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 Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away... Star Wars Episode I, the Phantom Menace 20th Century Fox Opening May 19th, 1999 Ewan McGregor Natalie Portman Liam Neeson Jake Lloyd Ian McDiarmid Frank Oz Samuel L. Jackson God forbid the impending Star Wars prequel, enigmatically titled Episode 1 the Phantom Menace, should be anything less than a box office smash. George Lucas will likely be lynched. The line to get into the first screening of the movie began forming a few days ago outside the Mann Village theatre in Westwood and Manns Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, despite the fact that 20th Century Fox is yet to announce the official venues for the film and the Mann theatres have not even confirmed that they will be screening the film. Meanwhile, in the UK there has been widespread condemnation of Lucasfilms. While much of the film was produced inside the UK using UK crews, actors and studios, the film will not be opening here for months to come, even though it premiers in much of Europe at the same time as it opens in America.
Despite this die-hard British fans seem unperturbed and many are making special trips to the United States for the sole purpose of seeing the movie before the rest of us. Some trips, organised by specialist travel agencies in anicipation of fans wanting to make the pilgrimage abroad, are offering package deals. Up to a week in the US with return flight and hotel along with, of course, those all important tickets to see the film on its first opening night. Yet fans making use of these specialised trips should beware. Lucasfilms are adamant on their website that there will be no advance ticket sales. If this is the case, how can these package trips, complete with promised ticket, be possible? The fan-induced hype surrounding the release of the
Phantom Menace is as unique as it is dangerous. Never before has there been so much
expectation and excitement over a film without the prelude of a massive advertising
campaign. In comparison to movie promotional machines like that which swept across the There are indications that the film will be a success. The cast, for example, is promising. Ewan McGregor will play the young Obe-Wan-Kenobi, Liam Neeson (Schindler's List) will be playing a Jedi master yet to be named and Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown) will also be appearing though his character also remains unspecified. Along with these familiar names come a bevvy of less well known artists playing high brow roles - always a sign of a confident director with a positive attitude toward his movie - Jake Lloyd as the boy Anakin Skywalker, Ian McDiarmid returns as the Emporer and Natalie Portman (the Professional) will be playing Skywalker's mother. Its also nice to see, studying the cast list, that Brian Blessed will be in there somewhere, though there are no specifics as to his precise role. No doubt it will involve alot of shouting and raucous belly laughs.
In all, whether it turns out to be as much of a hit as millions of Star Wars fans are praying or not, the Phantom Menace promises to be an interesting piece of movie-making history. If you're hoping to see all your favourites, think again. This is as related to Star Wars as Frasier is to Cheers. C3-PO is in there, as is the jocular metal character of R2-D2, but otherwise this is a whole new ball game. Personally I'm just looking forward to hearing the music score again. Star Wars - Episode 1, the Phantom Menace opens at theatres in the US ad throughout Europe on May 19th 1999. |
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world shortly before the release of 'Batman', or 'Jurrasic
Park', the Phantom Menace has seen little publicity. In essence, it doesn't
really need it. The fans are doing all the promoting Lucas will ever need for him. But if
the movie does not meet the high expectations of the fans, if people are not left
breathless by the special effects or buzzing as they leave the theatre feeling they have
witnessed something quite historic, at the very least, there will be hell to pay.
The precise details of
the acual plot remain somewhat clouded. There is speculation that the war between the Sith
and the Jedi (mentioned briefly in the first Star Wars movie) will be the
central pivot around which the rest of the plot revolves. Overall, however, the trilogy
will be primarily focused on the story of young Anakin Skywalker (Darth
Vader to you and me) his mentorship by the Jedi Obe-Wan-Kenobi and Yoda
and ultimately his journey into the dark side of the force where the first three films,
confusingly, picks up.