THE 'PHANTOM' AT TWENTY: SENATE WATCHERS!

Largely unseen bar in extreme longshots, many aliens delegates had close-up and reaction shots filmed for the Republic Senate meeting debating the Naboo Crisis. All of these characters, part of one hundred and forty separate creations - both new or classics revisited (such as Rodians and Twi'leks) - were brought to life by Nick Dudman and his team of fifty-five craftsmen, filmed by a second unit at Leavesden, mostly headed up by Roger Christian. Some unseen creatures would ultimately appear in new environments, like the Tatooine Pod racing sequence, playing spectators, or appear in future films, once again in extreme background shots. The Twi'lek Bib Fortuna (played by Alan Ruscoe) was to have been seen here but was ultimately deleted and replaced with Matthew Wood in the role for a scene opposite Jabba the Hutt on Tatooone, a move handled in EPISODE I's post production phase.

Bib Fortuna (Alan Ruscoe) listens to the drama.

The many practical creatures were built with little pre-production time-literally six months from January 1997 onwards, due to Lucas ironing out what creatures were to be handled via CGI, and what would be more cost-effective built as puppets and masks.

Nick Dudman and colleague supervise the care of an actor in the creature suit.

The greedy Twi-lek senator Orn Free Ta (Jerome Blake) and one of his aides (possibly actress Daisy Donovan) - his scene never made the final cut.

In honour of Steven Spielberg, E.T. and his friends made a special one-off cameo.

One of the most important returning species cameos would be from the Wookiees. Actor/puppeteer John Coppinger would play Yarua, and his character would be filmed/ superimposed three times in one scene to make it look like there was a trio of them in their senate pod. One of the surviving original Chewbacca costumes was loaned from the Lucasfilm archive and given restoration and re-working to serve as the new character. Three all-new Wookiee masks were seemingly rejected.

John Coppinger as Yarua the wookiee.

Specially made Wookiee masks by for the three senators were ultimately unused. 

Though not an alien creature, another important character cut from the movie's senate related scenes would be rising star Alderaan delegate Bail Antilles, as played by Adrian Dunbar, originally inhabiting the role as Bail Organa, Princess Leia's adopted father.

More info here:
https://starwarsaficionado.blogspot.com/2013/04/classic-blog-2007-adrian-dunbar.html
https://starwarsaficionado.blogspot.com/2012/09/deleted-scene-speaker-for-alderaan.html

CLASSIC BLOG 2007: ADRIAN DUNBAR - THE FORGOTTEN BAIL ORGANA

AFICIONADO contributor Ian Trussler with actor Adrian Dunbar.

By Ian Trussler

Before Attack of the Clones and Jimmy Smits, there was another Bail Organa, played by respected Irish actor Adrian Dunbar.

Dunbar was one of the very first people announced as a cast member for Star Wars: Episode One in very early 1997.  With the film shooting primarily in the UK it was no surprise to see this stalwart of British TV, film and theatre listed in the early press releases.

In August 2007 I was lucky enough to meet and talk with Adrian while he was appearing on stage at London’s Comedy Theatre.

He kindly took time to share his memories of his brief period as Bail Organa, and the subsequent disappointment that followed.

Adrian told me he did not audition for the part but had received a telephone call from George Lucas asking him if he wanted the role. George had seen some of his work, most notably the critically acclaimed and commercially successful (at least in Europe) Hear My Song and offered him the part of Bail based on having liked what he had seen. Lucas explained that the role was very small for this first movie but would be an expanded part in subsequent films. Adrianaccepted Bail primarily on the promise of a larger part in the future episodes.

Lucas had clearly considered other actors for the role, too, as Ray Winstone (a friend and co-star of Dunbar’s) has spoken in the past of a very unsuccessful meeting he had with Lucas for the very same part.

According to the Production Diary/Shooting Schedule for The Phantom Menace, Adrian filmed his scene on Day 3 of Principal Photography on Monday June 30th 2007, on Stage B at LEAVESDEN Studios.

The scene was listed as: Galactic Senate - Alderaan Box - Bail Organa seconds the motion.

Adrian told me that when he accepted and later filmed his part it was known as Bail Organa and it was changed later in production to Bail Antillies, presumably after Lucas had decided to cut the scene.

Adrian said that when filming he performed with only one other actor, that being Ian McDiarmid and he didn't get to work with any other cast.

When I showed him a picture of him in costume as Bail Organa he commented on how rare pictures of him as the character are and that he very much liked the costume, recalling it to be very ornate, an almost naval like white outfit with elaborate gold braiding detail.

The picture in question, a head and shoulders shot, is to my knowledge the only picture ever published of Dunbar in the role, coming from the Episode One annual and in the small US pocketbookWho’s Who guide, which presumably went to press and were approved by LUCASFILM before the role was cut.

Adrian said he found out his part had been cut from the movie when George Lucas personally phoned him and apologized. Lucas explained to him that he felt he was making a mistake to introduce Bail this early and that he shouldn't appear until the Clone Wars started. At the time Adrian was upset about being cut from the movie and then losing the role in the subsequent films but is philosophical about it now. He commented that this was the only time he had been totally cut out of a movie, it had never happened before and had not happened since (up to time of our conversation).

Although Dunbar is undoubtedly a talented actor I personally feel he didn't quite fit the role as I had imagined it. The tall and dark Jimmy Smits seems a better match for what my mind told me the adopted father of Princess Leia would look like.

That said I would dearly love to one day see the footage of Dunbar as Bail Organa/Antillies from Episode One to finally make that judgment. However since Jimmy Smits went on to establish the part, it seems highly unlikely LUCASFILM will ever release the footage.

Adrian was a very pleasant and friendly guy and I very much enjoyed chatting with him.

Ian Trussler

Above image: Adrian and I have a picture taken outside The Comedy Theatre, Panton Street, London-August 11^th 2007. Insert pic: the only shot currently released by LUCASFILM of Adrian Dunbar in character for EPISODE ONE. With thanks to Chris Baker for the image composition.

DELETED SCENE: A SPEAKER FOR ALDERAAN!...

The original Bail Organa, as played in EPISODE I by Adrian Dunbar.

Bail Organa of Alderaan, later to become Bail Antilles, adds his name in support to an investigation into the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo, in his short but sadly excised scene/s from EPISODE I, recently unearthed on the THE COMPLETE SAGA Blu-ray from last year.

Bail Organa and his aides watch the drama unfold in the senate chamber.

Dunbar makes his entrance. Note the Princess Leia lookalike to the left.

For the full story on Adrian Dunbar's involvement on the film, as the original adopted father of Princess Leia, check out out Ian Trussler's blog feature here: THE FORGOTTEN BAIL

For more on Bail Antilles, check out the great James Luceno novel set prior to EPISODE I: CLOAK OF DECEPTION. Visit our archive on the tale here:
http://www.starwarsaficionado.com/f/CLOAK_OF_DECEPTION_ARCHIVE_2010.pdf

RAY WINSTONE: EPISODE I's ALMOST BAIL...

Ray Winstone as British triple agent "Mac" George Michale in INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Image: LUCASFILM/PARAMOUNT.

Fans of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL will remember British actor Ray Winstone as Indy's war-time friend turned baddie in the movie, Mac, but what you might not know is that the popular tough guy British actor was also considered for a role in EPISODE I-that of Princess Leia's adopted father Bail Organa (eventually played by Adrian Dunbar before the part was changed and Organa became the then excised Bail Antilles instead)- when Casting Director Robin Gurland began her 1996/1997 worldwide hunt for actors in the first of the new Prequel films. Unfortunately, Winstone's first meeting with George Lucas didn't go very well, as the actor told the UK lad's magazine FHM in it's October 1999 issue:

FHM: You met with George Lucas for a role in THE PHANTOM MENACE. What happened?


WINSTONE: I met him in a hotel in the West End. I was up for the Princess's stepfather or something. I'd been out the night before, while he'd obviously got jet-lag because all he did was yawn. When I walked in he obviously knew I wasn't right for the part, but instead of saying "Nice to meet you, Ray" and making small-talk, he never looked at me. So I told him, "Why don't we both have a 15-minute sleep and then I'll f++k off." Then again, that sort of film would bore the arse off me-all that blue-screen work."

Hopefully, when Lucas and Winstone next met for Indy IV, things were a lot better between the pair!