The pick of the week in this week's Video Score brings together three legends of film: Ron Howard, Warwick Davis, and George Lucas. "Willow" is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a beautiful high-definition Blu-ray re-release of the 1988 fantasy classic.
MTV News spoke with Davis in anticipation of the release and got the scoop on the special feature he finally was able to include on this edition. Check out our chat with Davis after the jump!
What has it been like revisiting "Willow" after 25 years?
"It's weird. 'Willow' isn't something that I haven't talked about for 25 years. It's always been something people wanted to hear about. It's been nice to go into a bit more detail and recall a lot of memories. It's nothing something that's ever gone away. People are always stopping me and wanting to talk about the film, saying that they grew up watching it or they love showing it to their kids. It's quite a film that a lot of people hold quite close to them. It reminds them of their childhoods. "
When did you start to realize that "Willow" was something bigger than your average movie?
"When it was originally released, it wasn't a big huge hit in the cinemas, but it's one of those films that has a life and a longevity to it. It's quite unusual. Not all films manage to do that. They can transcend across generations. People say to me when VHSs were the order of the day, they would wear out the video tape and have to buy another one because their kids or they had watched it so many times. Then, of course, DVD came along and solved that problem. Now people who are looking for a bit more can delve into Blu-ray. "
What kind of input did you have on the Blu-ray release?
"I've known about this for almost a year now. I was actually at Skywalker and talked to Ben Burtt, and he had started to look at the soundtrack because he was saying that people's home audio systems are comparable, if not better to what the systems were like when the film was originally mixed. I've been working with Lucasfilm on the extra features, one which I'm particularly proud of is my own home video diary that I shot while we were filming on 'Willow.' It's lovely that it can be included finally on this. I didn't think these tapes were of any particular significance until I remembered I had them in the attic and mentioned to Lucasfilm, and they thought 'Let's put them on the DVD. People are going to love to see these. "
Do you still keep in toward with Ron Howard?
"I'm in touch with Ron Howard fairly often actually. We talk as friends quite a bit. I went to visit him when he was doing his film 'Rush,' and I went to see a technical screening when it was over here a month or two ago. We're always in touch, and we often talk about 'Willow' and have very fond memories of it. I recently was working with Val Kilmer as well, and we talked about 'Willow' extensively actually. We'd love to do another one. It has been talked about many times over the years, particularly from fans saying, 'When are you going to do another? We'd love to see another one.' Who knows."
