m

		George Lucas’ prequel to Star Wars is certainly one of the big film events audiences in India are looking forward to. In US, the film’s pre-release hype resulted in serpentine queues before theatres a week in advance, before the ticket-sales began. Everyone wanted to catch the film in the first week, if not on the first day. After 21 weeks of successful run in the US, it’s cumulative gross is a whopping $426 million. The new record-breaking film (it got the biggest opening and biggest one-day total for a single film - $28,542,349) comes 22 years after Star Wars was first released. Episode I - The Phantom Menace takes audiences on a journey to the beginning of the Star Wars saga. The original Star Wars trilogy (Episodes IV, V, and VI) told the story of Luke Skywalker, a young farmboy who became a hero in the struggle to overthrow an evil empire, and had to confront one of the Empire’s staunchest henchmen, Darth Vader, who held the terrible secret of his father’s fate. The new Star Wars trilogy (Episode I is the first of the three-part prequel), goes back in time a full generation to tell the story of Anakin Skywalker, the innocent boy who will one day become the dreaded Darth Vader. The prequel takes audiences through extraordinary realms and adventures, from the desert planet of Tatooine, to the galactic capital world of Coruscant (with its Jedi Temple), the green world of Naboo, and beyond. Familiar Star Wars characters Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Jabba the Hutt are along for the ride. This first chapter in the Star Wars saga follows young Anakin Skywalker’s journey, as he pursues his dreams and confronts his fears in the midst of a galaxy in crisis. Star Wars: Episode I is the fourth movie released in the Star Wars saga, but it is the very first chapter of the overall story. Episodes IV, V and VI are the films familiar as Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. George Lucas returns as both, writer and director, for the first time since the original Star Wars movie was released. Episode I’s cast features a mix of new and familiar faces. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor play Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, noble Jedi Knights, at the height of their powers. Natalie Portman plays a young queen, and Jake Lloyd brings to life an even younger Anakin Skywalker. Lucas wanted the nine-year-old Anakin to be very outgoing, intuitive, inventive and self-reliant, and he had to appeal to both young people and their parents. Jake was the prefect choice. Ian McDiarmid returns to his role as the mysterious Senator Palpatine, who will one day become the dreaded Emperor Palpatine. On the other side of the Force, Samuel L. Jackson puts on the robes of Mace Windu, an influential Jedi Master. Frank Oz also returns to perform once again as the venerable Jedi sage Yoda. The prequel is in keeping with the theme of Star Wars - the conflict between good and evil, and between technology and humanity; the celebration of heroism, and the limitless potential of the individual. Lucas’ story, which encompasses various cultures, planets and styles, necessitated a rich and varied design. “I tried to figure out what each culture was like,” says Lucas, “and what kind of design would fit into each.” The challenges involved a staggering number of designs for everything, from an Art Nouveau underwater city, to brooches for a queen, along with dozens of spacecraft, hundreds of costumes and thousands of other-worldly props. The architecture alone involves everything from Ibadite Tunisian adobe and Malian mud styles, to futurist mile-high skyscrapers, Renaissance Italian palaces, and very alien free- form interior. The digital effects were handled by Lucas’ own Industrial Light And Magic (ILM). It was a challenge to realise worlds of extraordinary fantasy, while maintaining a realistic look and accommodating live-action footage of the actors. Not only the fantasy backgrounds, but many of the sets, vehicles and even characters are computer-generated. In fact, 95 percent of the frames in the film, encompassing nearly 2,000 shots, employ digital work — more than tripling the greatest number of CG shots ever generated for a motion picture. Episode I’s exotic and disparate worlds, three of which serve as the story’s principal locales, are all a result of digital effects. Like the desert planet Tatooine, already familiar to fans of the original trilogy, is home to many alien species that travel through its remote spaceports. Then there’s Naboo a peaceful, idyllic paradise of green landscapes and few cities, found both above and below the water. This provincial world is the scene of the conflict that ignites the entire chain of events, that sets the the Star Wars saga in motion. Coruscant is a world-city where urban sprawl has covered the entire planet in colossal skyscrapers, and it is the centre of the Star Wars universe. Here, the Jedi make their headquarters in the mighty Jedi Temple, and from here the Galactic Senate rules the Republic. The filmmakers chose the Leavesden Studios in the United Kingdom for shooting the sci-fi flick, creating a virtual movie factory under its sprawling roof. The facility’s 850,000 square feet were converted to 10 stages and 60 sets, plus extensive areas for floor effects, special creature effects and costume manufacturing. The production then moved to the Caserta Royal Palace near Naples, Italy, for scenes set in the Queen’s palace on Naboo. In the heat of summer, the team made a “seismic” move to the edge of the North African Sahara — Tunisia, home of the Tatooine scenes. Tunisia’s distinctive traditional architecture once again adds exotic richness to the film’s cultural tapestry, as it did over 20 years ago for Star Wars. Instead of just duplicating the looks of the original trilogy, Lucas wanted to create entirely new settings and worlds for the prequel. And it was left to Chiang Doug, an art director at ILM, to execute the new look. In the original trilogy, the spaceship designs had an assembly line-like feel, with mass produced aesthetics, hard angles and a “machined” look. But in the new film, set a generation prior to the events of Star Wars, the vehicles and ships reflect the priorities and values of a different time. “The era of Episode I is polished, individualised and refined — perhaps even overly designed,” says Chiang, “It could be called a ’craftsman’s era’. Many of the vehicles are quite elegant and have a romantic feel.” But some Episode I story and location requirements called for vehicles already familiar to fans. So the Trade Federation battleship incorporated surface textures from the Star Destroyers seen in the original trilogy. Episode I brings a new athleticism and fighting style to the Star Wars saga. Nick Gillard, the renowned stunt co-ordinator, created and oversaw the film’s action sequences. Since Lucas set Episode I at a time when the Jedi Knights were at the height of their powers, Gillard ramped up the action, stunt work and, of course, lightsaber duels for the new film. No two sword-masters have exactly the same style, and Gillard wove the subtleties of distinct identities into the choreography of the lightsaber battles. Although these fighting styles are new for Episode I, they nonetheless remain true to the lightsaber styles of the original trilogy. The Star Wars saga is a modern day fairy-tale reflecting the vision of Lucas. The writer-director still has to come up with Episode II and Episode III to complete the epic story. A challenging task, no doubt. May ` The Force’ be with him. Compiled by Salma Khatib