CLASSIC DESIGN WEEK. PIC SEVEN - THE INVISIBLE HAND BRIDGE

Out in the UK this week is the long-awaited, new nice price edition of the lavish and informative STAR WARS: BLUEPRINTS hardcover book by J.W. Rinzler. In celebration of the must-have title, we're having a week-long tribute to the six film's classic production designs.

With anticipation and expectations running so high, the third and final Prequel, REVENGE OF THE SITH, saw the action and drama taken up a notch as the final days of Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi, along with the emergence of dark terror Darth Sidious, were apocalyptically revealed. New and diverse planets, spaceships and technology would also be seen in this originally planned curtain call for the saga, with the film getting off to a fine note of galactic warfare above the Republic homeworld of Coruscant, as Jedi heroes Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi make their adrenaline-charged pursuit of the fiendish Droid general, Grievous, in order to rescue the capture Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

On set at the FOX Studios in 2003, our heroes face the Magnaguards.

To show the interior of Grievous's ship, soon known as the Invisible Hand, Production Designer Gavin Bocquet and his team originally created a stretch of corridor that could be filmed from alternate angles and be redressed to serve as other areas of the ship (backed up with blue/green screen for ILM CGI and model work that would extend height and length). But a relatively last minute pre-production series of script changes and ideas from George Lucas soon saw the need for an additional bridge area where our heroes, now captured with the Supreme Chancellor, are brought before Grievous and have one final lightsaber battle against the villain before he/it escapes the wrecked ship, which our heroes then safely pilot, well... crash-land, onto Coruscant.

Again augmented by CGI (i.e., control panels and window displays, alongside other droid creations), the Trade Federation Bridge proved a necessarily tight but impressive space when built at the FOX STUDIOS, Australia in 2003, helping to launch EPISODE III with verve and crowd-pleasing Jedi action.

Get hold of STAR WARS: BLUEPRINTS here: Star Wars - The Blueprints: Amazon.co.uk: J.W Rinzler: Books