Next Star Wars movie will be bleak - it's official.

Sources highly placed in the camp of George Lucas have revealed a few more snippets about the next movie in the new Star Wars prequel sequence.

The body of the movie will address the start of the transformation of Anakin Skywalker into the black-clad asthmatic that will become Lord Dark Helmet, opps, I mean Darth Vader.

Forget fun CGI amphibians wondering around sounding like a bad Bob Marley impression, the next Star Wars film is going to be bleak.

"I think George sees this as a journey of human development," said our source. "He's a big fan of the movie Apocalypse Now, and having seen the scripts, I think there is a little of the spirit of that film in II."

"In Apocalypse Now you saw a character in the US Army moving away from the army establishment and civilization the deeper into the jungle his quest takes him."

"In a similar way, in II, you see Anakin seeing the corruption of the failing Republic and wondering why this noble Jedi Order is letting the bureaucracy slowly strangle the life out of the system. He wants to get involved, but the Jedi Council see themselves as guardians of the people, not rulers, or meddlers in politics."

"Anakin was raised as a slave in a galaxy where slavery is meant to be outlawed, so he knows the failings of the system. He's seen the brutality and misery of that failure, and he desperately wants to right those wrongs. As Anakin moves deeper into his quest, he sees more and more evidence of the Republic's chaos and misguided policies."

"There's a great piece of oratory by Yoda where he basically explains to Anakin that when you start assuming power over people in an effort to help them, you take away far more than you give them back The best you can do is guide people to help themselves, and that anything else leads down the road to dictatorship and genocide.

"Yoda kind of foresees the possible path to the Imperial Empire. He explains that the true power of evil is that - with a few exceptions - those who work for evil think that what they're doing really is for the best, to help people in the long run.

"Of course, Anakin doesn't buy this. He just thinks the Jedi Council have bought into the existing order so thoroughly that they won't do anything that unbalances the Republic. He sees their position as a conservative excuse not to try to reform the system, to save it from itself."

The movie won't all be doom and gloom however, as Anakin's relationship with Queen Amidala - or Padmé Naberrie to you fans - notches up a gear and moves out of the purely platonic.

So there we go, snogs and a walk down the dark side of the Force. What more could you want from a Star Wars movie?

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Paul Scott. 01/01/2001
Personally speaking, I enjoy the 'happy' Star Wars movies a lot more than the serious ones. Return of the Jedi was far superior to the miserable Empire Strikes Back. Hope George remembers this.

Robert Burt. 01/01/2001
Rubbish, the happy clappy Star Wars movies suck. Phantom Menace fell into this camp, and it was the worse film of the lot.

Avi Shrimsley. 01/01/2001
The Reason why Phantom Menace was lousy is that it had no plot. The days when a film could be carried on its SFX alone are long gone. Now people expect good special effects AND an interesting plot, not just a load of disjointed scenes glued together by CGI.

Sybil Shade. 02/01/2001
Empire was infinitely superior to Return... why? Because it left us wondering how we could possibly end up with a happy ending. Star Wars is best when it deals with the complexities of human nature and I'm willing to bet that II will be much better than Phantom Menace.

John Tipper. 02/01/2001
It'll be good no matter what the plotline, and better than most of the current load of SF - movie, TV and literary. Good on you, George!

Craig 'Girac' Johnston. 03/01/2001
I like the look and feel of the original 3Star Wars films. Phantom Menace didn't have enough "Tatooine Dust" on it like ANH. ESB was arguably the best of the original trilogy, mostly due to its intense character development - "I'd rather kiss a Wookie". I hope Ep II measures up to ESB in that respect.

Sam Stinson. 04/01/2001
Depends on what you define as a 'plot.' TPM did indeed have a series of events (standard definition of 'plot'). What the film lacked was not a 'plot' but a 'purpose.' Movies (and stories) that are driven by 'plot' and FX have the lasting value of movie popcorn.

Pamela K. Kinney. 04/01/2001
I think I see a pattern here, of repeating. I remember seeing the first Star Wars movie and how the critics put it down-now years later, one of the best. Both it and TPM are alike in the way they went. I knew that Episode II would go the route of ESB, which is the best of the first three to this day-plot-wise and all. As for the last one being like ROTJ, at the end, instead of the Rebels celebrating, it'll be the Empire, that's all.

The Dude Cheese. 05/01/2001
I think this movie sounds awesome. Star Wars isn't supposed to be a friendly little kid movie with cuddly puppets (although in the original 3 there were but they were blended in well enough not to distract from the story), it's supposed to be the best sci-fi series of all time. I think Lucas just sold out on the little kids for the first one so that they would pay to see the next one regardless. Just my opinion, but this sequel should be much better than the dissapointing first.

Dan Swensen. 12/01/2001
To say that Phantom Menace lacks plot is to misunderstand the dictionary definition of "plot". I believe Phantom Menace's problems lie in that it's a movie made almost entirely of backstory and foreshadowing. You suspect Sidious is Palpatine, you see that Qui-Gonn has defied the Council in the past, you know Anakin will become Vader - but all these considerations take place outside the arc of the actual story, which is present, but a lot more low-key and average than people want for a Star Wars movie. TPM was almost all set-up, but that gives me a lot of hope for the next episode... Lucas has all the pieces in play now.

Spotslash. 23/01/2001
The original Star Wars series worked so well because it had a fairy tale narrative. I have not seen so much a narrative in the newer series ans a series of political subplots which I hope will all come together in the second movie. Darker the better for me....we are talking politics in space y'know.

Spork. 25/01/2001
Plausibility George!!! You streched it too far with those pussy battle droids.