It appears that the Dark Side is alive and well. Footage from a two-and-a-half minute Lucasfilm presentation for EPISODE III was filmed by someone and has now made its way onto the internet. We've been told from a source (but unable to confirm with Lucasfilm yet) that the presentation was part of a marketing meeting. The material was placed on the internet as early as last evening. What is extraordinary is that the footage shows numerous scenes of Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor rehearsing and then filming one of the key moments in all of STAR WARS: the lightsaber duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Other scenes include Samuel L. Jackson (Jedi Master Mace Windu) in lightsaber action; Jimmy Smits holding a placement onject to be used for a to-be-added CGI character; Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine) and Christensen against greenscreen; Christensen in the cockpit of a Jedi starfighter and then later hanging for his life against a ledge suspended against a greenscreen; scenes featuring Natalie Portman (Padme), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and R2-D2 and still more. Almost all of the filmed action is set against a greenscreen backdrop. The presentation begins and ends with material from the original trilogy of STAR WARS movies showing Darth Vader -- and the soundtrack used to convey the EPISODE III video is AC/DC's "Back in Black". The material does seems to be unauthorized filming. At the conclusion of the short the person holding the recording device seems to drop the camera just before the lights come up. More on this developing story as we get it. [Anonymous with the story.] http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Movies&action=page&obj_id=40672
That was some niiiiiiice footage. Fortunately it didn't give away anything we didn't already know, cuz I'm trying to avoid any major spoilers for Episode III.
Just more f.y.i.; Dateline: Thursday, January 22, 2004 By: PATRICK SAURIOL By: News Editor Source: TheForce.net Sources for The Force.net have told the website about a tantalizing rumor: there might be a proposal for a post-EPISODE III STAR WARS TV show on someone's desk. The Force.net hears speculation that the premise of the show follows the infamous and terrifying rise to power of Sith Lord Darth Vader between the purge of the Jedi Knights and the start of A NEW HOPE. Whether this alleged TV show would be live-action or animation (as Cartoon Network's CLONE WARS series is) remains unclear. http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Television&action=page&type_id=&cat_id=270355&obj_id=40662
You can get it here. Unfortunatly, it doesn't seem to work for everyone. For instance, I can't get the damn thing to run, but a bunch of other folks on the board that I got this off of are able to view it...
hmm...the link didn't work for me. It said connecting but never finished... I tried to view it last night but couldn't. Now the link to the clip is gone.
Thankee-sai! (Sorry, I'm reading The Dark Tower series...) Interesting footage. Of course, all of it was blue/green screen stuff, but the Big Fight looks to be uber cool. Also, I rather like Anakin's look in the footage. (Hopefully, he won't be a whiny creep in this one.) Still, after LOTR, it's rather hard to get excited for Star Wars prequels. It's like Charlie Brown and the football, only Lucy is George Lucas, and the football represents "the promise of a good movie." Please don't go 0-fer-3, Lucas. Don't make me beg...
Since I was totally disapointed by the last two movies, I lost all expectations for the pre-quel Star Wars. Thus, the third movie can be great or terrible... it won't matter to me. I'll still see it just to complete the story. Two things that look cool: 1. Anakin 'looks' older and more devestating, esp. w/ the grown out hair. Nobody would have believed he was going to become Darth Vader with that boyish pony-tail, and lack of facial hair. (not that he's grown a beard now... but at least it looks like he could if he wanted to). 2. The fight scene b/t Obi-Wan and Anakin looks "less coreographed." Why is this cool? Watch the original Star Wars lightsaber scenes, and notice that they resemble classic sword fights... not the acrobatic/martial-arts/gymnastic routines that are prevalent throughout the prequels. Old Obi-wan and Darth don't show all those fancy moves in the OT... wouldn't u think they would be "better" fighters as they reached their primes, not worse (maybe not obi-wan, but darth was in his prime). Thus, from the footage shown, it seems as if the fight is just simply a classic emotionally-filled struggle -- sans spin moves, twirly thingy's, and overhyped coreography. Two things that still bug me: 1. Notice that almost every scene they show in the footage is either shot in front of a blue screen, or has markers indicating a CGI character. FORGET TECHNOLOGY GEORGE. Use it sparingly. Build the sets, shoot on location, use puppets again... its too late for him to go back and do these things, but I have a feeling that these prequels woulnd't be as unbearable if it weren't for all the CGI. At times, they looked like cartoon movies. There won't be any consistency w/ the OT at all, because of how different they'll look visually. He should have toned it down, and used the technology sparingly. 2. Not enough Darth. He'll only be there the final 5 minutes... and that's it. I understand that they may make a TV series, or another movie (gasp!) that shows how he purged all the jedi, and helped the empire become the ultimate ruling force of the galaxy... but I kinda wish they'd do that in the third movie. My guess is they want it to still be a semi-happy ending (with dark overtones), but I say who cares... devestate everybody and show the dark side at its ULTIMATE PEAK! Ok, enough ranting... the original trilogy still rules, the prequels were dissapointing, and that's all there is to it.
when you have a kid who digs star wars, these aren't disappointing...at all. i understand the criticisms...but seeing these through the eyes of a kid is just great.
Heh, just wait until you get to Wolves of the Calla. You're going to be going around telling everyone Thankya Big-Big!
