While this is hardly new news – the quotes from the Oscar-winning Sound Design icon Ben Burtt date back to the original Celebration Europe back in 2007, when we were busy celebrating the 30th anniversary of A New Hope – the involvement in The Mandalorian of Brendan Wayne, grandson of the legendary Hollywood star John Wayne, makes this a very relevant quote.
Believe if or not, the 1976 Western The Shootist wasn’t The Duke‘s final film appearance; it turns out that his distinctive drawl was a part of 1977’s Star Wars, albeit altered and used in the most unlikely manner as the voice of Snoot Snoot, aka Garindan, as Burtt explains.
“We had that character that looked kind of like a mosquito from the first Star Wars that we found we needed a sound for. I was wondering back a few months ago how I did it – because I keep notes and tapes – and I discovered it was an electronic buzzing which had come off of my synthesiser that was triggered by a human voice.”
“I listened to it and realised it was John Wayne. I had found some loop lines in the trash from the studio that had been thrown away. So the buzzing was triggered by some dialogue like ‘all right, what are you doin’ in this town?’ or something like that.”
- Hardcover Book
- Blake, Olivie (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 592 Pages - 08/29/2023 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)
