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Tag: Matt Denton

Forest Whitaker, Katee Sackhoff & More Revealed for Star Wars Celebration Chicago

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If you didn’t think Star Wars Celebration Chicago was big enough, a new round of guests were announced yesterday afternoon! The guests include: Forest Whitaker (Saw Gerrera), Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan), droid builders Lee Towersey, Josh Lee, Matt Denton and Hugh Quarshie (Captain Panaka).

Remember that all of these guests will have autograph opportunities available via the Topps Star Wars Authentics site.

Forest Whitaker, who played Saw Gerrera, the paranoid and grizzled leader of a band of extremists in Rogue One, is heading to Star Wars Celebration Chicago next month.

And he’s not alone. The Academy Award-winning actor will be joined by Katee Sackhoff, the voice of legendary Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.

Droid builders Lee Towersey, a longtime model building hobbyist who became part of Neal Scanlan’s practical effects team bringing R2-D2 to life for the sequel trilogy, will be on hand, as well as Josh Lee, who mechanized K-2SO for Rogue One and served as building supervisor and chief engineer on BB-8 for the sequel trilogy, and Matt Denton, the electronic design and development supervisor for Rogue One and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

And Hugh Quarshie, who played Captain Panaka, Queen Amidala’s loyal protector in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, will join fans, as well.

About Star Wars Celebration:

Star Wars Celebration is the ultimate fan experience focused on the galaxy far, far away…

Fans of all ages, from all over the world will come together in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. to celebrate the cultural phenomenon that is Star Wars. Star Wars Celebration revels in the excitement of new movies, television shows, books and comics while also commemorating the vast history of the Star Wars universe.  Star Wars Celebration has something special for every kind of Star Wars fan!

Celebration – Lucasfilm’s love letter to fans – is days of major announcements, immersive exhibits, an interactive show floor, screenings, exclusive merchandise, celebrity guests, panels, autograph sessions, fan-inspired activities, costumes and other surprises celebrating all things Star Wars! Star Wars Celebration is truly a once in a lifetime experience where memories are made, families are brought together, old friends are reunited, and new friendships forged — all in the setting of the ever-evolving Star Wars universe.

Matt Denton Talks About Building BB-8

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BB-8 in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

If you haven’t heard the name Matt Denton, and you are crazy for building real world droids, then perhaps you should get to know the man. He along with Joshua Lee built BB-8 from the ground up for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In a new interview with TechTheLead, Matt talks about the trials and tribulations that come with building this droid for Lucasfilm.

On trials that were faced with building the red carpet version of BB-8:

The red carpet BB-8 was a huge challenge for myself and Josh Lee, who was the principal mechanical engineer for the project. We both had some idea of how it might work, but had not tried anything in practice, so we decided to just start making it and see where it led.

There were other ball-based robot around at the time, but none with an external head! The more we got into the project the further we pushed our initial goals.

For example, our first version was not going to have any lights within the body, and it wouldn’t be able to turn on the spot, but during the design process we had a couple of eureka moments in which we thought we could add these functions in.

The closer the functionality our red carpet BB-8 had to the film BB-8 the better, as it would help to sell that magical moment when it appeared on stage for the first time. In the end we created something that was so close it could be filmed on!

On upcoming projects from Matt:

Well, my day job is working on films such as Star Wars. I’m currently working on the last in the new trilogy – Episode 9, but I’m not allowed to talk about that.

You can read more about Matt and his work on other things like his robot Mantis, by hitting the source link below!