MICHAEL HEILEMANN'S 'ANNOTATED STAR WARS'

Michael Heilemann - interface director at Squarespace and self-confessed Star Wars nerd, has assembled a version of the film intercut with information and footage from the actual inspirations behind George Lucas' ground-breaking classic.

This includes samurai movies, westerns, bandes dessinées, Buster Crabbe serials...the list goes on.

It accompanies a project called 'Kitbashed', which is an ongoing and even more comprehensive e-book guide to 'The Ancestry of Star Wars'.

Presumably, with a new JJ Abram's-directed Star Wars episode on the way, the original film will be released yet again. Future-Rocker thinks Heilemann's exhaustive e-book and re-cut could be fantastic extras in a future DVD collectors' package. However, he may need a good legal team to get clearance from all the respective owners..!

[Additional: Scroll down for last week's message from the director of the new Star Wars movie, JJ Abrams.]