Interview by Peter M. Bracke
June 19th, 2001

In the beginning...

After nearly three years of holding their breath, with the DVD announcement of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace hitting store shelves on October 16, 2001, fans the world over exhaled a collective sigh of relief. If you're reading this, then you probably already know all of the disc's features inside and out (click here if you don't.) But as expected with any release as highly awaited as a Star Wars film, within minutes of the announcement hitting the news wire, fan forums and media outlets were alight with excitement, debate and questions on the pending release.

Coming over a year after the VHS release, the The Phantom Menace DVD represents Lucasfilm's first major effort on the format and a teaser on what may be to come. Lucasfilm is pulling out all the stops with The Phantom Menace, which boasts hours of supplemental material - much never-before-seen- and what promises to be superior audio and video quality unrivaled on the format.

Yet questions still abound about the release, the features and what it could mean for future Star Wars DVD installments. We got the chance for a short Q&A with Lucasfim's VP of Marketing Jim Ward about the announcement, the company's goals for the release, and why The Phantom Menace promises to be worth the wait for DVD fans the world over...

DVDFILE: So, why was now the right time for The Phantom Menace on DVD?

Jim Ward: Clearly, we wanted to take advantage of the 4th quarter, going into the holiday time frame. One issue is obviously our fans have wanted this on DVD for quite a while, and we wanted to deliver to them in that regard. But also we wanted to take advantage of the holiday gift-giving season. People seem to love giving Star Wars as a holiday gift, and this is going to be one of those DVDs that is a must-have in everyone's DVD collection.

DF: Given the fact that there has been such a long wait for fans for this DVD following the VHS release last year, can you talk a bit about the value-added material? What can fans expect that is new?

JW: I think what is really special about this disc is the quality of the value-added material. We took our time and put in the utmost effort and care. We like to think it is value-added material you really want to watch, rather than throwing a bunch of stuff on a DVD to get it out there, this really was crafted from the ground up.

DF: The DVD includes seven deleted scenes, which have never been seen before in their completed form?

JW: I'm not sure if it was clear in the release, but in any Star Wars movie, as you are aware, any quote-unquote "deleted scene" that gets cut from the film is a scene that is probably 90% blue screen. And it is not as if you can just pick up that scene off the floor and throw it on a DVD. Whether that scene might include digital creatures or digital backgrounds, or whatever it happens to be, it literally has to be created.

What is really unique about this disc is that George decided he wanted to go back and take seven scenes that he may have shot in live-action form but were 90% incomplete, go back, design them, go back to Industrial Light and Magic and have them do all the CGI work, and literally create them from the ground up. These were all especially created for the DVD and I think it is going to be really cool for the fans.

DF: How long do these deleted scenes run?

JW: It is contained within a 40-minute documentary, but the actual footage itself is about 20 minutes or so.

DF: Could you talk a bit about the other making-of features, such as the new documentary "The Beginning?" I know some fans have been worried that after all this wait, all of the value-added features would simply be rehashes of old EPK material or the like...

JW: I'm glad you brought that up. This documentary film that we did is not just your standard making-of featurette, you know? We have other featurettes on this disc that were already in existence, but we went back and took a look at the nearly six-hundred hours of footage that we had from a documentary team we hired to really cover the production from day one over the four year (production) process.

Of this six hundred hours, we put together one hour that really gives you an insight into the creative process of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic. And not with talking heads, but literally with a camera, “you are there” fly-on-the-wall approach. I guarantee you, you've never seen anything like this on a DVD at this scale. And certainly with these players. I think that is going to be very exciting as well.

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