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Feel The Force

Long ago, but not far away at all, Star Wars zoomed into American movie theaters. In 1977 audiences first met Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and the dark-masked, heavy-breathing Darth Vader. They fell in love with chirpy robots R2-D2 and C3PO. The movie's strange, distant worlds and oddball aliens caught on at hyperspeed. Fans also flocked to its sequels: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The films made nearly $2 billion in theaters around the world and even more in toy sales. Devoted followers couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

Instead, after a 16-year break, the films' creator, George Lucas, decided to take fans back in time before Star Wars. This summer's Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace takes place 30 years before Luke met his long-lost twin Leia. It features their mother, the glamorous Queen Amidala, whose kingdom is threatened by the evil, seven-horned warrior Darth Maul. The twins' father, big, bad Vader, is nothing but an angel-faced slave kid, Anakin Skywalker. He shows signs of the Force, a mysterious energy that Jedi knights control.

A Special-effects Dream
When crew members first saw Lucas' plans for the film, they had one thought: "How are we going to do this?" says visual-effects supervisor John Knoll. No film has ever called for so many special effects--nearly four times as many as Titanic. "It was kind of scary."

Lucas was always frustrated in the early years of his series that technology would not let him make the Star Wars films look the way he envisioned them. This time, technology seems to have caught up to Lucas' brain. Many of the sets where the live actors worked were built just up to the tops of their heads. The rest was finished with computer artwork.

Lucas' cyberartists painted a golden underwater city, scores of droids and an army of frog-faced Naboo warriors. Iain McCaig, a children's book illustrator, designed the red-and-black face of evil--Darth Maul--by drawing his worst childhood nightmare.

All together, the film's creators made three new worlds, more than 140 aliens, squadrons of sleek new vehicles (Podracers and Naboo starfighters) and 1,200 costumes, not to mention Queen Amidala's outrageous outfits, hairdos and makeup. The film cost more than $115 million and took four years to make.

May Tickets Be With You
How badly do fans want to see this movie? Some decided to line up early for tickets--two months before the film opens on May 19! Many of them have already read every detail of the script on the Internet, where there are hundreds of websites devoted to the film.

Toy stores are ready for the rush. Hasbro will release 100 new action figures, plus other toys, based on the film. Toy-industry experts say Phantom Menace toys will probably make Hasbro the biggest toy company of all (right now, it's second to Mattel). Because Hasbro will make the toys for Episodes II and III, the company is expected to earn $5 billion from Star Wars toys in the next 10 years.

George Lucas makes no apologies for selling Star Wars toys. He says the films' themes of good and evil are important for kids to think about, even when they play. "Star Wars does allow young people to use their imagination," he says. Lucas has three kids. He hopes his films will help young people see that choosing good over evil every day makes them heroic: "Heroes come in all sizes," he says. "You can be a very small hero."

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The Boy Who Will Be Darth
On May 19, Jake Lloyd, 10, will breathe a sigh of relief. Millions of fans will see him as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode 1--The Phantom Menace. But even more important, Jake will be able to talk about the film. Kids have begged him to reveal the plot, but he promised the producers he wouldn't.

"If kids keep asking me over and over, I'll just make up the fakest story I can," Jake told TFK. "I tell them the plot of a movie I saw on the Sci-Fi Channel."

Even when Jake tried out for the part, he couldn't tell his friends. His final audition was on his birthday, so he had to delay his party. "Everyone thought my mom was horrible for making me work on my birthday," says the fourth-grader from California. "They didn't know that I wasn't working. I was doing something that I loved."

Parts of The Phantom Menace will surprise Jake too. He hasn't seen the final film with all its amazing special effects. "I want to wait to see it with the crew," he says. "That's the best time to see it, with all the friends who helped me."

Next: A Plan to Keep Guns from Kids