Galactic News

Friday November 30, 2001
Homing Beacon #49

The latest Homing Beacon has arrived and Writer/Director George Lucas says: "We hit the milestone!" Industrial Light & Magic has recently completed their 1,000th shot on Attack the Clones, marking the halfway point in the post-production road.

"The tendency with other movies is to do the big push at the very end," says Lucas. "It's like a term paper -- you study, you work, you do your research, and you keep putting off the actual writing until it's almost too late. What we've done is gotten half the term paper already written way early, so we have plenty of time to do rewrites and finish the project and have the opportunity to make changes and improve it. It's a great thing to be on schedule."

Even with so much already behind them, Episode II is still months away from completion. "Everybody's done just a really great job of staying on schedule and keeping their heads down and really working hard to meet these milestones," says Lucas. Of the effects work specifically, he adds, "Because the most difficult part and the most complicated shots are yet to come."

Jedi Power