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Star Wars Episode III
Release: May 19, 2005
Tagline/Plotline: After three years of fighting in the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker begins his journey towards the Dark Side of the Force, putting his friendship with Obi Wan Kenobi and his marriage at risk.
Cast:
Ewan McGregor .... Obi-Wan Kenobi
Natalie Portman .... Padm�
Hayden Christensen .... Anakin Skywalker
Ian McDiarmid .... Supreme Chancellor Palpatine
Samuel L. Jackson .... Mace Windu
Jimmy Smits .... Senator Bail Organa
Frank Oz .... Yoda (voice)
Anthony Daniels .... C-3PO
Christopher Lee .... Count Dooku
Keisha Castle-Hughes .... Queen of Naboo
Silas Carson .... Ki-Adi-Mundi & Nute Gunray
Jay Laga'aia .... Captain Typho
Bruce Spence .... Tion Medon
Wayne Pygram .... Governor Tarkin
Temuera Morrison .... Commander Cody
David Bowers .... Mas Amedda
Oliver Ford Davies .... Sio Bibble
Ahmed Best .... Jar Jar Binks
Rohan Nichol .... Captain Antilles
Jeremy Bulloch .... Captain Colton
Amanda Lucas .... Terr Taneel
Kenny Baker .... R2-D2
Matt Sloan .... Plo Koon
Peter Mayhew .... Chewbacca
Rebecca Jackson Mendoza .... Queen of Alderaan
Joel Edgerton .... Owen Lars
Bonnie Piesse .... Beru
Jett Lucas .... Zett Jukassa
Tux Akindoyeni .... Agen Kolar
Matt Rowan .... Senator Orn Free Taa
Kenji Oates .... Saesee Tiin
Amy Allen .... Aayla Secura
Bodie Taylor .... Clone Trooper (as Bodie 'Tihoi' Taylor)
Graeme Blundell .... Ruwee Naberrie
Trisha Noble .... Jobal Naberrie
Claudia Karvan .... Sola Naberrie
Keira Wingate .... Ryoo Naberrie
Hayley Mooy .... Pooja Naberrie
Sandi Finlay .... Sly Moore
Katie Lucas .... Chi Eekway
Genevieve O'Reilly .... Mon Mothma
Warren Owens .... Fang Zar
Kee Chan .... Mal�-Dee
Rena Owen .... Nee Alavar
Christopher Kirby .... Giddean Danu
Matthew Wood .... General Grievous (voice)
Worthless Trivia:
~The original blueprints of the Jedi Council chamber in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) & Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) called for the set to be elevated off the floor, providing room for puppeteers. Now with digital aliens occupying the Council seats, such elevation wasn't necessary, but was still incorporated into the set for Episode III.
~George Lucas allowed a short scene for Episode III to be shot in the Tunisian desert during the production of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), to avoid the inconvenience of having to fly the team back out and shoot the scene three years later. It is widely rumored to be the so-called "Harry Potter" scene, in which Obi-Wan Kenobi delivers the infant Luke Skywalker to his aunt and uncle.
~The lightsaber that Obi-Wan uses is the same one used in Star Wars (1977)
~Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2) are the only actors to appear in all six "Star Wars" films. In second place is Frank Oz (Yoda) who appeared in five of the films and in third place are James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Ian McDiarmid (Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious) who all appear in four of the films. Unless one counts McDiarmid appearing in the 2004 DVD Special Edition in which he replaces the old actor and reprises his role as Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The character of Obi-Wan Kenobi also appeared in all six films but was played by two different actors, Sir Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor.
~Director Cameo: [George Lucas] The blue skinned Baron Papanoida who appears during the opera scene. This is Lucas' only appearance in a Star Wars film.
~Clone Commander Bacara's number is 1138, in reference to Lucas' THX-1138.
~The Darth Vader mask for this film was rebuilt from scratch, using a new digital design to computer-lathe the base master, from which molds were made to cast the on-screen costume masks. The resulting masks are, for the first time in Star Wars history, truly symmetrical.
~As of this film, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader has been played by seven different people. David Prowse in the first three films, classified as Episode IV, V, and VI, inside the suit of Darth Vader. James Earl Jones as the voice for all films containing Vader on up. Bob Anderson as the duelist for the fight scenes in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Sebastian Shaw as Anakin Skywalker once Darth Vader's helmet is removed at the end of the "Return of the Jedi" and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Episode II and III. And finally Jake Lloyd in Episode I as a young Anakin Skywalker.
~"Hyperspace" members got to determine the look of Obi-Wan Kenobi's a new astromech droid R4-G9 by entering a poll on starwars.com between July and August of 2003. Presented with four different color schemes, they picked the bronze and copper design (not unlike the red domed R4-P17 from Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)). Naturally this droid became one of the earliest action figures released for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).
~The role of Captain Antilles was originally offered to Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy.
~The title to this film is based on a false name given to _Return Of The Jedi (1983)_ , which was "Revenge Of The Jedi". In the Special Edition of ROTJ, George Lucas himself stated that they purposely leaked out the name as "Revenge Of The Jedi" in order to catch people making bootleg merchandise. He also stated that a true Star Wars fan would have known it was a false title because a Jedi would never seek revenge. The false title also caused another movie to change its title; Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) was originally titled "Khan's Revenge", but changed when word of the third Star Wars film's working title was leaked.
~This is the first and only Star Wars movie to receive a rating higher than PG. (PG-13)
~Lucas originally had not planned to include any bounty hunters in this final installment of the prequel trilogy, but after much fanfare for the bounty hunter Kola Bomm from the Zarn books Lucas wrote a small cameo part into the script to as homage to fans of the alternate star wars universes.
~All shots of C-3PO had the entire green screen set reflecting in his shiny gold armor, so digital effects artists in post-production had to digitally repaint C-3PO's armor frame by frame to remove any traces of the set.
~The battle with Wookiees dates back to the earliest screenplays of Star Wars (1977). Originally, the Wookiees were supposed to help the Rebels conquer an Imperial bunker. This idea was the basis for the Battle of Endor in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), but instead of using Wookiees, George Lucas decided to use a smaller furry race and call them Ewoks.
~This film marks Peter Mayhew's first return to the big screen (excluding television films) since Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).
~The planet name "Utapau" appears in the early drafts of two previous Star Wars films. In Lucas's first draft of the very first movie, Utapau was the home planet of Kane, Anakin and Deak Starkiller. The planet's desert terrain eventually became the planet Tatooine. Utapau was also the original name for Naboo in the first draft of the screenplay for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).
~Unlike the previous Star Wars films, which were shot both on soundstages and on location, this episode was filmed entirely in the studio. The only location work was a background plate shot during the production of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002).
~Actors Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen trained for two months in fencing and fitness in preparation for their fight sequences.
~The original design of Anakin had him sporting a mohawk, a tattoo on his right arm and a shredded looking design to his Jedi robes. George Lucas said that it was "too much". The design was later changed to traditional robes and long hair in a pony-tail. Hayden Christensen thought it was "too pretty". Finally, they settled on the design similar to Obi-Wan's look in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002).
~A subscription service offered by Lucasfilm offered fans the chance to watch various stages of the production via a Webcam.
~Although no live-action location filming was done during principal photography, post-production filming was done in Thailand, Switzerland and China to represent background plates for the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk.
~One of the early concepts for General Grievous was a small child sitting on a floating chair, guarded by two IG88 droids from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). George Lucas rejected this look as a child would not be taken seriously as the deadliest hand to hand fighter the galaxy has seen, which is how he wanted Grievous to be portrayed. Instead, part of the final look for General Grievous' face was inspired by the shape of a bathroom detergent spray nozzle.
~Keisha Castle-Hughes filmed all of her scenes in just one day.
~The Wookiee costumes from this film sport a new arterial system that pump ice cold water to help cool down the actor wearing the suit.
~In August 2004, a rumor started floating around the Internet that George Lucas had decided to make Episodes VII, VIII and IX after-all, after the supposed discovery that Lucasfilm employees had signed non-disclosure agreements barring them from speaking about the films. George Lucas later refuted the rumor, stating he still has no intention of making a third trilogy.
~A process of applying chrome to rubber was developed during production, allowing lightsaber hilts to be made of rubber and used in stunts without hurting the actors.
~Gary Oldman had agreed to be the voice of General Grievous, but pulled out of the film because it was being made using actors who are not part of the Screen Actor's Guild, of which Oldman is a member. The role was read by 'Duncan Young' on set, and finally voiced by 'Matthew Wood' , who, being a Lucasfilm employee, submitted his reading under the name of Alan Smithee.
~The first teaser trailer (released on 5 November 2004) was code-named "Sand Dogs".
~Hayden Christensen is himself wearing the Darth Vader suit this time; it was specially molded from plastic to fit him. Camera trickery was used to make him appear taller as he is 5 inches shorter than David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original trilogy. A similar trick was used during the filming of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) when the much smaller Bob Anderson doubled for Prowse during the fight scenes.
~Mace Windu's final lightsaber battle involves three big rooms and 102 moves.
~As Yoda has been created digitally since Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), one of the puppets of Yoda created for the filming of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) was used as a reference point for the ease of actors on-set during re-shoots in late summer 2004. Time in the Lucasfilm archives had not been kind as the puppet had an incidentally comically contorted look on its face.
~In Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), The look of the Clone troopers was a cross between the Mandalorian armour worn by Jango Fett and the storm troopers of Star Wars (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). In this movie, the look of the clone troopers edges a bit more towards the look of the stormtroopers, but still retains a few elements of the Mandalorian armour.
~The character Mas Amedda is played by two actors in this film: Jerome Blake and David Bowers. Blake played the role previously in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). Likewise, Bowers played the role previously in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). In this film, For the scenes shot in Australia during principal photography, Bowers played the part. For new scenes/pickups shot in England, Blake reprised the role.
~Francis Ford Coppola suggested 'Christopher Neil' to George Lucas to be the dialogue coach. Lucas said that given the emotional intensity of Revenge of the Sith, and the fact that he rarely has time to converse with the actors, it would be ideal for someone else to be there to get the strongest performances possible.
~Hayden Christensen gained 11 kilograms (24.2 pounds) for this film. He did so by eating six meals a day.
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images.
Official Star Wars Website
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