For sale to the highest bidder: Luke Skywalker's left hand

This year's annual Hollywood Prop & Art Auction claims to be offering the prop of Luke Skywalker's severed hand from The Empire Strikes Back. But you've got to read the fine print. It turns out this is not Luke's severed hand (which was his right hand) but a sculpt of his left hand:

This piece was created by Stewart Freeborn (creator of Yoda) who was in-charge of make-up and special creature design on the film. It was the original piece created for the final battle until George Lucas decided it should be Luke's right hand. This is the casting of Mark Hamil's [sic] left hand holding the hilt of his lightsaber. 

So it's a bit of a scam. If you're still interested, follow the link. Bids close 30 March 2013.

icollector.com: Luke Skywalker Severed Hand

(via ComicBook.com, who did not read the fine print)

Lost Dutch documentary on the making of Empire

OpenCulture reports on a long-lost Dutch documentary on the making of Empire, with links to the YouTube clips:

...have a look at the Dutch television documentary above, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back (part one, part two). The broadcast focuses on the painstaking creation of the film’s special effects, most of which still hold up 32 years after audiences first glimpsed them. We see the models, the matte paintings, and even the phalanx of performers and technicians needed to execute the Norway-shot battle on the ice planet Hoth. It took $18 million, so producer Gary Kurtz tells us, to pull all of this off. Surely that seemed an extravagant, no-expense-spared figure in 1980, but today, in light of the profits, dedicated fanbase, and place in the zeitgeist, it sounds like a bargain.

Alas, The Making of the Empire Strikes Back exists on the internet only in an incomplete form, but the story behind its rediscovery turns out to be interesting enough to compensate. Star Wars fan site mintinbox.net offers a detailed four-part article on this, “one of the most lost documentaries about The Empire Strikes Back.” Though directed by famed French “grand-reporter-cameraman” Michel Parbot, it fell into obscurity soon after its initial broadcast. 

Note: the documentary starts in Dutch but switches to English about 45 seconds in.

Open Culture: The Making of The Empire Strikes Back Showcased on Long-Lost Dutch TV Documentary