This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/17/harrison-ford-han-solo-star-wars-wheelchair-magic-film

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Han Solo in a wheelchair? Not a chance At last, it's Star Wars: creativity strikes back
(35 minutes later)
On screen, Harrison Ford has survived everything from the attentions of a giant stone gobstopper (Raiders of the Lost Ark) to being turned into a human popsicle (The Empire Strikes Back). He even withstood a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Now the 71-year-old has been temporarily stopped in his tracks by a … door. The shooting schedule of Star Wars: Episode VII had to be hastily rejigged last week after Ford was hurt when a hydraulic door fell on him, injuring his ankle. On screen, Harrison Ford has survived everything from the attentions of a giant stone gobstopper (Raiders of the Lost Ark) to being turned into a human popsicle (The Empire Strikes Back). He even withstood a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Now the 71-year-old has been temporarily stopped in his tracks by a … door.
Speculation began almost immediately about what this would mean for his character, Han Solo. Film critic Anne Billson's suggestion on Twitter that Ford should play Han Solo in a wheelchair – "THAT would be cool & I bet more badass & interesting than anything they're doing now" – seems both the most creative route and unfortunately the one least likely to be taken. Far be it from me to suggest that Disney, which is making the movie, would be concerned disproportionately with merchandising opportunities, but the studio is bound to ask how many wheelchair-using action figures it would be able to shift. The shooting schedule of Star Wars: Episode VII had to be hastily rejigged last week at Pinewood studios, near London, after Ford was hurt when a hydraulic door fell on him, injuring his ankle. Speculation began almost immediately about what this would mean for his character, Han Solo. The Twitter suggestion of the film critic Anne Billson that Ford should play Han Solo in a wheelchair – "THAT would be cool & I bet more badass & interesting than anything they're doing now" – seems both the most creative route and unfortunately the one least likely to be taken. Far be it from me to suggest that Disney, which is making the movie, would be concerned disproportionately with merchandising opportunities, but the studio is bound to ask how many wheelchair-using action figures it would be able to shift.
Should Ford's mobility be impeded once he returns to the set, there are any number of ways to disguise this on screen. If cinematographers and set designers could conspire to hide the diminutive stature of Alan Ladd, they can certainly manoeuvre around a simple below-the-knee injury. Ladd spent much of his career standing on boxes so as not to be dwarfed by fellow cast members. By the time he made Boy on a Dolphin in 1957, he felt he was very much above this sort of thing – a rare sensation for the 5ft 6in actor – and stipulated instead that his co-star Sophia Loren should stand in holes and trenches when playing opposite him.Should Ford's mobility be impeded once he returns to the set, there are any number of ways to disguise this on screen. If cinematographers and set designers could conspire to hide the diminutive stature of Alan Ladd, they can certainly manoeuvre around a simple below-the-knee injury. Ladd spent much of his career standing on boxes so as not to be dwarfed by fellow cast members. By the time he made Boy on a Dolphin in 1957, he felt he was very much above this sort of thing – a rare sensation for the 5ft 6in actor – and stipulated instead that his co-star Sophia Loren should stand in holes and trenches when playing opposite him.
This sort of trickery has been overtaken by computer-generated technology. If Gary Sinise could have his legs digitally removed to play an amputee 20 years ago in Forrest Gump, it will be no sweat imposing a working set of pins on Ford today.This sort of trickery has been overtaken by computer-generated technology. If Gary Sinise could have his legs digitally removed to play an amputee 20 years ago in Forrest Gump, it will be no sweat imposing a working set of pins on Ford today.
Directors and costume designers are not short of experience when it comes to concealment. Pregnancy has threatened plenty of productions, but a cosmetic solution can usually be found – corsets are said to be the secret behind the second-trimester performances given by Reese Witherspoon in Vanity Fair and Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd, while the safety net of loose clothing (what the writer William Leith calls "going floaty") came to the rescue of Sarah Jessica Parker in series five of Sex and the City. The pen can always fix what the camera cannot: Julia Roberts' part in Ocean's Twelve was rewritten so that she feigns pregnancy as part of a heist, and jokes about Alyson Hannigan's character having eaten an excess of hot dogs were incorporated into How I Met Your Mother. When the same solution was proposed by Larry David to Julia Louis-Dreyfus while shooting Seinfeld, the actor burst into tears. Directors and costume designers are not short of experience when it comes to concealment. Pregnancy has threatened plenty of productions, but a cosmetic solution can usually be found – corsets are said to be the secret behind the second-trimester performances given by Reese Witherspoon in Vanity Fair and Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd, while the safety net of loose clothing (what the writer William Leith calls "going floaty") came to the rescue of Sarah Jessica Parker in series five of Sex and the City.
The pen can always fix what the camera cannot: Julia Roberts's part in Ocean's Twelve was rewritten so that she feigns pregnancy as part of a heist, and jokes about Alyson Hannigan's character eating an excess of hot dogs were incorporated into How I Met Your Mother. When the same solution was proposed by Larry David to Julia Louis-Dreyfus while shooting Seinfeld, the actor burst into tears.
Death may be the great leveller, but even this can be negotiated in post-production. Oliver Reed in Gladiator, Brandon Lee in The Crow, John Candy in Wagons East! – all these performers died before completing their scenes, but remained intact, or very nearly so, in the finished films. One exception: Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus had his remaining scenes completed by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.Death may be the great leveller, but even this can be negotiated in post-production. Oliver Reed in Gladiator, Brandon Lee in The Crow, John Candy in Wagons East! – all these performers died before completing their scenes, but remained intact, or very nearly so, in the finished films. One exception: Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus had his remaining scenes completed by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.
A dicky leg is hardly going to faze practitioners accustomed to bringing the dead back to life. And there is nothing like adversity to encourage a creative triumph – budgets running out and incapacitated or absent actors are exactly the sorts of things that force film-makers to be more ingenious. A multibillion-dollar property such as Star Wars is planned down to the last hair on an Ewok's head, so the makers of the latest film should perhaps see Ford's accident as an opportunity for some unexpected spontaneity and inventiveness in a franchise not previously known for those qualities.A dicky leg is hardly going to faze practitioners accustomed to bringing the dead back to life. And there is nothing like adversity to encourage a creative triumph – budgets running out and incapacitated or absent actors are exactly the sorts of things that force film-makers to be more ingenious. A multibillion-dollar property such as Star Wars is planned down to the last hair on an Ewok's head, so the makers of the latest film should perhaps see Ford's accident as an opportunity for some unexpected spontaneity and inventiveness in a franchise not previously known for those qualities.