Star Wars script left by Harrison Ford in London flat auctioned for £10,795
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A Star Wars script left in a London flat by Harrison Ford has been sold at an auction for £10,795.
The fourth draft of the screenplay for the first Star Wars movie, originally titled The Adventures Of Luke Starkiller, had an estimated selling price of £8,000-£12,000 and was bought by an Austrian private collector.
The script from March 15 1976, sold on Saturday, was used by Ford and then left in a London flat he was renting at the time while he filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.
It is incomplete and unbound, with differing-coloured pages indicating revisions – and includes scenes and characters that were cut from the final edit.
On page 56, Ford is introduced as the cynical hero Han Solo in the George Lucas script, according to Excalibur Auctions in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.
Alongside the script Ford left other items including shooting schedules, a call sheet and collections of notes which sold in a bundle to a UK buyer for £4,826.
These sheets of paper included a handwritten note which appeared to refer to a meeting between Ford and British producer Robert Watts.
Watts and Ford would go onto work on 1981’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark, 1983’s Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and 1989’s Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade.
Ford shot to fame after starring as Solo in George Lucas’s 1977 science fiction epic. He appeared in the original movie’s sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return Of The Jedi (1983), before reprising the role for The Force Awakens in 2015.
Star Wars creator Lucas and director Steven Spielberg would also cast Ford in another famous role, as archaeologist Indiana Jones, for Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Ford appeared in four sequels, the last of which was released last year.
Another item sold was a typed letter from a friend in which Ford is asked about why he has not called his wife, Mary Marquardt, before they divorced in 1979.
The letter, date April 16 1976, also discussed his contracts and future film prospects and was sold for £177.80.
Ford would go on to marry E.T. screenwriter Melissa Mathison before they also ended their marriage in 2004. She died in 2015.
Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart has been Ford’s wife since 2010.
The items had been tucked away for 50 years in a private home in Notting Hill, London.
The owners of the home had rented out the top two floors to Ford, who had co-stars Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, and Mark Hamill, who starred as Luke Skywalker, visit him during his stay.
Excalibur Auctions’ auctioneer Jonathan Torode said: “The sale saw competitive bidding from around the globe for these never-before-seen pieces of Star Wars history.
“Although other copies of this script have come to market previously, this sale saw a new record set for a Star Walker script, which shows how a personal link to the items is so enticing to Star Wars fans.
“The personal provenance makes them totally unique. We hope they will be as treasured by their new owners as much as they were by the previous ones.”
All figures include the buyer’s premium.
