Harry here with still more on Episode One. Well it's been a weird week to say the least, what with the rumors of the trailer, the mysterious picture that went up on that Natalie Portman site, but then (Allegedly Lucasfilm asked that) the site owner remove it. Well, now my email is being filled with people claiming to find action figures at TARGET with "BALANCE OF THE FORCE" as the title. True? I don't know, as my Target did not have them, and I haven't gotten scans of the packaging proving it's validity one way or another. But McCallum was swearing up and down that it was the title in Australia, so I'm likely to believe him. BUT WHO KNOWS? We'll all find out in a week or two. I've been getting a lot of email from Brits that feel they are being shafted by Lucasfilm, what with the movement from Shepperton Studios to the Fox Studios in Sydney, not to mention they're desire to see the trailer at least at the same time we Yanks and Canucks see it. And they're real curious about a release date in their country, and are hoping for one on the same weekend. Well MILO chimes in on some of this, plus pics and information. There are SPOILERS below, if you do not wish to read this... well then, DON'T. I'm warning ya! Ok, Here's MILO.....
I have been busy working on another film for the last couple of weeks. I did manage to catch something on TV Thursday that, well quite frankly, got on me tits! - George Lucas. He was in this interview in Sydney Australia that I'm sure many of you are aware of. He commented that London (Leavesden) was not to his liking and he was looking forward to working down under. Well George, another of my colleagues here from the set said something that, I think, sums you pretty much up. My associate and friend BEN-LUKE JEDI MASTER (and toys expert) claimed 'that Lucas has reached the giddy heights of appearing even more self-obsessed and arrogant than James Cameron in his infamous Oscar speech'. I believe this to be true. Why can't George realise that the best place in the world to complete his new Trilogy is not Australia, not Hollywood but right here in London, England. I, of course, am the exception with my 'spying antics' but London has the most professional, determined, skilfull and courteous filmmaking crews in the world BAR NONE! I'm not putting down Aussies but believe Lucas to be well out of order as do many of my colleagues in the industry here in London. Don't get me wrong, Star Wars is the dog's bollocks (tasty) but Lucas is a grouch to work with. Why can't he have a personality more like Rick McCallum!
I do want to do more than grouse about Lucas' recent tragic decision so, Harry, I will get on to the heart of the email. Recently I've seen some designs show up on THEFORCE.NET and your sites. It seems rather obvious to someone like myself that these designs come from a very early style guide. I recently procured one of these ancient artifacts. The designs came very early and were changed throughout production and are still being tinkered with. One thing that disturbs me about THEFORCE.NET's coverage are the 'interpretations' of these advance works. For example they recently put up a two-year-old's scribblings of what a Faamba looks like. These designs haven't changed too terribly much but why display the design in it's very worst light. Here is what a Faamba looks like.
I must say though that this is a very early design from an early style guide. I include it only to give you a glimpse at whatever the artist saw, because their pencil did not capture that which the eye saw. To illustrate what I am talking about let me show you a bit on PK-4. A rather unimportant droid that greets Liam and Ewan at the beginning of the film before things get moving. This droid has but a few lines at the beginning of the film, but he's integral to the opening style of the film. According to the style guide that your and THEFORCE.NET's spies have access to, PK-4 looks like this:
My favorite line of his is, "I'm not made to think." But that's unimportant. If you look at the above design you can see the rather obvious commonalities of the Battle Droid. Along the design phase it was decided to go in a different direction for this little chap. As you can see by Chiang's more up to date sketch here:
I believe this should show that there is a significant change from the style guide and the production sketches. With Lucas the words "final" and "decision" are far far away. As for my belly-aching about Lucas' abandoning of our beautiful isle, we do have Ridley Scott's GLADIATORS, Tim Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW and the latest Bond film to keep us busy. And if he's leaving because of spies like me, Bothan Spy and the others. He's in for a shock. The Aussies love film and the web every bit as much as we do. I trust we'll see plenty of scoops from the land down under. I predict more.
Well Harry that finishes up this report. Please put the pictures where I indicate so that I don't look too much like an idiot.
CHEERS,
MILO
