Episode I >> Episode II

Here is an interview I was sent it is done by Dan Madsen talking to the Episode I producer Rick McCallum.

Rick, have you begun pre-production on Episode II yet?
Yes. George is writing the script, and we're really not going to do a lot of work on Episode II untill June. Then [production designer] Gavin Bocquet and i will go on location throughout Europe, and we'll start to plan the biulding in Australia. So we'll be travelling most of the summer, getting everything together, starting to set up the crew, and starting work on the overall plan of how we're going to structure the movie.

Will there be more or less on-location shooting in Episode II than Episode I?
There will be more shooting on location in Episode II.

When do you intend to start shooting Episode II?
April or May of 2000.

So George is literally working on the script right now?
Yes, he is. On the weekends and the early mornings he works on the script.

When will you begin the casting process for Anakin Skywalker?
Most likley in September or October.

There's been lots of talk that George now has the intention of being the only director for the entire trilogy - that he's going to direct Episodes II and III.
I would say it is most likely that he will direct Episode II - Episode III's still an option.

Are there any characters beyond the Queen and Obi-Wan that we're going to see come over to Episode II? I would think we'll see the droids, Threepio and Artoo.
You will see C-3PO and R2-D2, and of course you'll see Obi-Wan and Anakin - Anakin will obviously be an older character now - and of course Palpatine.

And you annocued that we also see Boba Fett appear somewhere in Episode II.
Absolutly.

When do you guys expect to release Episode I on video?
That's very tentative now - there's no real data. It really depends on th eimpact of the film. I think everybody's just going to sit back and see what's going to happen.

Now that the movie is here, people want to know - what was the process for creating Jar Jar Binks?
Well, basically what we did was we cast Ahmed best, and then we knew that we liked his voice and we liked the way he moved, so we wanted him to be an integral part of the movie. So we gave him a costume, a Jar Jar costume, and he had a headpiece, because Jar Jar's taller than him. He was alays a part of all the rehearsals and read-throughs. Every day when er'd do a sequence and set up for a shot, George would rehearse with him and the actors. They would make sure that they blocked out all the movements they had, and then we'd always film Ahmed with the actors.
We'd do one or two takes, and finally get to the take that we like, and everybody knew what the behaviour was. Then Jar Jar would get out of the shot and we'd re-shoot it, very fresh. where everybody knew where his position was, and knew where they needed to be looking in order to see Jar Jar. So that's how we did it throughout the whole movie.

Is Ahmed's on-set performance mostly for that actor, or do the artists at ILM need to see it too?
ILM needs to see the lighting reference, so they always have their plate with Jar Jar in it and the animators know what the basic movement of Jar Jar is. Then they also have the lighting of Jar Jar - what he's got to look like and the shadows that he casts on other people. Then on the empty plate without Jar Jar, they take their wire model of Jar Jar and animate it. That's where they create his performance. It's an amalgam of what Ahmed did on the set, and their imagination. George directs that performance in animation fo huge periods of time.

Did Ahmed come back in post-production to do voice over work as well?
Yes, he's done all the looping and everything else that the other actors do.

Tell me something - why does Darth Maul's face look that way? is it tattooed or is that a marking from the alien species he belongs to?
We have to leave that uncclear for now.

So that's still a mystery?
Exaclty.