BEHIND THE SCENES IMAGE: DYING WITH A SMILE!

Dying has never been so much fun than when its in the make-believe world of the movie business, as two icons of their respective arts- actor Samuel L. Jackson and Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard- film the death of Jedi Master Mace Windu for EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH.

Nick Gillard will be at the UK's EMPIRE BIG SCREEN event at the 02 this weekend, and will be giving a talk about his life and career in cinema in the CINEWORLD screen 7 stage at 12.45 pm on the 13th August. Check out more on the event here: A Celebration of Film, A Feast for Fans Everywhere - The Live Movie Event | Empire Big Screen

And read our exclusive interview with Nick here: NICK GILLARD INTERVIEW

NICK GILLARD COMBAT CON UPDATE (19/5)

Swordsman extraordinaire Nick Gillard as EPISODE III's Jedi Knight, Cin Drallig. 

More great news in on the Nick Gillard lightsaber class at the upcoming US Combat Con. 


This from Jared Kirby:


It looks like everything is set for registration to open tomorrow (May 19th) at 9am PST for Nick Gillard's Jedi Fighting class at Combat Con.  Prices and times have been updated on the page at http://thecombatcon.com/jedi-fighting.
 
Please extend an offer to your readers to register for Nick's class before it's open to the public.  All they have to do is register for Combat Con (http://thecombatcon.com/register) right away and then we'll send them a link to the private page for pre-registration.  From the amount of emails I have gotten regarding the class I can tell you that it will fill up very quickly.


Finally, fans will be able to learn from The Master of lightsaber swordplay!

IN CLASS WITH THE LIGHTSABER MASTER!

Kyle Rowling puts Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen through their paces for the lightsaber duels of EPISODE III.

Fans of the superb lightsaber choreography created by Nick Gillard for the STAR WARS Prequels will soon have their dreams come true and be able to participate in such action themselves with this great news from Jared Kirby at the US COMBAT CON event, taking place this Summer in Las Vegas.

Here’s the info:

Master of the craft. Stunt co-ordinator/director Nick Gillard will reveal all about his superb Prequel Trilogy lightsaber duels.

Nick Gillard (assisted by Kyle Rowling) will teach a lightsaber master class at Combat Con in Las Vegas June 24th, 2011 (http://thecombatcon.com/jedi-fighting). For the first time ever, you will have an opportunity to learn lightsaber fighting from the man who created it for Star Wars I, II and III.

In this master class Nick will teach a complicated run from Revenge Of The Sith which covers all of the Jedi moves while explaining the rules involved in Jedi fighting.  He will also teach how to write it yourself. This World Premiere master class will be the first time it's been taught since Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen learn it! 

This special master class will be a separate charge (TBD), but only participants registered for Combat Con will be able to attend so register now (http://thecombatcon.com/register).  Space is very limited to make sure participants get a lot of individual attention.  It will fill up quickly so don't miss this rare opportunity to be trained by the man who created all the fights for Star Wars I, II and III!

And, if you haven't already seen our terrific, and highly comprehensive, interview with Nick Gillard, check it out here: NICK GILLARD INTERVIEW

CLASSIC IMAGE: DARK SIDE IN TRAINING!

Arriving in Australia several weeks ahead of EPISODE III's filming so as to develop the best fighting skills possible in his duel role of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, Hayden Christensen gamely goes through some exciitng Nick Gillard choreographed moves with Count Dooku fencing stand-in Kyle Rowling. A top class Aussie fencer/stuntman, Rowling had previously appeared in EPISODE II as a pony tailed Jedi in the Geonosian Arena battle and was Lee's fighting/body double in that film, too.

CLASSIC IMAGE: SUN, SAND AND 'SABERS!

Here's a shot I had never seen before, so I thought I'd put it up on the blog. A head shaved Ray Park (you just have to look at his fighting stance to see that its him!) and Obi-Wan double Andreas Petrides (who did the leap shots of the character for the duel) make the most of the good weather on an empty part of the outdoor Mos Espa set in Tunisia to practice their lightsaber skills and rehearse the next stage of the epic finale duel for EPISODE ONE action scenes, choreographed by Nick Gillard, filmed at LEAVESDEN STUDIOS in the UK.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

"THE CLONE WARS" SEASON TWO. SWA's TOP FIVE EPISODES. NO 4: "GRIEVOUS INTRIGUE"

Dark versus Light: the clash of lightsabers in GRIEVOUS INTRIGUE.

The DVD and Blu-ray release celebration countdown to my favourite Season Two episodes continues with GRIEVOUS INTRIGUE.

Here's my top five reasons as to why its on the list:

1. General Grievous. After a months Xmas break, the second season resumed with the kind of explosive start it needed and deserved, with the re-emergence of the vile and cowardly Cyborg bully, who has nothing on his mind but conquest and the destruction of the Jedi. And in this episode he has a veritable stable of its top members to fight against, starting off with an epic duel, alongside his nasty servant Magna Droids with Eeth Koth, who he captures and viciously tortures, followed by one of several early pre-EPISODE III face-offs against Obi-Wan, and then Adi Gallia. After his absence for over a year, Grievous's re-introduction, always carefully planed for by the series producers so that he doesn't get over-used, added more well deserved menace and action to the series. And, like the JAMES BOND villains of old, he just doesn't play to the rules of combat at all, giving him an unpredictable edge, ready to sacrifice his droids and anyone else, against his Jedi enemies that's fun to watch.

2. The lightsaber battles. The lightning fast opener between Grievous and Koth was terrific, as was the great Obi-Wan battle (I loved the sparring conversations they have: pure STAR WARS), and then that battle with Kenobi, Gallia and the Clone Troopers (I always like to see a force of our bucket head troops get stuck in for some brute force, hand to hand combat against the general. I think Nick Gillard, Stunt Co-ordinator on the Prequel films, would have been proud of some of the choreographed action on display here.

3. More Jedi. Great to see Koth (no longer dead from the Expanded Universe) and Gallia finally become realised in animation form and in action. Overall, it was one of the strengths of this season that we got to see a lot more of the other Temple Jedi, too (like the fun Tera Sinube, who gets a nice showcase in the enjoyable LIGHTSABER LOST). Too bad about the unused Sistine Chapel overhead shot, though (recently mentioned on the Blu-ray release by Dave Filoni-he's promised it will apprear one day!).

4. Anakin in action! Another chance to see our baddie to be in some fine heroics and daredevil piloting, it was a great scene where he uses his ship to board Grievous's upside down, followed by a cool duel against the Tactical Droid and its Battle Droid acolytes (as well as those rather deadly and very cool Commando Droids) in order to rescue the bridge held Koth.

5. Great staging. Taking a beat from the previous CARGO OF DOOM, the pace of the adventure story never flags in its plotting (nicely written by Ben Edlund) and execution, with some cool retro references to Classic STAR WARS thrown in (like the homage to EPISODE IV's opening boarding battle, but with Clone Troopers as the goodies!). GRIEVOUS INTRIGUE is extremely well edited and directed (the latter by series regular Giancarlo Volpe).

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS Season Two - out in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray from November 15th.

CLASSIC IMAGE: FATEFUL FOES

A classic posed image of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, their lightsabers locked for the final battle of the Prequel Trilogy movies. Modern series Stunt Co-ordinator Nick Gillard was responsible for many of the choreographed lightsaber moves initiated for the photo sessions (like the one of Kenobi, Windu and Skywalker on the cover of AFICIONADO double issue 8/9).

CLASSIC IMAGE: ANAKIN ATTACK!

In a classic sequence from EPISODE II (which got lots of cheers from UK and US audiences on its premiere screening nights), though heavily truncated down from what was originally choreographed and filmed in 2000, the brave Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) goes on the attack against the fiendish Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). Note the digital face of Lee superimposed by ILM onto his excellent double, Australian stuntman and swordsman, Kyle Rowling.