the creator of the universe, admits to being a bit “disjointed.”

Even George Lucas Agrees This Star Wars Movie Was Hard to Watch

Despite its commercial success, The Phantom Menace was a critical disaster. Of course, it was a commercial success, as the fans...

Opening night of the TCM Classic Film Festival next week will also serve as a Pulp Fiction reunion.

Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosanna Arquette and Harvey Keitel are among those joining John Travolta on April 18 for the 30th anniversary, 35mm screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Fellow actors Eric Stoltz, Julia Sweeney, Frank Whaley, Phil Lamarr and Burr Steers, producer Lawrence Bender and executive producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher are expected to be there as well.

As previously announced, actor Billy Dee Williams and makeup artist Lois Burwell will be honored at the 15th annual festival; author Jeanine Basinger will receive the Robert Osborne Award; and Jodie Foster will partake in a hand- and footprint ceremony.

The festival, with the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film,” runs through April 21 at venues including the rejuvenated Egyptian Theatre.

Among those...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

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Best Achievement in Sound

Weekly Commentary: In the highly competitive sound category, “Oppenheimer” production sound mixer Willie D. Burton could become the first Black person to win three Oscars in the category, an historic achievement. A victory for “Oppenheimer” would also grant Universal Pictures its 10th statue,...

Veteran voice actor Mark Dodson has passed away.

Per TMZ, Mark Dodson, whose work included voicing characters in the Star Wars and Gremlins franchises, has died. His death was confirmed by his daughter, who said Dodson died while in Evansville, Indiana, to attend the Horror Con fan convention. Dodson reportedly checked into a local hotel after arriving in the city, and he suffered a massive heart attack during his sleep. He was 64 years old.

Mark Dodson's first big role as a voice actor was for the 1983 sequel, Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi, which was the third installment of the original Star Wars trilogy. He voiced the high-pitched monkey-lizard Salacious Crumb, the jester for Jabba the Hutt. He'd later do more work with the franchise, as he voiced various characters for the Ewoks: The Battle for Endor in 1985 and a Niima Scavenger role in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

"Fast X" is one of the best over-the-top movies of the year (the first annual /Film Movie Awards even said so), but it just got even better. In an interview with Happy Sad Confused podcast's Josh Horowitz, director Louis Leterrier confessed that he snuck a familiar "Star Wars" sound effect into the action-packed driving movie. "In my last movie, in 'Fast X,' I put Tie fighter sounds in it," Leterrier told the host.

Though Leterrier doesn't say exactly where he snuck in the familiar sound of the Imperial fleet, Syfy Wire was able to trace the sound effect to the 1-hour 54-minute mark of the film, which features a climactic chase scene involving the film's unforgettably wild villain, Dante (Jason Momoa). Fans with an ear for sound effects also clocked the Tie fighter noise on Reddit soon after the movie's release. The Starfighters have some of the most...

Special effects artists are overworked. Perhaps you've heard some of the complaints from the Marvel Studios VFX artists who have to do an incredible amount of work in very little time. The problem has gotten worse over the years as CGI has become more prevalent. However, time was an issue all the way back when 2002's "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" was in production. There were a lot of sequences that required things that didn't exist on the set, particularly in the Geonosian droid factory scene. You know, the one where Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) dodge crushing metal stamps and C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels) literally loses his head.

The CGI technology available back in the early 21st century wasn't anywhere near as sophisticated as today's, yet the effects artists at Industrial Light & Magic (Ilm) were just as much under the gun...

George Lucas' "Star Wars" was a whole-cloth piece of world building. Inspired by gee-whiz sci-fi serials like "Flash Gordon," Lucas envisioned a sprawling saga that would stretch over multiple chapters. There was just one problem: the technology required to bring his vision to fruition didn't exist.

If you're any kind of "Star Wars" fan, you know about John Dykstra's revolutionary motion-control camera (the Dykstraflex), a pioneering piece of equipment that allowed Lucas to pull off the climactic trench run. You're also most certainly aware of how Rick Baker and Stuart Freeborn conjured up their groundbreaking creature effects. But do you know the story of how the lightsaber, the Jedi weapon of choice, was discovered?

While Lucas' idea for the lightsaber was brought to vivid life by the brilliant conceptual designer Ralph McQuarrie, someone had to either build or find the saber That someone was art director Roger Christian. And...

The Wilhelm Scream is a widely used sound effect in over 400 films, and its popularity stems from its inclusion in the Warner Bros. stock sound library. Sound designers Ben Burtt and Richard L. Anderson discovered the scream in the Warner Bros. archive and began using it liberally in their projects, including Star Wars and Indiana Jones. The Wilhelm Scream has become iconic in film and television, appearing in various movies, TV shows, theme parks, video games, and even having its own podcast. It is now available for anyone to use under a Creative Commons license.

The Wilhelm Scream is a sound effect that has been used in over 400 films over the years since its creation. The sound effect was first used in the 1951 film Distant Drums and has since been used as an additive to characters being thrown from an explosion, falling from very high up, or shot. The sound...

The most rudimentary research into the creative origins of the groundbreaking 1977 sci-fi flick "Star Wars" will reveal to the reader that creator George Lucas was inspired by "Flash Gordon" serials from the 1930s, as well as Akira Kurosawa's 1958 epic "The Hidden Fortress." Kurosawa's film famously opened with two clownish characters (Kamatari Fujiwara and Minoru Chiaki) who aimed to earn their fortune as samurai. After several misadventures, the peasants unwittingly become embroiled in a much larger plot about a missing princess (Misa Uehara), a war, and a brave protective warrior (Toshiro Mifune). "Star Wars" borrowed that film's structure, introducing audiences to its sci-fi action through the eyes (lenses?) of the robotic characters C-3Po (Anthony Daniels) and the non-humanoid R2-D2. 

C-3Po was a prissy, fastidious droid who seemed impatient with the foibles of the organic beings he lived with, and was frequently panicked and afraid. The only time...