news and rumors

Quite everyone, Jar Jar is about to speak. The Force Net has just brought an audio file of a conversation between Jar Jar Brinks and Qui-Gon Jin. In the teaser Trailer we have only heard Jar Jar scream when the sub was making a sharp turn and when he was electrocuted by Anakin's pod. If you are some of the few that have been reading the quotes from the action figure Commtech you have notice that Jar Jar speaks an interesting type of "Broken" English, sort of like Yoda. After listening to it, I bet this takes place after that submarine scene we see in the trailer. But, The dialog between Qui-Gon and Jar Jar does reveal some spoilers. The WAV file might take a while to download but the clarity will be worth it compared to the MOV file.

Jar Jar Binks - "Wesa dying here!"
Qui-Gon Jinn - "Just relax, we're not in trouble yet."
Jar Jar Binks - "What yet? Monsters out there, leakin in here all sinkin' and no power?! Wenna yousa thinking wesa in trouble?"

Images of the Trade Federation Droid Fighters and Commtech. SirSteve always seems to surprise me with his revealing images of the new toys. This time he has images of the Trade Federations Droid Fighters. Just what are those? Well they are the Tie Fighter type space ships that you see in the teaser trailer. This time we get to see the ship in better detail and all I can say they look too cool to be true. Just see for yourself.

Lynn Hale Video Diary #8: Three Thousands Anakin. Who does love a Lynn Hale Video Diary? This time they interview the films casting director and how she found Jake Lloyd out of 3000 eight-year-old boys. The best part about this video diary is seeing the test screening process work, I assume that some of you have seen Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher testing with Mark Hammill for A New Hope from Behind the Magic? Oh well, I giggle when I see Natalie Portman say, "You're just a boy." And Jake responds, "You know I won't be a boy all my life." Just check out the video, man Jake is the luckiest boy on Earth.

Jabba Glob and Battlebags. Yakface.com has posted up a few images of Episode 1 toys. One of them grossed me out, Jabba glob. You fill up the Hutt with simple slime and you can feed him small frogs. Man, that's sick. I never did like slime, I remember getting sick from the first time I touch Ghostbusters slime. And I never had touched another slime ever again. The other toy was Battlebags, what are battle bags? They are these plastic bags that inside contain a menagerie of Naboo creatures. The bad news about this is that there is some more slime with it after you open the bag. I assume it has to deal with the evolution of life?

February 20, 1999

9:45 PM

SirSteve's new images. SirSteve's Star Wars Guide has updated with image new images of Boss Nass, Mace Windu, Gasgano with Pit Droid and Darth Maul's Sith Speeder. This is really the first image we have seen of Boss Nass other then a few images of sketches and action figures. And I also posted up the bios and Commtech lines from the beck of the cards. I added a few more bios and Commtech lines from figures that I forgot to post up on this site. Warning there are some spoilers, so highlight the following text if you need to.

Boss Nass "Boss Nass is the leader of the amphibious Gungans who live in the Naboo underwater city of Otoh Gunga. He initially resists the Jedi's Pleas for help against the Trade Federation invasion, but later comes to realize that the fate of the Gungans and Naboo are intertwined."
Commtech: "Wesa no like da Naboo." ; "Yousa no tinken yoousa greater den da Gungans. " ; and "Maybe wesa bein friends."

Gasgano "With his multiple arms, thrill seeker Gasgano is uniquely suited for the extreme sport of pod racing. Piloting a cockpit pulled by two dangerously powerful engines, he relies on a crew of pit droids to keep him in the race when the action heats up."
Commtech: "Ateema, Gasgano wins!" (This time Gasgano Wins!) ; "Pee Dunkee Skywalker-Ras tah pa human nee kulka?" (That little Skywalker, what do human know about Pod racing?) ; and "Pushee wumpa Sebulba!" (Out of my way Sebulba!)

Mace Windu "A Respected Jedi Master and a senior member of the Jedi Council Mace Windu wields a great deal of authority throughout the Galactic Republic. He is well aware of the dangers of the Sith."
Commtech: "I do not believe the Sith could have returned without us knowing." ; "We will sicover the identity of your attacker." ; And "May the Force be with you."
Interacts with Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Darth Maul With Sith Speeder "Darth Maul us a pure manifestation of the dark side of the Force. Ordered by, Darh Sidious to destroy the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maul uses his personal repulsorlift vehicle- the Sith speeder- to carry out his sinister mission. The speeder supports a deployment system capable of launching a seeker droid know as the Sith probe driod. This droid maintains ultra receptive sensor arrays capable of tracking down practically anything. Swift and focused, Darth Maul speeds over the desert sands of Tatooine in search of his Jedi prey; meanwhile, the welfare of the galaxy hangs in the balance."

Darth Sidious "Cloaked in flowing robes and shrouded in evil, Darth Sidious is a Dark Lord of the Sith and the mysterious power behind the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo. As he conspires and manipulates, he keeps his presence - and his true intentions - well hidden."
Commtech: "Queen Amidala is young and naïve." ; "You have done well Viceroy." ; "You have been well trained my young apprentice." ; "Wipe them out. All of them."
Interact with Darth Maul, Nute Gunray and Rune Haako

Official Site Updates. Gee, the official Star Wars site is a lot faster then most "official" sites on the web. Well, they confirmed that Brian Blessed, Ray Park and Jake Lloyd will be there at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration. The also confirmed that Brian Blessed will be playing as Boss Nass.

Rumored Trailer 2 appearance. Remember how annoying it was to see films like Godzilla, X-Files and Alien Resurrection just to get a glimpse of the Episode 1 teaser trailer? Well, now we start again for the new full trailer. Rumors on various sites like Dark Horizons, Ain't It Cool News, The Force.Net, Newsdroid, etc have said the trailer might appear along with Wing Commander the movie. The movie is being made by 20th Century Fox and is schedule for release in March 16. Now, just keep in mind this is just a rumor. I assume the official site will update us all with what film the trailer will be released in.

Episode 2 filming date. Variety reports that after John Woo ends filming Mission Impossible 2 Australia, Lucasfilms LTD will set up to begin filming Episode 2. They also say that the filming will begin in October of this Year.

Lucas will direct Episode 2 and 3. Harry Knowels posted this up one his site, Ain't It Cool News. This is not really official; we will have to wait till the official site confirms it.

In addition I can now confirm that George Lucas will be directing the next two films. I talked with Ron Howard about EDtv, and couldn't help but bring up well... the obvious. Apparently this is George's first film that he has ever made that he is 100% happy with, that he had a joy making, and he loves the process again. And just for those that wonder what Ron thought... he loved it, and was especially amazed at how he completely bought the CG characters as characters and not effects.

E! Interview with Jackson. Like I have said before Samuel L. Jackson is my favorite actor or all time. E! has done a little interview with him on how he got the part of Mace Windu, his Light saber and his action figure. The interview is very entertaining because Sam looks like a really nice guy. The Force Net was about to record it and conformed it to QuickTime video file. So check out the interview.

Trailer B description. This trailer description came from various sources The Force.Net and Countdown. Jedi.Net has posted up a trailer description that they said was from Countdown. The Force Net has not confirmed where they go theirs from. As for the description we cannot be too sure if it true, if we only a sign of assurance that it is real. But the Force Net has been very reliable, so I guess we will have to wait till the trailer is released.

Here is the description of the next Star Wars Trailer, Trailer B. (Note that some numbered shots are missing. We believe that's just a case of mis-numbering, not anything deleted.) Highlight to read:
Shot 1: A grassy hill. Some vehicles start to slowly emerge from beyond the horizon.
Shot 2: Large city with a dome-shaped palace on the edge of enormous cliff. Probably Queen's palace seen from the opposite side than in the first trailer.
Shot 3: Queen: "I will not condone a course of action that will lead us to war."
Shot 4: Cool shot of battle tanks slowly hovering above the grass.
Shot 5: Sio Bibble: "A communications disruption can mean only one thing. Invasion."
Shot 6: A ship flies through space. It has a pointed nose and rear "wings" very reminiscent of TIE fighters.
Shot 7: A HUGE ship, shaped like a letter "H", landing in the forest.
Shot 8: Darth Maul stepping outside from some ship, pod or whatever.
Shot 9: Darth Maul to someone in black (probably Darth Sidious, but he's not a hologram): "At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi." They are both standing on some sort of walkway high above enormous city.
Shot 10: Huge fleet (the "H" shaped mothership and many smaller ships) approaches the planet.
Shot 11: Many battle droids marching in precise formation, guns ready.
Shot 12: Maul to Sidious: "At last we will have revenge." S
Shot 13: Battle droids and some weird spider-like robots (at least 15 feet tall) standing in some sort of hangar, all of them suddenly turning towards the camera.
Shot 14: Sidious (hologram): "Begin landing your troops."
Shot 15: Several battle droids on STAPs flying past what appears to be the lower part of the "H"-shaped ship, parked in the forest. It has just opened and some hovercrafts are pouring out (the same things that decimated the forest in the first trailer).
Shot 16: Many different animals running through the forest. Someone is riding at least one of them.
Shot 17: Detail of Qui-Gon, standing in the ship which is shaking.
Shot 18: Obi-Wan: "We haven't much time."
Shot 19: Ship (seems like Queen's) flying from the planet towards something (not in the picture) that is shooting at her.
Shot 20: Two Nimoidians.
Shot 21: Queen: "The Federation has gone too far."
Shot 22: Many battle droids getting up (they were probably crouching before).
Shot 23: Wide shot of literally thousands of droids standing in formations in front of very large vehicles (looking a little bit like enormous toasters).
Shot 25: Some sort of royal chamber. Several people are standing around, one of them hologram. Someone says: "The death toll is catastrophic."
Shot 26: Palpatine slowly turning towards the camera.
Shot 27: Queen: "Our people are dying, senator, we must do something quickly."
Shot 28/29: Sio Bibble (hologram) to Queen: "You must contact me." (This is cut to look like a single scene but the Queen has different dress in each shot).
Shot 30: Qui-Gon to Queen: "There's something else behind all this, Your Highness." Obi-Wan and Jar Jar are standing nearby as well as two handmaidens looking exactly like the Queen!
Shot 31: Queen looking from the window (like in the first trailer). Qui-Gon (voiceover): "They'll kill you if you stay."
Shot 32: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan getting up from the table and swtching their lightsabers on.
Shot 33: Obi-Wan raising his hand - using The Force. Qui-Gon (voiceover): "I can only protect you."
Shot 34: The Force probably worked, because three battle droids are flying away from the camera.
Shot 35: Qui-Gon: "I can't fight a war for you."
Shot 36: Steps of enromous palace. The Queen and several other people are being escorted down by battle droids.
Shot 37: Palpatine: "I think we're going to have to accept Federation control for the time being."
Shot 38: Queen, Bibble and several other people are escorted by battledroids.
Shot 39: Two very cool battle robots which are "transforming" themselves from spheres to armored "things" with guns.
Shot 40: Panaka: "This is a battle I do not think that we can win."
Shot 41: Queen to Palpatine: "I will sign no treaty, senator."
Shot 42: Large mounted guns firing.
Shot 45: Pilot in the cockpit being hit. He wears those old-style pilot goggles.
Shot 46: Queen looking from the window.
Shot 47: Jar Jar to Queen: "You say people gonna die?" Or something like that (his dialect is terrible.)
Shot 48: STAPs are shooting at Obi-Wan in the forest, Qui-Gon deflects their fire with his lighsaber.
Shot 49/50: Obi-Wan to Boss Nass: "Once those droids take control of the surface, they will take control of you."
Shot 51: Tanks firing.
Shot 52: Queen: "I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die..." Some small thing is hovering in front of her (a microphone?).
Shot 53: Dozens of Gungans deflecting laser fire with large see-through shields.
Shot 54: Senate or something similar. Enormous hall with many small pods, each of them containing people (ambassadors?). Queen (voiceover): "...while you discuss this invasion in a committee."
Shot 55: Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon mowing down battle droids with lightsabers.
Shot 56: Two robots from shot 39 firing.
Shot 57: Door opens, several people are running from them. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use the lightsabers to deflect the shots, the Queen is shooting from her blaster.
Shot 58: R2D2 being "sucked" into the Naboo fighter.
Shot 59: R2D2's "head" emerging from top of the fighter.
Shot 60: Battle droids being hit with laser fire.
Shot 70: Queen (shooting): "Get to your ships!"
Shot 71: Obi-Wan running.
Shot 72: Naboo figters flying away from the planet.
Shot 73: C3PO to R2D2: "They'll never get me onto one of those dreadful starships."
Shot 74: R2D2 beeping.
Shot 75: Obi-Wan jumps up, kicking down one battle droid with each of his feet. Looks like Bruce Lee. :)
Shot 76: Yoda to Mace: "Always two there are."
Shot 77: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan standing on the balcony above Coruscant. Yoda (voiceover): "A master and an apprentice."
Shot 78: Darth Maul standing menacingly in the desert, switching off his lighsaber. Something flies overhead.
Shot 79: Two Naboo fighters flying, one of them explodes.
Shot 80: The pod race. Various pods (each of them different) speeding through the canyon.
Shot 81: Naboo fighter flying from space into a hangar, rolling wildly.
Shot 82: Enormous jaws opening (probably shot from inside of the sub).
Shot 83: Obi-Wan duelling with Darth Maul. I'd say that he has 9 horns. One at the top of his head and four on each side.
Shot 84: Jabba The Hutt on the balcony, surrounded by his familiar minions from the previous Star Wars movies.
Shot 85/86: Obi-Wan duelling with Darth Maul.
Shot 87: Shmi embracing Anakin.
Shot 88: Huge underwater beast grabs a sub in its jaws. Not sure if they are the same as in shot 82.
Shot 89: A new kind of ship (somehow reminiscent of TIE Fighter) flying above the Trade Federation battleship.
Shot 90: Another shot from the pod race.
Shot 91: Title: STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE.
Shot 92: Close-up of Maul's face. Sidious (voiceover): "Wipe themout."
Shot 93: Sidious (hologram): "All of them."
Shot 94: Obi-Wan (screaming): "No!!!"
Shot 95: One of the racing pods crashing in very nasty way.
Shot 96: Queen.
Shot 97: Battle droids being blasted by laser fire.
Shot 98: Qui-Gon.
Shot 99: Qui-Gon decapitating the battle droid.
Shot 100: Anakin running across the field.
Shot 101: Particularly nasty explosion (remember ID4?) involving one very unlucky battle droid.
Shot 102: End credits.
Shot 103: THE SAGA BEGINS MAY 21st.

The trailer is about 2:25 long (with all the credits). All the music is from previous movies.

Official Site Confirms time of Trailer B. Why do they call it the real trailer? When the first one showed so much that we didn't expect to see from a teaser? Well, for one thing the teaser did not have any music and sound effects finish for the film. According to Lucas sound if half of the film, so this time we will get to experience what Pods, Battle Droid, N-1 Starfighter and blaster blasts sound like. From the description that I posted up above, I am just too excited to see this trailer. This is what they posted on the Official Site.

Trailer Running Time Confirmed
February 16, 1999 -- Episode I Producer Rick McCallum confirmed that the upcoming trailer for Episode I has come in at a final running time of two and a half minutes. While the "full" trailer continues the same style seen in the teaser, the new one focuses much more on the larger plot of The Phantom Menace rather than on the story of Anakin Skywalker. Packed with completely new footage, the trailer is currently being mixed and readied for release.

Image of the Queen's HandMaiden. The Force Net has posted up and image of Queen Amidala's handmaiden. Remember to visit the Force.Net (I have to say this in order to post this image on my site. I mean I don't hate the Force.Net, I have posted images and news from the site several times before. But visit the sit any way J).

A Bad review of Episode 1 Clip. Finally I have been waiting for at least one person to bad mouth the film. No, I am not against the film. In fact I love hearing anything about the film. But I have always expected someone to say a bad thing or two on the film, and it is about time that someone had. This was posted on Ain't It Cool News.

Star Wars Episode One Stuff.... Pics of some ships and stuff, so if that's spoilers... this has spoilers!!!
Well folks, some of this should put a smile on your face. The fist spy is the lead drummer for the Juicy Fruits (name that movie) and he attended one of them there 'summit' thingees where ya get to see cool stuff like 10 minutes of footage and so on... Well here's his report with images...

I will tell you two things that I learned from this 'summit'. The first, Lucasfilm is not fooling around with this film. The amount of time and research that has gone into marketing this thing is incredible. Lucas is not treating this as just a summer movie. This is the beginning of an eight year journey. This will not be another Godzilla. One important point made - no merchandizing advertising can begin until two days after release date.
The second thing and most important is that this film looks amazing. The ten minutes of footage that was showed has pretty much dispelled any negatives feelings that I had towards this film. Admit it, it could have been bad - still could I suppose. I was never concerned that the quality of the special effects would be bad but that the acting and writing would leave something to be desired. Of the five scenes showed three of them were straight acting. The important one being between Anakin saying goodbye to his mother Shmi. The kid was not half bad.
By the way Pepsi will be supplying, to their larger accounts, (to support the collector cans) full sized 3D figures of the major characters. They will be made with glass eyes and latex skin and fully costumed.
Anyway on too the next piece of information. As you can see the bottom scans are taken from a sell sheet for said product. Do they know how to market or what.
Release date May 4th. That means at least the music will be available that much sooner.

HOT NEW image of Qui-Gon Jinn VS Darth Maul!!! All I can say is this image is too damn cool. The image was posted on the Force.Net from an anonymous source. So we cannot be too sure if it is real or not, but we do a scene similar to this in the trailer. Just check it out it looks too cool.

A better image of Boss Nass. Okay so it is not an image from the film itself, but it is a good image none the less. The image was posted up on the Force net Collecting from Ebay.com. Before you see the image here are two other images of Boss Nass that were posted on T'Bone and SirSteve.

T'Bone reveals big spoilers. Recently T'Bone has posted up a long description of the films final scenes. Here is what he posted, and make sure to visit his ultra cool site.

R2-D2's Name and Obi-Wan's Rage
My good friend and source, Mr. Hankey reported in yet again with some clarification on some older news you saw here a few months back and a new little detail about Obi-Wan. Here's what he said:
First off, R2. When Swokes Swokes (see post from 8/26/98) mentioned about Panaka presenting him to Amadala and they "name" him, he was a little off. Amidala asks who this brave astromech droid is and Panaka looks on R2 for something. At the back (or somewhere) he finds a little panel covered in muck. He scrapes the muck off (V'ger style - for those who saw the first Star Trek film) and sees the name R2-D2 there. I don't know if this totally jives with what you may have heard, and it was a while ago that I heard this, but it might be worth checking out.
Also, about when Obi-Wan kills Darth Maul… After Qui-Gon has been struck down, Obi Wan goes Berserk ("NO!"). Apparently, his reaction to Qui-Gon's death is really cool. Anyhow, he goes nuts, lunging at Maul, almost angrily. After another, rather one sided battle, Maul falls over the edge of the gantry they are fighting on in the Generator Room. Maul tries to grab on to Obi-Wan's leg, but falls to his death in the fiery pit below. Obi-Wan goes back to Qui-Gon, where he promises to train Anakin. I like the idea of Maul falling to his death here, kind of like where Obi-Wan and Anakin will end up later in the saga (Ep 3?). Just remember I saw all this a while back so I'm hoping I remember it right.
This sounds really cool and reminiscent of the "Luke loses it" scene in ROTJ. I guess the dark side has its usefulness at times.
The Final Scenes
I gave you the opening, now it's time to give you some of the ending. A very old source of mine who had disappeared for a long while named Mrs. X sent me some great little descriptions of most of the ending scenes of Episode One. After looking them over, they seem to be pretty on so I will post her stuff here and let it brew in your minds. There are a few new things I have never seen yet so hopefully this will be enjoyable for you and not just rehash which is not my bag, baby.
Keep in mind that all these scenes are happening simultaneously (intercut during the film) and this info is a little old so it might not be exact as far as little details go but then again, it might. It's a very busy ending. Mrs. X's info is in bold and my comments are in T'blue.

Theed Exterior Plaza - Main Hangar - Padme takes a red laser light signal and calls Panaka, Rabé, and around 25 Naboo Palace troops. - Battle Droids begin to fan out and search the plaza, which is filled with Battle Tanks. - The Naboo palace guards begin firing on the Battle Droids, and attempt to clear a way outside in the main plaza. - During the battle, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan ignite their lightsabers and deflect Droid fire back onto the Battle Droids, causing many to explode.		Now I had not heard of this laser light signal before so that's pretty neat. Those little laser pointers have become quite trendy these days. I really like the thing where Obi and Qui are deflecting the blasts and sending them back at the Battle Droids.
Theed Palace Exterior - As a Naboo starfighter attempts to take off, a Battle Tank fires upon it, causing it to pinwheel into the ground and explode. - Panaka and the guards continue to occupy the Battle Droid force.		Typical action sequence. Sounds cool.
Naboo Palace Throne Room - Nute Gunray, Rune Haako, and 4 council members? (not Jedi Council) watch the battle commencing on a huge viewscreen on the wall. - Darth Maul enters the throne room. - On the way from the hangar into the throne room, a group consisting of Panaka, Padme, and the two Jedi (among others) come upon Darth Maul. - This is where Obi and Qui lose their capes and engage Maul. Maul ignites his double-bladed saber. -Back at the entrance to the hangar, Destroyer Droids roll in, unfold, and begin blasting.		Four council members? Probably members of the Trade Federation but this could be one of those little details that may be off. All my info just refers to Nute and Rune monitoring the Battle on a Viewscreen but I am sure there could be more people in the Naboo Palace Throne Room.
Theed Palace Main Hangar - Anakin, having jumped into a Naboo Fighter cockpit to hide from the battle, peeks out and is noticed by the Destroyer Droids. - The Destroyer Droids open fire, and Anakin fires back...accidentally activating the auto-pilot and starting the fighter's engines. - The fighter begins to take off, and blasts out of the hangar. - The fighter heads toward the Federation Battleship above Naboo, and anakin tries to make the ship just zoom past the battleship. -Instead, he accidentally does a barrel roll, causing a Federation Droid fighter to shoot past him and hit the side of the battleship, exploding. - Anakin tries to shoot the droid fighters, but misses, and his missed shots go past the droid ships and explode inside the reactor room of the battleship. - The ship begins to explode from within as a result of Anakin's chain-reaction shot (sound familiar?). - When the Federation Battleship explodes, the droids on the surface cease moving after shaking and convulsing. The droids were controlled fom the ship.		Now to lend credibility to this you have to remember that there is a scene earlier where Anakin is sort of shown the ropes of starfighter piloting. So, he has a little idea on what to do here. There is also a scene where Anakin enters one of the huge ships from one end and is chased right out of the other end. Looking at the construction of the Federation ship we saw in the trailer it is very possible. That should be fun. Also, for all you doubters, keep in mind that Anakin is not really dogfighting out there or anything. He just kinda takes off, messes around a little, and of course ends up blowing up the main ship that controlls the Battle Droids. Most the other fighters you saw in the trailer are Bravo Flight (or squadron) led by Bravo Leader, Ric Olié;.
Jedi Fight vs. Darth Maul - The fight plays out in the center part of the main hangar at first. - Then the fight moves out of the hangar and into the power generator room seen in the trailer. - It moves across a narrow bridge and thru a door into a small corridor. - The corridor has rays that shoot back and forth thru the hangar, pulsing back and forth. - Qui-Gon is struck down. (Maul gets him.) - Obi-Wan jumps out of the way of the hall lasers and swings with rage at Darth Maul. - Maul loses his balance and falls into a metal melting pit...and dies.		The part about the corridor with the lasers was reported here a while back by Swokes Swokes on 8/26/98. All the other info here totally jives with what I have here including the fact that Maul falls into a "melting pit". To escape the battle going on here, Panaka and the Queen head out the window to try to make their way to the Throne Room that way instead of through the Hangar which is the starting point of the 3-way lightsaber duel. Nute, Rune and co. are in the Throne room this whole time. Now here's something to think about… I am personally of the opinion that Qui-Gon is not just cut in half and dies instantly. This character is too major to just go the way of Obi-Wan in Episode IV. I know that Qui-Gon is in a few scenes after he is struck down (probably just lying on the floor - but he is listed as being in a few scenes afterwards). I think he will still be alive but lying there and Obi-Wan will promise Qui-Gon that he will train Anakin right before he dies as described by Mr. Hankey in the post above.
Naboo Grass Plains - Federation tanks and Gungan soldiers advance upon each other (as seen in the trailer). - General Ceel orders the energy shield activated when he sees the tanks. - A red ray shoots from the shield generator, and hits a large dish on the back of a Faamba, causing a red shield to spread out like an umbrella over the assembled Gungan warriors. - The Federation transports (seen crashing thru the jungle in the trailer) open and racks of Battle Droids are pulled out and lined up by a squad of STAPs. - OOM-9 (Battle Droid Commander) orders the troops to march forward. - The Gungan army attacks, throwing power poles (evergy javelin type weapons) and shooting balls of energy in slingshots. - The Gungan army uses large catapult-type mortars that shoot huge balls of energy onto the Battle Droids. - Destroyer Droids are released from the transports and roll toward the battle. - The Gungan army retreats. - While trying to retreat, Jar Jar clumsily unhitches the back gate of a battle wagon, causing hundreds of energy balls to roll out and smother the oncoming Battle and Destroyer Droids. - Then the droids freeze up as a result of the Battleship exploding in space and the battle ends.		Remember that scene in the teaser where we saw the grassy field with Battle Droids on one side and Gungans on the other. That's what we're talking about here. Just about all of these scenes are CG and will probably look great if the trailer is any indication. The Faamba is that large beast that wears the dish on its back. Click HERE to see it. The Gungan Catapult device can be seen at The-phantommenace.com. It's a toy but you'll get the idea. Look for the Hasbro '99 page. Here we also see how Jar Jar's clumsiness saves the day. All through the film he seems to give the impression that he is a clumsy creature and that clusiness will pay off right here. The droids freezing up is a direct result of the scene described above where Anakin destroys the main control battleship.


That's a hefty amount of spoilage there folks. I hope Roderick of the Virtual Edition is tuning in. If he likes what he sees you will probably see some of this added to his fantastic visual plot summary. he has already added most of the opening scenes you found here (now located in the Archives). Being that I gave you the opening scenes I found it only right to share the ending with you.

Sirsteve Toy Images. Like I have said before this site is not totally devoted to the section figures but if something new comes out we will post it here. SirSteve posted up image of 12inch Darth Maul, a Battle Droid made out of Lego and Qui-Gon Jinn with an Opee. Now, the Opee I will show an image of. But remember you can get more images from SirSteve's site

"In an attempt to recruit the amphibious Gungans in their fight against the greedy Trade Federation, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jar Jar Brinks swim to the vast underwater city of Otoh Gunga. On their return, the trio is attacked by a gigantic, ravenous Opee sea creature whose voracious jaws threaten to spell the end for the Jedi, and crush all hope for the planet of Naboo!"

Pepsi Can Image. If you know about me then you know that I am not a big carbonated drink kind of fan. Although I do enjoy Cherry Coke because it looks like Maul. And when I drink I do a Grandpa Simpson impression "Ahhhh!!! The bubbles are burning the back of my mouth!!" Oh well, the Countdown was able to get these image of the Pepsi can.

Official Site updates. These are just a few small things that I forgot to post up on the last update.

The official site has added an introduction page. What is an introduction page? Well it is a small introduction to the film; production, the cast and even the web site are all about. The Introduction page does not really bring out big spoilers, so for those who have been avoiding spoilers from the film I suggest it is okay to read this. And they have also made six different foreign language versions of the intro page, isn't that nice. Star wars Intro The official site has posted up that Sony Classical will be releasing the sound track to the Phantom Menace. It has also been said in every Internet site that Williams is right now scoring the film. Could you imagine being in the studio with the London Symphony Orchestra and a large projection screen showing the film? I knew that would make you salivate. Check out their press release on the sound track. Press Release on The Phantom Menace sound track They have also confirmed Ray Park, (everyone's new favorite villain even though we have only seen him in a few photographs and 3 quick scenes in the trailer) Darth Maul, will be appearing at the Star Wars Celebration.

Official site profiles Tarrly Whitlatch the film's creature conceptual artist. You can remember a few months back Lynn Hale did an amazing video diary with Tarrly, All I can say is the Lucasfilms should be so fortune to have an excellent artist like Terrly on their team.

Tarrly Whitatch profile
A beast 494 x 286 18.6 k
A large eyed creature 452 x 291 29,9 k
the Beast in their natural habitate 479 x 302 32 k If you have notice on the episode 1 page, they have changed Darth Maul's quote. "At last, we will have our revenge." Was what the official site had and now they have "At last we will have revenge." Why the little changes? Well some say that they posted up what was said in the original drafts of the script. The line could have been changed while filming took place. Or they could have changed it because some one is picky about grammar? Oh well, it is just a little change that sounded interesting.

Did you see Sam host the ESPY? Sorry, I don't get ESPN. But the number one coolest man in the world, Samuel L Jackson, hosted ESPN's ESPY awards. I did get to see a clip of Sam on Access Hollywood where he threatens to kill several people with a switchblade...hee hee...that my good old Sam. Oh well, check out images of the event on ESPN's official site.

February 12, 1999

6:45 PM

Official Images of Darth Maul. Let's face it the biggest reason why we are seeing this film is to see Darth Maul. That's not a bad thing, I can remember seeing the original trilogy for Darth Vader. And this guy looks as cool as Vader… Or maybe even cooler then Boba Fett? Maybe. The Official Star Wars Magazine, The Star Wars Insider, has an article on Darth Maul and the actor who play as him, Ray Park. Man, I would love to get Ray's signature on one of these images at the Star Wars Con. For now check out these cool images that I got from T'Bone and The Force.Net.

More Officials Images. The new Insider also has other images from the film. Some of the images we have seen on the trailers while others we have never seen before. I really love the images of the Sebulba, Papatine and the Battle Droids. These images I got from the Force.Net and T'Bone.

Unconfirmed images. I am sorry that I did not post these up soon, but you can still enjoy them anyway. These images came from various sources.
These are images of the Nimoidians / Nimoudians (no one know how to spell the name yet), they are leaders if the Trade Federation. These images were posted on the Force.Net, it is not clear weather these images are real or fake.