Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a mashup that merges Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest with the Star Wars universe.
Few have been so bold as to ask the question “what would happen if Cary Grant was in a big-budget space epic?” Thankfully, we now have an answer.
Or at the very least, we have a vision, an imaginative hypothetical, about what it would look like if the suavest man to grace the silver screen suddenly found himself dodging laser beams and partaking in high-speed, hyperdrive chases (while sipping whiskey, of course).
Four years ago, a delightful little mashup called “Darth by Darthwest” envisioned a crossover between Alfred Hitchock‘s spy thriller North by Northwest and the Star Wars universe. Borrowing from arguably the most well-known scene in the Hitchcock film, the inaugural episode of the mashup saw ad-man Roger Thornhill (Grant) pursued by a real adversary while waiting at an isolated bus stop. Only, here, the infamous crop-duster is a TIE fighter, screaming above cornfields dotted with Sarlacc pits.
This first episode concludes with Thornhill making his escape on the Millennium Falcon. The new chapter picks right up where we left off, as our hero’s ongoing escape takes to the stars. The mashup is comprised of shots from North by Northwest, a litany of Star Wars films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and (of all things) 2 Fast 2 Furious.
The Star Wars films have played host to a litany of genres, from heist films to Westerns, to adventure serials. So, in a galaxy full of possibility, I’d like to think there’s room for a Hitchcock hero.
Watch ““Darth by Darthwest: Episode II”:
Who made this?
This mashup video is directed and edited by Fabrice Mathieu. The French director, screenwriter, and editor is a real mashup wizard whose work gives new meaning to the “greatest crossover of all time” meme. You can find Mathieu’s work on Vimeo here. You can also find him on YouTube here. And finally, you can follow them on Twitter here. Alfred Lucas produced this mashup.
More Videos Like This
- Perhaps an obvious recommendation, but an essential one nonetheless! Here’s the first episode in Mathieu’s North by Northwest / Star Wars cross-over project.
- Antonio Maria Da Silva is another French mashup creator. I am an enormous fan of his short film Hell’s Club, which uses the power of editing to merge multiple cinematic club scenes under one roof. Tom Cruise from Collateral shooting a dirty look at Tom Cruise from Cocktail? Are you kidding me? Pure genius
- This short film from Mathieu asks the very important question: what if all the Terminators fought each other?
Related Topics: Cary Grant, Star Wars, The Queue
