How long is episode 1 star wars

According to Howard, Lucas didn't necessarily want to direct Episode I. He further commented that all three directors turned down the position as the film was Lucas's "baby. Shooting took place from June 26 to September 30 , The podrace was filmed in a canyon near Sidi Bouhlel and Oung Jmel. Studio work was mainly done at Leavesden Studios in the United Kingdom.

Unlike the latter two films in the series which were shot on digital video , most of this film was shot in 35 mm, with a few scenes shot in digital video. This episode was also the first of the saga to be referred to primarily by its number Episode One by media and fans, to contrast it with the original trilogy the public already knew. The Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars film in 16 years.

As a result, there was almost unprecedented interest amongst both fans and the wider public in the revival of the franchise. Few film studios released films during the same week as the release of The Phantom Menace ; among the more courageous were DreamWorks and Universal Studios , with the releases of The Love Letter and Notting Hill respectively.

The Wall Street Journal reported that such a large number of workers announced plans to view premiere screenings that many companies shut down on the premiere day. More theater lines appeared when it was announced that cinemas were not allowed to sell tickets in advance until two weeks into the release. This was done out of fear that family theater-goers would either be unable to receive tickets or would be forced to pay higher prices.

Tickets were instead to be sold on a traditional first-come-first-serve basis. The same tradition followed months later when the theatrical trailer was featured in front of Wing Commander. Despite worries about whether the film would be finished in time, two weeks prior to its debut Lucasfilm pushed the release date up from May 21 to May 19 of At the ShoWest Convention, Lucas stated that the change was to give the fans a "head start" by allowing them to view it over the week and allowing families the chance to view on the weekends.

In a nod toward his future with digital technology, Lucas stated that the film would be released on four digital projectors on June 18 , Two separate soundtracks were released for The Phantom Menace. One, a traditional soundtrack, contained seventeen tracks selected from the movie.

The second, an Ultimate Collector's Edition Soundtrack, compiled sixty-eight tracks of music, including several pieces that did not make it in to the final cut of the film. During the credits at the end of the film, young Anakin's theme is heard playing, but during the last moments of the film, this theme morphs into the first few notes of the Darth Vader theme during the Imperial March , and, as the last logos of THX are scrolling by, three rasping breaths from Vader's respirator can be heard, referencing Anakin's eventual change into Darth Vader.

A novelization of the movie was written by Terry Brooks. It includes three entire chapters of material created by Brooks and unique to the novel. The first two chapters of the book concern Anakin's next-to-last podrace and its aftermath, while a later chapter describes an encounter between Anakin and a wounded Tusken Raider in the desert.

Brooks met with Lucas before writing the book and received his approval and guidance, including information about developments to come in Episodes II and III. The novelization is especially well known for a passage describing the history of the Sith, including Darth Bane. According to Terry Brooks's memoir, Sometimes the Magic Works , Lucas spent an hour on the telephone with him discussing the history of the Jedi and the Sith.

Therefore, the information on this subject provided in Brooks's novelization might derive from Lucas himself. The novelization is also the first mention of the Stark Hyperspace War. Brooks devotes an entire chapter of Sometimes the Magic Works to the writing of the Episode I novelization, which he claims to have been an extremely happy and fulfilling experience.

The film was first released on VHS on April 4, There was a normal fullscreen release, and a widescreen collector's box set. It includes seven deleted scenes completed specifically for the DVD, and The Beginning: Making Episode I , an hour-long documentary film drawn from more than hours of footage, including an insider's look at Lucasfilm and ILM during the production.

The viewer can access a multi-angle storyboard-to-animatic-to-film segment featuring the submarine and podrace lap 1 sequences. The DVD includes two documentary sources, five featurettes exploring the storyline, design, costumes, visual effects, and fight sequences in the film, and an award-winning twelve-part web documentary series chronicling the production.

The final special features included are a never-before-seen production photo gallery with a special caption feature, theatrical posters and print campaigns from around the world, a theatrical teaser and launch trailers, seven TV spots, Star Wars: Starfighter - The Making of a Game featurette from LucasArts , and a DVD-ROM weblink to exclusive Star Wars content. At the DVD press conference for Revenge of the Sith , prequel trilogy animation director Rob Coleman confirmed that the animation department at Lucasfilm had replaced the Yoda puppet from the original version of the film with a digital Yoda.

This was done to better match up the look of the Yoda from The Phantom Menace with that of the other two films of the prequel trilogy, as well as with the Yoda from the original trilogy.

This change has been, for the most part, welcomed by fans, in contrast to the original puppet Yoda as seen in The Phantom Menace. The clip is included as part of "The Chosen One" featurette. However, when Coleman announced the change, he didn't specify when the revised version of The Phantom Menace would be released.

Fox was also to retain theatrical, nontheatrical, and home video rights worldwide for the franchise's five subsequent films, which Lucasfilm produced and financed independently, through May , at which time ownership was to transfer to Disney. This complex relationship between Fox and Disney, particularly in regards to Fox's perpetual rights to Episode IV, was to create an obstacle for any future boxed set comprising all nine films.

On September 28 , , StarWars. Critical and fan reaction ranged from high praise to outright derision. The much-hyped special effects, while generally viewed as groundbreaking in their sheer scope, were perhaps less impressive than anticipated simply because of high expectations. This attitude was confirmed with the rival film, The Matrix , winning the visual effects Academy Award for that year over The Phantom Menace.

It was the first time a Star Wars film lost in that Oscar competition category. Many critics heavily criticized the acting of Natalie Portman and especially Jake Lloyd as the young Anakin Skywalker. Some aspects of the scripting and direction were also criticized. Extra venom was directed at the character of Jar Jar Binks , who was regarded by some fans as purely a merchandising opportunity rather than a serious character in the film. Fan reaction was mixed too, with some fans praising the film while others having a negative opinion of it.

However, despite some of the negative criticisms leveled at the film, many others gave praise to The Phantom Menace. William Arnold, of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , commented that the massive of hype of the film may have caused much of the negative reaction to the film, saying "it built expectations that can't possibly be matched and scuttled element of storytelling surprise. Wookieepedia Explore. Star Wars. Clone Wars Droids Ewoks.

Administrators' noticeboard IRC Discord. Tutorials Editing sandbox Things to do Status article nominations Featured article nominations Good article nominations Comprehensive article nominations. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Action Adventure Fantasy Sci-Fi. Did you know Edit. Trivia Liam Neeson was so eager to be in the film that he signed on without having read the script.

Goofs Some naturalists have stated that Watto's wings weren't big enough to lift his body in flight. George Lucas explains that Watto's digestive system filled his rotund belly with helium, making Watto a blimp, not a bird. Crazy credits Jabba The Hutt - Himself. Alternate versions The Blu-ray version replaces the Yoda puppet with a computer generated Yoda. User reviews 3. Top review. A solid but flawed addition to the Star Wars Saga.

Well, after waiting 16 years for his next installment, George has given us "The Phantom Menace". As a Star Wars fan I got what I expected - another chance to immerse myself in the Star Wars universe - a film whose sole purpose is essentially escapism.

But as a movie fan, and judging it as I would any other movie, I frankly feel mildly disappointed. Firstly the good points : 1 The visuals are stunning - a lot of love and hard work has quite obviously gone into the effects and the people involved can quite rightly be proud of their work 2 All the performances by the main cast were good.

Particularly Natalie Portman and Pernilla August. The Star Wars saga would lose much of its charm and intensity without Williams' scores. And now the negatives : 1 The pacing was too fast in parts! The first half hour of the film just left me cold - you weren't led into the story. You were dumped straight into the action. On paper I'm sure the first half hour looked fantastic but I found myself sitting in the theatre going - 'hey, great special effect shot there!

I finally got a chance to get to know the characters. However there still was not enough character development in the film as a whole. For example, Obi Wan had nothing to do or say throughout the movie except flash his light sabre around from time-to-time. Who is Obi Wan??? After seeing the film I'm none the wiser.

And the final sabre duel good as it was would have been infinitely better had the relationship between Qui-Gon and Obi Wan been explored past the mere mentor-apprentice motif. The final sabre duel lacked emotional involvement as a consequence. I found myself becoming annoyed at having to strain to understand his nonsensical utterings! Having said that, he wasn't as annoying as I'd been led to expect Why George used easily identifiable racial accents for his alien characters completely puzzled me.

It just shows a lack of imagination! Was that necessary? The first three films pointed to links between the Force and genetics but I don't need tiresome cold scientific explanations as to the Force's origin, thank you very much! More Gaming News ». More ESports News ». More Food News ». More Dog News ». View all Lifestyle Sites. More Music News ». More FS Music News ». View all Music Sites.

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