The ‘force is strong’ with a short film about the true story of the building of one of Star Wars’ most iconic spaceships in Pembroke Dock.

The film entitled ‘Code Name Magic Roundabout’ inspired by the stories of the original makers of the Millennium Falcon spaceship for the film The Empire Strikes Back, was screened at the Cardiff Mini Film Festival last Friday, and picked up the ‘Community Film Winner’ award.

In spring 1979, Marcon Fabrications, a heavy engineering firm that served the UK’s petrochemical and oil industries, was hired to build a movable full-scale external model capable of ‘moving as if it were about to take off’ and Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon was built in secrecy under the project code name ‘Magic Roundabout’, with the company leasing the 1930s Western Sunderland Flying Boat hangar in Pembroke Dock, to house the secret project.

The model, which took three months to construct, was then disassembled and shipped to Elstree Studios, for filming for key scenes featured in the second instalment of George Lucas’s original sci-fi trilogy.

The award wining short film can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/192459805