Episode II: Attack of the Clones
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Actor Joel Edgerton has signed on for the role of a young Owen Lars, Luke Skywalker's uncle last seen on Tatooine as a burning cinder. For a young actor, Edgerton has a large body of work on the theatrical stage having played King Henry in Henry V, Prince Hal in Henry III, and others including Road, Blackrock, Third World Blues, and Dead White Males. His work also includes television projects such as The Three Stooges telemovie, The Secret Life of Us and Saturn's Return as well as the feature films Praise, Erskinville Kings, Dogwatch and Sample People. (SuperShadow: Owen is a very funny character in the Episode 2 script.)

E! Online reports that: Episode 2, the first installment in the Star Wars saga to go all-digital, is scheduled to wrap up in August in Australia before moving on to a month of shooting on location in Italy and Tunisia. Monday's big day began with Lucas returning to a blue screen-filled set from Episode I shooting scenes with actor Ian McDiarmid (reprising his role as the conniving Senator Palpatine), which take place in the senator's apartment on the Republic's capital world of Coruscant. An update regarding the first day of Episode 2 shooting has been posted on starwars.com. Spirits were high despite the hectic pace of a very busy work schedule on the first day of shooting for Episode II. It was three years ago, to the day, that Episode I began shooting on June 26, 1997.

One of the first scenes shot that day involved Senator Palpatine in his apartment on Coruscant. Three years later, Ian McDiarmid reprised his role as Palpatine and a blue screen-filled set once again became the Republic's capital world. Some of Episode 2's cast and crew took a moment to comment on how the first day of filming went: · Editor Ben Burtt: "The thrill for me today was seeing C-3PO reborn. I got to put the faceplate on Anthony Daniels. The character suddenly came alive." · Director George Lucas: "It's hard for me to remember if I'm still shooting Episode I, the Special Edition, the DVD, or Episode II." · Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks), commenting on the dominant color on the set: "It's still very blue!"

The starwars.com sent out Homing Beacon # 13. Included in the e-mail is a short interview with Episode 2 co-writer Jonathan Hales: Hales is the co-screenwriter for the second chapter in the Star Wars saga, a role he finds both exhilarating and daunting. "My personal goal was to make it the best screenplay that ever was, so that it will be the best movie that ever was. You just do your very best," Hales explains of his approach. "I tried to forget, in a way, that it was Star Wars, in a sense that I didn’t want to think ‘Oh my God, there is a world out there waiting to see this stuff.’ I just tried to concentrate on it and what it was, and forget about that terrifying dimension that’s out there." Episode 2 will add to the Star Wars saga, says Hales, but not just in the form of new characters, aliens, droids and locales. "It will add political complexity," explains Hales, "but it will also add an interesting and a fascinating love story." Hales is scheduled to depart for Australia soon, to meet up with director George Lucas, who is currently filming there. "He and I will sit down and he’ll tell me what more thoughts he’s had about the screenplay, and I will tidy that up," explains Hales. "I shall only be there for a couple of weeks, anyway. There’s nothing more useless than a writer on a soundstage," he adds dryly. (SuperShadow: Hale greatly improved the Episode 2 dialogue.)

A current rumor regarding Episode 2 is that there'll be a whole slew of bounty-hunter characters in the next prequel. Hayden Christensen topped the Entertainment Weekly "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment" list. Christensen names the Simpsons and Curious George as his biggest influences. "They showed me it was okay to be mischievous," he told the magazine. For unlikely inspiration, he credits the drug addicts who hung out near his old Vancouver apartment as helping him get in touch with the druggie teen character he played on the TV series Higher Ground. Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes is set for a cameo role in the new Star Wars move. He will reportedly play a bounty hunter in the film, production of which started yesterday in Sydney. "It probably won’t be a speaking part but he was just desperate to do anything to get in the movie," a source said.

IGN posted an article regarding the new Episode-2 cast members announced on the official site on Friday. Rounding out the recent Episode 2 announcements are Daniel Logan and Joel Edgerton. Daniel Logan is a 13-year old who has appeared in several commercials and an episode of Hercules. Lucasfilm describes his role as that of "a mysterious young boy" without any further details, which certainly lends itself to all kinds of speculation. Could he too have a high midichlorian count? Will Anakin snuff him out as a potential rival? Only time will tell. The announcement has been made that Episode II will be shot digitally.

Does this mean smaller movie theaters will be unable to screen the film when it is released?

For The Phantom Menace, nearly all the live action was shot on film, then digitized into a computer and then all of the final shots were taken from the computer and output on to standard 35mm film that can be played in any movie theater. When we shoot Episode II digitally, we're just skipping the first step of digitizing. We're still going to provide an end product on traditional film just like any other major motion picture. On Episode I, we did do a small trial showing of the film using digital projectors where no film was involved at all. We hope that Episode II will be projected digitally on an even wider basis and that by 2005 the industry will be ready for even wider digital distribution in some form. In the mean time, shipping on film is still a reality.

At launch-time, the Episode II section mainly featured the Anakin announcement, and a recap of other production updates of the past few months. The crew and cast sections, however, remained blank, with just the tantalizing promise of "coming soon".

Expect that to change in the days to come. While details are being finalized, we can confirm at least two more returning favorites to the cast of Episode II.

Ian McDiarmid will again reprise his role of Palpatine, which he played in both Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. When last seen in Episode I, Palpatine had achieved the political rank of Supreme Chancellor, on his dark and twisted road of eventually becoming Emperor.

The fussy protocol droid C-3PO wouldn't be the same without Anthony Daniels returning to the cast. Daniels is a veteran of all four Star Wars movies, and has performed Threepio in the Star Wars radio dramas and the animated Droids cartoon series.

Two key crewmembers from Industrial Light & Magic recently began preliminary work on Episode II. Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll oversaw the space battle and high-speed Podrace in Episode I. Animation Director Rob Coleman led the team that created such digital marvels as Jar Jar Binks, Watto and Sebulba for The Phantom Menace.