Lucasfilm
With all the excitement about Star Wars this year, one movie just isn’t going to be enough. Fortunately, in addition to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there’s also Ministry of Cinema’s documentary The Prequels Strike Back in the works. You can probably guess from the name that it’s a defense of the first three episodes, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which have been a sore spot with scores of fans since Episode I hit theaters in 1999. The plan is for The Prequels Strike Back to be released before The Force Awakens arrives this December.
At the moment, though, the documentary is seeking funding on Indiegogo. It’s a modest affair, as the initial goal – which has already been exceeded in just a week – was only $3,500. That was the amount needed to produce a short. If the movie makes it to $5k, then it’s a series of shorts. If the crowdfunding campaign achieves the stretch goal of $7,500, it’ll be a feature. That sounds very cheap for such an ambitious project, and it’s not like this is going to simply be a video essay where one guy is analyzing scenes and arguing in favor of the prequels.
While there isn’t likely to be an exclusive appearance from George Lucas or Ewan McGregor, there will be interviews with fans and experts, all of them planned to be shot in relevant locations. With 54 days left to the Indiegogo deadline on this project, which appears to be partly inspired by last fall’s launch of the Star Wars Ring Theory, there’s a good chance The Prequels Strike Back will raise a whole lot more than even that stretch goal. The higher the tally goes, the better the doc could be (not that all the money in the world will get us to appreciate Jar Jar Binks, amirite?), especially if any big name interviewees are willing for the right price.
Check out the doc’s campaign video below and do check out some of the film studies related projects previously made by Ministry of Cinema (that’s director Bradley Weatherholt, producer/cinematographer Kyle Brodeur and producer/graphic designer Matthew Fielder), such as Film Genres and Hollywood and Timeline of World Cinema.