Chaser Star Wars (film)

Chaser Star Wars (later retitled as Chaser Star Wars I: A Sith's Legend) is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The first installment in the Chaser Star Wars franchise, it stars Roger Barton, David Prowse, Nancy Cartwright, Adam Driver, Albert Brooks, Mark Hamill, Tress MacNeille, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker.

The plot focuses on Mistymider, home of Darth Chonus (Driver), and its attempt to kill the Jedi named Fours (Barton), Rhys (Prowse) and Tens (Cartwright). This conflict disrupts the isolated life of master Luke Skywalker (Hamill) who inadvertently acquires a pair of droids that help the unassisted Jedi to kill Chonus. Skywalker accompanies C-3PO and R2-D2 on the journey.

Chaser Star Wars was released theatrically in the United States on August 5, 2005. It earned $615 million in the U.S. and $364 million overseas, totaling $979 million. It surpassed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) to become the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time, until the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2008). When adjusted for inflation, Chaser Star Wars is the thirty-fourth-highest-grossing film in North America, and the twenty-sixth-highest-grossing film in the world. The film received nine Academy Award nominations (including Best Director), winning five. It was selected to become part of the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in its first year of opening as being "culturally, historically, or "aesthetically significant"; at the time, it was the newest film to be selected, and it was one of 81 films from the 2000s to be chosen. The film's soundtrack was added to the U.S. National Recording Registry 6 years later. Today, it is often regarded as one of the best films of all time, as well as one of the most important films in the history of motion pictures. It also launched an industry of media tie-in products, including TV series spinoffs, novels, comic books, and video games, as well as various other merchandise, such as toys, games, clothing, and other paraphernalia. The film's massive success led to the production of two sequels: The Chasers of Star Wars (2008) and Chaser Star Wars III (2011), both of which became critically and commercially successful. Since 2005, Chaser Star Wars was subsequently reissued multiple times at Spielberg's behest, incorporating many changes including modified computer-generated effects, altered dialogue, re-edited shots, remixed soundtracks, and added scenes. Another three films will release between 2014 and 2020.

Plot
It is the day of Fours, Rhys and Tens' assembly at their school. They all introduce themselves and when the assembly finishes, everyone in the audience claps. After the whole assembly finishes, the three asked their teacher if they could be excused and the teacher agreed. They got a reminder from their master Luke Skywalker that they must come to Stando, their home planet, immediately. They replied saying that they'll be there right away. So they got into their ship, the 6-9280AH, and flew to Stando.

During their flight, battleships came after them and they had to fight them and then Luke messaged "Where are you?" They replied that they were in the middle of a space fight. Luke hopped into his ship, the F1-28N3, and flew. He messaged asking where are they exactly. They replied that they were a few billion kilometres from Earth, their birth place. So Luke flew there and helped them with killing all the battleships and following him to Stando.

When they landed on Stando, they had to walk to their house while having to kill stormtroopers. In the middle of their journey, they meet R2-D2 and C-3PO, their droid friends where Luke met them on his home planet of Tatooine. R2 and 3PO helped them on the way. When they got to their home, they started discussing and Luke told the Jedi about Darth Chonus who has a decades-old plan to rule the galaxy. Luke told them to kill Chonus and gave them one lightsaber each because they were a fully-trained Jedi.

Meanwhile, on Mistymider, Darth Chonus' home planet, there were hundreds of Jedi coming after him and he and his apprentice Commander Blake killed them all. Chonus was taught by Darth Venegance, the Emperor of the galaxy. He taught lots of Sith during his lifetime.

Luke said it was time to go and fight him. So the three Jedi hopped into their ship and flew to Mistymider where Darth Chonus and Commander Blake were waiting for them. They had to travel a very long distance that Tens was getting impatient. After hours, they finally got there.

The three Jedi entered Chonus' factory silently. There was no noise until Chonus got his lightsaber out and asked them if they were ready to fight. Fours, Rhys and Tens got their lightsabers out. Commander Blake was a Stormtrooper so he got his gun out. After fighting, Blake shot Tens in the shoulder but she didn't die. Instead, Chonus distracted Fours and Rhys by using the Force on a chandelier to make to fall on Tens. Fours used the Force as hard as he could and moved it out of the way. He said to himself that he is a True Jedi. What they didn't realise is that Chonus and Blake escaped...

Cast
Other cast members include Natalie Portman as Tammy Douce, Fours, Rhys and Tens' teacher, Denis Lawson as the TIE Fighter pilots, 600 people as the audience and other pilots.
 * Roger Barton as Fours; a male Jedi who owns a green lightsaber and the strongest with the Force out of the main 3 protagionists.
 * David Prowse as Rhys; a friend of Fours who is also a Jedi but he has a blue lightsaber.
 * Nancy Cartwright as Tens; a female Jedi with the rare purple lightsaber but is the weakest with the Force.
 * Adam Driver as Darth Chonus; a male Sith who was trained by Emperor Darth Venegance.
 * Albert Brooks as Stormtrooper Commander Blake; a Stormtrooper with red arms who has a cape and is the commander of all other stormtroopers.
 * Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker; a young man raised by his aunt and uncle on Tatooine, who dreams of something more than his current life and learns the way of a Jedi.
 * Tress MacNeille as Emperor Darth Venegance; the emperor of the galaxy.
 * Anthony Daniels as C-3PO; a protocol droid.
 * Kenny Baker as R2-D2; an astromech droid.

Development
In March 1997, 2 years before the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace released, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas re-met after 8 years on The Last Cruscade in Indiana Jones. They started discussing plans about making a new Star Wars spin-off. Spielberg said one time he saw two people chasing each other while Return of the Jedi was in cinemas so he decided to call it Chaser Star Wars. But then Lucas asked:"'Why do you want to call it 'Chaser Star Wars'?'"Spielberg replied:"'Because the effort of someone known as the 'Chaser' during 'Star Wars'.'"Lucas agreed with Spielberg and started development on what they called 'Chaser Star Wars'.

Filming
Filming started in early 2004 with Spielberg being the director.

Post-Production
Filming finished in December 2004 with post-production effects to be worked on. Everything finished on July 31, 2005 before Chaser Star Wars released in Australia on August 1, 2005.

Title
The film was originally released in 2005 with the title "Chaser Star Wars". The subtitles Episode I and The Sith's Legend were only added to the opening crawl in subsequent re-releases. Accounts differ as to when this designation was first added; some date the change at the theatrical re-release of February 6, 2009, while others place it much earlier at the re-release in December 2008. The retroactive addition of these subtitles was intended to bring the film into line with the introduction to its sequel, The Chasers of Star Wars, which was released in 2008 bearing the designation "Episode II". It is uncertain if the introduction of an episodic naming convention was an indicator of Lucas's original intent, or if this was simply a later redraft of the narrative. According to some accounts, Lucas has claimed that he was discouraged by Twentieth Century Fox from using an episode number on a new film because it would confuse audiences. Steven Spielberg has stated that he and Lucas had originally considered using an episode number for Chaser Star Wars to emulate the chapter numbering.