We've all heard of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes back, the second film in the franchise, which hit theaters in 1980. But unless you're a truly diehard Star Wars fan, you probably didn't know that there was another film that actually premiered right before the movie.
Black Angel was a 25-minute medieval fantasy short written and directed by Star Wars set designer Roger Christian. The film played before Empire Strikes Back screenings in England, Scotland and Australia, and it was thought to be lost to the ages until it resurfaced last month when Christian uploaded a restored version to YouTube.
Now it looks like a feature-length film of Black Angel is in the works. Christian launched an Indiegogo campaign Monday in the hopes of making that a reality.
The film will tell the tale of a knight as he travels to the underworld with the daughter of a rival king to battle the Black Angel. The film will be directed by Christian and will star Laura Weissbecker, John Rhys-Davies and Rutger Hauer.
Black Angel's Indiegogo page describes the movie as "Game of Thrones meets Valhalla Rising, Excalibur meets Lord of the Rings. A powerful tale of ancient Celtic magic and Nordic Paganism, it’ll be gritty, dirty and heroic – everything great fantasy should be."
So far, Black Angel has raised nearly $32,000 of its $100,000 goal on Indiegogo as of the time of this writing. If incentives like appearing in a fight scene in the film, owning the original Black Angel poster and getting your hands on a piece of the actual film negative from Star Wars strike your fancy, you have 46 days left to contribute to the project's Indiegogo campaign.
The Black Angel remake will probably not be made in time to premiere before Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, which hits theaters Dec. 18, not to mention it will also be too long to serve as the opening act for the latest installment in the saga. However, it sounds like Black Angel could still be a nice addition to any Star Wars lover's movie collection.
Check out Christian's full Black Angel short film from 1980 below.
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