The long wait is almost over. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has its world premiere tomorrow night in Los Angeles.
This is followed by the regional premiere at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, before going on general release in the UAE on Thursday.
We've been teased with glimpses in the trailers, but we can't wait to see how Abu Dhabi's desert looks on the big screen, when it stands in for the planet Jakku. The Force Awakens isn't the first film to make use of epic desert vistas – here are a few of our sandy favourites to whet your appetite.
Mad Max (1979-2015)
The post-apocalyptic action series began in 1979 with Mad Max, a low-budget Australian indie movie that proved to be box-office gold – it held the record for the world's most profitable film from 1980-1989. However, it was with 1981's Mad Max 2 that George Miller's dystopian desert wasteland really came into its own. Though all the movies follow a standard, western-style, "lone nomadic vigilante hunts down the bad guys" story, the unique quality of Miller's desert world make the films quite unlike anything else. Following another visually stunning sequel, Beyond Thunderdome in 1985, original star Mel Gibson hung up his shotgun and the franchise went into limbo until this year's impressive Fury Road, which starred man-of-the-moment Tom Hardy and looks set to make an impact at the Oscars in February.
Dune (1984)
David Lynch's ill-fated adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic was a disaster. Lynch distanced himself from the film on release, citing lack of artistic control. But three decades later, it bears revisiting, if only to see one of the modern era's greatest directors take a best- selling sci-fi novel and an impressive cast – including his future Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan, Star Trek's Patrick Stewart and Max von Sydow – and still make a film verging on unwatchable. Much of the desert footage was shot in Mexico's Samalayuca dunes.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach star as three lone gun-slingers competing to find buried treasure amid the chaos of the American Civil War in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Western, the third film in the "Man With No Name" trilogy (after A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More). Leone's trademark stylised gunfights, scenic long shots, claustrophobic close-ups and tension are all present and correct, as is the Ennio Morricone soundtrack. It is one of the composer's finest scores, which has proved popular with rock bands, particular those in the heavy metal and punk scenes. Metallica, Motorhead, The Ramones and The Vandals have all covered tracks from Morricone's score.
Walkabout (1971)
Nicolas Roeg's haunting movie featured The Railway Children star Jenny Agutter as a teenager stranded in the Australian Outback with her younger brother after their father tries to kill them, fails and commits suicide during a picnic. Roeg's dreamy direction gives the movie a hallucinogenic quality suggestive of the dream-like spiritual state achieved by Aborigines during the walkabout ritual. Agutter went on to star in The Eagle Has Landed and An American Werewolf in London, and more recently appeared in Marvel's The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
David Lean’s 1962 classic is perhaps the ultimate desert movie. Peter O’Toole stars as T E Lawrence, who was sent to the Arabian Peninsula during the First World War to act as liaison between the British Army and the Bedouin tribes during their battle against the Turks. The movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning seven.
