The Phantom Menace is now regarded by many as a disappointing movie, ushering in an era of computer effects that superseded story. Lambasted for its cartoon character comic relief, 'Pewusta!' Ill judged child Vader, 'Yipee!' and a plot that centered on the exciting drama of trade negations. 'Which started right here with the taxation of trade routes...' But, there was a time when the prospect of a new Star Wars film was the biggest event in film history; 'They understand I'm Star Wars freak and
this is something I have to do.' A glorious time before a million childhood dreams cried out in anger and were never silenced. 'How sweet it is.' 'Yeah, it's very tasty, especially with these tickets in my hand.' This is not just the story of a dream that was left like limbless smouldering mess on banks of a Mustafar lava river; 'I hate you!' it is also the story of how new technology changed filmmaking, fandom and the movie going experience forever. The story begins a long time ago when Lucas f
resh off the successful premiere at Cannes of THX 1138, signed a multi picture deal with United Artists, he pitched 2 films, one based on his childhood growing up in Modesdo California and the other a Flash Gordon-esque fantasy film. 'He originally wanted to do Flash Gordon, I'm real thankful it didn't work out or Nick Nolte would be sitting here instead of me.' United Artist passed on both, but Universal picked up the 60s nostalgia film American Graffiti. 'I just saw a vision!' The production
was not without its drama, despite positive test screenings Universal wanted to edit down the 112 minute film, 'This is a joke right?' Producer Francis Ford Coppola tried to buy the film to release as Lucas had intended, but Universal refused, making minor arbitrary cuts before its theatrical release. 'You take care of yourself man.' None the less, the film was a critical and commercial success, earning back over 150 times its budget at the box office. 'For Justice!' So when Lucas pitched Univer
sal with his Flash Gordon inspired sci-fi film “The Journal of Whills” they obviously… rejected it for being ‘a little strange’ , Producer Alan Ladd Jr while admitting he didn’t understand the sci-fi soap opera, believed in the talent of the young filmmaker and convinced Fox to invest. 'There'll be no one to stop us this time.' Lucas set about writing the screenplay – a screenplay that rapidly grew out of control before being sliced up and renamed... “The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken f
rom the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars." Lucas at the time hoped to be able to go back and tell the full story and so as part of his contract negotiations he took a pay cut to keep sequel and merchandising rights. The film eventually titled simply “Star Wars” faced studio inference as budget started to run over, meanwhile publicity supervisor Charles Lippincott was challenged with selling a movie, Fox’s own research said no one wanted to see. 'Star Wars, a billion years in the maki
ng and it's coming to your galaxy this summer.' In 1976 Comic-Con was only 6 years old and far from todays mass media takeover the layout was simple card tables, folding chairs and hand made signs. But if Star Wars was going to be a success they had to get the name out there. Lippincott accompanied by comic book writer and artist Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin hit the sci-fi convention circuit to talk to anyone who would listen. Far from the packed halls of Comic-con today the first Star Wars pre
sentations were delivered to at most a couple of hundred people with a slideshow. 'How much money do you have to make to break even?' (Gary Kurtz) 'Well the picture will cost a little over 7 million dollars, we will have to gross 18-19 to break even.' 'That's one of the reasons more science ficton pictures aren't made.' (Mark Hamill) 'Yeah, everyone go see it twice.' Attendees also had the opportunity to drop £1.75 on the first star wars collectible, an A4 poster drawn by Howard Chaykin that now
sells for many thousands in mint condition. In the build up to release, cinemas were not interested in screening the film and Fox had to demand that if the they wanted the anticipated “The Other Side of Midnight” they would have to take Star Wars too. 'People who have had their fill of telephone bills are finding a futuristic way of putting their problems aside for a while.' Star Wars was released in the summer of 1977 and was greeted by queues around the block, breaking box office records. 'Th
e film which has already outstripped the legendary Jaws in America as a money-spinner in America,' 'tells an out of space war story.' 'I think it was good.' 'Just good?' 'No fantastic!' Kenner who had won the contract to make toys for the film, by virtue of being the only toy company who were interested, struggled to meet the demands of the children who longed relive their cinematic experience at home. The lack of any action figures by the time Christmas rolled around led to Kenner selling an em
pty box with a voucher to receive the toys as soon as they were available. Over the next 8 years Kenner produced over 100 unique action figures and sold over 300 million. 'Now you can get this new 4-LOM action figure free with 5 proof of purchase from any Star Wars action figures.' 'Now question number 8, George Lucas the man responsible for these movies, makes more money than... ' 'and the answer is "you", that's right, makes more money than you.' The success of the film and lucrative merchandi
sing rights Lucas had negotiated, gave him the financial resources to step away from the studio system and self-fund the planned sequels. In a 1978 interview with Time magazine as production was ramping up on the sequel, Lucas who had stepped away from the director’s chair, announced that along with Star Wars 2 he was planning 10 more films that would culminate in his directorial return for the 12th installment planned for 2001. For a young Star Wars Fan in 1978 there was no internet, so for new
s on the saga, fans had to hope that magazines like Starlog and Starburst would print a story. Alternatively, you could join the Star Wars fan club that published a quarterly newsletter with the latest updates and interviews. In August of 1978, the previously mentioned 12 films were down to 9, with the upcoming Empire Strikes Back being the second film in the Saga. Later Lucas retconned this story to say that Stars Wars (now retitled A New Hope) was always the fourth film in the saga Lucas also
declares that the first three films will deal a young Obi Wan and Darth Vader. 'Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi Wan Kenobi.' Today when we know very little about upcoming sequels, it is strange to read Lucas revealing the focus of the prequel trilogy and title of the third film in the saga “Revenge of the Jedi” 'Is that correct? Revenge or Return? Return.' ,,,before The Empire Strikes Back had even been released. Without an easy way to share information, crucial spoilers are also kept hidden. The be
st is example is David Prowse revealing the climax of Empire, “Darth Vader and Luke are hooked up in a do-or-die lightsaber duel when Luke learns Darth is in fact his long-lost father" printed in a local paper it was quickly forgotten and one of cinema’s greatest reveals was left intact. 'Noooooooo.' In late summer of ’77, faced with a number of making ofs and spin off publications, Lucas sat down with then director of publications Carol Titleman to flesh out the Star Wars universe and settle o
n some continuity for the expanding saga. While some details changed (Leia had 2 much younger brothers for example), other details are strikingly similar to want was eventually presented in the prequels. Lucas speaks of the Galactic Senate and how the Chancellor could only serve one four year term before a newly elected chancellor started buying off senators with the help large intergalactic trade companies. 'Enter the bureaucrat, the true rulers of the Republic and on the payroll of the Trade F
ederation I might add.' In order to cut bureaucracy more power was handed to the chancellor who was ultimately made Emperor for life. 'So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.' As in the films, the Emperor had created a secret army and led by Darth Vader the Jedi were all but destroyed… except for Obi Wan and Luke’s father. There is no indication in these notes that the Emperor was a Sith Lord, and in the annotated screenplays it implies that the Emperor had become a recluse and th
e likes of Grand Moff Tarkin were using the name and threat of the Emperor to forward their own power-hungry desires. 'The last remnants of the Old Republic has been swept away.' The concept of the Force is also explored, with those being attuned to the Force having more midi-clorians in their cells, but anyone could learn the Force if they were willing to work hard at it. In a more public arena Lucas shared with Rolling Stone how Vader became “more machine than man” “Vader kills Luke’s father,
then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being.” This would be the scant bit of information fans were privy to feeding their imaginations for over 2 decades, – an epic lightsabre duel over the mouth of a volcano. In interviews Mark Hamill would often be quizzed about new films, and when he visited Blue Peter in 1980... 'Oh watch it Goldie!' We get th
e first mention of prequels as related to Star Wars. 'We finish off the trilogy and then we go back 20 years and do the story of young Darth Vader and the young Alec Guinness character.' 'Like a prequel?' 'That's right.' Mark would also frequently mention coming back to the role in the new millennium. 'George has talked to me marginally about doing something at the turn of the centrary, in the last trilogy, but it would be in a different plane of existence.' 'I know why I'm supposed to be here..
.' 'Why?' 'I have nowhere else to go.' But as Return of the Jedi made it’s way to the cinemas, 'In fact it won't open for two more days, but the lines are down the block.' speculation about more films was dampened. 'Well Goerge is very very tired.' 'They were considering doing the prequels, 1, 2 and 3 but I don't think they are doing that now.' 'Mr Lucas is very tired.' Lucas had recently adopted a daughter and with his divorce in 83 he pulled back from movie-making to be a father. It had been 1
0 years since Star Wars first hit the screen, but rather than a celebration of the first decade of Star Wars, the milestone was instead and marked by George Lucas taking The official Star Wars fan club on a break. In the years that followed Return of the Jedi the newsletter which had once been filled with Star Wars news, now more often spoke of other Lucasfilm projects like Indiana Jones, the Labyrinth and something called Howard the Duck. Despite Ewok movies and cartoons and the opening of the
Star Tours ride in Disneyland early in 1987, without a new movie insight interest in the saga was fading. The sale of Star Wars action figures dwindled with a limited run of the fabled last 16 with Yak Face only selling outside America. In what has come to be known as the dark years, star wars merchandise disappeared from the shelves and Kenner who only had to pay Lucasfilm $10k a year to keep their lucrative toy rights, let a payment slip. 'My give up, my give up.' Those dark days were short li
ved, in 1991 Star Wars returned with the best selling book Heir to the Empire by Timophy Zhan. X-wing launched on the PC a couple of years later selling over 100,000 copies on its debut weekend proving that there was still a huge appetite for the saga. First word of the prequals being finally written was hidden in the Star Wars Screen Entertainment software for windows, you could finally ditch your flying toasters screensaver in favour Star Wars ship schematics or rolling star wars text, the lat
ter if run for 20 minutes revealed a secret message from George Lucas. Such a glorious easter egg would now be uncovered and shared within hours of release, but with very few people in early 90s having access to the internet the announcement remained a secret. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, ILM finished work on Jurassic Park and with it, a new era of computer-generated special effects were born. With a renewed interest in the Saga and seeing the CGI dinosaurs being fully integrated into a live-ac
tion movie, Lucas announced publicly that he could finally realise his vision for the Star Wars prequels. 'It's uh, Obi-Wan Kenobe, Anakin Skywalker and Mrs Anakin Skywalker...' The fact that Kenner no longer owned very favourable rights to make star wars toys was purely coincidental in Lucas deciding the time was right to return to a galaxy far far away. From the earliest days of cinema, filmmakers have been using special effects as a way to tell more imaginative stories, but by the late 70s th
ere were few people left working in the effects industry and knowledge gained from productions like 2001: A Space Odyssey was in danger of being lost. So when Lucas wanted aerial dog fights in outer space he had develop the technology to pull it off. When Industrial Light and Magic was formed, the average age was just 25 and made up mostly of students, industrial designers, architects and engineers rather film industry veterans, but it was this fresh approach that allowed the effects to go to pl
aces they never been before. For Star Wars they resurrected the use of Vista Vision and first use of a motion Controlled Camera dubbed the Dykstraflex, allowing the exact same camera moves to repeated over and over. For Empire Strikes Back ILM created Go Motion building on the stop motion techniques pioneered by Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen. In 1982 ILM used computers to create the Genesis sequence in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. A couple of years later came the first completely compute
r-generated character in Young Sherlock Holmes. Followed by the first use of digital morphing in Willow. Off the big screen, George Lucas was using The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as a testing ground for new digital effects. Over the course of the series Lucas pioneered the use of digital crowds, digital environments, and digital editing. Editdroid had been developed in 1984 showing off a new era on non-linear editing, with all the footage converted to a digital file, it was much faster for e
ditors to scroll through footage and find alternate takes. 'I can experiment as much as I want and save everything, it's like a word processor, only for images.' This method of editing is now so common place and accessible it is hard imagine a time before it existed. While Jurassic Park was a very visual game-changer for the audience, what was happening in editing behind the scenes was every bit as important in Lucas deciding that he could realise his vison for a new Star Wars. 'All I need is an
idea.' 'For those who remember, for those who will never forget,' 'And for a whole new generation...' 'Who wll experiance it for the very first time.' But first, a hungry Star Wars audience was going to be treated to new THX remastered editions of the original trilogy. (because the digitally remastered editions from a few a years previous were no longer good enough.) Along with the laser discs, A collector’s edition was released packed with artwork, the scripts and a ton of special features. W
hile the 4 video tapes were in no way as convenient to navigate as DVDs, Star Wars again was breaking new ground in what viewers expected from home entertainment. 'The orginal trilogy on video... One - Last - Tme. Cryptically advertised as “The Original one last time” It is certainly strange to sell a remastered film while at the same time advertising an even better remastered version was only a couple of years away. At this point, Lucas had only intended to clean up Star Wars before moving onto
a rigorous back to back shooting schedule releasing the prequels in consecutive years starting in 1998 utilising the cost-saving measures developed on the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. 'The Star Wars Power of the Force Collection, with Darth Vader and Stormtroopers.' After a ten year absence, and new less favourable deal with Lucasfilm, 1995 also saw the return of Star Wars action figures to the toy shelf, following the trend at the time of pumped up superhero action figures, the classic Star
Wars characters got a steroid infused make over. 'This action figure has been working out, this one is like, "my chest is a sofa bed too." Despite the poor likenesses and poses that made it near impossible for some figures to stand, the new line was a huge hit. 'The only universe with crowd control stormtrooper with power pack and capture claw.' But with so few action figures to choose from, even smallest production line change would make a figure instantly collectable. Back in 1978 the action
figures for Obi Wan, Darth Vader and Luke came with double telescoping lightsabres, a fragile gimmick that didn’t hold up to active play, so was quickly replaced making the originals highly desirable. In 1995 a long sabre variation was more confusing, but no less sought after. The lightsabres ordinally packed in were so long that it off balanced the figures and were quickly replaced with shorter sabres, in the transition period short sabers appeared in long saber trays – leading some figures exc
hanging for many times their retail price in comic book stores and the new online auction site ebay. Other popular variations at the time included tan vested Luke, closed fisted Han, half circle Boba Fett, incontinent Wampa and monkey faced Leia. With an eye on what collectors imagined would be lucrative case of history repeating itself it became popular to buy 2 of everything, one to open and one to save. Meanwhile topps who had produced bubble gum trading cards back in the 70s (occasionally f
eaturing more than the filmmakers intended) returned to Star wars with beautiful widevision collectable trading cards featuring stills from the movie on the front and behind the scenes information on the back. A Star Wars collectable card game to rival Magic the Gathering gained popularity with rare cards such as Darth Vader trading hands for over $200. 'Prepare yourselves for Star Wars Shadow of the Empire...' Shadow of the Empire was given a launch more akin to a movie than a console game, wi
th a trailer, a novel, comics, trading cards, actions figures, making of book and a soundtrack. An excellent deep dive into this spin off was recently created by Mr Sunday Movies and is well worth a look. 'Dare to enter the shadow with Star Wars Shadow of the Empire figures and vehicles each sold separately from Kenner.' But this was nothing compared to what was in store for the 20th anniversary. 'For an entire generation, people have enjoyed Star Wars the only way they knew how, on the TV scree
n.' 'But if you have only seen it this way, you haven't seen at all.' #Star Wars Fanfare# 'Now for it's 20th anniversary the adventure of the lifetime returns to the big screen.' In 1997 Star wars returned to cinemas, cleaned up, sound remixed and boasting new scenes and “enhanced” special effects. Improvements from digital compositing first used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was evident throughout the trilogy, in Star Wars computer generated x-wing fighters made shots possible that coul
d not be achieved with models. Cloud City now featured extended three dimensional digital sets and computer generated characters that had far more movement than the stiff rod puppets were added into Jabba’s Palace. While not all improvements were welcomed, it marked a definitive change in how the special effects for prequel trilogy would be accomplished. Return of the Jedi also gave audiences the first glimpse of the city planet of Coruscant, a location Lucas had long wanted in a Star Wars film
was now possible and would be key destination throughout the prequel trilogy. 'What the Special Edition really unlines is if you haven't seen Star Wars on the big screen, '-and most people haven't - you haven't really seen it at all, and you should.' The films were heavily promoted on the recently launched StarWars.com website, that provided behind the scene articles and the five-part featurette anatomy of a dewback. This was at a time when other movie websites were a Technicolor visual assault
of frames, gifs and backgrounds that made text practically illegible. Writer Dan Madsen relaunched the Official Fan Club with the Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine now rebranded as The Star Wars Insider and like Bantha Tracks had done in the past the new magazine would provide updates on the much anticipated new films. Despite being 20 years old Star Wars: A New Hope went onto become 5th highest grossing film in 1997 earning more at the domestic box office than the likes of Disney’s Hercules, James Bo
nd’s Tomorrow Never Dies and even doubling the box office of Luc Besson’s sci-fi The Fifth Element. Star wars once again took the crown for highest grossing film of all time back from Steven Spielberg. 'Hey, I knew you'd come back, I just knew it.' 'Well, I wasn't going to let you take all the credit and take all the reward.' 'I knew there was more to you than money.' Star wars wasn’t just raking in money from movies and merchandise, while there could be no product placement in space, this didn’
t stop Lucasfilm signing a 5 year deal with PepsiCo worth an estimated 2 billion dollars. The deal ensured that that the Star Wars logo would be slapped on cereals, soft drinks and chip packets. In the hysteria that came with the 20th anniversary, Taco Bell went full Star Wars with multiple promotions including a feel the force game where you could win everything from a taco to a star wars branded hummer. The toys packed in with the kid’s meals were instant collectibles rivalling that of the bea
nie baby craze that was keeping the happy meals flying over the counter at the McDonalds across the street. It seems almost certain that by end the end of 1997 attics and basements were filled with mint in package toys that were going to provide a comfortable early retirement to thousands. Ultimately 20 years on a collector would be lucky to get back the price they paid for an individual figure and loose 100s if they opted to sell the collection as a job lot. While waiting for Episode 1, another
film would step up to fill the Star Wars void – 'Troops is filmed on location with the men of the Imperial Forces.' 'All suspects are guilty, period.' TROOPS a fan made parody in the vain of COPS premiered at the 1997 San Diego Comicon before picking up distribution on Star Wars fan site The Force.net. The film is credited with kick starting the fanfilm movement as digital distribution allowed independent artists their first opportunity to reach a wider audience. 'And Luke is like I want to go
to the academy, and Owen is like I need you for the harvest...' 'Then he asks about Obi-Wan and his father.' The film itself was awarded The Pioneer Award from Lucasfilm at the first Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards. A cultural shift that had been growing for a few years suddenly hit Hollywood with a bang. 'Harry Knowles has become one of Hollywood's most formidable forces.' The internet had made the sharing of information easy and anonymous, this allowed onset rumours and behind the scenes d
rama to reach a mass audience almost as soon as it happened. The industry trade magazines were about to be usurped by a twenty-five year old college drop out working from his bedroom in Austin Texas. 'It's a little scary to me, but when Leathel Weapon 4 was filming the gas station blowing up in LA,' 'I had like 76 people on set that were coving that.
That's double what CNN had to cover OJ.' Harry Knowles had taken his hobby of scouring newsgroups for movie gossip and turned it into a website c
alled “Ain’t It Cool News”, the site fast got a reputation as a one stop shop for the hottest entertainment news and rumours. A network of industry spies would reveal casting decisions, scripts, release dates, reshoots and early reviews from test screenings. The effects of site were double-edged for the industry, studio executives blamed the financial failure of Batman and Robin on the early reviews Harry published, but conversely, the positive reviews from Titanic flipped the negative publicity
the film has garnered from its ballooning budget and release delays. 'I wanted the focus to shift from how much money and the problems to what is the film like, is the film good.' As production ramped up on Episode I Ain’t It Cool News would be a constant source of unofficial leaks. The title caused much speculation, fans had been misled before by “Revenge of the Jedi” but in this modern age a title’s worth would be determined by if Lucasfilm had registered a domain name for it. Balance of the
Force, Genesis, Children of the Force were battered around. Blue Harvest 2 was mentioned as a rather obvious codename and cryptically Red Tails made it into the mix, that title would later be used for the World War 2 film about the Tuskegee airmen Lucas had been developing since the late 80s. Lucas had already began assembling a crew drawn extensively from the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles including Producer Rick McCallum, Director of Photography David Tattersall, Production designer Gavin Bocq
uet and screenwriter Frank Darabont who left the project with Carrie Fisher coming onboard to punch up some Lucas’ dialogue. 'But like any abused child wearing a metal bikini chained to a giant slug about to die, I keep coming back for more.' Soon shooting locations in Tunisia and Italy were announced, and a deal signed with Leaveston studios ensured Star Wars would return to England for principle photography. Potential cast was the topic of constant speculation as casting director Robin Gurland
travelled the globe seeking the actors who would fill the roles of the most anticipated film in history. When Lucas was seen talking Winona Ryder at an Award Party she had clearly been cast as the future mother of Luke Skywalker, but then someone else confirmed Ellen Muth had the role. New York Daily News reported that model Nina Brosh just nailed a part – possibly based solely on the leaked casting call for a Eurasian actress. While Natalie Portman revealed she had auditioned for an aggressive
female warrior named Bonjok. Keneth Brannah was frequently mentioned to play a young Obi Wan, while another rumour said Alec Guinness was to return to the role with the aid of digtal de-aging. 'Hello there.' Playing it less cagy Ewan McGregor told Entertainment Weekly that what he was suppose to say about his rumoured casting as Obi Wan is that they were in negotiations, but truth was he wanted to do it, they wanted him to do it and so he was doing it. 'So yu're 24 years old, you're going to be
a big star. Are you ready for it?' 'I;m 24 years old and going to make a film in America, that's all.' Jake Lloyd who had first audition at 6 years old was now old enough to play the nine year old future Sith Lord. Liam Nesson was cast as a Jedi Knight. Samual L. Jackon appearing on British talk show TFI Friday begged Lucas for a role in the film, even if it was just a Stormstrooper. 6 months later he appeared on Letterman. 'As soon as I finish Jackie Brown I'm off to London to do a little piec
e in Star Wars.' but when pressed on who he was playing... 'I actually don't know. He told me he had seen my work and I was good actor - yadda yadda. 'He said in this one you will probably be saying "look out", "run", "duck", "Go this way,", "do that".' 'S I might end up somewhere between Lando's great grandfather and a wookie.' In fact he had been cast as Jedi Master Mace Windu a role later rumoured to be going to Tupac Shakur before his murder. Returning cast members Kenny Baker and Anthony D
aniels confirmed that the droid double act would be back – Anthony Daniels revealing that while he couldn’t reveal the plot, in the first act he turns up with a machine gun killing everyone…. It’s a very short film he added. Frank Oz was back as Yoda and Ian McDiarmid who played the Emperor in Return of the Jedi would be returning to play a younger version of the character. 'A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.' Like the films that preceded it, Lucas planned to push the effects to encompass
a fully CGI character named JarJar Binks 'Messa called Jar Jar Binks' Micheal Jackson had lobbied hard for the role, but his insistence on wearing prosthetics and Lucas' feeling he would over shadow the movie meant the role would be played by Ahmed Best instead. 'Like James Earl Jones, do you think you go down as one of the most famous voices?' 'I hope so, it would be good to be in the same category as James Earl Jones.' Principle photography officially began at Leaveston Studios on 26th June
1997 – Lucas had not directed a feature film in over 20 years. 'It take it you say action.' 'I say action, sometimes I forget. if I forget just step in and say action or cut.' Three months later Lucas called “That’s a wrap” 'Cut, that's the end thank you very much.' with over 20 months to complete the complex special effects before the release. Details from the shoot came in drips from official sources like the Star Wars Insider magazine where each issue would have a Q&A with Producer Rick Mcca
llum. He would tease details, while internet sleuths would uncover a sloth of character names when Lucasfilm registered some 50 domain names all linking back to the official website. But not all news was good news, an online rumour got traction when a spy named “Holden Caufield” revealed that due to a technical issue with the camera, much the of the footage shot was unusable – a fact that seemed to be confirmed by reshoots in early 1998 – although these had already been planned. Throughout 1998
every publication wanted a spin on the rumour mill, Tomart’s Action Figure Digest suggested that due to the extensive post production the release date had been pushed to November. The Daily Mirror reported on an overheard exchange between 2 extras chatting in a pub who revealed Lucas had “bought the land (In Tunisia) because it means he can blow it up, he’s making three more Star Wars movies and sees it as a worthwhile investment.’ It was exciting to hear Adrian Dunbar appearing on a talk show
speaking of blue screens & fight scenes & a 3 film commitment. His scenes however as Bail Organa ended up on the cutting room floor and he was recast in subsequent films. Lucas talking to Wired Magazine addressed the online rumours. “where legitimate media is maybe 35% truth and the rest made up, the internet is about 10% truth.” Newsweek magazine landed in controversy when they reported on the rumours that Jake Lloyd’s acting was so bad on set he had been given the nickname Manaquinn Skywalker.
This led Ron Howard to write a response cristising the magazine for publishing unsubstantiated rumour with out a care for the child who could read this. .As 1998 rolled around, franchise blockbusters were not the dominate force they are today. For example, the 2018 US top 10 saw 6 direct sequels, 3 spin-off franchise movies and 1 remake. Compare that to 2 decades earlier where there was not a single sequel. But there was James Cameron’s Titanic. It was the first film gross over a billion dollar
s and took the box crown that been held by either Spielberg or Lucas for a ¼ of a century. 'King of the World! Wooooo!' Sequels in the 80s and 90s had generally been defined by the laws of diminishing returns, but Star Wars different, if there was one film, that could sink Titanic it was Star Wars with George Lucas back in the director’s chair. 'We're never going to bear Titanic, no one can.' 'Can you explain that?' 'It;s one of those things, like Star Wars, it defies reality.' While Lucas was n
ot convinced the film would beat Titanic, there was no doubt the film was still going to be box office gold and with a year to release there was still no confirmation on which studio would profit from distributing the film. Burnt by the studio system when making his first three films Lucas had to taken to financing his films himself to keep 100% control – but he still needed a big studio to handle the release. Just as Hasbro had been desperate to resign a deal at any price, 20th Century Fox felt
the same way with Studio Executive Tom Sherak laying his cards on the table in the Los Angeles Daily News – “We’ll lock the door and won’t let him until we have a deal.” In April 1998 Fox CEO Peter Cherin announced a deal had been done and claimed - “A truly historic day for the company and it’s employees.” With a studio in place, attention turned to the trailer and what film it could possibly be attached to. The first suspect was Fox’s summer release of The X-Files Movie, and while audiences f
inally got see aliens and space crafts, it was not the ones they were hoping for. Star Wars.com had shifted focus from Original Trilogy and was now heavily promoting Episode One. Lynn’s diary was a first of its kind web-series presented by the Lucasfilm’s head of publicity Lynne Hale which shared updates and unprecedented access to the filmmaking process. Where in the past, Charlie Lippincott had been sent out to conventions to meet with fans and publicise the upcoming films, now the official we
bsite was able to address fans on a global scale. On the 25th September 1998, without any flair or fanfare Starwars.com ended months of speculation & announced the title. “George Lucas has decided to name the film Star Wars Episode I the Phantom Menace.” The title was met with immediate fan reaction sending comment sections and newgroups into a spiral of the 5 stages of grief. The first is Denial The second is anger. After that comes fear. Bargaining… and finally acceptance. October continued w
ith large leaks appearing on different websites – Ain’t Cool News got a hold of a shooting script revealing the opening crawl and first line of dialogue. Fan site Dark Horizons got hold of a shot by shot description of the trailer – while Lynne Hale had given up denying rumours. “It’s more fun for the fans to speculate”. 'Yep, the Star Wars Phantom Meance trailer is here.' These were the early days of the internet so when a new trailer was released – your only hope of seeing it was at the cinema
. So when word got out that the trailer would screen before “Meet Joe Black”, “The Waterboy” and “The Seige” fans flocked to screenings to see the trailer and then flocked back out before the film even started. 'You actually paid to see a movie and just watched the trailer and then you left?' 'Yes. Because it is an awesome two and half minutes.' 'Exciting huh? And we want to know what you think, you can let us know what you think as the new Star Wars movie approaches by clicking over to our new
ET website.' While the title had been universally dismissed, the trailer pushed the hype into over drive. 'Yu Godda Bantha Poodoo.' In an attempt to stop bootlegging Lucas allowed the trailer to be posted online, but without a dedicated video streaming site – the only way to see the trailer was to download a low resolution version on realplayer taking hours over slow dial-up and risking losing the whole thing if someone picked up the phone. None the less the trailer had over 2 million downloads
. For the first time a trailer was being broken down and discussed in online forums. Fansites had the advantage as they could react in real time posting multiple still images, while magazines like Starlog were often left weeks behind commenting on the latest revelations. Apple staffers disappointed by the image quality of the first trailer hosted on Starwars.com seized the opportunity to promote their software and signed to deal with Lucasfilm to release the 2nd trailer exclusively on quicktime
– a deal that led to 600,000 downloads of the quick time player and 3.5 million trailer downloads in the first 5 days in what Steve Jobs described as... “The biggest internet download event in history” This also made apple the go to place to see trailers for upcoming films. As 1999 rolled around Vanity Fair published an exclusive Annie Lebowitz photoshoot and interview to promote the film. The biggest take away was that Lucas was no longer considering episodes 7, 8 and 9 'There was never a scrip
t or a story, so I don't have the vaguest idea what would happen in 7 through 9.' 'And I really don't think they will ever get made because I'll be about 9 years old by the time they got finished.' But behind the hype, there was fear that film would not live up to the impossible hype that already started building. Ain’t It Cool News insider spy Moriarty tried to aleave fears with his take on the characters based on the script he had got his hands on. 'Meesa likin this!' Hasbro was already buildi
ng anticipation for the saga with new sculpts of popular characters that reflected those in the upcoming film with a Flash Back pack in. In a promotion that deliberately echoed the past, you could send away 6 proof of purchases and receive the first figure of Samuel L Jackson’s Mace Windu. While a beautifully displayed STAP and battle droid with artwork from concept artist Doug Chiang went on sale in toy shops. 'Fear, fear attracts the fearful.' Perhaps because of the fan rejection to the title,
much of the marketing focused more on this being the first film in the saga. This can be seen in a series of tone poems delivered by the film’s principle cast, 'There are things I cannot do, but there are certain things I will do.' hinting at the idea that this new trilogy was not just about ground breaking special effects but character. 'What if dreams came true, but dreams do come true, don't they.' These tone poems also played on a loop in Toy stores like London’s famous Hamleys as part of t
heir display which also consisted of a full-scale Vulture droid. Hasbro knew the toys were going to be a hot commodity and were not going to get caught short as they did back in 1977. Strict rules from Lucasfilm meant that merchandise was not to go on sale before May 3rd, this meant that the launch party at a Los Angeles book show for the many tie in books could not actually show any of the 500 invited guests the products. Instead, they were given the books in a box with a combination lock. 'Eac
h person can ring that number on Sunday night at twelve o clock, get toe combination, open it up and see the books.' 'We are unable to determine what the demand will be Monday morning, stores should have contingency pan for crowd control.' Shops like Toys R Us and FAO Schwarz ran midnight madness, which had fans queuing up to be the first to get their hands on the new toys. 'She's actually going hurl me over everyone else, we have a kind of Shaolin kung-fu technique. It's going to be very enter
taining.' with those at the front of the line being awarded a certificate for their nerdiness… excuse me… enthusiasm. 'We are the dorks of the 20th Century.' Hasbro embraced the fans’ obsession with collecting variations and released the film’s cannon fodder battle droids with 4 different paint jobs. The new improved sculpts were the result of the actors having their faces scanned and for the first time extra articulation was added so the Jedi could hold their lightsaber in battle poses with two
hands. There was even something for the girls. 'Queen Amidala, let's get her ready,' 'So many different looks, no time to waste, she has got to take on the trade federation. Star Wars, now it's your universe.' But there was a clear favourite those in line were desperate to get their hands on. 'Oh yeah, Darth Maul he's the bad guy with the double-bladed lightsaber, he's the one I'm coming here to see.' Driven by the popularity of the character Darth Maul became instantly collectible leading to H
asbro shipping cases of nothing but the sith lord to mitigate the demand. 'I'm really excited, I've waited for this for 16 years and I couldn't be more excited about the new figures.' Avoiding the pitfalls in a history of terrible console game movie tie ins, LucasArts developed Pod Racer & a role-play game alongside the more educational Pit droids & Gungaun frontier for the younger kids. Boardgame enthusiasts were not to be left out with Battle for Naboo and Episode 1 collector's editions of Mon
opoly and Trivial Pursuit. Not that there wasn’t already merchandise clogging up the shelves from the overpriced dueling money boxes to the Jar Jar Binks tongue lollipop. 'These are genuine Darth Maul pants, beware the dark side.' Across the world episode I characters were being slapped over dozens of products. Lead sponsor Pepsi produced 24 collectible character cans and the relatively biennial mail away collector cards…. Oh it’s Darth Maul. Building on the success of Taco Bell’s Special Editi
on promotion, marketing expanded to KFC and Pizza Hut each representing a different planet in the new film. This gave the hardcore fans the opportunity to collect no less than 30 different kid meal toys whose boxes when stacked up made a colorful collage of the universe. With all the merchandise and product tie-ins it was certain that The Phantom Menace would be the first film in history to make a profit before a single ticket was even sold. 'Next to getting married... whenever that happens, thi
s is the biggest thing.' 'I can't wait to see my credit card go beserk over here.' While the emphasis on shop shelves were on the side of the quantity, the cinema experience was on the side of quality. With the new film, came a new sound standard - Dolby Digital-Surround EX which added a rear centre channel and would require cinemas to spends 1000s on upgrading their screens, a price worth paying since Lucasfilm were dictating that only the best screens would be licensed to show the film. This u
ltimately meant that despite the unprecedented interest, Episode 1 would appear on fewer screens than recent blockbusters Jurassic Park – The Lost World and Godzilla. The theatrical demands didn’t end there, it was stipulated that the Phantom Menace must stay on the same screen for a minimum of 12 weeks, there was to be no paid on-screen advertisements and trailers were to be limited to 8 minutes which had to include Fox’s own for The Beach and Anna and the King. To prevent scalping there were t
o be no advance ticket sales, although this was later relaxed, with customers limited to purchasing only 12 tickets. With international markets forced to wait months to see the film, some impatient fans booked package holidays to the States that included tickets to an opening night screening. Movies accepted their fate and pushed their release schedules to avoid clashing with the prequel. 'Now the Saga will continue...' 'You were expecting someone else?' 'If you see only one movie this Summer, s
ee Star Wars. But if you see 2 movies see Austin Powers.' 'That's right Mr Bigglesworth.' Only Dreamworks’ “The love letter” dared to compete and open on the same day, perhaps banking on the fact that girls not interested in sci-fi fantasy would need a rom-com. 'Noooooooo.' 'I can't wait for that to come out.' With the second trailer, attention turned to getting tickets, this was after all a film everyone was going to see and if you weren’t quick to book a seat, it could be weeks before you woul
d be able to see the film. 'It's gonna be a zoo, for the next month its gonna be a zoo.' And so it was, on 6th April, more than a month before the film’s release a line started to form outside the Manns Chinese theatre in LA. Camping out and rotating in shifts people were able to keep track of the line on the website countingdown.com. Without smartphones, the line organisers had to bring their whole PCs out on the street to provide up to the minute updates. 'What do your folks think about this?'
'Actually, my mother is very supportive, she comes by says hi, she understands, I've been planning this for several years.' Queues continued to spring up in major cities all over the united states, from San Francisco, to Chicago, o New York. 'Tell me who this fellow is, are you Darth Maul perchance.' 'Yes I am, I am Darth Maul.' where the line outside the Ziegfeld cinema started on 1st May was declared the official line cinema because they would be getting the film 3 hours ahead of the one in L
A. 'Oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' Of course, queuing wasn’t everyone. 'Since I didn't have time to queue myself I've had someone waiting in line to make sure we could get tickets.' It was estimated that 2.2 million people would play Wookie Hooky or come down with the Phantom Flu and skip work and school watch the film on opening day costing the US economy an estimated $293 million. In order to give fans a head start on the weekend the release date was moved up from the 21st of May to the 19th. 'Here
's another Star Wars will affect money matters across America,' 'the Wall Street Journal reports that some business are shutting down on May 19th, that's opening day,' 'So their employees can go see it,' For those couldn’t commit to over a month of queueing outside a cinema, there was the first Star Wars Celebration, a weekend-long event to held at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver. The event was almost canceled due to the Columbine shooting in a nearby suburb, suddenly a
celebration didn’t seem like such a great idea to Lucasfilm, but fan club president and organiser Dan Madsen argued cancelling would send the wrong message and instead they could use the opportunity to raise money for the victims and allow Star Wars fans the opportunity to pay tribute to them. The event kicked off with a minute’s silence and over the weekend 10s of thousands of dollars was raised, a sum matched by Lucasfilm and Hasbro. 'And no one should sleep until Episode 1 The Phantom Menace
comes out.' Unperturbed by the worst rainstorms in a 100 years fans flocked to Celebration 'Harrison Ford, eat your heart out.' where they were treated to behind the scenes footage, props, life-size models, the appearance from actors such as Anthony Daniels, Ray Park and Jake Lloyd and debut of the Duel of Fates the first new John Williams Star Wars music in 16 years. 'Advance tickets for the new Star Wars film went on sale this afternoon.' 'Get to your ships!' In preparation for the demand, Mov
ieFone boosted its online capacity to allow for 10 times more visitors, phone capacity was increased by 30%, but it wasn’t enough – phone lines jammed, the website crashed and the line outside Mann’s Chinese theatre stretched well beyond Hollywood boulevard, a scene that was echoed across America. 'This is a sad momnet for the folks who have been here 6 weeks, they've been ordered to remove their chairs.' The next day tickets were appearing online for as much as $600. 'Apollo here was offered $1
500 dollars for his single ticket and his place in line,' 'But with 550 hours in line it works out to only $3 an hour so just not worth it.' George Lucas and the cast did a media blitz, Entertainment Tonight dedicated a week to coverage, 'I don't think anyone is going to walk away disappointed from this movie, it is spectacular,' and every newspaper and magazine who had obeyed Lucasfilm’s strict rules about not printing spoilers, were treated to exclusive photos and interviews. Star Wars was on
the cover of everything… sometimes multiple covers for collectors. 'It could be George Lucas on the screen in a bathrobe watching football and people would still go nuts.' Despite negative reviews leaking out of preview screenings and the premiere, fans and box office bean counters remained optimistic with some cinemas planning to say open for 24 hours straight to accommodate the demand. After all, Shaquille O'Neal seemed to like it. 'I thought it was an excellent movie, Mr Lucas did a fabulous
job with the special effects, the storyline was wonderful,' 'And I'll probably come and watch it a couple more times.' 'This is kinda the Woodstock, lets just forget everything and have a good time.' Finally, the day arrived, excited fans dressed up as their favourite characters and wielding plastic lightsabers flocked into cinemas to take their seat as the clock ticked down to 12:01. 'This is gonna be F----ing awesome!' No critique was ever going to stop someone seeing The Phantom Meance, which
was good news for the Box Office as the reviews were pretty mixed. Newspaper critics were often ready to stick the knife in declaring “May the Farce be with you” while film magazines like Empire who depended on exclusives to sell copies gave it 4/5 stars – make of that what you will. US film critic Roger Ebert was positive, 'This movie is a remarkable achievement, a marriage of imagination & special effects & my thumb is up with a lot of admiration.' While E-online lamented that “Being amazed h
as never been this boring.” 'It was so intense, my heart was beating, it is still beating now.'' 'I think little Anakin Skywalker stole that movie.' From news reports at the time it seems most audiences were satisfied with the movie. 'It was amazing, it was everything I thought it was going to be and more.' while a few others ready to declare it “worst film ever”. 'Thumbs way down, I think I deserve a public apology from George Lucas.' One nameless member of the Dark Corners team who saw it no
less than 10 times in the cinema, recalls the enthusiastic audience at the midnight screening who were almost on their feet when Obi-Wan rushed out to face Darth Maul in the climatic lightsabre duel. The Phantom Menace went on to break records becoming the fastest film to make $100 million dollars, and was unsurprisingly the highest-grossing film of the year, but failed to overtake Titanic. 'I'm King of the world!' The 1999 box office as a whole was a giant success with sequels from Austin Power
s, Toy Story and James Bond, to break out debuts for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. There were successful franchise openers The Mummy, The Matrix and American Pie. Rom coms Notting Hill and Shakespeare love performed well and alongside the studio movies in the top ten stood The Blair Witch Project, a film with a cast and crew of unknowns made for $60,000 grossing over $250 million thanks in large part to clever utilization of the internet for cost-effective marketing. 'Is that legal?' Wit
hin 2 days of release pirate copies the Phantom Menace were being sold in the far east for a couple of dollars. Customers in the UK could expect to pay £50 for a cam shot pirate copy, but with 2 months til release, this price soon came down. Despite Lucasfilm warning ISPs they would pursue copyright infringements of the film, that didn’t stop an Mpeg of the movie from being shared via universities' high-speed internet. The problem with an international day and date release is the production, cos
t and delivery of film reels to the cinemas, Lucas saw a future for digital distribution and The Phantom Menace became the first major motion picture to be screen digitally, albeit only on 4 screens. Lucas predicted that by the time Attack of the Clones was released in 2002 there would be 2000 digital screens… there were 19. Today however, digital screens are standard, so when a blockbuster opens, it is as cheap and easy to screen simultaneously on 20 screens as it is to screen one. Among the ma
ny criticisms leveled at The Phantom Menace was its over-reliance on computer-generated images, in part due to the how the new CGI technology was being used to market the film. 'Ultimately it is like 2 movies, we shot the film live, then we animated the entire film. So you watch an animated and live action film at the same time.' A closer look reveals in many ways Episode 1 was also the last hurrah for practical effects. At the time the new computer technology was so costly and time-consuming, L
ucas had to determine what needed to be done with computers over what could be done with computers. This meant that Yoda remained a puppet, state of the art animatronics were used for many of the aliens. Stunts were performed rather using digital doubles. There were location shoots and giant sets were built at Pinewood studios, alongside scale miniatures at ILM. The people in the stands at the pod race for example were painted cuetips-. Although many ships were rendered in a computer, explosions
were often still practical. Not that the computer-generated images were not groundbreaking. Jar Jar Binks pushed the performance capture technology far beyond anything that gone before, allowing for future characters like Gollum, Neytiri and Thanos. Building on the techniques developed editing The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Lucas was able to bring more flexibility to the editing room, 'If we can split one actor from one take and synch him with everyone else, we're doing lots of that.' 'Nor
mally you reject whole shots because one thing is wrong, now you can keep the good things that shot and throw away the bad.' Combing takes or rendering brand new shots (such as this establishing shot) from elements collected from different scenes. 'Cyber directing. Right?' 'Yeah, 3D editing.' Using the morphing technology developed for Willow Lucas would later push this style of editing to the change the timing of an actor’s performance within a shot. With digital editing and distribution, it ma
de sense to Lucas that should also extend in to digital capture too. While on the set of the Phantom Menace, Lucas tested Sony’s new HDC-750 and used the digitally shoot footage seamlessly in the finished film. The cost savings were obvious, The Phantom Menace had shot 1.2 million feet of film at cost of $684,000, by comparison, Attack of the Clones, the first major motion picture to be shoot digitally only spent $15,000 on HD tape stock. In the same way that Star Wars had inspired a generation
of filmmakersT The Phantom Menace helped pioneer the tools that would allow indy filmmakers to produce professional films on smaller budgets. The internet voice became a double-edged sword that on one hand had given a megaphone to the hype machine and allowed fans to connect over a shared passion, but on the other was quick to respond with heated criticism, with anti Jar Jar websites springing up almost immediately. The level of hate projected towards Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd led to difficult
times for both actors. Jake Lloyd quit acting due to bullying from classmates and has since been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Ahmed Best spoke candidly about how he almost committed suicide due to fan reaction. 'There was just so much hate and venom and anger directed at me.' He has however continued to play JarJar in cartoons and multi media and was given a standing ovation on his return to Star Wars celebration in 2019. 'Jar Jar fans, you're here yes?' #Cheers# 'Everyone is so wonde
rful and so positive you know.' But it wasn’t just actors in the film, footage of Ghyslain Raza wielding a golf ball retriever like Darth Maul’s double bladed lightsabre was uploaded to in the internet in 2003, making the student (now dubbed The Star Wars Kid) an instant global meme and an early victim of cyber bullying. The video itself was given many remixes, spoofed on shows like American Dad, the Colbert Report. 'I better use my lightsaber to fight it.' and viewed well over a billion times.
Lucas, of course, went on to finish the trilogy, but was no doubt disheartened by fan vitriol. 'You go to make a movie and all you get is criticised, and people try to make decisions about what you are going to do before you do it, 'You know it's not that much fun and you can't experiment, you can't do anything. You have to do it a certain way.' he had always maintained Star Wars was for kids. 'When you see these little kids and you see the look on their face, and what it means to them, it forg
ives everything.' and as much as the advances in technology motivated the production of new film, making for something his own kids was also behind it. 'You know what we're going to do? We're going to buzz his hair just like yours.' The production company created to the make the prequals was named after his three children Jett, Amanda and Katie. In behind scenes footage, his children are frequently seen on set, he involved them the naming of characters, most notably the Guanguans and throughout
the prequels they all have small cameos. Perhaps with his kids grown up Lucas no longer has need for fairy tales and sold the franchise to Disney for $4 billion in 2012, almost 40 years after the studio had rejected his pitch for the first film. What started on websites and news groups as a hooby has now taken to Youtube, where nerd culture has been mainstreamed and fans can make a living for trailer breakdowns, reviews, fan theories, deep dives into the lore and of course hate, so much hate. '
The pressure is not that great actually, the really high expectations of fans, I just can't meet so I don't worry about it.' 'There is nothing I can do about, once the expectations are that high there is nothing I can do to meet them.' Looking back, how could any film live up to that much hype? No other film in history had been so anticipated. 'I've been waiting 15 years since Return of the Jedi came out. This was a film that been teased for 20 years... 'How did my father die? and combined an a
udience desperately trying to cling their childhood as they faced the reality of being a grown-up. Must see blockbusters now come around so fast audiences barely have enough time to get excited about one before it is pushed out the cinema by the next. Conventions that were once niche events have now been overtaken over by studios to launch their next slate of films and TV shows. While online nerd culture seems to be in a state of perpetual hype, with the biggest thing about a major franchise rel
ease, is not the film itself, but the post-credit tease that hypes the next. For all it's faults, The Phantom Menace was at least as influential as A New Hope creating the world of film fandom we know today. Which may not always be the best legacy, but it has certainly proved to be a lasting one. Thanks for making it all the way through and a special thanks to our patreons for making videos like this possible. We’d love to hear your memories of the late 90s star wars hype, so drop a comment down
below.
Comments