“Darth By Darthwest” is the Hitchcock-Lucas collab of movie geeks’ dreams
It could have happened, even if it didn’t. The film careers of George Lucas and Alfred Hitchcock did overlap for a few years there in the ’70s, so the two iconic directors could have collaborated on a project had they so desired. Officially, no such project exists, so it is up to fans to imagine what might have emerged from such a union. In that spirit, Fabrice Mathieu’s “Darth By Darthwest” is a brilliant mashup of Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North By Northwest with Lucas’ Star Wars saga. Beautifully rendered, this six-minute film integrates visual elements from the Star Wars film into the iconic crop duster sequence from the Hitchcock film. At one point in Northwest, Cary Grant’s wrongly accused, hotly pursued character finds himself standing by the side of the road next to a cornfield. It’s a flat, dusty location, not entirely dissimilar to Tatooine. So why not just turn it into Tatooine? Add a few sarlacc pits here and there, maybe a moisture vaporator or two, a landspeeder, and a cameo appearance by Jabba’s Palace. Then all the scene needs are cameos from C-3PO and BB-8. Oh, and maybe a little Millennium Falcon action, too.