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STAR WARS NEWS: BITS 'N PIECES
Posted by VE Reporter
 New Wallpapers On Star Wars Official Website
The venerable StarWars.com has released five new resplendent wallpapers for downloading. They depict classic battle scenes from the first [original/classic] trilogy and are available for both Macintosh and PC. Old wallpapers depicting upcoming Episode II characters are also still available for download.
McCallum Answers Film Development Question
In recently answering the question "Why does it take three years between the release of the new Star Wars movies?" on the official Star Wars website, Producer Rick McCallum responded: "[Because] that is how long it takes us to make a movie. Episode I: The Phantom Menace actually took us five years, including one serious year of massive conceptual art design which effected not only Episode I but also Episode II and even Episode III to a certain degree. This one took three years, one year less than the real pre-production time we had on Episode I. For Episode III, we're trying to start the script now and move back to about four years of total time because in reality that's how much time we need. They are very complicated to make. It takes eighteen months just to do the effects, and it takes six months to prepare for those effects, so that is two years right there. It takes us basically seven months to prepare and four months to shoot . . . that is another year. And then it takes us a year to conceptualize and have everything together to make the necessary commitments for locations. We do not just shoot in the studio, we stop in five different countries, we have to get permissions, schedule, just mammoth things."
More EP1 DVD Information
The Homing Beacon, an official online Star Wars newsletter, had some new discussion on the Episode 1: The Phantom Menace DVD which appears in stores October 16, 2001: Adds Rick McCallum, "The average person just wants to see the movie, and other people want to go further, but that is what makes DVD fantastic." The Episode I DVD has over six hours of additional material, including seven deleted scenes that had their visual effects work completed just for this release. "It is painful to cut something out; it is not done lightly," says McCallum. "Now, you can see it in a different light. You have to make the decisions at the moment. Years later, you still think about if you should have left certain things in. An all-new hour-long documentary entitled "The Beginning" promises an unblinking look into the making of The Phantom Menace, with unprecedented access into the inner workings of Lucasfilm, Ltd. and Industrial Light & Magic. "For too many years people have mythologized what they do, and the whole industry is shrouded in secrecy. You could only know what happened if you knew somebody. We want to get all the stories, all the pain -- not the ‘oh it is so nice to work with George [Lucas] and Rick [McCallum]’-syndrome. We want to show the pain we had in getting the picture out there, the problems we had, the challenges we faced, where we succeeded, where we did not succeed, and some of the things we had to cut out. I think that is what I am really excited about people seeing."
Natalie Portman Attends 'A.I.' Premiere
Last, but not least, angelic Star Wars actress Natalie Portman, who portrayed Queen Admidala in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, attended the gaudy premiere of the film "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" in the state of New York on June 26th to the unbridled mirth of admiring onlookers and vigilant photographers. The new Steven Spielberg film opens nationwide on June 29th. Natalie Portman may be seen in the future in Episode II [Summer 2002] and Episode III [Summer 2005] of the continually unfolding Star Wars saga.
[the text in the above post was created using various articles displayed on the TheForce.Net website.]
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