On July 8th 2009 a very ambitious project was launched; entitled Star Wars Uncut the project attempted to re-create Star Wars: A New Hope with members of the public creating their own versions of all the scenes.

There has been an announcement on the site’s blog by the founder, Casey Pugh, that the film is finished and will be shown at CPH PIX, a Copenhagen film festival.

Although it will probably be a strange and disjointed experience watching the film I love the concept and look forward to whatever Pugh’s next project will be (cough…The Empire Strikes Back).

You can take a look at the scenes that were created over at Star Wars: Uncut and there will be sections of the completed film posted up in the next week.

Check out the trailer for the project embedded below.

The sad news that one of my child hero actors 0f the 80s had died left me feeling rather deflated yesterday afternoon. To me, Corey Haim was a fun loving and carefree guy who provided me with so many laughs when I was growing up in movies like Lost Boys and Licence to Drive. I wanted to be just like him, hang out and be mates and get up to all the same antics that he did in his movies!

As we all know, he was part of a double-act with his friend and side-kick, Corey Feldman who will be no stranger to the name of this website. They worked in numerous films together (the above 2 included) and our thoughts go out to him and Haim’s family and friends at this difficult time.

Corey Feldman has placed his own moving thoughts on his blog which I’ve embedded below. You can head over to Feldman’s website to leave comments and I’m sure he’d appreciate them.

I was awakened at 8:30 this morning by my brother and sister knocking on my bedroom door. They informed me of the loss of my brother Corey Haim. My eyes weren’t even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face. I am so sorry for Corey, his mother Judy, his family, my family, all of our fans, and of course my son who I will have to find a way to explain this to when he gets home from school. This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family, and best friend. We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference. Please respect our families as we struggle and grieve through this difficult time. I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived. ~ Corey

RIP Corey Haim, you will always be a legend on the eyes of HeyUGuys.

Sad news to end the week on tonight. The actor and director Lionel Jeffries has died at the age of 83.

He’ll be a familiar face to those of us who watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang endlessly, his role as the eccentric and irrepressible Grandpa Potts was a huge part of the buoyancy and charm of the film and he contributes hugely to its timeless appeal.

Jeffries was also well known as a director, bringing the children’s classic The Railway Children to the screen in 1970, he also wrote the screenplay and it is perhaps the most enduring of his films.

I didn’t realise this until tonight but he was also behind the camera of the 1978 adaptation of Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies, which is a strange and, at times, haunting film yet full of joy in its mix of live action and animation. Both films are worth a watch, I’d have no hesitation in recommending them. Another surprise was the revelation that he made his screen debut, though uncredited, as Bald RADA student in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright.

Another of his roles which will always raise a smile for me was his turn in the 1964 Victorian sci-fi The First Men in the Moon, but in a career spanning 50 years he will always be associated as the dotty head of the Potts family.

You can read the BBC’s report here, and enjoy one of his finest scenes below.