This brief excerpt from The Star Wars Poster Book by Steve Sansweet and Pete Vilmur recounts Greg Hildebrandt's memories of how the famous Brothers Hildebrandt Star Wars poster came about, and has been mildly edited for clarity.
Greg Hildebrandt Interview from The Star Wars Poster Book
"The reason [20th Century Fox] called us is because Tim and I had just done the Lord of the Rings calendar, and we had a fan following," says Greg Hildebrandt. "We had come through literally overnight for them on a poster for Young Frankenstein. It wasn't used, but we did it overnight, so they called us and said we need a poster fast."
With the deadline to compose newspaper ads just nine days away, the artwork needed to be done in two. Gathering some stills and a photo of Tom Jung's concept from the ad agency in New York, the brothers raced back to their studio in New Jersey to start the painting. The only direction they were given was to make the image look "comic bookish."
Greg Hildebrandt remembers the tag-team approach they used to complete the piece. "[I posed my then-wife in a nightgown] and tore it in a few places to get that 'Frazetta' look," Hildebrandt says. "I had a friend throw on a bathrobe for Luke, then I took Polaroid photos, and Tim and I started to draw. By then it was around 8 p.m. We drew together until about midnight, then I went to sleep and Tim transferred what we had drawn to art board, painted for three or four hours, woke me up, and then I painted for a while. We worked like that for thirty-six hours before we finished."
Shortly after the painting was completed and photographed, the Hildebrandts were called in to do some touch up. The brothers had a suggestion. "We thought there should be more characters, especially in the space to the right of Luke," Greg Hildebrandt says. They asked if they could paint in C-3PO and R2-D2, and the studio approved. With a handful of acrylics, the brothers added the droids to the painting right there on the spot.
Public response to the artwork was overwhelmingly positive. But because the brothers were told not to worry about the actors' likenesses, Fox opted to keep Jung's original for the release poster. When the studio decided to merchandise the Hildebrandt image as a retail poster, printer Factors Etc. reported that it outpaced their bestselling Farrah Fawcett swimsuit pin-up poster five to one a few weeks after the film's release.
