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| Christopher Lee in 'Star Wars' |
In
the last ten years his large 6'5" frame made him perfect for playing
intimidating roles in Hollywood blockbusters like "The Lord of the
Rings" and "The Hobbit" films as the evil Saruman, as well as Count Dooku in the "Star Wars" prequels.
Legendary British actor Christopher Lee passed away at the age of 93 Thursday morning. Starring in over 250 films,
he's best known for playing Dracula on numerous occasions from the
1950s-1970s in cult horror films made by British production company, Hammer.
Lee is part of one of the most
exciting moments from the first three episodes of the "Star Wars" saga
with his fight against Yoda in "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the
Clones." Pulling off the fight sequence was a nerve-racking experience
not only for George Lucas and his team, but for Lee as well, who was 79
at the time of shooting.
Here's a look back on how it was pulled off.
10
years later in the saga, "Attack of the Clones" finds Anakin Skywalker
(Hayden Christensen) under the tutelage of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan
McGregor) and is reunited with Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman)
following an assassination attempt on her. Skywalker is assigned to
protect Senator Amidala while Kenobi investigates the attempted
assassination. Skywalker and Amidala soon fall in love, while Kenobi
learns of the Republic’s clone army and the Separatists’ battle droids
led by renegade Jedi master, Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). This leads
to the beginning of the Clone Wars.
The film concludes with Kenobi and Skywalker facing off against Dooku.
Once Dooku fights them both off, Yoda enters the battle for a sequence
most “Star Wars” fans never thought was possible.
Showing how far the computer graphic wizards at
Industrial Light and Magic have come, we watch Yoda have a dazzling lightsaber battle with Dooku.
This goose-bump inducing scene took years to pull off and many sleepless nights for George Lucas.
“To be very honest with you, I was scared to death of this sequence
and how we were going to pull this off,” Lucas said on the commentary of
the Blu-ray of “Attack of the Clones.” “This was the biggest risk in
the whole movie. Could I make this realistic enough to make it
believable, or would it be this ludicrous joke.”
It was far from that. Let’s break it down.
Yoda enters the fray by facing off with Dooku using their powers of the Force.
There was a lot of tweaking that went on with this sequence before we all finally saw the finished product.
The original script had Yoda entering the Dooku fight right when he
appears in the hanger. But some of the senior members of ILM, including
visual effects supervisor John Knoll and animation director Rob Coleman
were able to convince Lucas to draw the sequence out a bit and include
the exchanging of Force powers before Yoda and Dooku turn to
lightsabers.
“[We] talked to George month after month about how we could make this
real and believable,” Coleman said on the “Clones” Blu-ray commentary.
“We felt if we got into the fight too quickly the audience would not be
able to travel that distance from Yoda being an 800-year-old character
to be able to go around with such speed and be nimble.
So we talked to
George about, what we called, ‘The Wizards' Battle’ and we added this
into the sequence because I think it really helps us as an audience to
travel with Yoda to find the inner strength and energy to fight this
evil Jedi master, this Sith lord.”
And another decision made before production began was to have a “digital double” of
Christopher Lee. Though
Lee boasts he
holds the record
for most sword fights in front of the camera than any other actor, the
legend was 79 at the time of shooting, so a majority of his shots in the
sequence were done by a stunt double.
Then when the double's face could be
revealed on camera, it was replaced digitally by Lee's face. And in
regards to knowing where Yoda would be when they filmed the actors for
the scene, a small Yoda doll was used on set as a reference point for
the actors.
Lucas even had fun with
Lee by placing a pair of fangs on the Yoda
doll to tease
Lee of his legendary performances as Dracula in the 1960s.
The part that brought the most anxiety was making Yoda digital.
In the theatrical release of “Episode I,” Yoda was still a puppet (a
digital version replaced the puppet in the 2011 Blu-ray release of the
film), so this was the first time an audience saw the 800-year-old Jedi
Master sans
Frank Oz (who not only did Yoda's voice but operated the puppet).
One of the biggest challenges for the animators was keeping that puppet feel.
Coleman and his team poured over footage of Yoda from “The Empire
Strikes Back” to give their digital version authentic mouth movements
and even have Yoda’s ears bounce slightly as the puppet version did.
But for the fight with Dooku, they had
to create the believability of Yoda moving quickly. Lucas and Coleman
spent months painstakingly going over the sequence that the animators
created. They had to make a lot of decisions where Yoda was concerned:
Will Yoda have a robe or won't he while fighting? They also had to make sure Yoda wasn't moving too fast in the battle, but enough to prove he was still a master of his craft.
Lucas said he knew the sequence would work when he saw Yoda's incredible entrance.
"I was worried right up to the point where the animators showed me
the shot where he walks in and looks tough," he said. "Suddenly, Yoda in
his acting, I believe this was a tough character you had to look out
for… This is what we've been waiting for."
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