Production and release
Following the tumultuous production of The Sender for Paramount Pictures, Roger Christian decided to produce his next film independently. [6] Christian wrote the movie alongside Matthew Jacobs under the title 2084 as an unofficial update on 1984 by George Orwell except with a lighter tone and an emphasis on action and adventure, with a stylistic approach inspired by Bertrand Tavernier's Death Watch and Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville . [6] During production Christian received an offer to handle second-unit direction of Ridley Scott's Legend , but turned it down to focus on completing the film. [6]
The film was initially intended to be filmed in Sweden, but the location was changed to Sydney, Australia so the crew could make use of a docked battleship Christian had obtained permission to use for the interiors of the Redwing starship. [1] However, despite relocating production to Australia, Christian only went on board the battleship once meaning alternative sets had to be built or found as the budget was fixed and required paring down certain scenes to accommodate. [1] The majority of filming was done at Mount Newman, a mining community in Western Australia that allowed the production to use the mine and some of the equipment as the management thought it would make a good diversion for their workforce. [1] George Miller tried to secure Deep Roy to play The Master in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , but Deep Roy had to turn down the role as he was already contracted to be in Starship. [1]
Starship was originally released under the title Lorca and the Outlaws; it also had a working title of The Outlaws and the Starship Redwing. It was filmed in New South Wales and Western Australia in Australia, and at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom. [7] Its initial theatrical release was in Australia on 14 December 1984. It later premiered in West Germany on 5 July 1985, and was shown at the Fantasporto Film Festival in Porto, Portugal in February 1987. Its American theatrical release was on 4 April of that year, [8] and the VHS home video was released later that year. [9]
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