Weekly Entertainment Be Esser

Marin County (AP) This weekend George Lucas announced an “artistic parting of the ways” with actor Peter Mayhew (the actor behind the Chewbacca mask for the Original Trilogy, as well as the upcoming Revenge of the Sith) at this past weekend’s “Celebration III” convention. Lucasfilm spokesperson Lucy Autry reports that Lucas plans to remove the much beloved character from not only the DVD release of Sith, but from the Original Trilogy as well.

Tinkering with his films is nothing new to Lucas who added and changed scenes in his Original Trilogy not only for the 1997 Special Editions, but also more recently for the September 2004 DVD releases. One of the major changes being the removal of late actor Sebastian Shaw from the final scene of Return of the Jedi and replacing him with Hayden Christiansen who plays the part of young Anakin Skywalker in the Prequel Trilogy.

Autry goes on to say that Mr. Lucas plans on replacing the Wookiee character with the more child-friendly Jar-Jar Binks from the Prequel Trilogy. “. . . (Lucas) says it’ll be a nice branch, bringing the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy a little closer in terms of overall style and look.”

Look for the new “Ultimate Saga Edition” 12 disc DVD boxed set due out in stores in early 2007.