Hey folks, Harry here... Today's been an interesting day... Moriarty, Hercules the Strong and Alexandra DuPont have all seen ATTACK OF THE CLONES... There was mixed reactions. I won't say who thought what, but it wasn't unanimous praise. Things have apparently changed some since then version I saw I've learned, and I'm hoping that it works for me. Meanwhile, domestically Quint and Rav were kicked out of a screening of Episode 2, and are currently in an asylum weeping in a puddle of their own precious bodily fluids. Meanwhile, I'm putting together the next collection of reviews and then there was this account by Alexander DeLarge from that big ol Star Wars thingee in the midwest. There is info here about DVD releases and other things, so enjoy...
Star Wars Celebration II
An eyewitness account by Alexander DeLarge
Esteemed readers:
This is an account of my experiences in and out of the Indiana Convention Center, relating to the Star Wars Celebration, and like all personal experiences, it is extremely subjective. That being known, I do hope what I am writing helps me share some of my enjoyment of this event with other fans. By the way, my memory is not infallible, and I did not take notes, so forgive me if I mess a few things up. English is my second language, so don’t expect flawless spelling and forgive me for any senseless sentences.
WARNING : Watch out for the falling names.
Friday, May 3rd 2002.
The first event I attended was the introduction ceremony, which was hosted by Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), who served as M.C. in many occasions throughout the course of the Celebration.
Steven Sansweet took the stage first, to show a few video greetings made by some of the most prominent cast members of Episode II. In them, they all apologized for not being there and wished we would enjoy the Celebration. Among these actors were, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Pernilla August, and Ian McDiarmid. Samuel L. Jackson was very funny in his greeting, and he mostly spent his time talking about how much ass he is going to kick in Episode II, and how he is the only one who has a purple lightsaber in the entire Star Wars universe. George Lucas also gave a video greeting, in which he expressed is discomfort with doing the press rounds at the moment, instead of being there for Celebration II.
In this introductory ceremony, Daniels jokingly bullied the audience into greeting him the way the Ewoks did in Return of the Jedi. When one guy wouldn’t give in, Daniels walked straight at him and asked "what exactly is your problem"? and began to tease him, asking for the camera operators to point their cameras at the guy and show him doing the reverence by himself, to which the guy replied "you’ll have to levitate first". That got a big laugh.
Jim Ward, who is in charge of marketing, took the stage for a few minutes and spoke about the trailers and the TV spots. He also mentioned that Episode II’s nearest competition was Spiderman, and that he had seen a new Spiderman spot that was really good, and that quite frankly, he was hoping we wouldn’t mind watching the Spidey spot and suggest on how he could make an Episode II spot to challenge it. Of course, we all thought something was fishy, but what we saw next we could have never expected. It all started like a regular Spiderman TV spot, talking about how audiences would experience the power of the ultimate superhero this summer, but to everyone’s delight, it was actually a beautiful clip of Yoda with his lightsaber, in plain battle. It was breathtaking, and the crowd went wild.
Then, Anthony Daniels showed the original trailer for Episode IV.
After that, Daniels introduced Rick McCallum, who spoke briefly about the digital revolution and assured everyone that we were going to love Episode II. Daniels interviewed him about some anecdotes on how he got into producing films, and what it was like to work with George Lucas. Rick did make his customary "it was the most successful director meeting with the least successful producer" comment, and elaborated on it, always showing a great ability to laugh at himself. He said that the code name for Episode II during shooting was "Black Eyes", in honor of one of his failed productions. He also commented on his being overweight, saying that you could always tell which part of the production process he was in by looking at his body size. Obviously, he had just gone through post-production. Daniels then commented on how Lucas has lost a lot of weight lately, and after that they let a few members of the audience ask some questions, but they were in their majority, obvious and lame. (i.e., "how can I get cast in the films?, what will happen to Episode 7,8 and 9, damnnit?"). One of the good questions asked, in my opinion, was "will the original trilogy DVD have both the special and the original versions of the film, to which McCallum smiled and said "that has been proposed a lot by the DVD team, and you never know". His smile told us that obviously he did know.
After showing one of the Episode II trailers, Anthony Daniels welcomed Hayden Christensen onstage.
Christensen spoke about acting in movies as dissimilar as Life as a House and Episode II, and how he found some common ground in the edginess of the characters but that he tried to approach them differently. Daniels, who has seen Episode II, commended him on his performance, and offered that it was really amazing how Hayden managed to come off as innocent and dangerous at the same time in the film. When the microphone was open to questions from the public, Hayden faced his fair share of lame questions, but managed to make them interesting by the spin he gave them with his answers. Amongst the things he was asked was the obligatory "how was it like to kiss Natalie Portman" question, and after blushing slightly, and attempting to make a civilized response, he said "it was GREAT." Daniel Logan (young Boba Fett in Episode II) was actually in the audience, and he asked Hayden about the Gamecube they played with on the set. Hayden explained how he had bought a Gamecube and Logan and he had become video game buddies, but since the electricity outlets were different in Australia, he had let Daniel keep it.
After this energizing introductory ceremony, I attended "Rick McCallum’s Spectacular", which was rumored to be a great show. In it, Rick had a digital projector on loan from Texas Instruments, and he used it to illustrate just how superior digital projection is as opposed to normal projection. He showed 8 minutes of new footage from Episode II and it looked like nothing I had ever seen before. I am completely sold on the idea of going digital, and I refuse to see Episode II for the first time in another type of theatre. He also showcased an "effects" reel, which was kind of a behind the cameras look at the production, and that was very interesting too, showing new footage from the movie as well, mostly involving Jango Fett. After he was done talking, he showed the 8 minutes again and also the Clone War trailer. Yes, digital is the THX of image. The audience is watching.
Early bird that I am, soon after this presentation was over, I secured both of my Jorg Sacul limited action figures. It’s a good thing I did that too, because some jerks fraudulently screwed many other Celebration attendees of their right to purchase their figures during the course of that day. Many fans went back home empty handed in that sense, which frankly sucked.
Later that day, I attended a talk entitled "Attack of the Fetts", with Jeremy Bulloch (original trilogy Boba Fett), Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett, Episode II) and Daniel Logan (young Boba, Episode II). Despite the grim nature of the characters they have portrayed, their chat was extremely light hearted, and it ended with Tem Morrison bursting into song.
To finish the day, we went into a theatre showing Spiderman, at 10:10 pm, which was packed with uber-geeks. Daniel Logan was sitting a couple of rows apart from ours, and even though most of us recognized him, almost no one bothered him, and he handled those who bothered him quite gracefully. However, having seen the amazing digitally projected effects from the 8 minute reel, Spiderman paled in comparison. It was agreed upon the people who saw the showing that the movie was underwhelming at best. Being Star Wars fans, most of us don’t mind campy dialogue now and then, but some of those lines would have been better kept in comic books.
Sorry Spidey. It is my personal verdict that a mere 8 minutes of the Clones owned you.
Saturday, May 4th 2002.
Since the original idea behind coming to the Celebration II was that I had to help a filmmaker friend of mine with his documentary, I had to bite the bullet and do some work with him this day. We woke up early to capture some images of the 501st organization (basically, geeks with cool costumes from all over the world) taking their Celebration picture. They posed together, and then filed out into the street, where they began to march.
Suddenly, out of the convention center, a thin, vaguely distracted man ran towards the crowd and begun to march with them. It was Anthony Daniels, who saw the massive geek togetherness spilling out of the streets of Indianapolis and he just had to be a part of it. To top it off, a member of the Arizona 501st proposed to his girlfriend in front of everyone, to the cheers of the crowd. E! News caught it on tape, and they later said that they would probably end their segment on the Celebration with those images. I don’t know if they did, because I didn’t watch TV while I was there.
As a part of my friend’s documentary, he asked me to follow a guy around who was dressed like Boba Fett. Unlike many of the Fett’s, his costume was actually pretty damned accurate, even including the incredibly heavy jetpack, which caused him intolerable back pains before the morning was over. Taking compassion of him, I put my camera down and began to help him take the jetpack off. The process was very messy, and as soon as I was done, both of us breathing hard (not like THAT, you dirty minds), I turned around and noticed a HUGE camera pointing straight at us. I smiled, waved like a moron and got out of the firing range of the camera, to notice that it had a huge sign on the side which said CELEBRATION II. I asked the cameraman what this was for, and he said it was for the Episode II DVD, so if it is not edited out, in a strange way, I would be co-starring with Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L.Jackson and Ewan McGregor, to name just a few.
Sweet.
I started the non-documentary part of my day by attending a presentation of "Star Wars in 30 minutes", courtesy of USC, which was a magnificent show.
I attempted to get Carrie Fisher’s autograph for about 3 seconds, until I realized just how ridiculously long the line was and said "fuck it". I headed out to the other autograph booths, which had more reasonable lines, but still, Jeremy Bulloch, David Prowse and Kenny Baker were practically out of the question as soon as you realized the sheer volume of geeks waiting for them. So I decided I would get some of the lesser known actor’s autographs instead.
Phillip Brown (Owen Lars, in the original trilogy) was very nice, although he seemed to be in a lot of pain while writing my autograph, which kind of made me feel shitty for asking him. Michael Carter (Bib Fortuna, ROTJ) was very charming, and even added an amusing quote about my name ("Ray? He’s no Jedi!"). I felt very special until I realized he did the same thing with pretty much every other freaking autograph he wrote in the convention, and quite possibly, in his life. I also acquired Ken Colley’s autograph. He played Admiral Piett, one of the few imperial officers that knew how to keep Vader happy. I found a way to sneak into the Billy Dee Williams line and soon enough, I had my Lando Calrissian autograph, even though the dude behaved like a royal ass with a little kid who was standing behind me for not pulling out his Return of the Jedi poster faster. Finally, I asked for Bonnie Maree Piesse’s autograph. She plays Beru Whitesun in Episode II, and she was simply adorable. Another kind soul was Paul Blake (Greedo), who facilitated a free signature in an action figure for a guy who was feeling really down because he didn’t get to the autograph stand in time before they ceased to sell coupons. Mr. Blake was really nice about everything, and we were all grateful to him.
After hunting for autographs, I went back to my hotel to get some rest and be ready for the Star Wars 25th Anniversary concert. On my way back, I met Warwick Davies, who was having a bite in a Subway at the Hyatt. I took my picture with him and shook his hand. We discussed Willow, which was a tricky thing to do, since I have never seen the film. Go figure, he didn’t even notice.
At the 25th anniversary concert, emotions were running high. People were psyched, even while the Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis was simply fine-tuning their instruments. While we waited in our seats, a fan that could pass for George Lucas’ twin brother showed up dressed in rebel pilot gear, making him look amusingly like the Jorg Sacul action figure. He was cheered, and he enjoyed it, waving his hands like a madman in signs of triumph.
The concert itself was amazing. The orchestra played many well loved pieces of Star Wars music, including the main title theme from A New Hope, the Imperial March and the theme of the Force, just to name a few. To perform Duel of the Fates, the philharmonic was joined onstage by the Circle City Chorus, who did an excellent job with it. The only instance where I felt the music didn’t live up to its potential was when the orchestra and chorus did the end credits music for The Phantom Menace, since it lacked most of its punch and energy. Ending with the throne room music from A New Hope and continuing to the end credits music was a great decision, and one that was welcomed by the fans. Sorely missed was the love theme from Attack of the Clones, "Across the Stars".
Sunday May 5th 2002.
The last day of the convention. You could hear fans everywhere complaining about how tired they felt and how badly their feet hurt from standing in line for most of the time, but spirits were not tampered by the exhaustion, for there was still life in the hallways of the Indiana Convention Center, and it was mainly fueled by the desire of enjoying the last day of the Celebration to it’s fullest.
First of all, I made a quick stop at the Star Wars prop exhibition. In it, I saw the huge life-sized version of Obi-Wan’s Jedi starfighter from Episode II, which was actually used in the film. Inside the small room, I saw a couple of Amidala’s gowns, one from Episode I (the geisha-looking one that she wears in Palpatine’s office.) and one from Episode II (the one she wears when she says "I do not like this idea of hiding" in the trailers). There was also a Darth Vader helmet used in the original trilogy, some Tusken Raider costumes from Episode II (a man, a woman and a child), and Owen Lars’ speeder bike from Episode II (the one Anakin is riding against the sunset in the trailers). They also had Anakin’s costume, which was worn by Hayden Christensen during the production. The main star of the whole show was Jango Fett’s costume, which was pretty nicely showcased, and in favorable light that made it look menacing as hell, even though there was no one inside.
After that visit (which lasted 10 minutes, tops) I headed out to the Exhibit Hall where all the collector’s and autograph boots were. On this day, I mainly focused on speaking to some of the people I hadn’t had a chance to harass in the previous days. My first victim was stunt coordinator Nick Gillard, who was walking discretely through the Exhibit Hall, trying to go unnoticed, but clever chap that I am, I spotted him immediately. The fact that he was wearing his VIP badge helped a bit too. I went up to him and we spoke for a few minutes, mainly about the convention, since he had a lot of questions. He talked briefly about the fighting styles in Episode II, mostly giving monosyllabic responses to the styles of specific characters. The way I seem to remember it, he described Mace Windu’s style as "efficient", Obi-Wan’s as "confident", Anakin’s as "aggressive" (or it might have been "impulsive"…sorry, my memory is failing me on this one) and when I asked about Yoda he smiled and said "you wouldn’t want me to spoil that, would you?".
My next victim was R.A. Salvatore, who I saw as he approached the booth where he was signing autographs. I barely recognized him from the picture in the back cover of the Attack of the Clones novelization, since his hair was shorter and it framed his face differently. I shook hands with him, but he didn’t have much time to talk to me. And I can totally respect that.
Fucking punk.
Seriously though, he was pretty polite and cool, even though he did sort of send me to screw myself. I also had a chance to have a conversation with Bonnie Piesse (Beru Whitesun in Episode II, in case you already forgot), who was very cool and even made time for me to talk to her while she was singing autographs. I begun to pimp my screenplay (like I usually do with anyone who has ears and is willing to listen) and to my surprise, she seemed to be very interested, asking a lot of questions and even urging me to elaborate on some of the plot points so she could understand them better. Sure, she was probably just being nice, but it made my day. As I saw her autograph line increasing, I thought I’d say goodbye, because it is always good to quit while you’re ahead. I am a firm believer in the idea that it usually is just a matter of time before people say something stupid, so I said goodbye, excused myself, and she wrote the address of her agent in a yellow legal pad I had and encouraged me to send her a copy of my screenplay. She also gave me a free picture, with her autograph and a really cool message for me in it that I will not reveal here. If you hear one guy clapping when Beru Whitesun makes her appearance in Episode II, it’ll most definitely be me.
And in this high note, and keeping with the notion of quitting while I was ahead, I left the Indiana Convention Center. The day ended relatively early, and by 5:00pm, the Star Wars Celebration II was officially over.
Little did I know that another souvenir awaited me that very day. Since I blew tremendous amounts of cash in plane tickets, passes and whatnot, I was kind of short of money, so I went to McDonald’s to get something to eat out of sheer necessity, and bought an iced tea while I decided what kind of shitty burger I wanted. To my surprise, Anthony Daniels walked in with a few people. I didn’t want to bother him while he was eating, but he noticed me watching him, and he looked down to see the numerous Celebration badges still hanging from my neck and walked over to me, introducing himself, asking how I liked the event. I said I enjoyed it and we had a couple of minutes of small talk (well, it was mostly me being a geeky fanboy) and then he asked me for a sip of iced tea, which I gave him. He then smiled and said "no, it’s not poisoned. You can keep drinking it", shook my hand and walked away. The joke was lame, but the gesture was pretty cool.
I can’t wait for Celebration III. I have a few valuable recommendations, which I will now pass on to you, in case you ever find yourself in situations similar to mine.
1) See Star Wars on digital.
2) If you’re a screenwriter, ALWAYS have a spare copy with you, especially if you’re going to be surrounded by actors.
3) And finally, whenever you hear some silly geek talking about Lucas giving the directorial reigns of the Star Wars saga to Peter Jackson, or Bruce Campbell or Sarah Michelle Gellar, or someone who wouldn’t "rape their childhood", just nod silently, ignore them, and quietly watch them shut the fuck up once they witness the sheer visual beauty of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Now get in line. Something tells me the best of Star Wars is yet to come.
