THE 'PHANTOM' AT TWENTY: TATOOINE DEBARKATION

Knowing the potential dangers involved in their search for a new Hyperspace generator, Qui-Gon Jinn and R2-D2 head for the nearby space port of Mos Espa, soon followed by Captain Panaka and Padme Amidala, the latter joining the Jedi in his search, on behalf of the Queen. In a filmed but deleted line, Padme tells a wary Qui-Gon that she's trained in defensive arts.

This was a scene shot on location in Tunisia, 1997, for EPISODE I: the production team and George Lucas returning to that country for the first time since 1976. The full Naboo spaceship would not be built on the site, added onto the filmed shots via model shop work, later at ILM. Only the main ramp, held on a scaffold, was practically constructed on location, matching the prior designed model details at ILM.

Jar Jar was obviously in this scene but added on later in post production. An additional insert shot of the Gungan unhappy with the sun was filmed with Ahmed Best and Liam Neeson during a later batch of principal photography, completed on the backlot at Leavesden Studios.

The exterior ramp would be a life saver for the location filming in Tunisia, after a freak storm wrecked the Mos Espa outdoor set, though Lucas himself ultimately considered the event a good omen for the film - a similar flooding event having happened in March 1976, on the original Star Wars. With some rescheduling, barely little time was lost in the filming schedule as scenes would instead be allocated to the unaffected ramp/scaffold.

George Lucas poses with the scaffold set in the background.