Skip to main content

Star Wars companion film Black Angel will be made into a full movie

Last month, the short film that accompanied screenings of Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back back in 1980 found itself back in the headlines when negatives of Black Angel were discovered years after the film was believed to have been lost. Now, that 27-minute film directed by set director Roger Christian is becoming a full, feature-length movie 35 years after it first premiered, with Christian at the helm.

Christian posted the original, restored film online last month accompanied by both an introduction from the Oscar-winning set designer, and a tease that more news regarding the dark, medieval fantasy was on the way.

Recommended Videos

“It’s my passion project, has been for 35-36 years,” Christian told The Hollywood Reporter. “I guess ‘patience is a virtue’ is a true saying.”

The feature-length version of Black Angel, which follows a knight who returns home from the Crusades only to discover that his home and the surrounding town have been threatened by supernatural forces, will begin production later this year in Scotland, with additional shooting in Hungary, Morocco, and Belgium. Two well-known sci-fi and genre actors are also attached to the film, with Blade Runner actor Rutger Hauer and Raiders of the Lost Ark actor John Rhys-Davies cast in unspecified roles.

Black Angel (1980 short film)

While the original short film was made for around $38,000, the feature-length adaptation will have a bit more generous of a budget — something around $15 million, according to Christian.

“I can make a huge epic film with that,” said Christian in an interview about the feature-length Black Angel movie. “I’m going down and dirty, I want the audience to smell the blood and the sweat and the tears. I’ll be doing fights in mud and rain.”

Although George Lucas himself commissioned the original Black Angel to accompany The Empire Strikes Back, the Star Wars creator won’t be involved with the feature-length film, according to Christian. An IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign was launched earlier this week to bring additional funding to the project, with perks that include a role as a member of the Demon King’s army in the film.

“It kind of happened – serendipity of the universe – as J.J. [Abrams] was about to start filming [The Force Awakens], so it became this legendary story of a lost piece of Star Wars history,” said Christian of his little film’s new-found popularity more than three decades after it was first screened for audiences.

No word has yet been given as to when production for Black Angel will begin, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for updates so stay with us.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
7 sci-fi movies that have great endings
The Star Child in "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Science fiction films have given audiences many thought-provoking stories with equally profound endings. These conclusions can spark the audience's imagination of what could be with an uplifting resolution, or they can leave a crater in their hearts with a hopeless prediction of humanity's future.

Whatever impact they left on the audience, these seven sci-fi movies, from a Stanley Kubrick classic from the 1960s to one of 2022's best movies, nailed their final moments and cemented each film's place in the pantheon of great genre works.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Read more
The 7 best Star Wars vehicles ever, ranked
lets pick apart little things star wars force awakens teaser trailer  8

The universe of Star Wars is absolutely jam-packed with vehicles. These vehicles are the chief way that the story's characters get from one planet to another, and they're also how people often travel when they're on a planet.

These vehicles serve much more than a simple utilitarian function, though. They're almost characters in and of themselves, and they're also often settings for some of the most important scenes in the history of the franchise. Star Wars simply wouldn't be the same without its many vehicles, so we've decided to rank the seven best.
7. AT-ATs

Read more
Han Solo is the best sci-fi character ever. Here’s why
star wars episode viis scruffy looking nerf herder revealed harrison ford han solo

Even though he is in no way the main character, Han Solo may be the most important character in Star Wars canon. It's precisely his regularness and his swagger that make him so compelling. As one of the most important characters in Star Wars, you can also make a pretty credible case that Han is the most important character in science fiction as a whole.

Few have had a more major influence on what science fiction has become, and even fewer are as pretty to look at as Harrison Ford. Here are five reasons Han Solo is the best sci-fi character ever:
1. He has a great partner

Read more