From: Çheetah! Posted: 6/29/00 12:02 PM Subject: [Breaking News!] Casting upset with Ep. #2 Well, seems like it's another business-as-usual day for the master revisionist, again.. I just found this article at ABCNEWS (Mr. Showbiz).. ------------------------------------------- HAS LUCAS FINALLY LOST IT? Mr. Showbiz June 29, 2000 In today’s issue of Variety, a surprise press-release issued by George Lucas - the creator of the popular Star Wars franchise, has once again shocked the entire film industry, along with many thousands of Star Wars fans across the nation - as he announced his sudden dismissal of actress Natalie Portman from the cast of Episode II, which is currently in production.. Mr. Lucas, who seemed quite candid over this development, had sufficient cause, and legitimate reasons for this surprising last-minute casting change, according to him statements.. "It is my unpleasant duty, to announce today the termination of Natalie Portman from her role as Princess Amidala, in any current or remaining episodes of Star Wars.. For legal reasons, I cannot go into much detail in this disclosure - except to say that some of the main reasons for this action, are due to conflicting opinions of the Princess Amidala role between Natalie and myself, as well as apparent `indifferences' from her, to the work ethics that are required in any Lucasfilm venture.. It's this basic conflict-of-interest that has led me to this decision.." The announcement concerning Ms. Portman, who portrayed the young Princess Amidala, in Episode I of the Star Wars saga "The Phantom Menace", has caught analysts of the film industry and many of the Star Wars fan community completely off-guard, as there have been no prior reports of tensions or problems between Lucas and Portman on the set. When questioned about the now unfilled role of Princess Amidala, Lucas calmly revealed that a replacement for Ms. Portman, has already been selected and signed for Episode II. "It is my great pleasure to announce that the part of Princess Amidala, will now be portrayed by actress Neve Campbell, whose dynamic presence shall emblazon the image of the Amidala character, into the mental image of the audience, as I had originally conceived, the fans should find her performance to be very exciting, to say the least.." "As soon as Neve read the part for me, I knew in my heart, that she would be the PERFECT Amidala.." Said Lucas - "Her very `presence' as royalty is very pronounced and extremely obvious, from the moment she assumes the character, and I feel that the fans will see this from the very moment she appears on screen.." Campell, formerly of the popular "Party of Five" TV series, and several movies such as the adult-ish "Wild Things" - declined to give comment on this shakeup with Star Wars and Lucasfilm, claiming that a non-disclosure agreement is part of her contract with Lucasfilm.. Hoping to get more details about this surprising casting change, Variety columnists contacted Ms. Portman's agent to arrange for an interview, which was declined for the time being, until the decision to pursue this on a legal front has been made, further attempts to get a statement from Ms. Portman went unanswered.. Variety hoped to obtain statements from other cast members, such as Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor, however interviews from those asked, were also declined because of similar non-disclosure clauses included within their contracts as well, however - one unidentified source from the production group, on the condition of anonymity - told us that the sudden change was the result of an `explosive' tiff between Lucas and Ms. Portman which began in her trailer, the evening before, which was embellished with a loud exchange of verbal insults, as well as some name-calling - that kept going back-and-forth between the two for the better part of an hour. However, this remains unsubstantiated as of this writing - due to the tremendous efforts of Lucasfilm to maintain secrecy over the entire project... In closing, Lucas adds "I'm sure that the movie-goers will find this change to be for the better, providing that they are as open minded as they were prior to The Phantom Menace..." This reporter, however shall wait and see, whether or not this was a prudent action on Lucas' part, with the hope that this is all just a bad dream. ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: HppyBtchr@aol.com Date: 6/29/00 1:35 PM Good God does THIS suck. I have no qualms with Neve Campbell, but I REALLY liked Natalie Portman. The only saving grace is that this movie is ten years later, and Neve does have kind of the same screen presence as Portman. Gah, what the hell happened to Star Wars? Maybe it should never have been introduced into this generation. ~Jeremy The Happy Butcher ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sal Date: 6/29/00 3:02 PM Show me your raw, naked, muscular and incredibly well-endowed rage, Çheetah!! [snip] Cheetah...don't ever do that again. Sal -damn near had a heart attack ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Thad Jantzi Date: 6/29/00 Can someone explain to me what this is? Is this true? Is this the work of an irresponsible or bad reporter? Is Cheetah messing with RASSMers? I don't get it... Your URL does not work, nobody else in the universe seems to have heard about this... am I some gullible pratt for not knowing that this is a joke? Or am I a naive fool for thinking it might not be? Please tell me that Natalie is Amidala and always will be. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 6/29/00 3:07 PM HppyButchr wrote: >Good God does THIS suck. I have no qualms with Neve Campbell, but I >REALLY liked Natalie Portman. > >The only saving grace is that this movie is ten years later, and Neve does >have kind of the same screen presence as Portman. > >Gah, what the hell happened to Star Wars? Maybe it should never have been >introduced into this generation. Yeah, what's more surprising is that Amidala somehow gets demoted to "Princess" come Episode II. Ken ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bill Anderson Date: 6/29/00 6:19 PM Edward Curtis wrote: >Thad Jantzi stepped up to the podium and proclaimed: >> >>Can someone explain to me what this is? Is this true? Is this >>the work of an irresponsible or bad reporter? Is Cheetah messing with >>RASSMers? I don't get it... Your URL does not work, nobody else in >>the universe seems to have heard about this... am I some gullible >>pratt for not knowing that this is a joke? Or am I a naive fool >>for thinking it might not be? Please tell me that Natalie is >>Amidala and always will be. > >I think Cheetah is messing with RASSMers. The link doesn't >work, there's nothing at ABC News *or* Mr. Showbiz (both part of the Go >network) about this, there's nothing at Variety.com (the alleged source), >nothing at TheForce.net, and most importantly, there's nothing about it at >the official Star Wars site. The only major casting item at >Starwars.com today is the casting of the role of Owen Lars. Nay, nay. This story is absolutely true. I verified Cheetah's voracity this afternoon over at the Library of Congress. The article was filed right between "Space Cadet Magazine" and "Movie Wizards." Bill "Once Bitten, Bite Back" Anderson ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Simon H. Lee Date: 6/29/00 6:44 PM Fish. Barrel. Bang. ;) ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Policrat Date: 6/29/00 7:20 PM Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Thad Jantzi: >Can someone explain to me what this is? Is this true? Is this the work of >an irresponsible or bad reporter? Is Cheetah messing with RASSMers? Çheetah!? Mess with RASSMers?! NEVER!!! >I don't get it... Your URL does not work, Worked for me.... What sort of machine/browser are you using? >nobody else in the universe seems to have heard about this... It was on the BBC news just now.... >am I some gullible pratt for not knowing that this is a joke? >Or am I a naive fool for thinking it might not be? Nope, in both cases you're just a typical Joe RASSMer. >Please tell me that Natalie is Amidala and always will be. Is it just me, or does that sound just a =weenie= bit sick? > - Thaddeus No hard feelings ?-) Pol' ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cheetah! Date: 6/29/00 8:27 PM HppyButchr wrote: >Once I found out it actually was fake, i found it very amusing, and quite >convincingly written. (also, with the way Lucas acted last film, it >didn't seem all that far out of the realm of possibility) Who told you this is fake? Lucasfilm has already brow-beat the Go Network into pulling the article, as they're spending to much of their resources to address the literal flood of negative feedback they've received... ------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 6/29/00 12:27 PM Oh my god! When will this be posted on AICN? ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cryo Date: 6/29/00 3:42 PM Actually it turns out the entire cast of Episode II has been re-cast. Some "peripheral" characters, like Obi Wan, Amidala, Anakin, and Palpatine are being dropped altogether. The next movie will emphasize the grand history of the Gungan and Ewok peoples with a "Blair Witch Project" documentary feel. - Cryo ------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 6/29/00 8:24 PM I don't know how legit this is, but I sure could dig seeing Neve as the queen ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Darth Gumby Date: 6/30/00 10:10 PM On Thu, 29 Jun 2000 12:02:16 -0700, Çheetah! wrote: >Well, seems like it's another business-as-usual day for the master >revisionist, again.. I just found this article at ABCNEWS (Mr. >Showbiz).. > >The URL is at the bottom of the article.. Good one... Did you see the poll at SW.com though? Scary. Almost as scary as this story. :) DarthGumby ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cheetah! Date: 6/30/00 3:21 PM Rookie1 wrote: >I read this piece, kept waiting for the "Just Kidding" remark, but got to >the end and never found it. SO you promted me to search a few other news >sites as well as rumor mills but nobody had a thing about this. Not even >the Variety site. So I went out and BOUGHT today's issue of Variety, dated >June 29, 2000. And there's not a single mention anywhere of this. So >fess up, this was a bad joke right? Umm, you don't understand how USENET works... Articles on USENET can take forever to arrive at your newsserver, or they can hit immediately - so you have to take that into account.. ..that article was in the Variety of the previous day... Lucasfilm, within an hour of that hitting their newsservice, promptly blackmailed the Go Network (Which runs both ABCNEWS & Mr. Showbiz), and threatened to not let them get anymore stories about the next episodes, unless they pulled the article, and all references to it... ..fortunately, Rebel slicers still control & maintain USENET, regardless of how many servers Lucas buys up... ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cheetah! Date: 6/30/00 8:14 PM Subject: Re: [Breaking News?] Casting upset with Ep. As it turned out, time was relative... The ever-vigilant watch-ghouls of the LucasPhlegm variety, must have also gotten to the vast variety of Variety staff, and stopped the presses before the final edition was taken to bed.. (or put, whatever..). Well, if I can find a willing scanner-owner, I guess I'll just put it up on a site, until the LucasClown's, and their buddies, the Meg-lo-maniacs (sniff, sniff - do you smell filk?) advise me to shut it down.. > 8========##<^>##========8 >>>>------> {Çheetah} > 8========##<^>##========8 **FILKenMODE attacks!** ------------------- Çheetah!© 6/30/2000 ------------------- Written on the fly, to the tune of the `Animaniacs'.... =================== Now, meet the Lucas lawyers, and their Lucas pit-bull `spot', They always cause me trouble, `round the good `ole RASSM lot, They just want me to cower, they're the folks who have been bought, But I filk-them-out, them Lucas louts, just like some singing `bot... They're the Meg-Lo-Man-Iacs, they work for George, not Wedge or Dack, pat each other on the back, while Lucas packs his ass - with snacks, ...They're Meg-Lo-Manie - ...Totally In-Sa-ney - they'll root for crumbs in George's An-ii Meg-Lo-Man-i-ACS! (Crumb-bums they are, in fact!) ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ted3000@aol.com Date: 6/30/00 8:08 PM Cheetah! wrote: <> It's all but confirmed! Look at StarWars.com's poll question! "Cue Hallucinotronic Spypunk Soundtrack for the Summer of Evol." May the Funk Be With You. ------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Chad Date: 6/30/00 10:17 PM Çheetah! wrote in message > Hmmm, forgot that the date was part of the article header.. Yeah there was that. Then then a friend pointed out that George Lucas referred to the role IN QUOTES as "Princess Amidala" rather than Queen Amidala. We both laughed hysterically at that. And today when it couldn't be found spreading like wildfire across the newspapers, tv news or Internet, we felt pretty good. You had me going for a good 20 minutes there last night though. :-) -Chad -------------------------------------------------------------------