Yesterday we posted some scans from the Australian magazine "Who Weekly". This morning, Silmarillion posted the full article in the Jedi Council forums, and here it is for everyone else. It's full of spoilers, so you'll have to highlight to read.

Full Force

Hot from the Sydney set, an inside look at Star Wars:Episode II- the plot, rumours, and some surprising new stars.

Star Wars fans won’t forget Aug 9. That evening, at Sydney’s Fox Studios, Lucasfilm sound designer Ben Burtt began a talk to 150 film students and sci-fi fans by apologising for looking a little weather-beaten. He had, he explained, just spent the day on the set of Star Wars:Episode II filming a complicated “rain sequence.” At his words, a murmur of excitement rippled through the room. Until then, no one connected with the top-secret movie had divulged a skerrick of information about what was being shot on the high security set. The news circulated at pod-racer velocity. In Michigan, on the US east coast, church worker and Star Wars devotee Joshua Griffin received an email from Sydney film student Amber C and posted her snippet on fan Web site TFN. Within minutes the item was being discussed in cyber chatrooms around the globe. “The world,” declares Griffin, “went wild.”

The rain revelation began a flood of speculation about the plot and characters of Episode II, the fifth installment of George Lucas’s SW saga. “Fans are more excited about this movie than the last, Episode 1: TPM,” says Griffin, 25. According to rumours being mulled over by TFN’s 5 million weekly visitors, E2 will be darker than 1, featuring so called “Clone Wars,” Queen Amidala’s wedding to Anakin Skywalker (supposedly shot in Italy last week) and Skywalker’s transformation into Vader.

Only Lucas, Burtt and a handful of E2 insiders know the complete plot, and most cast and crew were made to sign confidentiality agreements binding them to secrecy about their involvement in the film, which began its Sydney shoot on June 26 and on Aug 25 moved to Europe and Africa. “I have no idea what happens,” says David Bowers, 41, a former WA (West Australian) fireman who 2 years ago decided to try acting and plays the Leader of the Senate. “We we’re only given the pages of the script that our actors appear on.” But leaks have occurred and on Aug 4 Sydney’s Daily Telegraph published sneak photos taken from the window of a nearby building of Ewan McGregor in costume as Obi-Wan Kenobi. (So incensed was Lucas at the breach that he ordered all windows with a view of the set blackened out and forbade actors to wear their costumes outside the giant sound stages).

Nevertheless, superfan Griffin says TFN receives much of its information from “highly placed sources” on the set, although, he adds, “most sources, like Amber C, just email out of the blue.” Griffin now believes Burtt’s “rain sequence” involves a spectacular light-sabre fight featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Adding to the buzz that surrounds the movie are the raves from Australian actors cast in the film. “This is the biggest thing that has ever happened to me,” says Bowers. Anthony Phelan, who played Ken Smith on Home and Away, voices a new alien creature and found the experience “extraordinary,” while veteran actor Graeme Blundell, who plays Queen Amidala’s father told the Daily Telegraph, “It’s fascinating to be inside the project. I’ve done 45 films in Australia of all kinds. All their budgets combined would total 2 days on SW.” Once Were Warriors’ Temuera Morrison who plays a villan, said the whole production was “intimidating,” and Two Hands’ Rose Byrne who is Amidala’s handmaiden, told Fox 8’s Premiere that she felt “part of history.”

After Lucas and his cast and crew set up at Fox Studios, they made themselves at home in Sydney. Natalie Portman and costar Hayden Christensen hung out at Bondi Beach, where they were spotted strolling on the sand and eating vegetarian food. “I love it here,” says Portman,19, enthused to The Sunday Telegraph. “I could really see myself living here.” Jimmy Smits and Christopher Lee kept a low profile, while Sam Jackson frequented local clubs and boogied at a dance party on the harbour during his 2 visits to Australia for the shoot. He also played gold at Moore Park in Sydney’s east.

McGregor and his French wife, Eva Mavrakis, celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary in early August with a candlelit dinner onboard the cruiser Matilda. Single father Lucas and his children, Katie and Jett, saw the sights of Sydney, attended film premieres and visited Taronga Zoo.

From reports, the stars earned their recreation. “It’s intense every day,” Lucas, 56, told the official website. One source told Who the days on set were grueling and stressful. “We’d work up to 60 hours a week,” he said. Lucas led by example, each day leaving his $15,000-a-week eastern suburbs home before sunrise and driving his Jaguar the 5km to Fox Studios – a mini city of 500 actors, technicians and make up artists described by Bowers as resembling “Santa’s workshop.” In spite of the iron hand exerted by the director, Lucas was popular with the Australians. “He’s actually a really nice guy,” says Melbourne schoolgirl Bonnie Piesse, 17, whose character Beru Lars later becomes Luke Skywalker’s guardian. After the Sydney shoot was wrapped, Piesse travelled with the production to Italy and Tunisia. “I’ll be flying on the SW private jet from Naples to Africa,” she enthused before she left.

Actors playing alien creatures were required to report to make up as early as 3:30am and would work till evening, often with only a break for lunch. “They never gave us breakfast,” says Bowers who wore a scaly blue latex mask. “I looked very evil,” he says. Others like Joel Edgerton were luckier. “I’m quite excited that I actually get to play a human,” he laughs. Edgerton, 26, who costarred with Hugh Jackman in Erskenville Kings, portrays Luke Skywalker’s uncle. He prepared for his four days on the set listening to a recording of the voice of the actor who played the character as an older man in the first SW film.

Anthony Phelan was another to go beyond the call of duty in the name of SW magic. He wore a giant cardboard alien head in his scenes with McGregor. Phelan, 46, will be digitally removed from the footage and his body replaced with that of a computer generated creature with his voice. “It was totally bizarre,” he says, adding that he and McGregor got on so well that the star went to see him in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Seneca’s Oedipus.

Also singing the praises of McGregor, 29, was 80 year old Alethea McGrath, who would not reveal her character because she had signed a confidentiality agreement. McGregor who sports a bushy beard as Obi-Wan Kenobi, “kissed me and thanked me” she blushes.

While many of the film’s big names had their own trailers, sources assured Who that there was no “star thing” on set. Portman, McGregor and Christensen were seen zooming around the lot on scooters. And at lunchtime the entire cast ate side by side in the studio’s catering marquee where the food ranged from three-course dinners to donuts and salads. Says Edgerton, “It was definitely a family atmosphere.”

The camaraderie reassured the Australians, many of whom were initially daunted by the starpower, scale and technical wizardry of the production. “Turning up on the first day was the scariest moment of my life,” says Bowers. “But now I can’t wait to be in E3 and not only that, but soon I’ll be able to buy a doll of myself.”

Thanks for typing it out, Silmarillion!