©THE PREQUELS (NEWS & RUMORS)
The above pic shows prequel producer Rick McCallum scouting for Tatooine locations in Tunisia. This location, known as a ksar, is likely to be seen in the new films. (From SW Insider #29)
RUMORS - The truth from a certain point of view
There are a heck of a lot of Rumors floating around about the new trilogy. We've put them in their own section just so you know what's fact and what's fiction. While some of this stuff may end up being true, we have not confirmed it for ourselves yet, so be warned!!!
JUST THE FACTS, MAN!
All of the following information we have confirmed ON OUR OWN from reliable sources. These are the FACTS.
NEW!!!SPECIAL EFFECTS
WHAT RUMORS DO YOU KNOW ARE FALSE?
- Episode 1 - The Beginning (Working Title - source Star Wars Insider #32) and PREQUEL ONE (Houston Chronicle Feb 2, 1997)
- Allen Neuman reported this to RASSM on 2/10/97 "George Lucas appeared on CNN today and was asked if the prequel has a title yet. Lucas said it does, but he's not ready to announce it yet. "Good try, though," he told the interviewer.
Episode 1 - 1999 (spring? May?), Episode 2 - 2001, Episode 3 - 2003 (Source: Daily Variety and New Yorker) They will not be filmed back to back as previously reported, only 2 and 3 will be back to back.
Episode 1 - George Lucas, Episode 2 & 3 - Undecided
- "First three tells story of Anakin Skywalker. He's eight years old in first, twenty in second and around twenty-five in third. First two movies have happy endings (although second has 'a hint of gloom and doom'), third is supposed to be quite tragic." (Quote from Bruce Handy - TIME Magazine)
Also, here's a quote from the March 1997 issue of Disney Adventures. It's an interview with George Lucas (Sent by Gil Varod): Q: What can you tell us about Episodes 1, 2, and 3? A: The films will be about the young Obi-Wan- kenobi and the young Anakin Skywalker (Luke's father). The stories take place 40 years before the first Star Wars film. We've been working for about a year designing new environments, creatures, vehicles, droids, and special effects technology at ILM.
A Quote from George Lucas, "The new one's are more...I keep saying soap opera-ish because they're more the drama about who did what to whom and why, and where it strated from. So it's slightly different from the other ones, which were kind of the cut-to-the-chase part. I think it'll be interesting to people who are interested in the genre, the milieu, the stories behind all the stories." (Cinescape March/April 1997)
For more info on the prequels, see the Star Wars novelization, specifically the Journal of the Whills intro. Here's a quote from Lucas' foreward, "..the outline for the new trilogy of prequels is actually contained in the first two pages of this book, the prologue."
Also see the 'Blast from the Past Rolling Stone Article below. It talks about how Anakin became Vader.
Besides Obi Wan and Anakin, as mentioned above, the following characters will also be seen.
- A Young Queen, as she is being called, will be in the film. (See the casting call below.) This character IS Luke and Leia's mother. (As said by Rick McCallum to Entertainment Weekly Jan 10, 1997) This character will be 14 in the first film and around 24 in the second film.
- "Yoda and Obi-Wan will be in prequels. Yoda will still be "acted" as a puppet by Frank Oz." (Quote from Bruce Handy - TIME Magazine)
C-3PO and R2D2 will be seen, but in different forms! (Very Mysterious!)(Source - March '96 Aggiecon - Howard Roffman and Steve Sansweet)
On the MTV Star Wars Special on 2/16/97, George Lucas confirmed that Boba Fett will make an appearance late in the trilogy. It's a safe bet to say other Mandalorian Warriors will also be seen.
Along with these characters, we'll see the Emperor and most likely Grand Moff Tarkin and Baby Luke and Leia.
- "No one has yet been cast for prequels, although they've narrowed it down to ten boys to play Anakin in first movie. Cast will mostly be unknowns." (Quote from Bruce Handy - TIME Magazine 2/6/97))
The 2/3/97 issue of People has an article on where the old Star Wars actors are now. Warwick Davis (Wicket, Willow) says, "I have official word that I will be involved (in the prequels)." Also, Kenny Baker (R2-D2) says of the prequels "If R2-D2 is in the movie, I'll be in the movie. That's what George Lucas told me." There you have it!
Harry Knowles is reporting that James Earl Jones will do the voice of Darth Vader again in the prequels. Here's his report...
Well, super-spies are doing some excellent work. According to a well placed spy James Earl Jones will provide a certain deep timbre voice in the prequels. James said, "I met George out in Idaho recently. I asked him whether I'd get to work on the new trilogy. He said when Darth Vader becomes bionic at the end of the third episode then I get to work. I was very happy to hear that." Well make of that as you will, it did come from the man himself. Enjoy the high you are now feeling. I am.
EWAN MacGREGOR NEWS / CONFIRMATION
As you can see, some of the rumors we've been hearing seem to have a little bit of truth to them. This comes from the 4/1/97 Dish section of Daily Variety, sent by Jay Majer
Castings
Though Kenneth Branagh was the oft-mentioned candidate to play young Obi Wan Kenobi in the next three Star Wars prequel films, Dish hears talk is building about Trainspotting star Ewan McGregor, who has met with George Lucas. A Lucas representative acknowledged the meeting, but said he's one of several being considered.
For more info on Ewan, see the Rumors section of the Prequel news.
We have heard from a reliable source that in the prequels, COSTUMES on live actors will be computer animated. They will be large and ornate with beautiful shimmering colors.
We were also told that the ships will be very different from those seen in Episodes 4, 5, &6. Like the difference between a '60 and '90 corvette, the older ships will be more bulky and have more 'things' coming off of them. The look of the ships should not be surprising considering Lucas' growing up with Buck Rodgers and Flash Gordon.
Our source also told us that Mandalorian Battle Armor costumes have been in production for almost a year now. He mentioned that they would be different variations on the Fett armor such as whitem red, etc. He said it was also not clear if they would be good or bad in the prequels.
- We were recently able to confirm for ourselves the rumors about Carrie Fisher working on the scripts for the prequels. This is not surprising considering her excellent work on YOUNG INDIANA JONES and OUTBREAK, among others. We got this news from Sally Sparkman, Mark Hamill's assistant. Here's what she told us..." I do understand from Mark that Carrie has been hired as a script doctor to help out with re-writes on the prequels."
Jay Majer also sent this to us (3/11/97) from Variety:
While in SanFran, Carrie meets with George Lucas, who is prepping the prequels to Star Wars. "I get to punch up the dialog," said Carrie. A 14-year-old will play Princess Leia's mother in the first prequel, and 24-year-old mom in the second. Lucas told me he is pulling out all (technical) stops in the upcoming Wars.
- As of the beginning of 1997, the building of sets began at Leavesden Studios in England. For more info on that Click Here!
- They are set to begin filming at the end of September 1997 (SW Insider, Houston Chronicle)
-Locations have been scouted in Morocco, Portugal, Australia, and Tunisia. Tunisia was the location that Tatooine was filmed, so it is safe to say we'll see Tatooine again.
- Only one Prequel pic has come out so far. This is it from the 2/10/97 issue of TIME Magazine. It is a shot of Coruscant from Episode 1.
To see a bigger version of this pic (from Brian Linder), Click Here!
ROTJ:SE ENDING SCENE / PREQUEL OPENING SCENE?
Do the above scenes look similar? They should! The top picture is one of the closing scenes on Coruscant in Return of the Jedi: Special Edition (from the Official Star Wars Homepage. Click on the Pic to go there!). The lower scene is a production painting from the Prequel (from TIME magazine). Rick McCallum, the producer of the prequels, has said on numerous occasions that the closing scene of the Special Editions would be the opening scene of the prequel. Now we see he was right! The ship seen at the end of the boarding ramp is called an air bus by the SW Homepage.(Pointed out to us by Brian C on RASSM!)
Tatooine Locations (On location in Tunisia)
The following pictures come from the SW Insider #29. The article, by Jon Bradley Snyder, details Rick McCallums scouting trip to Tunisia for places to shoot the prequels. The following pictures are very likely to be seen in the prequels as locations on Tatooine. (BTW, the structures are called ksars.)
WHAT RUMORS DO YOU KNOW ARE FALSE?
- First off, Obi Wan will not be played by Kenneth Branagh. This comes from the Friday, Jan. 10, 1997 issue of the Houston Chronicle
OBI WAN MEETS SHAKESPEARE? by Louis B. Parks - For years there has been a rumor that Kenneth Branagh, the famous Shakespearean actor of HENRY V and HAMLET, would be Obi-Wan Kenobi when George Lucas does his new STAR WARS trilogy starting this year. (The new trilogy would take place before the time frame of the original films.) When Branagh was here to promote HAMLET, Iasked him if he would be with the Force. "It's just a rumor," he said. "I don't know how it started, but it's been persistent over the past couple of years." But Branagh does not rule out possible interest. "I'm an actor for hire at the moment, so if George chooses to give me a call, I'll be all ears," he said.
Next, Obi Wan will not be computer generated (DUH!). This is from the March 1997 issue of Disney Adventures (sent by Gil Varod). It's an interview with George Lucas: " Q: What's the funniest thing you've read on a Star Wars Web site? A: Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of free time to surf the Net. One of the funniest rumors I heard was that I was going to take Alec Guiness's face from a 40-year-old movie and put it on an actor playing young Obi-Wan in the new movie. " Want to know how this rumor got started? Just Click Here!
Oh, yeah, and Macauly Culkin will not be in the new trilogy. Thank the Maker!
TIME Article - The rest of the Prequel News!
Around January 1st, Bruce Handy, the writer of the Star wars Article in TIME this week, visited our site. He said he liked it and told us that he was interviewing George Lucas soon. He asked if we had any questions. Needless to say, we did.
Bruce recently wrote us back as a follow up to our discussions with him. Here's what he had to say...
"My piece came out on Monday-maybe you've already seen it. If so, I hope you liked it. I got answers to some of your questions that didn't make it into the piece.
No plans as of yet on whether episodes 7,8 and 9 will be made.
Lucas apparently doesn't have much time for surfing the net."
We've included the rest in the text above. Thanks Bruce!
Blast from the Past - How Anakin became Vader
The following is an article posted by Ed Snow (edsnow@aracnet.com) from Rolling Stone. George Lucas himself describes how Anakin became Vader. Maybe this will give us some insight into the prequels!:
From the _Rolling Stone_ interview with George Lucas, August 25, 1977, p.46:
George Lucas: [describing why Darth Vader breathes so heavily] ... It was a whole part of the plot that essentially got cut out. It may be in one of the sequels.
Paul Scanlon: What's the story?
George Lucas: It's about Ben and Luke's father and Vader when they are young Jedi knights. But Vader kills Luke's father, then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in _Star Wars_, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being. That's why he has to wear the suit with a mask, because it's a breathing mask. It's like a walking iron lung. His face is all horrible inside. I was going to shoot a close-up of Vader where you could see the inside of his face, but then we said, no, no, it would destroy the mystique of the whole thing.
UPDATE by IMPERIAL SPY JAY MAJER
This appeared in today's Daily Variety (10/15/96):
DON'T FORCE THE FORCE: That George Lucas wanted to direct the first "Star Wars" prequel hasn't been front page news since Dish revealed it in 1994.
What's new is that Lucas is straying from the widely speculated notion that he'll release his new Jedi films over three consecutive years.
Lucas toyed with the idea of shooting the new trilogy back-to-back-to-back. He's writing the scripts for all three, but will shoot the first one separately. Then he'll take a breather and do the second and third back-to-back.
That means instead of consecutive years, the films will likely be released in 1999, 2001 and 2003.
Lucas still hasn't decided where to place the films, but is giving Fox -- which released the original trilogy and will re-release the digitally enhanced, fully restored trio starting Jan. 31 -- first shot at making the distribution deal.
LUCAS TO DIRECT FIRST PREQUEL FILM!!!!
This is brought to you by our spy, Jay Majer:
This showed up on the Hollywood Reporter web site today. Usually the version at the news stand has more detailed articles. I'll check on that later today.
"Lucas keeping the Force with him" - More than two decades after "Star Wars" rewrote the boxoffice record books and ushered in the era of special effects megamovies, George Lucas will make his return to feature film directing. Lucas confirmed Wednesday that he will direct as well as produce the first installment of his three "Star Wars" prequels, which are set to go into production in fall 1997. The first of three "Star Wars" "prequels" planned by Lucas will essentially be the first chapter in the "Star Wars" story, documenting the background of the main characters through an exploration of their family roots. Lucas has begun circulating among his intimates a first draft of the script, which one insider said was sure to make for some eye-popping cinema, with numerous computer-generated characters. "It's practically an animated movie," the observer noted. (Paula Parisi)
Visit The Hollywood Reporter Homepage to see the article or other entertainment news!
Would you like the latest Star Wars information E-Mailed to your front doorstep? Then just go to our friends at the Jedinet Homepage and they have a list of Newsletters you can subscribe to! These guys are not affiliated with us, but they are VERY good at digging up all the news about the SW Universe! Highly Reccommended!
THE NEW TRILOGY
Lucasfilm is currently considering releasing the book version of the new films 6 months to a year BEFORE the film is released. They are asking fan opinion on this, as well.
Check out this article by a writer on Dana Cain's Star Wars Home Page. These are his theories about the new trilogy based on what has been told to us through the books and films. CLICK HERE!
OTHER CONFIRMED GARBAGE
