Star Wars: Hoshino Fan Film Director Discusses Unique Exploration of The Force

The tradition of the Star Wars fan film goes back years, but in the last few, thanks to the support of Lucasfilm, they've gone to another level. With full production staffs, professionals both behind and in front of the camera, and even some real Star Wars movie props and portions of John Williams' classic score now imbued into these fan films, it's often more like watching a full in-universe short than anything you'd think of as a fan production.

The recent film Hoshino has picked up buzz across the internet for just that – its high production quality, plus a unique tone and approach that puts it up there with the best of Star Wars stories. It's also taken director Stephen Vitale and his team, which includes an Emmy-nominated composer (and grandson of the original trilogy music supervisor), a writer from the CW's Supergirl, and a VFX team with talent in both practical and digital effects, not to mention two primary actors who it feels like should be getting calls from Lucasfilm any minute now.

"[Writer] Eric Carrasco and I absolutely love Star Wars," Vitale told Comicbook.com in an interview. "We grew up on it – we've compared which weird collectibles we have – it's just part of who we are as storytellers."

The pair, who have been friends for a few years, "inevitably pitch each other ideas" whenever they hang out, he told us. Like so many fans, they sit around and talk about their favorite "what if" possibilities in the Star Wars universe; it just so happens that when you're dealing with actual filmmakers, those what ifs have real potential to become reality.

"If I'm recalling correctly, we were talking about some recent fan films we saw that were focused on lightsaber duels - like any other fans we really dig watching those! But we both expressed how the moments in Star Wars that resonated the most with us were not the action beats," he said. That lead to them tossing ideas around, and, just like George Lucas, it was some not-so-subtle inspiration from the legendary Akira Kurosawa that helped them break their idea.

"Eric went into story mode and told me this Jedi tone poem idea he had about a blind Jedi and the meaning of a lightsaber. We both share a deep love for Kurosawa films as well as the Blind Swordsman - Zatoichi. I got really excited at the idea of shooting it and we started bouncing ideas back and forth: What if we show a lightsaber being constructed with the force? What if we don't show a lightsaber fight at all? What if we construct a practical creature (which ended up being Mynocks)?"

The pair had a story idea, a goal to make a short film that could fit alongside the original trilogy in tone and effects work, and the one particular mandate: "to not at all show a lightsaber fight."

Assembling the rest of the creative team sounds like something out of a heist movie, calling in favors, being introduced through friends, and finding individuals each with unique sets of skills. Miguel Jiron did storyboards and animatics ("he is seriously talented!" Vitale praised), Tom Spina Designs created their practical Mynock while they ordered and custom built other costume and prop pieces, and suddenly it was time for casting.

Actress Anna Akana joined the team as the titular Ko Hoshino thanks to a series of YouTube videos and a mutual friend. When Vitale saw her videos, he knew "she could nail this part. She could show us the young, impatient, anxious Ko, and also be our strong, wise Jedi Master [Hoshino[!" Master Jaan-Xu, Tim McKernan, acted for Vitale in a comedy web series, and was cast on the spot of his first reading for the character.

On the music side, Joey Newman was brought in through violinist Mark Robertson (who you can hear on many film scores, including several by Michael Giacchino, who is scoring Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). Newman instantly fell in love with the character-based storytelling and strong emotional current. It just so happens his grandfather, Lionel Newman, was also the music supervisor on the original Star Wars films. The Force flows through all living things, after all.

John Schick rounded out the team as VFX artist, and Vitale said he wouldn't be surprised if ILM gave him a call soon. "He played a huge part in the execution of our ambitious goals for this film," the director said of Schick.

Interestingly, the "blind Jedi" idea has suddenly started popping up elsewhere in the Star Wars galaxy, but Vitale and Carrasco were well into production of Hoshino when that started to happen.

"I just thought there was so much power in showing a blind Jedi and one that inflicted the wound on herself because of her impatience and misunderstanding of what the force really is and what it means to wield a lightsaber. We got extremely nervous going to see The Force Awakens - luckily no force constructed lightsabers or blind Jedi there," Vitale said. Then, as if on cue, the Star Wars Rebels season two finale hit – and suddenly Kanan was a blind Jedi, relying on the Force for sight. While not a Jedi, the Force Monk Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) also debuted in the Rogue One trailer, taking on several stormtroopers with his staff and his martial arts skills despite his blindness.

"At that point, we were so deep into it, we didn't think about it much," Vitale said, shrugging off the similarities. In fact, it wound up making them feel like they were on the right track. "It was also cool to see we were thinking along the same paths of what some official Star Wars films/shows were doing."

So, would these two ever continue Hoshino's story, or work on something like the long-rumored live-action TV series?

"Oh, man, that's the dream isn't it! We would absolutely love to do something with Lucasfilm and Disney one day. I can't express how much I respect Kathleen Kennedy and what she's done in her career and what she's doing now so if we ever found ourselves collaborating with Lucasfilm on an official Star Wars film or television show... DREAM. COME. TRUE."

May the Force be with them.

You can watch Hoshino below, and take a look at the behind-the-scenes making of companion video up above.

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