Leavesden, Albums, Wars Stories & Swamp Creatures
Welcome to a look Inside The Holocron. A collection of articles from the archives of *starwars.com that are no longer directly available.
(*Archived here with Permission utilising The Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
The piece revisits One Last Round at Leavesden (August 7, 1998), spotlighting members of the Star Wars: Episode I cast during production at Leavesden Studios. It reflects the era’s energy, the transitional filmmaking moment, and the archival nature of StarWars.com features preserved through the Wayback Machine. The article sits within your curated Holocron collection, offering readers a window into Lucasfilm’s late‑90s production rhythms and the personalities shaping the prequel era.
Additional notes highlight the value of these archived features as cultural snapshots — capturing behind‑the‑scenes camaraderie, studio environments, and the evolving creative processes that defined Episode I’s development. The Holocron framing preserves these pieces as part of a broader historical tapestry, ensuring long‑unavailable StarWars.com material remains accessible for fans and researchers alike.
One Last Round at Leavesden
August 7, 1998
The members of the Lucasfilm Star Wars: Episode I cast and crew team are assembling at Leavesden Studios in England for a round of pick-up shooting. This photography will fill in additional shots or angles needed for the film, based on the development of the rough cut at Skywalker Ranch. Animatics and drawings have stood in for these missing scenes as Martin Smith and George Lucas edit the film and revise it; now these last place-holders will come to life with actors and sets. Producer Rick McCallum originally budgeted three weeks of August pick-ups back in 1997, but the schedule has been cut back to only a week, with additional weeks slated for dialogue recording.
As with the March 1998 pick-ups, www.starwars.com will offer a report from the set. Stay tuned!
The Leavesden Report
August 25, 1998
The August 1998 Star Wars pick-ups at Leavesden Studios have wrapped, completing the filming of new scenes added to the script by George Lucas based on the Episode I rough cut assembled at Skywalker Ranch. The week of shooting re-united an appreciable number of the Episode I cast and crew, including actors Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Ahmed Best, and Hugh Quarshie, among others. The carefully-stored costumes were brought out again, and once more exotic aliens, Jedi masters, and leather-clad soldiers were to be seen at lunch time ordering the fish and chips in the Leavesden canteen, waiting in line with George Lucas and Rick McCallum and the rest of us. It was like we had never left. Between the famous faces and the prosthetic faces and the familiar bemused faces, it was quite the jolly scene. The whole crew was clearly glad to be working together again.
Since only a few sets were needed for these pick-ups, the formerly sprawling Episode I operations at Leavesden were cut down to a manageable size this time, which made logistics easier for everyone. A single old hangar housed a bluescreen stage and the four indoor sets, with part of one exterior set remaining out on the main Leavesden runway. Some bluescreen and exterior shooting took place right outside the hangar and nearby on location. The sets involved were re-assembled from storage for these pick-ups, altered in some cases to create new variations or additional rooms. Spaceship interiors for both “good guys” and “bad guys” were involved in the shooting, as well as locations from planets Coruscant and Tatooine. Anakin’s home, for example, was completely re-assembled and re-dressed for the shoot, returned painstakingly to its original appearance for the new scenes. A special still camera equipped with a ‘fisheye’ lens recorded complete 360-degree views of this and other sets for future projects.
At one point, Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard was teaching an intense sequence of Jedi lightsaber battle choreography to a member of the documentary team on one of the spaceship sets. The opportunity to partake in real Jedi combat was clearly too much to pass up, and the rest of the documentary team soon joined in with extra stunt sabers from Gillard’s armory rack. Our young Anakin Skywalker, Jake Lloyd, lost no time in plunging into the fray with lightsaber-equipped enthusiasm. Wielding two sabers at times, he engaged his opponents with such energy that a concerned Jedi Master might almost suspect Dark Side sympathies. However, Anakin Skywalker has the makings of a fine Jedi and no one is really worried that he would ever fall to the Dark Side. We should mention, however, that the documentary sound recordist left the impromptu battle site nursing blade-smashed fingers, muttering something to the effect that “he practically cut my hand off!” Jake had a strange gleam in his eye and was breathing heavily from the exertion.
With all the new footage from this round of pick-ups ‘in the can,’ Lucas and McCallum are supervising dialogue recording sessions before returning to post-production in the States.
Episode I Preview Album
September 1998
Take a closer look at a few of the new characters in Episode I.
A trio of Theed Palace Guards discuss security measures. In these troubled times, the Queen’s protection needs to be handled more carefully than ever. One single mistake could mean disaster.
A palace guard waits in the standard defensive position taught to all members of the Royal security team. These elite troops are the closest thing to an organized army one can find on the peaceful planet Naboo.
During a hot Tatooine afternoon, a lone astromech droid finds some shade near a vaporator in this quiet area of Mos Espa.
The slave quarters of Mos Espa are heavily populated. During the day – and sometimes even the night – they are empty, because everyone is toiling away for often ungrateful masters.
Those who wish to sell, buy, or trade various wares gather at the Mos Espa marketplace. This stall offers some of the fruits and vegetables grown in the area by moisture farmers.
One of the many nameless faces to be found on the streets of Mos Espa. Friend or foe? These things are hard to tell around here.
A disheveled nine-year-old with blue eyes, Anakin Skywalker is an earnest and hardworking boy who lives in a desert city on Tatooine. A natural mechanic, he has a keen intuition with equipment and machinery. He can sense what makes an engine work. Living in a very humble home, Anakin dreams of becoming a starpilot and longs for a world of adventure. Hopeful and optimistic, this young boy little suspects the destiny and fearful challenges that await him.
The mother of Anakin Skywalker lives in humble circumstances in a Tatooine desert city. Shmi strives to raise Anakin well despite the difficult situation around them.
The legendary Galactic Senate on the capital world of Coruscant gathers representatives from planets throughout the Republic. Senator Palpatine takes a leading place in this elite community, and his voice carries special influence in discussions that will shape the future of the galaxy.
Ric Olie sits at the helm of an exotic spacecraft in the thick of danger. An expert in his field, Ric will pass on important skills to young Anakin Skywalker during the course of the adventures ahead.
With 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker, we face adventure ahead in Episode I – and the discovery of a story’s origins. The family home, high-performance spacecraft, and exotic city streets all return to the screen to build a new journey in the first episode of the new Star Wars movie trilogy.
The all-important family dinner table. Anakin Skywalker and his mother await the hand of destiny in a small, quiet corner of the Star Wars galaxy.
This kitchen should look a little familiar, combining elements of rugged primitive construction with high technology, much as did the desert homestead of Luke Skywalker’s Uncle and Aunt in Star Wars.
Young Anakin’s bedroom, filled with all the spare technology that a young boy in the Star Wars universe could want.
R2-D2 cautiously threads his way through dangerous passersby on his way to an important meeting. A droid has to be careful in rough towns like this one.
Trouble comes in all sizes on the street of Mos Espa in Episode I.
A fighter pilot prepares for launch as a familiar R2 unit monitors ship systems from the droid socket.
This expansive hangar set has already seen a lot of action.
Battle Tank, or Leavesden Defense Operations? Recently the studios were buzzed by a low-flying helicopter. The heavily-armored craft seen here, standing over 12 feet tall, was enough to discourage the uninvited visitor. Many of the props built for Episode I feature practical effects for greater realism, and one never knows what kind of ammo they might be using.
Rick McCallum War Stories
September 14, 1998
PART I
Why do you think you and George work so well together?
I think the reason that he gets along with the people who work well with him — not just me — is that he knows that if he asks you to do something, you will use and exhaust every possibility within the limits of your imagination to make it happen. That you won’t go back to him and say, ‘it can’t be done,’ until you’ve exhausted all those possibilities. I think the thing that George loathes and hates more than anything else is that deer-in-the-headlights look. It’s that fear look, that says, ‘I can’t do this.’ Because a movie, especially one like Star Wars, is such a collaborative process, he’s got to make use of other people, and he has to be able to depend on them absolutely. He knows, at the end of the day, that there’s nothing he’s going to say to us, on any level, that we’re not going to try and do for him.
What do you enjoy, professionally, about working with George?
Film talent is the most irreducibly elusive commodity in the world, because it is collective. Because it is collaborative. Making that collaboration work to produce a good movie is very, very difficult. The biggest problem with a lot of American movies, unlike European movies (which can be just as bad — but at least they’re singular) is that you’ve so often got a group of people whose egos and status concerns are so perceptually alive working on them. That becomes the whole focus, as these people try to convince whoever is in control (which means whoever is giving out the money) that it’s them who makes the difference in the film. So you get a cameraman making one movie, an editor making another movie, a director making a different movie from the writer, costume designer making their own movie, production designer, special effects making their own movie, you’ve got all these people and then suddenly, the writer sees the finished film and it’s nothing to do with what they wrote! But if you get a writer-director, well, then you’re in golden shape. Because you’ve got one voice. And a film has got to have a voice if it’s going to connect with anyone.
Naboo Swamp Creatures of Episode I
September 24, 1998
Wandering through the trees and vines of the Naboo swamp are a few unusual creatures — the turkey-like Nuna and the beautiful blue Peko Peko, two of a menagerie of creatures that will appear in Star Wars: Episode I.
“In creating these creatures we had a lot of freedom because George simply asked us to create realistic swamp creatures like none he’d seen before,” says Doug Chiang, who heads the art department. “The swamp creatures are present for a very short time in the film itself, but they’re very well thought out.” he says.
Artist Terryl Whitlatch developed 50 unique designs that were eventually narrowed to six swamp creatures that will appear in the movie. “George is really good at defining the guidelines of fantastic versus realistic,” Doug says.
Terryl described how the creatures she designs are derived from naturally occurring species. Terryl has a background in vertebrate zoology which has proven invaluable in creating realistic yet amazing creatures. Once final designs are approved, she does detailed colored paintings and skeletal drawings to help ILM bring the creatures to life on the big screen.
Terryl says a key to creating realistic creatures is to think about how they would actually survive in their environment. Are they herbivores or carnivores? How often do they produce offspring? What characteristics do they need to survive life in an Episode I swamp? She says she designs the creatures so that they could potentially survive in our world. “Star Wars is reality made into fantasy by just tweaking reality a bit,” Terryl says.
Terryl is currently helping to extend the Naboo swamp habitat with the Lucas Learning team (who rendered the creature animations for this feature) for an upcoming release.
She describes the Nuna and the Peko Peko in detail: “The Nuna is a funny flightless bird with no neck, but it has long legs so it can crouch down to drink. It runs, or rather waddles, like a turkey. It has short pin feathers and scales along its back. It eats primarily swamp plants but enjoys the occasional frog and has been known to scavenge. The Nuna has a high reproductive rate which is essential for its survival, as it’s a rather tasty bird and is hunted heavily.”
“The Peko Peko is eight feet long from the tip of its beak to the end of its long, beautiful tail. It flies gracefully but has difficulty walking on its short legs. Its look and coloring are developed from the peacock and the hyacinth macaw. I had to think carefully about its diet in order to design its beak, so I designed the Peko Peko with a very powerful jaw with which it cracks large coconut-size nuts. It also has claws on its wings, like the South American hoatzin, which helps the bird to move around in trees.”
Terryl says she’s a little sad when her favorite creatures aren’t chosen for stardom but finds that George is a very good and encouraging editor. Terryl says, “He’s consistent in some strange and interesting way as though all of Star Wars had one designer – it’s like variations on a theme.”
