Star Wars III

The third Star Wars film, "Revenge of the Jedi", started filming in London last January, and has continued in Arizona and Oregon. I don't know when principal photography will be done (it's pretty irrelevant considering the effects work goes on until a couple of months before release), but the release date is in late May of next year. The plan is to make 9 Star Wars films altogther, of which the first three are chronologically the fourth, fifth and sixth (in fact, the film we all know and love as Star Wars is now officially Star Wars IV: The New Hope. The nine films will ultimately form three trilogies, each film to come out at three-year intervals. Revenge is being filmed from a script by Larry Kasden (Body Heat, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Empire Strikes Back, Continental Divide) with story by (who else?) George Lucas. The director is Richard Marquand (Eye of the Needle) with special effects again by Industrial Light and Magic. Budgeted at $32 million (the original and sequel cost $10M and $23M respectively), it may safely be assumed that it will turn a profit.

Steve