'EPISODE III' AT TWENTY: A CONFLICT IN THE STRATOSPHERE!

A space battle like no other in the Prequel saga.

"War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General Grievous, has swept into the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a desperate rescue mission to rescue the captive chancellor..."

EPISODE III title crawl text - 2005

The Jedi Starfighters commanded by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.

Republic fighters ready to attack and escort the Jedi to their destination.

Enemy Tri-fighters.

Obi-Wan and Anakin navigate their way through the battle in these two animatic storyboard script pages from the archive of Nick Gillard.

"This was the most complicated space battle in any Star Wars movie in terms of number of elements and variety of things depicted. It was also a little different. There has been a space battle in all six of the pictures; but, for the first time, we set a space battle in the upper regions of the atmosphere - in this case, Coruscant's atmosphere. So it was almost in space, but not quite. We used that as an excuse to do smoke, fire, drag, flak bursts and a lot of other things you can't do in space."

"There is a progression in the space battle. We start at one place, thread through a bunch of ships, and end up at Grievous' ship at the other end. Layout determined what ships were where, and every shot began with that basic space arrangement."

John Knoll - Cinefex Magazine 102 -2005

Speeding through the epic battlefield.

Penetrating a massive explosion.

The Jedi Starfighters tackle all obstacles.

Republic Cruisers close in.

Several epic battle shots from the sequence between locked-in Republic and Separatist forces.