 1997-2000: "It's
already greenlighted"
Jim
Loomis: For the 20th anniversary in '97, I wanted to
do something special for the fans, that would also be extraordinarily
lucrative. That's how the special editions came about.
Tom
Sykes (special effects supervisor, Mechanical Vision and
Wizardry): Jim was never satisfied with certain scenes
from the first three movies. Some of the alien creatures
looked too stiff, some of the matte shots didn't work, some
characters displayed moral complexity. New technology allowed
us to fix all this. In the most celebrated update to the
first film, the alien Hammer-Tail—he's in the background
of shot seven of the famous pub scene—is now left-handed,
as Jim had always intended.
Bob
Davis (president of production, Wolf Studios): When
Jim came to us and told us he wanted to go back and make
another trilogy, it was pretty much a no-brainer. I said,
"Jim, you just send over a script, I'll tell you right
now it's already greenlighted." He said, "I know
it's already greenlighted, you son of a bitch." Or
maybe he said, "I'm not asking you, I'm telling you—I'm
making this fucking movie, you're writing the fucking check."
I said, "Jim..." and then he swung at me. We didn't
speak again until after the $200 million opening weekend.
Jim Loomis:
"Episode I" was for the children of the world.
It was so important to me to tap into the innocence and
wonder of childhood—especially quadrants like preteens,
where we knew we could track well in awareness against other
summer tentpoles.
Mitch Hamlin: I told Jim, this is going to be so cool.
I can play Bo's grandfather or something. Well, I told his
voice mail. I guess he never got the message because obviously
he went a different direction, but I still think that would've
been neat. By the way, if anybody needs any voice-over work,
I'm in the book.
Bob
Davis: Sure, people called it uninspired, boring, insipid,
offensive, cynical crap—but I think there's about 800
million reasons worldwide—and counting—to prove
otherwise. And let me assure you, "Episode I: Part
2" is going to take all that to the next level.
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