🚀 go-pugleaf

I haven't seen Aditya Sood's "New Star Wars Movies FAQ" updated for
a long time... Here's a replacement, at least a temporary one.

In this document you will find information on the upcoming Star
Wars Special Editions and something on the prequels. Sources include
reports in the rec.arts.sf.starwars Usenet hierarchy, press releases
and newspaper articles.

There's no new information here if you've read r.a.s.s frequently. 
This is just a compilation. If you have any comments, mail me at
<terho@babel.helsinki.fi>. On the other hand, if you have new Star Wars
news to report, post on rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc (and/or r.a.s.s.info).

Acronyms you should know:
=========================
SW   Star Wars
CG   Computer graphics/computer generated
ANH  A New Hope (the movie better known as "Star Wars)
TESB The Empire Strikes Back
ROTJ Return of the Jedi
SE   Special Edition

IN SHORT
========
- "Star Wars Ambassador" Steve Sansweet and Lucasfilm's Howard Roffman
  are touring the States with a presentation about the "Shadows of the
  Empire" multimedia extravaganza, the Star Wars Trilogy Special
  Edition and the upcoming "prequels" (ie. the three new SW movies).
  Circa 700 people saw the first presentation at a scifi convention at
  Texas A&M. Clips from the Special Edition Trilogy were shown, as was
  the trailer.
- The trailer for the Star Wars Special Editions is scheduled to be
  released publicly in November 1996.
- Star Wars: Special Edition will be released either on the 21st or the
  14th of February 1997, followed by TESB and ROTJ SEs in four to six
  week intervals.
- For the special editions, a large number of visual effects have been
  digitally enhanced and many completely redone. Some new scenes have
  been created from scratch and never-before-seen footage has been
  restored.
- New/enhanced scenes include: computer-generated space battle scenes
  for ANH; revamped arrival at Mos Eisley spaceport featuring tons of
  CG creatures, vehicles and new buildings; digitally created _walking_
  Jabba the Hutt talking to Han Solo in ANH; a new ending to ROTJ (after
  Luke cremates Vader) with new music and scenes of celebration on
  Bespin, Tatooine and Coruscant.
- Lucasfilm has been working on a new Star Wars trilogy since 1994. The
  scripts and artwork have been in the making for nearly 18 months now.
  Casting and location scouting have also been going on for some time.
  The first new movie will be released in May 1998 or May 1999.
- The upcoming trilogy will consist of Star Wars episodes I, II and III
  (the existing trilogy being episodes IV, V and VI). It looks like
  Lucas has abandoned his plans for episodes VII, VIII and IX.
- Kenneth Branagh, Quentin Tarantino, Keanu Reeves, John Woo or probably
  any other well-known actor or director has NOTHING to do with the new
  trilogy, as Lucas tends to hire relative unknowns as directors and
  actors. (The director of The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont,
  seems to be a likely candidate to be a co-screenwriter, however.)
- Lucas has expressed his interest in directing the first movie. This
  doesn't necessarily mean that he will direct it, though.
- Perhaps fortunately, the prequels are being planned in extreme
  secrecy, so there's little reliable information available.
- However, we know that the new films will feature Tatooine, Coruscant
  (see below) and probably Dagobah. The plot will revolve around the
  fall of the Old Republic, a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin
  Skywalker's turning to the Dark Side and his eventual transformation 
  into Darth Vader. We may not want to know more. (It'll be more fun to
  watch the movies if the plot's a surprise.)
- Anything relating to "The Clone Wars" and clones should be dismissed
  as speculation. "Clone Wars" probably won't be the name of any of the
  new movies, either.

Reliable information sources:
- Lucasfilm Fan Club's Star Wars Insider magazine
- Star Wars Galaxy Magazine
- First-hand accounts from people who have seen an official Lucasfilm
  presentation
- Recent press releases from Fox or Lucasfilm and new interviews with
  the producers or Uncle George himself

Unreliable information sources:
- FOAF (Friend of a friend)
- Speculations and rumors in Cinescape or similar magazines (but when
  they print interviews, it's worthwhile)

MORE INFO ON THE SPECIAL EDITIONS
=================================
Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi
are scheduled to be re-released THEATRICALLY in early 1997 as "Special
Edition" versions, with a VHS/laserdisc release following possibly in
the same year.

For the SEs, the visuals will be digitally restored and the sound
remixed in THX. However, as the restoration project progressed (having
started in 1994), it became obvious that using digital technology, some
scenes could be made better than they've ever been. The visual effects
will be taken care of by Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm's FX
department (Jurassic Park, T2, the original SW trilogy etc).

George Lucas wanted to bring the movie closer to his original vision,
having planned scenes for the trilogy that were impossible to create
without digital state-of-the-art technology. Old scenes are being
enhanced and completely new ones created from scratch.

Most of the space scenes in ANH will be redone with computer graphics.
In the March 11, 1996 issue of Forbes Magazine (with George Lucas on
the cover), there is a small (too small) photo of a bunch of
computer-animated X-Wings approaching the Death Star.

Lucasfilm has said that Star Wars will have the most changes and four
minutes of new footage, The Empire Strikes Back little changes and maybe
one minute of new footage and Return of the Jedi "significant" changes
and three minutes of new footage.

The following changes WILL be made and have been witnessed by hundreds
of people at the SE preview shows (and according to reports, they look
"amazing" and "magnificient" and "startlingly great"):
 1) STORMTROOPERS LANDING ON TATOOINE. The "Look, sir! Droids!" scene
    now has more troopers - some of them CG, riding CG dewbacks.
    (Dewbacks are huge lizards that could be seen in the original
    version, but they didn't move there.) Also, the Imperial shuttle
    that brought the troopers to the surface of Tatooine takes off in
    the background of this scene.
 2) MOS EISLEY. As Luke, Ben and the droids enter the city in their
    landspeeder, some completely new shots have been created and old
    ones improved. Mos Eisley has been transformed into a busy city.
    There is much land and air traffic and new vehicles, droids and
    creatures. In one shot, the speeder startles a wrantu (a dragon-like
    four-legged creature) that a few Jawas are riding, causing the
    wrantu to knock the Jawas off its back. The cantina scene is also
    going have digital changes.
 3) JABBA THE HUTT. A scene that was filmed in 1976 (unused until now
    and partially included in the "From Star Wars to Jedi" documentary)
    featured Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt meeting at Docking Bay 94.
    Unfortunately, Lucas didn't have the time to have anyone design a
    Jabba nor the money to build a large puppet, thus he was forced to
    use a fat Irish actor (no kidding!). However, the Special Edition
    replaces that actor with a computer-animated Jabba. The CG version,
    eyewitnesses say, is integrated seamlessly into the 20-year-old
    footage and looks as good as, perhaps better than, the puppet in
    ROTJ. Besides, this Jabba walks! (Rumor has it that some or all of
    the Jabba scenes in ROTJ will be replaced by CG.)
 4) ENDING OF RETURN OF THE JEDI. After Luke cremates Vader's body and
    looks up at the fireworks in the sky, the camera originally panned
    down to show the Ewok celebration. This will be enhanced (or
    replaced?) by new footage: as the camera pans down, we will see
    three new scenes of celebration - in Cloud City, on Tatooine and -
    Coruscant! The Coruscant scene is the one that has been screened to
    audiences at the SE preview shows and is, again, "glorious" and
    "amazing". The music for the ending will be rescored by John
    Williams as Lucas was not satisfied with the original Ewok music.

    By the way: Coruscant is the planet on which the Imperial City -
    the capital, if you will - is located. Much of the prequels will
    take place there, so the new Coruscant scene in ROTJ has been
    created to establish continuity between the existing trilogy and the
    prequels. If you're interested, there are drawings of Coruscant's
    Imperial City in "The Illustrated Guide to the Star Wars Universe".

Scenes that have been officially confirmed but not screened anywhere:
 1) BEGINNING OF RETURN OF THE JEDI. According to Lucasfilm, ROTJ will
    have a "different beginning altogether". This may - or may not - be
    the scene that was filmed (but never included in the original final
    cut) that featured R2-D2 and C-3PO watching as Luke builds his
    lightsaber in Obi-Wan's hut and Luke having a telepathic
    conversation with Vader.
 2) THE MAX REBO BAND AT JABBA'S PALACE. The Max Rebo band (Max Rebo - 
    the blue elephant playing the organ, Sy Snootles, the dancing
    elephant with lips on the end of her nose and Droopy McCool, the
    flute-playing creature) will get a complete face-lift. Lucas was
    dissatisfied with the original version of the band scenes - the SE
    will have this scene extended by two minutes with better music and
    CG aliens dancing.

[NOTE: The Biggs scenes are NOT going back in ANH. Lucas said that "they
 would disrupt the continuity of the movie."]

One can _assume_ that most special effects will be updated - such as the
destruction of Alderaan and scenes on Cloud City and Endor, among many
others. (The SE trailer has shots of a reportedly great-looking
computer-enhanced speeder bike chase through the Endor forest.)

The visual effects producer for the Special Editions is Tom Kennedy and
the FX supervisor is Alex Seiden.

Do you have more information? Post it on rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc!

Juha
Coming soon: A completely new blooper list!

-- 
  _--'_|\   Juha Terho <terho@babel.helsinki.fi>
,~       \  http://www.helsinki.fi/~terho/     
 \_--.  ,'  Department of Translation Studies,                    @  
      ~~    University of Helsinki 
-- 
        ___
           \          
           /| |  _       Roberto Aguirre Maturana.
         |/ | | | |      raguirre@cec.uchile.cl