JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Any Star Wars fans out there? The movie franchise wouldn’t be nearly as successful (or at least as cool-looking) without the work of Colin Cantwell.

Who?

Unless you are an ultra-Star Wars nerd, you’ve probably never heard of him. That’s all right, don’t be too hard on yourself. Cantwell’s live-in girlfriend didn’t know either until she went to clean out the couple’s Boulder, Colorado basement.

What she found was a whole bunch of models and movie paraphernalia. The models were ships and they looked an awful lot like the X-Wing Fighter, Y-Wing Fighter, Tie Fighter, Star Destroyer, Death Star, Landspeeder, Sandcrawler, T-16 Skyhopper and the original Millennium Falcon that appeared in Star Wars movies through the years.

Indeed they were prototypes Cantwell, now 85, mocked up for George Lucas in the 1970s. Cantwell is the original concept artist and modeler for all things that flew in the first Star Wars movie (“A New Hope”) in 1977.

Cantwell will be in Jackson on Wednesday, August 8, from, 3-6pm at the Movie Works Theatre. The spaceship creator will be showing rare and exclusive video footage describing his interaction with George Lucas and his work on Star Wars.

Also featured will be an audience choice of videos showing some of his other iconic projects including his work on 2001, A Space Odyssey and War Games, as well as his being the Hal 9000 Computer that fed Walter Cronkite the progress of the Apollo 11 moon landing as Walter was broadcasting on live TV in 1969.

The presentation will be followed by an opportunity for fans to meet Cantwell, ask questions, and share stories. Autographs will be on sale for $25 and include a free 8×12 print of either his original 1974 Star Wars concept art or his 1975 photos of the first Star Wars models.

More on Colin Cantwell

Cantwell is the self-proclaimed father of ‘kitbashing.’ It is a model-making technique of taking apart an existing model—be it plastic cars, trains, planes—and reconstruct it into something new and different.

Concerning his work on the spaceships of Star Wars, Cantwell said in an interview with InterGalactiCon: “Each model was treated as a personality in the movie. They were as unique as its role in the film. I thought about how audiences would respond to each ship. The ideas for the designs evolved in my mind from there.”