News And Rumors

Entertainment Tonight Special? God what a load of crap. That's what I have been saying about Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and all other TV "Entertainment News shows". All the Entertainment Tonight special was recycled stuff that was on the site. I was expecting that they would interview Lynn Hale and talk about her documentary. The only good thing about it was a brief (it was more of a glance then brief) look at Lucasfilm Archives. Man, If I were there I would want to wear General Kail's armor and helmet. Luckily, for those who have missed it The Force Net has posted up a video file of the Entertainment Tonight segment. And they also agree that it sucked too.

More pictures! Well, Adam has gotten the newest issue of the Star Wars Insider #39. And he has managed to scan up these most impressive pictures. A few of them are the same as the German pictures that was posted on T'Bone Fender's Star Wars Universe. But Adam have gotten these pictures at a clearer and higher resolution.

Warwick Davis Interview. Well, Adam was on a roll with scanning all these pictures. He added the Warwick Davis interview for the same Insider Issue. The best Part about the interview is he talks about the 3 characters he play as. He confirms the character name is Wald, a close friend to Anakin. A spectator at an event (I wonder if he means the pod race?), and a sneaky character (a thief maybe?). The interview talks about David did hire an actor from his organization, ICM, as an extra in the Jedi Councilor. The interview talks more about the experience working on the film and with George. On the second page, it is cut off, but the rest is suppose to read

"After Jedi I got really into directing. I bought a video camera and started making home videos, won some competitions. Then I started (up to next col.)"

Editor's Note. I was watching Sailor Moon today, and when I saw Sailor Moon doing her Transformation I was think "HEY! That would be great if it was a Jedi Knight!" So I was thinking of making a little Comic Strip with Obi-Wan doing exactly what Sailor Moon Does. Just wait and see!

July 29, 1998

Lynn Hale on Doug Chiang. Okay a few days ago we read an interview on Doug Chiang. Now, Lynn Hale gets a crack at him. The interview get to talk about the experience working with Lucas and a little bit on the design. A drastic change for the last diary is that this one takes place in 97, now the documentary is quickly catching up to us. The best part about this is that you get to see behind the scene what it is like when Lucas look at a new design for the film. You also get to see sketches and designs for the new film. They also improved the loading time of the Real Video file. It only takes about 24 seconds to start up, that is of course you have a 28.8 or faster modem. The worst part is the audio, It difficult to hear what Lucas and crew are talking about when they are looking at the models and designs... "Enough of your Borax point Dexter. A man's life is at stake. We need action!" (Chief Wigium, The Simpsons) Okay enough of the chatting, lets see what we got.

Sam talks about Episode 1. Well, Samuel L Jackson seems to be the only actor on the film who talks the most about the film. Well, not he has something incredibly important to say to all of this. On an online interview he had this to say about Episode 1.

"I got a letter yesterday saying, 'Don't talk (to the press)!' " he says, smiling. "You'll have to buy Star Wars magazine to find out anything."

In fact it seems that there has been a tighter security on Lucasfilms then there was before. The oddest thing is that they will keep an eye on all computer monitors. They will check and read all email and message that go around in Skywalker ranch. There are also word that all the buildings and all the rooms are bugged and taping everyone's conversations. There is also word that there are some documents that have to be shredded if they are left unattended. All employees have signed a non-disclosure form stating that they will not about the film and what they are doing with others about Episode 1. It is not that they want to create hype by doing this, they do not want to spoil this for everyone who will be seeing the film. They understand that by doing this they fear to tread they same path that Sony's Godzilla took. I am a wee bit iffy on this. Some might say that Lucasfilms is stuck up, and believe that they are too good for everyone. While others think that some people don't have the right to sneak into and tell what they saw. I got the security stuff from Cinescape. Oh yeah, and don't forget to read Sam's interview with Jams.

Rumor about a segment on Episode 1 starfighters. This is from the Force Net. If you have notice both the Official site and Star Wars Insider have been focusing on the Episode 1 starfighters. The rumor is that Entertainment tonight will be having a segment on ship and starfighters in Episode 1 tomorrow or sometime soon. Remember this is just a rumor, you might not even see. Just keep your eyes peeled and drop us a line if you here anything about it.

Chiang picture. This was in the recent issue of Star Wars Insider, and was posted on the Force Net. It is a picture of Chiang working... But what is he working on? Take a look and zoom in on what he is working on.

Liam Neeson WILL be re-shooting some scenes. Remember how a while ago I mention that Liam need to re-shoot certain scenes? Well, in an interview with his wife Natasha Richardson (she recently is staring in the remake of the Parent Trap and costarred with Liam in Neil), she mentions that Liam this to the Toronto Star.

"Liam has to do a few extra days on the prequel for Star Wars," Richardson tells the paper. When asked what her husband's role is in the new movie Richardson offers a new take on what we all already knew: "He's like a cross between Harrison Ford and Alec Guinness," she explains. "Like one of those Jedi Masters. I think I'm allowed to say that."

I assume she is talking about Levensden was wondering why back to London, can't they re-shoot on Skywalker Ranch? Or do the need a big enough set? I also wonder who else will be in the re-shoot? Will it be Natalie Portman? Ewan? Or just extras?

Just to break all this serious crap about the film. Here is a site that pokes fun of Star Wars. I visited the site and I loved. I mean it is no Spaceballs but it is totally original.

Editor's Note. Well, Monday was my Birthday. I took the day off. I felt that there would not be any news for a while. But then when I came on today, Bang! We got a truckload of news. I am so happy to see the new designs of the ships and hear about the tight security for the film. I am just happy that I have to do work on this site. J Oh yeah, I am working on a few side projects. I am doing a small-animated movie on Shockwave. It more or less a parody of Fighting games, King of Fighters VS Street Fighter. So far I am in the storyboard phase, I have animated a few of the pictures. It will take me a while to get this all done. Originally I wanted to get this done by the end on this month, so far it looks like that will not happen until the end of August. If you guys ask nicely I might post some of my artwork that I have been working on this site. I am working with a brilliant artist, Christian Lester, on adding a few Background wallpapers on Little Yoda's Desktop Enhancements We just want to add new and interesting things on that page which pretty much has nothing. For my birthday I went to see Saving Private Ryan, all I can say is, "God, I pray that Speilberg will be directing Episode 2! He and James Cameron are the best Directors in the world (Well, actually I like Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam a little bit better the Cameron and Speilberg). And if you fulfill this wish I will build several churches in your name!"

July 26, 1998

Doug Chiang interviews. An interview with Doug Chiang Episode 1 chief artist has been posted on the official Star Wars Site. The Interview itself has been taken from Star Wars Insider issue 39. In the interview they talk about his influence and the troubles he had working on Episode 1. In the interview they never really talk about what the machines and creatures look like. So for those who are expecting to see Naboo fighters and X-Wings will be disappointed. Instead what they have posted was Doug's Portfolio before he came started work on Episode 1. I know most people will easily mistake Chiang's past work for the new production sketches of Episode 1. I have to say, when I say the Desert Purification sketch I swore it was Episode 1. So if you want to take a look at the interview here you go.

Editor's Note. Well, I am working on a banner for this site. And I have concived just a few of them. I will not post them untill my partner Adam Gorden has seen them. I have also been thinking about changing the way the cast pictures look on their bios. You know a specific border around each picture. I know that will take me a while to do. Another good news is that I got Netscape 4 installed. Before I had to visit my friends' homes and view it through their PC. I am trying to fix that little annoying one pixel of space on the top frame and the side frame. So you will be seeing that fixed soon.

July 24, 1998

Mara Jade, the comic. Well, this is not really about episode 1... Well, this is even after the main trilogy. But The Official Star Wars Site has just come up with another Shockwave comic. This is one is about Mara Jade and her new comic "Mara Jade: by the Emperor's Hand". Mara original appeared in the in Timothy Zahn novels, and has made special appearances in Mysteries of the Sith: Jedi Knight Companion Set and Star Wars: Masters of the Tiera Kasi. If you ever get a chance play the games and read the novels. I do enjoy the character, but I wonder if Lucas even like Mara Jade? Oh well, go and visit the site and read up on the comic. But remember you must have Shockwave in order to view it. Oh yeah, and I would love to give a shoot out to Dark Horse for making some of the best comic (my personal fave is Monkeyman and O' Brian).

Rogue Squadron preview. Okay so like the last news bit this is not related toward the Prequel. But it is Star Wars related, and I really want to get to play this game. Well, Rogue Squadron the technically not the sequel to Shadows of the Empire is coming for both Nintendo 64 and PC. Well, a really great site Next Generation has a preview of the upcoming game. And they seem to be very excited about the game. Oh well why not read what they have to say about the game, I also gave a link to Lucasarts' own page with picture and information about the game.

Star Wars Trilogy on DVD? Again another report that has nothing to do with the Prequel. Oh well, I assume you have notice that some of your fave films have not made it onto DVD yet. To be more specific you have notice that 20th Century Fox has not released anything on DVD. And that is a big reason why I do not have a DVD player yet, I want movies by Fox, Paramount, and Disney (well, I want films more from Miramax and Dimension which are owned by Disney). Sure, I love Austin Powers International Man of Mystery. But I crave for the Star Wars Trilogy. Well, here is a quote by Lucas on DVD. It came from Digital Bits, but it originally came from "An Expanded Universe: Digital and analog special effects collide in the retooled version of Star Wars" by Ron Magid, originally published in the February 1997 issue of American Cinematographer.

"Occasionally, [you can] go back and get your cut of the video out there, which I did with on both American Graffiti and THX-1138; that's the place where it will live forever. So what ends up being in my mind is what the DVD version is going to look like, because that's what everybody is going to remember. The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won't last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you'll be able to project it on a 20' by 40' screen with perfect quality. I think it's the director's prerogative, not the studio's, to go back and reinvent a movie."

Editor's note. Sorry about the delay, but it just seems like there are no interisting new about Episode 1. Sure you do hear and read about characters, but I want to find something that not too much of a spoiler.

July 18, 1998

Someone got a glimpse at Episode 1. This just came in from Cinescape. People at Mattel, Kenner, Pepsi (although I am not too sure who it really was but I am just guessing) and all other licensee, got their chance to see pictures of the characters of the film as well as a rough-cut of the film. This was an article written up by the Salt Lake Tribune, this is not a surprise to me. Since they have to start up their merchandise sometime soon. This may also be the start of merchandise rumors on the web. So now we should keep our ears up for anything. The only thing that puzzles me is that Terrance Stamp said in an interview with Cinescape that all the figures are already made for the film. Or maybe he is just talking about Kenner is the only one up and ready?

Spielberg's opinion on Episode 1!!! One of my fave sites Cinescape got an interview with one of my all time favorite director, Steven Spielberg. They asked what he thought of the upcoming film Episode 1, which he got a chance to seeing early footage.

"Oh, my God!" His advice to others who might underestimate the long-awaited Prequel? "Let me put it this way," Spielberg said, "I wouldn't want to be a guy opening a movie against him."

A Prequel to the Prequel?!? Well, It seems Dark Horse comic (by the way anyone from Dark Horse is listening, you guys come out with the most excellent comic books out there) will be coming out with a six issue comic about the Prequel of the Prequel. Jan Strnad will be writing the series that even admits he knows very little about the Prequel, which Lucas is filming. But do make sure you visit is site, but he will not answer any email about the comic since he fears that his life is in danger for just mentioning this.

July 16, 1998

Lucas Outtakes. I love Lynn Hale, sure she may be older then me, she live far away, probably has a husband and she doesn't know that I even exist. But that thing that I love about her is that she gets us to get to know Lucas a man who most of us imagine as the Wizard of Oz. A man who we only hear rumors about yet we never get to see how he really is like. And that's what Lynn is doing for us, letting get a peak at what Lucas is like. In the last interview we got to see Lucas with his own daughter and watching TV things that I would imagine he would never do. And he also has Star Wars lying around his desk. Lucas is starting to look more and more like an art teacher that I had. Now Lynn was so kind for us to make another video of the outtakes of the interview with George Lucas. And this time she asks the really intriguing questions. Sure, she may ask better ones later. But for now this is good. By the way, on the next Diary Lynn has mention that she would speak with The Art Department. Kick Ass!!

New Pictures!!! Well, the super cool The Force.Net got in their hands two very interesting picture. Of course I know that they got three pictures but the second is a picture of Lucas and his director of Photography a picture that has already been posted on the T'Bone Fender's Star Wars Universe. So that picture is not really new. But the other two are. The first one is a rather interesting picture of an interior set. For what a ship or a building? The other on is of 2 different colored R2 units. Man I am flipping at the R2 units I feel like say, "Mommy I want one!!!!" I can't wait to get the figures of these R2s. Well The Force.Net got them from a German fan, Sebastian Niedlich, who scanned them from the official German Star Wars Magazine.

Lucas to give a speech!?! The Prequel Watch and Cinescape has just got this. It seems that George is going to be a keynote speaker for the Screen Producers Association of Australia's annual conference in November. The film conference will be held with in November 4 and 7 and to end with the Australian Film Institute Awards. Lucas will get a chance to discuss about his past work as a Producer, Writer, Director in film and his work with ILM, Skywalker Sound, and THX Sound. The odd thing about this is that Australia is the rumored location shoot for Episode, so could he be there for business as well? If you live in Australia or are going there during November 4 and 7, drop us a line telling what you saw.

Rumored Teaser Trailer. Or maybe I should call it, "The Rumor That Just Won't Die!" I was one of the millions of audience member who was expecting to see the teaser trailer to come alone with X-Files: Fight the Future. But rumors of the teaser trailer have not died out yet. In fact I have just heard a rumor from an Email saying that the Teaser trailer will come along with Titanic. But this is just a rumor in fact the person who said it said he thought he heard from somewhere else but he cannot remember where. So I cannot trust that one. Oh well, at least there is Harry Knowels. A man with a little site, known as Ain't It Cool News. Well, Harry has just gotten a brief description of the teaser trailer from someone who says he has seen the teaser trailer. Although, hundreds say that this is totally fake, that this person just taking scenes that we have heard about, and everything about this is bogus. But if you are interested go ahead and read it. But I warn you 100% spoiler, are you sure you want to read it?

ILM, Masters of Fantasy. I wouldn't call them that I would just call them simply "GOD"! Well, On the Sci-Fi Channel has ran, their monthly segment Masters of Fantasy. In this half hour program they talk about the history of ILM, the kind of work ILM does, interviews with members of ILM, people who worked with ILM, and films ILM has done. I have seen the hour special about 3 times. I pay attention in the background to see if I can notice anything. You can see several production sketch, models and computer screens. Although I could not tell where they were from or what they were used for. So if you get a chance to see it try to pay attention to see if you can spot anything. The next time it will air will be

Sunday, July 19 at 9:30AM ET

Editor's note. I would like to welcome everyone to this site. Although it does seem odd that I have past news even before the site was posted. Well, you see I have been working on this site for over a month now. And I am so happy to finally see it come alive. It took me a lot of effort, time and patient to see this site up. You would not want to see how the site originally looked like. Just trust me that I do not even want to look back at how it looked. The design of the site right now is something that I need to feed the artistic side of me. The thing that I want to do with this site is to give people news about the upcoming films as it happens. You might see that this site might upload news just as it's released. And we have a vast library of image files of the movie, and I hope we might have more then most sites.
One thing did occur to me while I made this site, what if the movie sucked. Everyone has that fear when they make fans site. Like what if Jennifer Anniston becomes unpopular? Or what if Buffy the Vampire Slayers sucks all of the sudden? Well, I have two reasons why I believe in this film. We have not seen a good Fantasy film in a long time. I believe that last good Fantasy film was Willow. I want to go back to see Villains, Sword fights, beautiful princesses, and brave heroes. And this is what the Star Wars series represent. They are not just blazing effects, cute Muppets or even "Cowboy sci-fi", they are fantasy films. Like the stuff we grew up with as a child. And I also firmly believe that Lucas is going to make a damn good film. I was watching American Graffiti, and THX 1138 and I notice that Lucas is not just a man who happens to have luck with one file. I know this man has talent and he can create good films. And I have faith that Episode 1 will live up to its hype. Funny, I am not the type of guy who usually believes in faith but now I have no other choice
So I also hope you enjoy this site. And you tune in regularly. We will be up to date that is unless I get hit by a truck or something. But if that does happen, I will have to drag myself back to my PC.
Stay Frosty
Victor

July 7, 1998

More Pictures. T'Bone Fender's Star Wars Universe was kind enough to add more picture onto his site. The oddest one is of Nathan Hamill, Mark Hamill's son, is seen hugging R2. This confirms the rumors that he will be an extra in episode 1.

Liam is needed for reshoot. In an interview with the New Your Times, Nieson has said that he is not done finished filming Episode 1. We only assume that he means that he will be doing reshooting for the film or He will be dubbing some of the dialog. So who knows what he mean by this.

John Williams on Musical Score. The Force Net has been noted as saying that Williams will begins writing and composing the score in 2 months. Although I have read that William usually beginning scoring of films when he can view a rough cut or when the film is done and it is 2 month before release date. Williams has also stated to Cinescape the following about when he will start composing the next film

"I haven't seen the new Star Wars film because I'm not due to record the score until February," the 66 year-old music man says. "I prefer to write music after seeing the rough cut of a movie and not just from a script. I don't really know George Lucas all that well, but I believe he is doing something unprecedented making a six-part movie saga. It will be interesting resuming a relationship with him after 20 years and having an unique opportunity to go back to a project and extend the volume of [my Star Wars] work."

A very odd picture. I was on the official Star Wars Site reading the interview with Evan Pontoriero special Effects artist on episode 1. In it they show a picture of him in front of his PC. What is odd about this picture is what is on his monitor screen. In the article he talks about Tron, but this could not be from Tron. This has to be some CG effects shot from Episode 1. Here check it out for yourself.

Episode 2 Rumored Director. Ain't It Cool News, has just got a rumor that James Cameron is stated to be the director of Episode 2. This is really funny, because about 2 years ago I said to a friend that James Cameron would be a prefect Director of the Prequels. So who knew if this person was reading my mind. Here read the rumor for yourself.