- This unique libretto was purchased by a private collector in Austria for £10,795.
A script for the first Star Wars movie left in a London apartment has been sold for around £11,000.
Harrison Ford, the actor who played Han Solo, used the script in 1976, placing it in a rented London flat while filming at Elstree Studios.
The script was the fourth draft of the script for the first Star Wars film, originally titled The Adventures Of Luke Starkiller, and had an estimated selling price of £8,000 to £12,000.
This unique piece of film history was purchased by a private Austrian collector for £10,795.
It is incomplete and unbound, has different colored pages to indicate revisions, and contains scenes and characters that were cut from the final edit.
According to Excalibur Auctions in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, on page 56, Harrison Ford is introduced as George Lucas’s cynical hero Han Solo.
The script wasn’t the only thing Ford left behind in his apartment.
Other items included shooting schedules, call sheets and memos, which were sold together to a UK buyer for £4,826.
The papers contained a handwritten note that appeared to refer to a meeting between Ford and British producer Robert Watts.
Watts and Ford worked on 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1983’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. become.
These items were hidden in a private house in Notting Hill, London, for 50 years.
The owner of the house rented out the top two floors to Ford, and his co-stars Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, and Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, visited him during his stay.
Ford shot to fame after playing Solo in George Lucas’ 1977 science fiction blockbuster. He appeared in the original film’s sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), and reprized his role in The Force Awakens in 2015.
Star Wars creators Lucas and director Steven Spielberg had planned to cast Ford in another famous role, archaeologist Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. . Ford starred in four sequels, his last released last year.
Another item sold was a typed letter from a friend in which Ford was asked why he did not call his wife, Mary Marquardt, before they divorced in 1979.
The letter, dated April 16, 1976, also discussed his contract and future film prospects, and was sold for £177.80.
Ford went on to marry ET screenwriter Melissa Mattison, and their marriage ended in 2004, but she passed away in 2015.
Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart has been Ford’s wife since 2010.
“This sale saw competitive bidding from around the world on a never-before-seen piece of Star Wars history,” said Excalibur Auctions auctioneer Jonathan Torode.
“Although other copies of this script have previously been on the market, this sale sets a new record for a Star Walker script. This is because a personal link to the item・It shows how attractive it is to Wars fans.”
“The personal provenance makes them completely unique. We hope that their new owners will cherish them as much as their previous owners did.”
All figures include buyer’s premium.