Customs for the Kid: SILLOF's "THE WAR GALACTIC"

Monday, February 11, 2019

SILLOF's "THE WAR GALACTIC"

This morning, we woke up to an email from Jamie Follis aka Sillof to let us know that he just released a new line of creative Star Wars action figure interpretations commissioned by none other than Patton Oswalt in their 3rd collaboration together. Their first two collaborations, Faster Empire! Strike! Strike! and Road Wars were both huge hits! This project, the challenge was to create an action figure line for Star Wars if Wes Anderson had directed the film. Jamie started with a 7-page script that he wrote, and then designed the project like he would do for a movie. He then made eleven 7" scale figures, a 3-story house diorama, a truck (completely from scratch) and created a fictional movie trailer to present it all in such epic fashion!

http://sillof.com/the-war-galactic

"Over the years I have had many amazing creative opportunities. More than a few have come because of working with Patton Oswalt. I first heard Patton mention me in a tweet years ago and then later in an Empire magazine article while promoting the film Young Adult. The most flattering mention was when he wrote a post about me on his blog. It is quite surreal when someone who’s work you enjoy so much expresses an appreciation of what you do. Patton first commissioned me to create a line of figures where I imagined a world where Star Wars had been directed by the famous exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer and all the characters would have their genders reversed. The line was called “Faster Empire. Strike! Strike!” Next, he hired me to create a line where Star Wars existed in a Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic world. The line was called “Road Wars”.

We had kicked around a few ideas of what to do next and then Patton threw down the gauntlet and said, “What if you did Wes Anderson does Star Wars”. I was simultaneously terrified and excited. I have found that my best work comes when I am intimidated by the idea of the commission. Over the years I have never done a line that has been done by someone else first. I have tackled Samurai, WW2, Steampunk, Western, and Serials. But, to try to combine my favorite films with one of my favorite directors of all time was a quite intimidating. This fact was compounded by the fact that Wes Anderson has one of the most distinctive film-making styles of all time.

This was going to be a real challenge. Many times, when people do these kinds of creations they “mash” things together. That has never been my style and I knew I did not want to simply have the father Royal Tenebaum dressed in black like Darth Vader or do a Bill Murray as Obi Wan. I have worked as a production designer and art director on films, so I decided to tackle this project the way I would if I was lucky enough to work on a Wes Anderson film. I started with a 7-page script that I wrote that allowed me to create a complete narrative with the archetypal characters of Star Wars but in a Wes Anderson style world and story. Once I worked through who my characters where I began to design their look with heavy research on the recurring looks of Wes Anderson costumes but with subtle nods to the Star Wars inspirational characters and colors but muted palette. Patton always likes me to create vehicles, which I did for this line. But I counter proposed an additional idea to Patton that would expand the world I was creating. I pitched the idea of creating a miniature set for the figures to occupy. The sets are as much a character in Wes Anderson films as anyone and his love of miniatures made the idea even more appealing. Patton jumped at the notion and I was off.

The line consists of eleven 7" scale custom figures, a three story diorama, a scratch build truck, and an original movie trailer." - Jamie Follis