Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Imagine having to recreate the magic of the greatest franchise in the history of cinema.

Imagine that in 1977 you turned a sci-fi flick with a paltry $11 million budget into the most successful good vs. evil fairytale movie audiences had ever seen.

Imagine that this film and its two sequels grossed the highest box office revenues ever, over-shadowing your whole career and turning your company into the largest independent studio in Hollywood.

You've almost imagined that you're George Lucas. Picture yourself sat in your office at LucasFilm, surrounded by three inch high figures you created 30 years ago.

The box office figures on your desk confirm that the last two movies of the new Star Wars trilogy - which you started making 16 years after completing the original three - stumbled into the all-time takings chart at number five and 17.

Production drawings cover the walls.

Frances Ford Coppola is on the phone suggesting a dialogue coach to beef up the characters' exchanges in the sixth movie in your franchise.

Imagine that for six years you've had to listen to journalists saying that your reliance on CGI has ripped the soul out of the Star Wars series, while fans tell you that Jar-Jar Binks was a joke.

Now imagine it's May 2005 and you're on the eve of joining the circle, of fitting the final piece in the puzzle. Your sixth Jedi flick, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith, segues into the original 1977 movie. The movie that changed your life and became a weight around your neck.

You're nervously sitting in an air-conditioned theatre in Cannes, your words scrolling up the screen towards the stars, John Williams' classic theme thundering out in Dolby.

But, thank the stars, you're not George Lucas. Perhaps you were actually only ten years old when you fell in love with Luke and Leia and Han. Maybe you ran from the cinema making lightsabre noises. And now you're a grown up ten year-old waiting to discover the answer to the question millions of boys and girls have asked for decades: Why is Darth Vader such a bad man?

The weight of expectation must be crushing for the series' creator - it would be easier to levitate an X-wing fighter out of the Dagobah swamp than to live up to expectation of Star Wars fans. No wonder George Lucas is s******* it.

"Like everyone who makes movies, I'm always convinced the next one will be a flop," George says. "So right now I'm thinking it probably won't make any money and will be considered a failure. It turned out as well as I could have hoped.

"I have a feeling this one is going to be sort of like the last one in terms of some people like it, some people hate it."

But perhaps this time around George can relax. Despite being the first of the six movies to get a 12A certificate, annoying parents whose children may not be old enough to see it, reaction to preview screenings in the US has been overwhelmingly positive. When George's friend Steven Spielberg saw Revenge Of The Sith, he cried. "It's the best of the last three episodes," Spielberg says. "It has a tremendous ending and it's very dark. You'll cry at the end. It's wonderful."

Revenge Of The Sith opens on Thursday at the Odeon, West Street and at the UGC, Brighton Marina. The film picks up three years after the Battle of Geonosis at the end of Episode II - Attack Of The Clones. As the Clone Wars are coming to a close, the corrupt Chancellor Palpatine proclaims himself Emperor and, with Anakin Skywalker's help, begins to turn the Republic into the Galactic Empire.

The Jedi Council is sidelined as the dark side of the force consumes Anakin and he is transformed into Darth Vader. It's the darkest Star Wars movie yet.

"We're getting a lot of flak from parents," Lucas says. "This film is pretty intense. Who should be allowed to see them should be left up to the parents, but they're warned - it's pretty intense."

It seems like George Lucas is back on form. The irritating Jar-Jar Binks has just a single line, and the script has indeed been beefed up by Francis Ford Coppola's dialogue coach. Even Hayden Christensen has finally grown into his role as Anakin. Two years ago Hayden was awarded a Razzie award for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance in Episode II. But now the 24-year-old actor has returned to the role with increased confidence, having gained much praise for his performance in last year's Shattered Glass.

"I was just a year out of high school when I did Episode II," he says. "This time I wasn't so in awe of everything, and I was a little more acclimatised to Anakin's skin."

"This is what I had been waiting for," he continues with a huge grin. "Anakin more or less makes a deal with the Devil. He becomes Darth Vader and roams about like the Grim Reaper.

"That was the side of Anakin that I was always very excited about. It was really nice because it also justified a lot of the sensibilities relating to Anakin that I had a difficult time with, like his whining quality."

For Anakin's descent into evil, George asked Hayden to bulk up. "I went from 160lbs to 185lbs, but I was in the best shape of my life because I worked out with a trainer in Sydney and was on a strict diet, eating six meals a day and on every protein weight-gain supplement that man has created. I could eat anything because I was working out five or six hours a day.

"It was the most physically demanding film role I've ever done."

And it seems like George has learnt from the grumblings about Episode II's soppy love story. "The film is pretty much an action sequence from beginning to end," Hayden says.

The movie is a hefty two hours and 20 minutes, featuring several epic lightsabre battles. Samuel L Jackson's character Mace Windu is one of the Jedi casualties.

"I don't mind dying, I just didn't want to go out like some punk," says Samuel. "It's a great lightsaber battle with 102 moves in three big rooms, it's very rousing."

But the climax of the film is when Anakin becomes Darth and he finally takes on Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). "It's as epic as a lightsaber fight has ever been," reveals Hayden enthusiastically. Ewan and Hayden trained for two months in fencing to add an extra edge to the moment when Obi-

Wan and Anakin battle.

"It's more grand in its duration and the geography covered," Hayden says. "It was a good three months of preparation trying to learn the choreography for the fight."

"It's all been such a surreal experience, though. I still have a hard time grasping the effect that this film and George Lucas has had on my life.

"When you have ten year-old kids who can't differentiate between Anakin and the actor who's playing Anakin, you make their fantasy tangible. To be part of that is a real privilege.

"I don't think I will be typecast because I love reinventing myself. But if I am remembered as Anakin for the rest of my life, I don't think that's such a bad thing."

"Hopefully this one will wrap up all those loose ends," Samuel L Jackson adds, "so that everyone will feel some sense of satisfaction when they sit down to watch all six."

So that's it then. As Anakin fulfills his destiny, George has fulfilled his. The story that he started writing 32 years ago, inspired by watching Flash Gordon and Planet Of The Apes, is over. The story that was turned down by every studio until he offered to forego his director's fee in return for 40 per cent of the box office and sole merchandising rights.

The story that has so far grossed more than $3,500,000,000.

Can this really be the end?

In August last year, a rumour started floating around the internet that George Lucas had decided to make Episodes VII, VIII and IX after all (his original screenplay was split into nine chapters).

The news was leaked that LucasFilm employees had signed non-disclosure agreements barring them from speaking about the films.

Sadly, George has since refuted the rumour, saying he has no intention of making a third trilogy. After all, as George and Anakin both know, fulfilling your destiny is one thing, but living up to expectations is another.

Showing at cinemas from Thursday 19th May