Tom Chantrell


Among Chantrell's best known works are the posters for The King And I (1956), Carry On Cleo (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), One Million Years B.C. (1966), The Land That Time Forgot (1975) and At the Earth's Core (1976).

Star Wars poster


Tom Chantrell's Style C poster for Star Wars (1977)

Tom Chantrell's Style C poster for Star Wars (1977)

In 1977 Chantrell was commissioned by 20th Century Fox to produce a poster for the UK theatrical release of Star Wars. The US release had been promoted with a poster designed by Tom Jung, now known as as Style A. In UK cinemas, the film was advertised with a reworked version of Jung's artwork, the Style B poster by the Brothers Hildebrandt, but Fox and Lucasfilm executives were dissatisfied with the poster and decided to replace it with a more realistic depiction of the lead characters, in order to promote the film more effectively. Chantrell worked from a press pack of publicity stills to create the likenesses of Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, and got his wife, Shirley Chantrell, to pose as a model for Princess Leia's body.

Chantrell's Star Wars poster adapted for Hong Kong

Chantrell's Star Wars poster adapted for Hong Kong

Chantrell's Style C poster depicts Luke Skywalker looking directly and pointing his gun at the viewer, flanked by Han Solo and Princess Leia brandishing blaster guns, with a large image of Darth Vader looming behind holding a lightsaber, surrounded by smaller characters and a montage of starfighters in combat. Because of Chantrell's long association with Hammer productions, he included Peter Cushing on his poster; this was the only Star Wars theatrical poster that ever featured Cushing's likeness.

In 1978, aside from being used as a cinema poster in the UK, variations of Chantrell's illustration were used as cinema posters and printed on promotional flyers and the cinema tickets themselves in Hong Kong, then a British colony.

Other work


Chantrell's Post C artwork was reused as the cover for the 1987 first edition rulebook of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. In the book's credits, the cover illustration is credited as "Cantrell".

Chantrell's artwork was used as the cover illustration the 1992 video game Super Star Wars.

Sources


Appearances