George Lucas: Trailer Talk

A generous smattering of celebrities were at the world premiere of 51st State in London tonight (6 November 2001) and Empire Online spotted a familiar face amongst the guests - George Lucas. The director is currently finishing filming Episode II in England, which is why both he and 51st State star Samuel L Jackson were in town. Spotting our chance, we asked him if he'd been checking out the fans' reactions to the 'Breathing' teaser trailer on the internet. 'I've been working for the last three weeks,' he told us. So I don't know anything about anybody!' But he was happy to confirm the news about the next two trailers. 'In about two weeks when Harry Potter comes out there'll be a bigger trailer. Not the real one - that'll come out in April.' That's one month later than expected from the conversation Lucas last had with Empire. So how much can we expect to see? 'It's a bigger teaser trailer,' Lucas explained. 'It's full in that it's two minutes rather than 30 seconds. The other one's got music and sound effects just like in a normal trailer, and dialogue - the whole thing.' So what's he been doing in England? 'We've been shooting, doing some pick-ups. But we're all finished now.' Asked about how Hayden Christensen was faring in his role as Anakin, George was keen to extol the young actor's virtues. 'He's extremely good,' the director enthused. 'We're very excited about him. He's just exactly what I wanted for the part. He's very charismatic and very good looking but he has a very interesting dark side [in] that he believes he can eventually become Darth Vader.