Tuesday, July 6 12:00 AM ET

Human Actors Used in Episode III

San Rafael, CA - George Lucas revealed today that he would resort to using only human actors for Star Wars Episode III: The CGI Department Strikes.

Lucas, feeling positive about the move, said, "We've proven that we can make CG characters such as Jar-Jar Binks far superior to their human counterparts, so the next challenge was to take 'real' actors to that level. We are trying to overcome the difficulties of getting human actors to speak, move and stumble about as convincingly as the CG characters can. You'd never know the Jar-Jar in this movie was a guy in a suit, using his own charming voice."

The film also includes Qui-Gon's long-lost brother, Sandeep-Prasad. Lucas has defended casting Richard Gere for the role. "The Star Wars films have always taught cultural tolerance, be it for Wookiees, droids or Orientals. In addition, Richard is the only actor whose presence and looks are as vanilla-beige as Liam Neeson's. Of course, we had to use [rapper] Chingy as Anakin/Vader because he is dark and from somewhere 'exotic'. He's perfect in the transition from Hayden [Christensen] to James Earl Jones."

In line with the CGI debacle, Lucas has also used sets on a film for the first time in two decades. "We 'borrowed' some of the Lorien set from my buddy Peter Jackson, and we're finally filming that half-Gungan love scene I've always dreamed about."

In fact, there has been controversy over exactly how much scenery has been "borrowed", but Lucas remained coy when pressed about other cross-film references: "All I can say is, watch out for the flying DeLorean on Endor."