'ATTACK' AT 20: CHARGE OF THE LIGHT(SABER) BRIGADE!

The Jedi (including Seasee Tiin) charge into arena battle in an unseen angle.

The Jedi have arrived on Geonosis, and battle against the enemy's legion of droids begins within the death arena. But overwhelming forces soon take their fateful toll on the skilled lightsaber warriors...

A selection of notable images from the original Australian filming of the sequence at Fox Studios during 2000, featuring second unit photography of singular Jedi in various action poses directed by editor/sound designer Ben Burtt, working in tandem with dedicated Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard. To say that the final, sometimes jarring in flow cinematic sequence would be a combination of photography mixing deleted scenes (in and out of the arena), CGI enhancements and replacements, as well as further reshoots/additional action moments incorporated a year later, would be an epic understatement! 

“I heard of one group (of Kendo experts) that had been banned from the national competitions because they were way too aggressive. When I heard that, I knew they could be right for us.” 

Nick Gillard - Dreamwatch magazine - June 2002 

“I guess we did that one (the arena fight) for four to five days. We put everybody in there separately and then we put Ewan and me in there. And then we put me, Ewan and Hayden in. Then they bought in all the Jedi extras, which was kind of hazardous. They didn’t exactly go through all the training we did, so you had to watch your back, when they were in there and just kind of waling.” 

Samuel L. Jackson - DVD Review magazine - Issue 44 - 2002

Selected BTS information from Pablo Hidalgo's Twitter page.

Kit Fisto, Luminara Unduli, Shaak Ti and an unknown Jedi in arena battle. Image via Paul Duncan/Facebook.

One of the two hundred Jedi in action.

Exciting moves from the Byron Bay Kendo Club, well cast as trained Jedi.

A Jedi tends to fallen Padawan Tan Yuster in an unseen moment.

Sarrissa Jeng (Karen Wilson, an Australian Kendo student) in action for the deleted droid control ship raid sequence. She would be instead transplanted in the film's post production editorial into the Geonosis arena, where her character, whose hair was mostly later CGI shaved off, would be killed in a further deleted moment.

Jeng lies dead with other Jedi in an unseen moment.

Nick Gillard, ever the funster on set.