Went to Memorabilia in Birmingham UK yesterday, to meet and film the 4th Star Wars cast member to join us in Downfall - Orli Shoshan!

Orli  played Jedi Master Shaak Ti in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. She is also a fashion desginer and a model! That's right - a Jedi Master Lingerie Model - oh yes! She is a lovely person and it was a pleasure to meet her. I felt very lucky that she'd agreed to film for us as she was only in the country for two days!!!!

I also met my on-screen Dad Jeremy Bulloch again - he mentioned how he's been ribbing Michael Sheard for just reading his lines off a cue sheet.....

Jeremy was delighted at the amount of money we've raised for Save the Children, and I was very proud to present him with a certificate from the charity:

2 more days of filming have come and gone...............Trooper Sunday in particular was good fun: a huge thanks is due to everyone that turned up. A great day was had by all - most especially by Grant (Naval Trooper outfit below) who looked like he was having his 2nd childhood.....

 And I apologise publicly for the 'cup of tea' stories....

A couple more pics for you... and hopefully I should have some exciting news for you all soon...keep checking this space!

Downfall has started production!! Yesterday I finished the first of many days filming, with Rachael. We had a hilarious day - it took us about 2 hours to get the 20 seconds of footage needed. Can't say it wasn't fun though......check the pics

Next week is filming day number 2 with 3 new cast members, although I'm keeping details of that quiet for a bit. And the Sunday after is Trooper Sunday!!!! We'll have plenty of varying Imperials invading the studios, all lining up to get wommed and blammed. Wom.

In other developments, I'm proud to say that Order of the Sith Vengeance has been playing around the world - see crazy members of the CIMF posing for us in Sao Paulo:

I know that Vengeance has played in Australia, Italy (Caserta actually...) and Canada to name a few showings - mindblowing really!

Just thought I'd update with a 'W.I.P.' from Killmachine............he asked for some designs to work to, so I sent him this:

      and he made this:

Quite frankly I was amazed. Not only does it look fantastic, but he did it the same day. Not surprisingly his skills are in high demand and he has started work on the Doom 3 mod Edge of Chaos as well - one busy fella!

Donations to Save the Children keep coming in and we now stand at over $4000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again, many thanks to everyone who has donated - it makes the whole thing so much more worthwhile. Thank you.

Had an email from Dave Prowse this week updating me with contact info for PHAB. He had this to say:

"Hello Marcus - I would love you to raise money for PHAB from your fan film Order of the Sith.  I would prefer that you donate directly to PHAB at Summit House, Wandle Road, Croydon, CRO 1DF.  Phone 0208 667 9443.  Please ask anyone donating to mention my name!"

He also mentioned that his 2 volume book was launched to favourable reviews at Memorabilia a couple of weeks ago - check the links section for his website info.

So please feel free to donate to PHAB (the charity, of which Dave is the President, helps disabled children all over the world) at the above address. Thanks!

I'm pleased to announce a new member of the team for Downfall - Sven Klinge - otherwise known charmingly as Killmachine. I 'recruited' him while checking out his awesome-looking mod for Doom 3 - D3Jedi. I fired across a few questions for your entertainment! - 

1) Welcome to the team Sven - firstly can you tell us how long you have been mapping, and for what games?

 Thx, glad to be on board, its a pleasure :) ... I've been mapping for almost 6 or 7 years ... it all started with duke nukem 3d on my friends pc. Some years later, when I got my own pc, I started mapping for almost every id software engine based game: quake, quake2, most of the time quake3. half-life, return to castle wolfenstein, jedi outcast.

2) You are also working on D3Jedi for Doom 3 - how is that coming along?

Yea, doom3jedi is my first game/mod developement experience and I'm also very glad to be on board there. For my part its all coming along nicely. I finished some maps and got very good feedback from the community. the rest is a bit problematic though. We still have a lack of members, especially in texture design and character animation - but this is just a matter of time! Some mods need one year or more to be finished and we still have a lot of time to create something awsome and I'm sure we will! 

3) Which is your favourite SW film and why?

My favorite star wars film? Its very hard to tell. I think it is ESB because there is Hoth, the asteroid field, bespin, the carbonite freezing - but this was a hard decision, as I really like all of the movies very much. 

4) Do you think we are all mad for dressing up as Stormtroopers and running round a warehouse in our spare time?

Yes I think so! You'd be better getting a Princess Leia dress from ROTJ for your girlfriend instead of running around a warehouse ;) no, just kidding ... if people have fun dressing like stormtroopers and running around in warehouses they should do it!

5) Anything else you want to say? 

I'm very glad to be on board and I will give my best to deliver you some really nice scenarios.

So there you have it - although he is taking a big leap presuming that guys dressing up as SW characters and running around at the weekends actually have girlfriends.........

If anyone wants to help Sven on the D3Jedi project, send me an email and I'll put you in touch.

Not that anyone is interested of course, but not only have I ordered a PSP from Lik-Sang (cos I'm sick of waiting for a European release), but Kylie sent me her autograph this week. Aaaaaaaah Kylie...............

Just a quick update for you: 26000 downloads now (and still counting..). But best of all, working on a figure given to me by Save the Children, it looks like we have surpassed $3000 in donations. This is truly remarkable and I would like to thank everyone who donated!

If anyone is interested, Rob and I will be at Memorabilia at the NEC, UK on Sunday April 3rd - grab us for a chat!

PS things have started moving for Downfall............ :)

11th March 2005

Well - what can I say? 12000 downloads in one week, and by my (admittedly rough) estimation well over $1000 raised for Save the Children, it has all been worth the effort! A huge thanks to everyone who donated, and to everyone who helped make the film what it is.

In other news, The Phantom Faker has done us a brilliant poster (which I've been using all over the place) - click below to download the large version:

Keep an eye on the site - I will be updating as the final film of the trilogy, Downfall, takes shape...

The film is done! The film is online! Check the downloads section then go give to Save the Children!

I hope you all enjoy the film  -  let me know your thoughts. Hopefully it will make you smile.........

First update of the year, and what an update its going to be! At long last, I've managed to film Michael Sheard!

It was an extremely long day (set off from Nottingham at 7.15AM and get back at 9.45PM), but well worth it. Michael is an extremely friendly guy, amd was very helpful, managing to fend off many other people at the convention so we could get 5 minutes of quiet to film!

While I was down in Bournemouth, I picked up a copy of the Film Review Star Wars Special. Without this trying to sound like an advert (it is a good read), Vengeance is featured in a 3 page spread suitably entitled Fanatic!!!! The editor, Grant Kempster, interviewed me about 10 days ago for the article - which I figured was going to be a box-out. A 3-page spread was a great surprise! There is a glaring error, for which Grant profusely apologises - he only spotted it after going to press. He is expecting rabid fans with torches outside his offices.

The mag has loads of other interesting articles (which take a slightly different look at the saga), so is definitely worth picking up. Out now in the UK at £5.99, or in the States at $9.99

December 25th 2004

 HAPPY CHRISTMAS ALL: TEASER TRAILER NOW ONLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check the dowload section......

New website! New web address!! Everything is new!!! Many thanks to Tony Denton for designing the fantastic new website for us - it is very much appreciated. The screenshot section has been updated with some more 'in-progress' work, so you can see whats happening, without giving too much away. 

The film is progressing very nicely now, with about 90% of the greenscreening done. We'll be shooting the final 'pick-ups' on Saturday......including the much-anticipated return of Commander 'Beardy' Pontus!

Many thanks are also due to Neil,Tony, Alex, Lee and Martin for donning their Imperial uniforms and shooting some scenes for us - check out the screenshot sections for a hint of what is to come  :)

October 13th 2004
We have now been joined by the original Dark Lord of the Sith. Dave Prowse is now officially a cast member! I went down to film today - understandably I'm over the moon!.

It was a great pleasure to meet him and to chat with him about all sorts of things. Quite apart from the cameo for the film, he has agreed to help us with the charity side of things.

As you may already know, rather than keep my immense good luck of having 3 original cast members to myself, I wanted to see if we can raise a bit of money for charity because of it. The basic idea is that if you enjoy the film when you see it, then please go and give a bit of money to charity!

Order of the Sith has been downloaded 10000 times: Vengeance should top that - if everyone gives just a dollar, pound, euro or whatever, then the while thing will have been a resounding success. Dave is Vice-President of the P.H.A.B. club, which helps disabled people the world over - as I too have had involvement with this particular charity, I suggested we could donate to this.

It will take a bit of time to set up, but if it all goes to plan, then you will be able to donate straight to PHAB from Dave's secure server. Of course this also means that the film will also be promoted there too.......

July 18th 2004
As promised at the bottom of the page, the Official X-Wing Alliance Mission Pack for Order of the Sith has been released!

Go and get it at http://www.xwa.gaylenol.com/. It features voice-overs from the cast and others - many thanks are due to Ol for his outstanding work on it. He is now part of the team for Vengeance and is working on the mission for the film.....

June 22nd 2004
Well, yesterday was the most unbelievable day EVER. After a nightmare of a 5 hour drive down to London, I finally arrived at Jeremy Bulloch's house a full hour late. And it was raining on me also. I was not feeling very happy as you can imagine, and would quite have understood if Jeremy had turned me away.... but instead he offered me a cup of tea and we sat down to talk.

He took me to see his Boba Fett collection (pics can be seen on his website) - and the full-size replica he has was quite unnerving. Don Post actually flew him out to the States to get the measurements for it and the detail on it is astounding....

After a bit more chatting (and some amusing stories about ESB, ROTJ and his 3 James Bond films), we got down to 'business', and he asked to see the script. I handed him the sheets I had done and offered up prayers to all gods in the universe that it would be alright: I had spent several nights trying to get the scenes right, but I'm not a pro by any means so I was very nervous at this point. Fortunately he was quite happy and we started looking for a place to set up. As I unloaded the van, and set up the greenscreen and cameras, Jeremy went to get in 'costume' and to read his lines several times over to get a feel for the character.

The performance he gave was outstanding - absolutely brilliant - and it emphasised the difference between a professional of 45 years and our own acting. I was so pleased I had the biggest grin on my face - up until then I had been relatively composed (to say I was with a man I've been watching in films and TV for 25 years..) - but it all crumbled by then.

We did a bit more filming before settling down in his kitchen with another cup of tea, and he agreed to film a short 'interview' with me. I had collected questions of the XWAUpgrade forums over the previous few days in readiness. The interview was good fun, but unfortunately the camcorder tape fecked up for half of it. 

Then we went to the Boba room again so I could buy one of his books and a couple of photos (and so he could autograph my Boba Fett helmet...), and we discussed which charities to support with the film. Jeremy is a fantastic and friendly guy - go meet him at a convention if you get the chance! Special mention must also go to his lovely wife Maureen for putting up with me for nearly 4 hours....

Go to the screenshots section to check out photos of my visit and of our first day filming the sequel!

June 22nd 2004
Hi all - following the news about Michael Sheard last month, I have another one to hit you with. Jeremy Bulloch a.k.a. Boba Fett has also very kindly offered to play a small part in our film! Quite frankly I'm at a loss for what to say. Obviously I've been quite uncontainable since I had the news. The only problem is that you'll all have to sit through me and Rob acting in between the two original cast members and international stars. Sorry - had to get that off my chest!

Please head over to Jeremybulloch.com and see what he's been up to recently! In other news we started filming last week and decided to redo it all again after viewing the footage - I'm going to get a miniDV camcorder to film on so the resolution will be better. We've got new software too, so it should all come together quite nicely. I've been very fortunate to have permission from Kenn Hoekstra at Raven Software to use anything from their Jedi Outcast/Academy games for the film.....

Big big BIG news for this - Michael Sheard a.k.a. Admiral Ozzel from ESB, has very kindly agreed to voice the opening crawl for us. I can hardly tell you how thrilled we are to have such a highly regarded actor (and original trilogy cast member..) involved in the project. One team-member quite rightly called him a legend.....

I'll update the 'links' section shortly, but for now just head to http://www.michaelsheard.com/ and take a look round. I've also been in contact with Richard LeParmentier (Admiral Motti) and Peter Sumner (Lt Pol Treidum) - both have wished us the best of luck with the project, but neither could appear due to living thousands of miles away....

On a different note, we seem to be past the 7000 mark on the download front, and I'm still getting mails from people - quite unbelievable really!

Also watch out for the Official VideoGame Adaptation coming your way soon.....