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Bavmorda Castle

Movie Willow Ron Howard (1988)
Driven by George Lucas' ambition to produce a great adventure film, Willow benefited from a substantial budget. So much so that production has built a real castle, at least in part, on an abandoned slate quarry in Wales.
Welsh State Museum
Welsh Slate Museum by Talsarnau Times. Wikimedia.

“Is that the extent of your powers, little one?”

Bavmorda (Jean Marsh)

The premise of Willow was born in the mind of George Lucas in 1972. At the time, the director approached this project with the same fervor he had shown for the first Star Wars. In 1982, on the set of Return of the Jedi, he offered the lead role to the young Warwick Davis. George Lucas then meets with Ron Howard on the set of Cocoon to ask him to direct his new project. Wrapped up, the ex-actor of the series Happy Days signs immediately.

An XXL production

From the beginning, Willow is announced as a very ambitious blockbuster. When it comes time to build the castle of Bavmorda, the terrifying witch played by Jean Marsh, Ron Howard’s team invests in an old slate quarry in Dinorwic, Wales.

Very impressive, the building consists of a large front wall and four towers. Then in the middle of a revolution, the special effects company Industrial Light and Magic dresses up the whole thing to give the castle a twilight look. The architecture of the building was also inspired by the fortress in Akira Kurosawa’s Spider Castle.

A dirty story

The sequence taking place in front of the castle, when Bavmorda changes the soldiers of Madmartigan’s army (Val Kilmer) into pigs, required the arrival on the set of 200 pigs. Important logistics also involving numerous prostheses. It is also at this point, when Willow (Warwick Davis) tries to restore the good witch Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes) to her true appearance, that the visual effects specialists used morphing technology for the first time.

Willow has made considerable progress in this area. Progress then visible in works such as the clip of Michael Jackson Black or White or the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, by James Cameron.

200

The transformation scene required the “hiring” of 200 pigs.

Château de Bavmorda dans Willow
Willow château de Bavmorda. Tous droits réservés : Lucasfilm Ltd.Imagine EntertainmentMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer

National Slate Museum

Located in Gilfach Ddu, the disused Dinorwic quarry workshops are now dedicated to telling the story of the slate industry in Wales.

Built in 1870, these workshops closed for the first time in 1969 before opening again in 1972 under the name of North Wales Quarrying Museum. A museum created with the help of a major grant. This includes an exhibition entitled To Steal a Mountain, dedicated to the lives of workers who once extracted slate. The site has also hosted the filming of several films such as Willow by Ron Howard.

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By Gilles Rolland

Monday, November 14, 2022

Passionné de cinéma, de rock and roll, de séries TV et de littérature. Rédacteur de presse et auteur des livres Le Heavy Metal au cinéma, Paroles de fans Guns N' Roses, Paroles de fans Rammstein et Welcome to my Jungle : 100 albums rock et autres anecdotes dépareillées. Adore également voyager à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture.

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