Fieldsedge has a new interview with Lorne Peterson,amajor player in the bahind the camera world of Star Wars. Thanks to John for the heads up, here's a clip of it:

Another 2006 DVD release also has Peterson grinning these days: When we spoke in mid-2005, he had lamented the fact that the original, pre-Special Edition trilogy had not been released in a digital format. That changed this fall, and he says it does mean something special.

“It’s almost unimaginable to think of the (original) Star Wars films sitting somewhere and rotting within your own lifetime,” he said.

But 2006 was also marked by an ending: Lucasfilm sold off its model shop operations to longtime employee Mark Anderson and a group of investors. Though the new company, Kerner Optical, has right of first refusal to any Lucasfilm or ILM modeling projects, Peterson admits it’s a little odd not being beneath the ILM umbrella these days. For instance, there’s the disconnect of not having the muscle of the Lucasfilm name, which, as Lorne puts it “can get people to do backflips for you.” And in a way, he said there’s almost a feeling similar to the early days of ILM, with a sense of uncertainty in the air.

“It has been kind of an emotional roller coaster for a number of people,” he said. “Me, maybe a little bit less than most, in that I have an awful lot of things under my belt already.”

Still, Peterson seems to see it as just one more step on the path, one more turn in the road. And look where his journey’s taken him so far.