Good to be out of "carbonite freeze"... I've been able to go on a few trooping events with my 501st costume (we'll call it my "covert ops" gear ) Meanwhile, there is another Krickhan who got to do something really cool...

Besides getting inside Villa del Balbianello... whereas it was closed the day I was in Lake Como. (yeah, still catching hell from her on that one)

My sister Emily just started graduate school over in England and in her first days on campus learned that the university was going to have a guest speaker from a stunt man who'd worked on "The Phantom Menace." The following is Emily's recount of the event.

So the guy's name was Andreas Petrides, stunt double for Ewan in TPM although he was originally just signed on to be a "co-stunt coordinator." Petrides has been in over 500 projects - 370 TV shows and 89 movies. But the one everyone was there for was (duh) Star Wars! He took part in a few of the fights although not always just as Ewan's stunt double.

Petrides went to Tunisia with the cast/crew and had a few candid pictures in his powerpoint (sadly I doubt you can find them on line and we weren't allowed to take pictures during the presentation). Petrides helped out with the Tatooine fight with Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. He's in a lot of the training videos and production photographs with Ray Park leading up to filming. Actually, if it isn't Ray, Nick, Ewan, or Liam...it more than likely is going to be him. So he was really disgruntled about the "powers that be" fix to the script of the original Tatooine fight! (duh he choreographed it).

Also the death of Maul was completely different. He had a few videos of practices: some I've seen before and some I haven't (too bad for you ). One that I hadn't seen before was a mock fight at the end of the FInal Battle duel: a lot more fighting, A LOT more moves! Ray did a lot more twirls and wushu moves as well as physical hits between Obi-Wan and Maul. But the real big difference was instead of force pushing Obi-Wan right over the ledge and just toying with him before the big leap, Maul either threw Obi-wan or force pushed him over the ledge but kept a hand on him on his collar...dangling him? And after a quick struggle Obi-wan snatched his lightsaber and cut off Maul's head (not at the torso). However, George apparently thought that was "too much" and they edited the fight. Again, Andreas wasn't happy how much was cut out of the end fight...or how much he was cut back and forth within the final battles. Did I mention he was the Naboo Security guard (directly behind Natalie) with Padme as she blasted the window on the throne room level?

So let's start with costumes shall we? The pouches on Obi-wan's outfit...HATED them! The pouches used on set were made of fiberglass, so when Darth Maul force pushes him back or even if Obi-wan is meant to fall back, the costume department had a lot of crushed pouches on their hands. Also the robes...HATED THEM! Petrides was the Jar Jar Binks double for the underwater swimming scene and talked about how much Ewan and Liam could hardly move around once the sleeves got wet. As far as the boots: Ray's weren't comfortable during his jumping takes in the desert, Ewan had a little bit of a heel to get closer to Liam's "gigantic" 6'4" height, AND Andreas is even shorter than Ewan... which meant even HIGHER heels in those darn boots.

Lightsabers!!!

We all know they went through lightsaber props like no other! Petrides brought with him a gun rack of lightsabers from his attics that were from the Episode I set (I wish!) and he showed us the variations: an Obi-Wan with all the nobs and buttons, one for "practice", a Qui-gon for practice, an Obi-Wan snapped in two, a toy Maul (to show the buttons), a practice saber for Maul, and three "new versions of lightsabers". Some of the hilts were made out of fiberglass, which did snap in two from fighting (not just the rods). The lightsaber props from the movies, according to Petrides, are so "brittle" now that we couldn't actually touch them. You can see the rod inside Qui-gon's; it was like a rod within a rod.

That didn't stop the sabers from bending like crazy when they were practicing. Petrides hated that...how fragile the lightsaber props were. Every take or practice take, they would have to switch out new props. The lightsaber part also couldn't be detached from the hilt. The other three in the rack were "newer" sabers. Two he used for demonstration. and the third was also his ideal practice saber. It was a rubber hilt with a plastic saber. "Never breaks and it never bends" said Petrides.

Some interesting trivia: Darth Maul's lightsaber was originally made from Mace Windu's Episode 1 lightsaber (when his lightsaber blade was blue... for you fans of "Jedi Power Battles") just doubled up and with an extension in the middle. This explains why there are so many buttons on the Maul double-bladed lightsaber, when there really shouldn't be. Andreas recalls that they only noticed the mistake when the movie was just coming out. The Maul lightsaber should have just two buttons like all the rest... but oops!

Nice work "Snips"

From talking to her via webcam about this guy's recount of his days on the TPM set, a couple things stood out in my mind. First off, we both laughed at how many of our fellow SW costumers obsess over the NEED for some of the smallest details in the jedi costume... yet when ya hear the actors and stunt people who wore the real things HATED them, you begin to wonder how important it is to be totally "canon." Many of these props were made to last for a couple minutes/hours of filming (at best) and here there are fans who expect us ALL to have 100% "screen accurate" replicas of those same props that have to withstand the abuse of parades, concerts, and all the other public events we do on a regular basis. One of the reasons I have NO problem carrying an FX lightsaber when I dress as a jedi... it may not be 100% "screen accurate" but the thing can take a hit!

Meanwhile, there has been TONS of news and events going on here in Ohio regarding Rebel Legion and the breakup and rebranding of Midwest Base, I'll try and blog more on that later as my "legal team" tries to recuse me from Detention Block AA23. So until then...

IN-5562 standing by... that just sounds "wrong"