North By Northwest is probably one of Hitchcock’s most famous thrillers, and even people who hear the name and think he must be the father of Robyn or something knows the movie’s endlessly parodied chase sequence, where Cary Grant, dropped off in the middle of nowhere for a meeting, finds himself on the run from a crop duster. So a French filmmaker and effects artists decided to mash up two classics into Darth By Darthwest.
What’s great is the opening is more or less just Cary Grant waiting at a bus stop on Tatooine, and watching the weirdness of a planet full of Jawas and Sarlaccs unfold around him. That it’s all surprisingly smooth for a bit where elements were cut and pasted out of a movie is just a bonus, especially as the original scene is a hilarious riff on the emptiness of the American Midwest. Then the TIE fighter shows up and we really go to town.
Sadly, Hitchcock himself would never have had the chance to direct a Star Wars movie; he passed away in 1980, right before The Empire Strikes Back arrived in theaters. So this is as close as we’ll get, but we can always dream.
(Via Sploid)
