Jackson

Theater owners get sneak peek at 'Episode II'

ANDY SEILER, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Originally published Friday, March 8, 2002

LAS VEGAS -- Theater owners at the annual ShoWest movie industry convention were attacked by clones Tuesday night -- and they loved it.

Producer Rick McCallum showed the first footage from "Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones" ever seen outside Lucasfilms at the Paris Las Vegas Casino and Hotel. Even the honchos at distributor 20th Century Fox were getting their first look at director George Lucas' latest work, which opens May 16.

Also included was the new trailer, which will premiere Monday on Fox TV (between 8:30 and 10 p.m.) and before family film "Ice Age," in theaters March 15.

"We didn't want to just push the envelope, we wanted to lick it," McCallum said of the film and the technology used to make it. Speaking specifically to the theater owners, he added: "Those of you lucky enough to get it are going to make a (shipload) of money."

To judge from the footage, much of "Clones" has a dazzling yet different look than the four previous "Star Wars "films, with many scenes taking place in a retro-futuristic city that looks as if it might have been dreamed up by painter Edward Hopper and the designers of Manhattan's Chrysler Building. It's a gleaming art deco metropolis where robot diner waitresses serve food on wheels (shades of Lucas' "American Graffiti"), while a spaceship (Anakin Skywalker's?) dodges skyscrapers, space traffic and the flame of smokestacks.

Also glimpsed:

- The budding romance between Anakin (now played by Hayden Christensen) and Padmi (Natalie Portman), though McCallum emphasized the movie's action, not the love story.

- Marching metallic armies (identifiable as clones because, yes, they all looked like the same soldier).

- A scene shot on a factory assembly line. Our heroes dodge mechanical devices, reminiscent not only of the climax of "Chicken Run," but also the classic trapped-in-the-gears routine from Charlie Chaplin's 1936 "Modern Times."

Interestingly, while Christensen, Portman, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Smits were seen in the footage, the character of Jar Jar Binks, whose presence in "Episode I" caused a stir, was nowhere in sight, though he is said to be in the film.

On the Web

Read more about "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" online at these sites:

- www.starwars.com: the official Star Wars site.

- www.imdb.com: the Internet Movie Database.

- www.theforce.net: fan site.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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