Since the conclusion of principal photography on Episode 1, the torrent of rumours concerning the film has begun to slow to quiet trickle. Despite this, this month I've still got some cool news and/or outright lies for you to ponder over. You be the judge as we delve into the shadowy world of...
THE PREQUEL FILES
Beginning this month's look at all that's cool in the "P" files, is further confirmation of a rumour reported last column. This regards Samuel L. Jackson as a bit character in the first film. Jackson himself has now confirmed the rumour that he will be seen as a Jedi Knight, who first utters the immortal words "May the Force be with you" in the Star Wars galaxy. The actor was approached by someone from Lucasfilm representing George himself. Lucas had heard that Jackson wanted to be a part of the new trilogy, and invited Jackson up to the ranch to chat about the possibility. Jackson, a confirmed SW fan was, by his own account thrilled to get a chance to visit THE actual ranch. During filming, Lucas and company may have discovered the only downside to using ecstatic SW fans in the new films. Apparently Jackson had trouble with that one classic line, grinning and cracking up repeatedly during the shoot.
THE PRODUCTION
Continuing with updates from the past rumories I've thrown your way, we MAY be looking at a new working title for the film. "CHILD OF THE FORCE" has been mentioned as making the rounds at Leavesdon a great deal lately. I dunno...I think I could get used to it. Aslo, news of the statistics for the porduction have begun to leak. Reportedly the budget is $60 million U.S., and there will be 1500 SFX shots (!), with 60% of these being entirely CG. In other production news, Lucas has now confirmed that post-production has begun in earnest at ILM, and at Skywalker Ranch. ILM has now come down hard with a "No tours, no visitors!" policy, as model building has always been cranked up to full production levels, and CG work is under way. Current estimations are 18 months post-preduction time, with a release date of, you guessed it, May 25th 1999. Memorial day weekend (well, for you yankies anyways) will once again see the birth of a new Star Wars film! Well...maybe. It seems that, while Lucas and company strive for this date, ILM is currently only able to provide 1 hour and 15 minutes of CG footage per year. So, in a tradition fans of LucasArts computer games will no doubt recognize, if it takes longer, it takes longer. Sooo...how much longer? Well, consider that the current projection for special effects shots is somewhere around 1 hour, 45 minutes..not MUCH longer, but for reasons of box office timing, Fox might wait to open SW:1 later in the year. Sad but true, I can see us all sweating out the delays and getting jittery this time next year.
ANTICIPATION
Speaking of this time next year, with a projected release date, can we now start to look forward to a prequel trailer anytime soon? Well, the rumour mill churned out a great number of projections for this one. Aliens: Resurection, and Titanic were both guranteed by various sources to contain an advance prequel trailer. Now rumour has it that Lucas has in fact CONFIRMED that the first trailer will go into release next Chrismas, 6 months before opening day. Suffice to say, the rumour mill isn't ALWAYS the most accurate thing in the world. Keeping this in mind, we MAY have a report on what the trailer will look like. This current rumour nicely addresses the question of what Sir Alec Guiness was doing on set at Leavesdon back this past summer. As reported by one of Harry Knowles' spies:
It's about 40-50 seconds long at most, and not 100% finished. It didn't have any sound. It started off showing an old wooden box, sitting in what looked liked Anakin's house. The shot slowly closes on the box, and during this part you will hear Alec Guiness. I don't know what he says, but it's something like this. "You know the story of how his life ended, you know what he became. Next summer you will witness how it all began.". The trailer ends with a close up of the box as it slowly opens, and inside is revealed a Lightsaber. The screen goes black, and then writing appears which says "Star Wars: Episode 1 1999".
Personally, I think this may be the coolest trailer I've ever even HEARD of. Then again, that's just me. No idea yet what the lucky film to bear the first SW trailer will be, but expect a HUGE film for the Chrismas holidays. Lastly, we MAY (read MAY) see a slight alteration in the big blue text we all know and love so much. The opening of SW:1 could possibly read something like this:
A Long, Long time ago In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...
Ewan McGregor and Obi Wan's little ponytail thingies...
THE PLAYERS
Everyone pay attention to Ewan McGreggor's interviews. Whenever you see them, no matter how small they look, just keep your eyes peeled. Ewan seems to be continuing a habit of doing interviews in pubs, over several pints, or alternatively, while recovering from a hangover. This has meant so far that some stuff we might not have otherwise gotten out of him, has slipped. In NO way take this as a criticism of the guy, its just that the environment for the interviews seems to be a very relaxing one, and McGreggor opens up a bit more than you'd expect. Most recently, he's dropped a couple of tantalizing hints, and a few amusing behind the scenes stuff. First, Ewan is saying he's got the "coolest set of wheels" in the whole story for a ship. Now, I may be jumping to conclusions WAAAAAYYYY to early, and with WAAAAYYY too little info, but imagine this. We've seen ALREADY seen an early preproduction storyboard of the Falcon in Episode 1, what could POSSIBLY be a cooler set of wheels that THAT? On a lighter note, it seems that the first time he had to shoot a Lightsaber duel, McGregor promptly dropped his saber, balming the heat generated by something like 10 D batteries in the hilt. Further, he had a moment when he throws the saber up in the air, and watched as it came down, smacking a crew member in the head. Hardly an auspiscious beginning. Finally, confirmation from Ewan that he is in fact signed to play Obi Wan in the other two films as well.
Episode 1 will have a great number of minor characters, fleshing out the world of the SW galaxy. These are supposededly freat bit characters, and include:
Terrence Stamp as the Galactic Chancellor
Samuel Jackson's Jedi character
Jabba the Hutt as a small time illegal race course operator on Tatooine
Oliver Ford Davies as a Royal advisor (presumably to Natalie Portman's young queen character)
The very first SW female fighter pilot, Bravo 5
C-3P0 (sadly, goldenrod only has a teeny tiny part in the first film)
Watto a Mos Espa junk dealer, who I seem to remember as being played by Warwick Davies of Wicket infamy.
Also look forward to a few small roles for other residents of Mos Espa. Look closely, and you will see that Tatooine and its residents are going to play a large role in the first film, reportedly about 1/3 of the total action will be set on the miserable little dustball planet.
FUTURE VISIONS
Brace yourselves, this is where the BAD news comes in, via the bearer of ill news, Rick McCallum. The way Rick tells it, Lucas is currently thinking about some FURTHER tampering with Episodes 4, 5, and 6 after work is completed on Episode 1. This will be along the lines of SFX improvements, using some stuff feom the first episode to fill out the middle trilogy. So what the heck does THAT mean? It means we may be looking at a "REALLY SPECIAL EDITION, MUCH MORE SPECIAL THAN THE LAST SPECIAL EDITION" version of the original films. I'm sorry...as much as I loved the SEs, and seeing the whole thing on the big screen again, enough is enough. The films have been absolutely adored by each successive generation who see them, even before the SE tampering Lucas did last year. There is NO call to continue messing with them, Lucasfilm has to learn to leave well enough alone, and recognize that people love the films the way they are. We can only pray that this is a misreported portion of the interview with McCallum.
Finally, word has come to us mortal SW fans that there may be some descison making about location shooting for Episodes 2 and 3. New Zealand, with some fantastic scenery, and relatively inexpensive assosciated costs, will most likely see at least SOME activity for the upcoming 2 films.
Well, that's it for another month! Whew! A few tidbits left over from this month's rumour combing, but I'll save those for the next edition of...