The latest Star Wars Insider magazine is hitting mailboxes all over the country, here's a roundup of some of the more general production updates found in its pages:

When Star Wars Insider asks producer Rick McCallum for an update on Episode III, the first thing he does is offer up a laundry list of what's about to happen:

"I finalize the deal at FOX Studios, Sydney in about a week's time; I've got our production designer starting in October; Our costume designer starts next month, and she starts shopping for fabrics. We're equipping the sound stages, sending in stuff from England back over to Sydney. So we're in real "go" mode now."

Until then, most of the pre-production work remains in the talented hands of JAK Productions, whose members meet with McCallum and George Lucas each week to show concept designs.

"We've been doing that for three or four months now, so we're starting to collect the basic look and feel of the planets that are involved. It's probably going faster than George wants, but slower than I want it to. We're getting there."

McCallum laughs as he explains the discrepancy in desired screenplay by adding, "George says he's writing, so we're just moving forward, trying to make him feel as guilty as possible." The possibility that george Lucas will emply a co-writer for Episode III remains "impossible to tell" at this point, but McCallum expects the screenplay will be finished next spring.