Episode III news round-up

[Dave]

Here are a couple of Star Wars related news reports, mainly from SciFi Wire. The film was shown at Cannes yesterday, and has a London premier tonight, so there are quite a few news reports on it, the press as usual focusing on a few dressed up fans, and purporting them to be weirdos, while ignoring any other fans. It's safe to say that unless you are in a coma, you must by now realise that Ep III is released this week.

from SciFi Wire

Lucas Proud Of F/X Legacy

George Lucas, mastermind of the Star Wars franchise, told SCI FI Wire that he's most proud of helping revolutionize big-screen special effects, in part through his F/X house Industrial Light & Magic. "Movies started as a special effect," the filmmaker said during a group interview at his Skywalker Ranch compound in California. "All the first movies, that's what they were interested in, the special-effects part of it, because that's what wowed the audience. It was like a magic act."

Lucas added: "And that's what the medium was originally, and then over the years studios came in, and they had big special-effects departments, and it was a big part of the way that they designed movies. And they could make movies with anything that they wanted. So they made big historical epics. They did fantasy movies. They could do all kinds of movies. There was nothing that they couldn't do in those days, the '30s and the '40s."

By the '50s, however, Hollywood began concentrating on epic dramas and psychological movies, followed by "street movies," Lucas said. By the '70s, he said: "You were kind of forced to do a very narrow kind of movie. You couldn't do big epics, historical pieces. You couldn't do space films and science fantasy and that kind of stuff. You get one movie a year maybe, and it would cost an enormous amount of money, and if you wanted to do a western they wouldn't let you do that anymore, because there were too many horses or whatever. And none of the studios had a special-effects department anymore. They were all gone. Disney had [a single] matte painter. Universal had Al Whitlock, who was a matte painter, and then there were a few matte painters in England. But basically the idea of a special-effects department didn't exist anymore. They would just do a few matte paintings if they had to fake things."

That changed when Lucas set out to make the original Star Wars adventure, now referred to as Episode IV: A New Hope. "By bringing back the special-effects world I brought back the ability to make all kinds of movies," Lucas said. "And not just space movies, but all kinds of movies, which didn't really exist before in the '70s." Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, which has 2,151 special-effects shots, opens on May 19.

Episode III's Jackson Digs SF

Samuel L. Jackson, who reprises his role as Jedi Master Mace Windu in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire he campaigned for a role in the space saga out of a lifelong appreciation of SF. "I love science fiction," Jackson said during a group interview. "I read science fiction. I read comic books all the time, which is what got me interested in [Star Wars]. It was like a comic book world on screen that no one had ever done."

Jackson added: "All of a sudden all these things that you used to read in the Superman comics—where you're on different planets and people have tentacles and they're wearing boots and they have capes and stuff—you look at the nightclub scene in [the original] Star Wars, and there they all are. It's kind of like, 'Oh, my God. I want to be in this. How can I be in this particular place?' I've been in it in my mind all my life, and all of a sudden there it is. So it's a very cool thing to be a part of."

Jackson said that of the many films he's acted in over the years, none will likely make as much of a mark on culture or the movie industry as the six Star Wars films. "Years and years and years from now Star Wars will be the one particular thing that will always be studied, discussed, analyzed, broken down, whatever," said Jackson, who previously played Windu in Episode I—The Phantom Menace and Episode II—Attack of the Clones. "And it's looked at as a pivotal changing point in Hollywood [in terms of] how they marketed films and all of things that [creator] George [Lucas] did to make this the popular thing that it is, things that they didn't do before. No one sold action figures. No one marketed T-shirts, and no one sold parts of their films to be put on cereal boxes or whatever. Then all of a sudden that's what people do now. There are tie-ins with Nextel and other s--t." Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith comes out May 19.

No Political Subtext To Episode III?

George Lucas, director of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival that the movie has little to do with the current political situation in the real world. Appearing at the European premiere of Episode III, Lucas said that he never thought about the Middle East, George W. Bush or voter fraud when writing the script for the final prequel in the epic space saga.

"When I wrote it [the] Iraq [war] didn't exist," Lucas said. "We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that point. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate. This really came out of the Vietnam era."

In the prequels, which culminate in Episode III, Lucas said he wanted to explore how a democracy turns turns into a dictatorship: how it gets "given" away. Back in the mid-1970s, when he first conceived of the Star Wars saga, Lucas said that he "went back into history and began to study a great deal about things like ancient Rome, such as why did the Senate, after killing Caesar, turn around [and] give the government to his nephew. Why did France, after they got rid of the King, turn around and give it to Napoleon. You sort of see these recurring themes, where a democracy turns itself over to a dictator. It always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues and threats from the outside and needing more control and a democratic body not being able to function properly because everybody is squabbling and there is corruption. This is seen as you go through history, but I didn't think it was going to get this close. I hope this doesn't come true in America. Maybe the film will awaken people to how dangerous a democracy can be when it's subverted."

Lucas added that Episodes I, II and III explore how a good person can be transformed into a bad person. "Most bad people think they are good people, and they are doing it for the right reasons," Lucas said. "The other core element of the film is condensing things down to very simple levels. And in this particular case, greed and self-centeredness being the root of a personality that will become so self-absorbed that it will hurt and corrupt everyone around them." Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith opens May 19.

In Cannes, Lucas was honored with the Trophy of the Festival de Cannes at a ceremony held aboard the Queen Mary 2.

from Ananova

Natalie prefers being bald

Natalie Portman says she prefers being bald.

The Star Wars actress has shaved her head for her role in new movie V For Vendetta.

According to Contactmusic.com she said: "Some people will think I'm a neo-Nazi or that I have cancer or I'm a lesbian.

"After all the crazy hairstyles I had to endure for the films, it's quite liberating to have no hair - especially in this heat."

[Dave]

Nobody seen this yet?

Some of you have a weeks head start on the rest of us!

Excitement Mounts for Final 'Star Wars'

The Associated Press

In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Che la Forza sia con te." What? The Jedi master speaks Italian? Of course. And Chinese. And French, and an array of other languages that have enabled him and the rest of the characters from the "Star Wars" galaxy far, far away to conquer movie-goers here on Earth.

Around the world, this week's opening of the final episode in George Lucas' sci-fi series — "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" — is eagerly awaited.

In Stockholm, fans camped out for days for early tickets that sold out in less than an hour after the box office opened. In Milan, Italy, fans dressed in Star Wars costumes paraded on a soccer pitch to seek donations for children's hospitals.

The world mania has snowballed since the first Star Wars film in 1977, and the series has ridden globalization and the creep of English terms into foreign languages.

Over the years, as the characters have become more familiar from Buenos Aires to Beijing and beyond, they have undergone at times strange transformations.

In Italy, 'droids C-3PO and R2-D2 had different names during the first trilogy: respectively D-3BO and C1-P8. As their international fame grew, the combative pair are now called by their English names.

In France, Chewbacca was first known as "Chique-Tabac" (literally Chew Tobacco). But he's plain old Chewbacca now.

Some changes have stuck: In Italy, Darth Vader is "Darth Fener." To the French, he's "Dark Vador."

"'Darth Vader' is impossible to say in French," said Patrice Giroud, an organizer of a three-day Star Wars convention in Paris over the weekend that was billed as the first of its kind in Europe.

To the Germans, Yoda remains "Jedi-Meister Yoda." The Swedes call the series "Stjarnornas Krig." In Chinese, the latest episode is known as "Xisi de Fanji."

Britons were treated to an early premiere Monday, capping back-to-back showings of the previous films in the series at a Leicester Square cinema. Tickets to the marathon screening sold out in minutes, and cost up to 250 pounds (US$460) each.

A crowd packed the square in central London for a chance to spot director George Lucas and stars Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen, who were attending the premiere Monday night.

The level of fan frenzy varies partly on when countries gained access to the series — and partly on government willingness to open up to Hollywood.

For example, ticket sales have been only average in the Czech Republic — beyond Hollywood's orbit while a former Soviet bloc state.

The movies were shown there only after the 1989 Velvet Revolution.

In authoritarian China, which has a policy of promoting homegrown films, few newspapers have talked about the upcoming release. The official Xinhua news agency's Internet site, picking up a Chinese newspaper report, said last month that 300 copies were going to China — 200 of them in English. The report said it was the first time that the number of Chinese copies had been eclipsed by English ones.

Even France — which has resisted the invasion of English terms and Hollywood's expanding influence — has fallen under the spell. All three major dailies featured front-page photos of Star Wars characters Monday.

"Whatever the language, you could plop down a child in front of a Star Wars film and he'd be thrilled just by the music, sound and images alone," said Giroud, editor of LucasFilm magazine, a French bimonthly which claims sales of 50,000 copies each edition. "Star Wars is for everybody."

One French television network has been broadcasting the five previous episodes each week.

Whether for the French — "Que la Force soit avec toi", Italians — "Che la Forza sia con te" or Portuguese — "Que a Forca esteja contigo", the translations of "May the Force be with you" are known to many.

In Ireland, supermarkets spruced window displays with Star Wars toys or masks designed to make kids sound like a breathy Darth Vader. On one Dublin playground, kids battled with toy light sabers received in a cereal box promotion.

In Australia, a dozen stormtroopers were to walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge to the city's famed Opera House Wednesday ahead of the first screening there.

Some fans worry about being perceived as fanatics.

"I don't build my life around it," said Romain Berteau, who was dressed as a Jedi at the Paris convention. "We like Star Wars like some people like cars. It's not like they'll always sleep in the garage."

Don't tell that to the kids, though.

"This will be the best Star Wars ever," said Gavin Dowling, a 7-year-old in Dublin, where tickets have been on sale for the last month. "It's going to be a lot bigger."

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[FeedMeTV]

I've just seen it!! And its WONDERFUL!!!!! I really really enjoyed it - I'm a bit too tired to write any kind of comprehensible review so I'll come back tomorrow and babble on for a while about its loveliness

[Dave]

There is a NY Times video review here: http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/20...ITH_VIDEO.html

But start a new thread for your comments, and I'll add mine after I see it on Saturday.

[Dave]

from Scifi Wire

Episode III Poised To Break Records

Movie fans dressed as Jedi knights, Wookiees and droids lined up for hours on May 18 for sold-out midnight showings of the final Star Wars movie, as record advance ticket sales promised one of the biggest film openings of all time, the Reuters news service reported.

Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith debuted at 12:01 a.m. May 19, with some 9,400 prints showing in nearly 3,700 North American theaters, making it the widest release for any of the six installments in the Star Wars saga, the wire service reported. Only two other movies, Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2, have opened wider.

Retail ticket service Fandango reported that it was selling four Star Wars tickets per second on Wednesday, making Episode III its hottest title ever.

Likewise, the nation's two biggest movie theater chains each reported record advance ticket sales for Episode III, surpassing previous benchmarks set by The Matrix Reloaded and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Episode III Headed For Record

Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith appeared headed to record box office, with the first midnight shows alone grossing about $16.5 million, Variety reported. Approximately 2,900 of the 3,661 theaters where Episode III opened on May 19 screened the film at midnight.

The $16.5 million figure is for just the first shows of the night and does not include any second or third presentations in the early dawn hours, the trade paper reported. First-day grosses are expected on May 20.

Episode III F/X Crew Outdoes Itself

Rob Coleman, animation director on Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, told SCI FI Wire that the visual-effects crew at Industrial Light & Magic try to outdo the competition, as well as outdo their own past work. "It's a pretty small industry," Coleman said in a group interview. "I know guys at Weta. I know guys at Sony and Disney and Pixar."

ILM is responsible for most of Episode III's 2,200 spectacular F/X shots, including the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) on the volcanic planet of Mustafar.

"There's always the wanting-to-impress-your-friends aspect of it and also [the aspect of wanting] to outdo what you've done before, because we never want to keep doing the same thing," Coleman said. "With Lord of the Rings and [its director,] Peter Jackson, we knew that their third movie [Return of the King] was going to take place at a volcano, and we also knew that ours was going to, too. So there was a concern amongst the designers—I remember, early on—about making ours very different. I remember us huddled around the computers watching their trailers come out, analyzing them frame by frame and going, 'OK, there's the volcano. It looks like it's a single, and it's very tall. Ours is not going to look like that.' There was a concerted effort to say, 'We're not copying what they're doing. We're doing something different.'" Episode III is now playing.