The Making of "Attack of the Clones"

“General Kenobi, Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars; now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire.” ~Leia Organa

The Clone Wars were first mentioned in the original Star Wars, so when the prequels came out, fans expected to see them. It wasn’t immediately clear to every fan that the “Clone Wars”  involved actual clones, because we had never seen any characters in the original trilogy or "Phantom Menace" that were clones. There were stormtrooopers, but we never saw under their helmets and their voices were different. However, if you dive into abandoned Star Wars scripts, it is obvious that Lucas had always toyed with the idea of bringing cloning into the films.

Empire Strikes Back concept art

In the original draft of Empire Strikes back, for instance, Lando Calirissian is a clone. He can trace his clone heritage back five generations. Another interesting element in this draft are the native inhabitants of cloud city. They are described as tall, white-skinned creatures that ride on manta rays and use darts as weapons. These elements would later be recycled and used in “Attack of the Clones” as the basis for the inhabitants of Kamino.

In the end Lucas decided that the human template for the clones in his film would be Jango Fett (father of Boba Fett).The name of this character changes from draft to draft, sometimes it is J’mee and sometimes Ambu, but eventually Jango was the name Lucas chose. It is reminiscent of the 1966 Spaghetti Western “Django” (which was also the inspiration for Tarantino’s “Djano Unchained”)

Jango is played by New Zealander, Temuera Morrison. Because principal photography took place in 20^th Century Fox studios in Australia, basically any new character in the film is portrayed by Australian or New Zealand actors. This includes Jango Fett, Boba Fett, the Kaminoians, Zam Wessel, and the entire Lars family.

         

It's all Obi-Wan's fault! He's jealous! He's holding me back!

  One newcomer who doesn’t happen to be from Downunder is Hayden Christianson, who was cast to play Anakin Skywalker (age 19). Though over 1,500 other actors auditioned for the part (including Leo DiCaprio & Ryan Phillipe), Hayden was selected for his chemistry with actress Natalie Portman (apparently Lucas sees something the rest of us do not).

            Another actor added to the cast was film legend Christopher Lee. The character of Count Dooku seems to have been tailor-made for Lee, who became famous for his portrayal of Dracula in several films from the 50s through the 70s. Lee also holds the world record for the most swordfights in films, so it is fitting that his climactic scene in ‘Clones’ included a light saber duel with Jedi master Yoda. Although Lee was almost 80 at the time, he was able to do many of the scenes on his own, with a stunt actor hired for the more intensive work.

Yoda also had to perform his own stunts for the film and therefore could no longer be portrayed by a puppet. For the first time Yoda would be computer generated and the CG version looks much closer to the original trilogy puppet than it does to the botched Phantom Menace puppet.

Another Jedi who saw more action during this film is Mace Windu, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Since Windu would use a lightsaber in “Clones”, Jackson wanted his lightsaber to be different than the other Jedi. It was Jackson who requested that his saber be purple and Lucas agreed. There is also a rumor that Jackson had “B.A.M.F.” engraved into the hilt (if you don’t know what B.A.M.F. stands for, refer to the wallet scene in "Pulp Fiction").

Well, this is awkward...

In the end, “Attack of the Clones” serves as a much better Star Wars film than its prequel predecessor.  It is full of interesting characters, strange alien planets, bounty hunters, and light saber duels with actual dialogue between the actors. Sure, the romance between Anakin & Padme is uncomfortable and horribly written, but fans can look past that. If the film achieves nothing else, it gives Star Wars fans a glimpse of what the “Clone Wars” were and how they laid the seeds for the Evil Galactic Empire. Maybe that’s a romantic idea in and of itself.

Next Time on "Road to Episode VII":

We take a look at "Clone War"

Magnoliafan's fan-edit of Episode II!