PT Were Neimoidians Meant to be Duros?

Alexrd · May 19, 2013

Darth Scourge said: ↑

Essentially, yes.
When the original look for the Neimoidians in TPM was dropped (later to be re-used for the Geonosians in AOTC), Lucas simply chose the look of the Neimoidians from stills of the various Cantina aliens from ANH.
He chose (what the EU refers to as) Duros.
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Source?

SithStarSlayer · May 19, 2013

I thought I moved this once before...

Darth Scourge · May 20, 2013

Alexrd said: ↑

Source?
Click to expand...

An interview with Nick Dudman (make up artist and creature designer for TPM) in Cinefex issue 78, July 1999.
Page 163, to be exact:

"A case in point was the decision to employ a practical rather than digital approach in creating the duplicitous Neimoidians overseeing the Trade Federation assault on Naboo - principally Nute Gunray and Rune Haako. Just twelve weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin, Rick McCallum informed Dudman that a "rethink" was in order with regard to the characters and that a practical solution would now be needed. Unfortunately, the basic Neimoidian form - designed with CG execution in mind - was not compatible with this notion. "These are the first aliens you see in the movie," Dudman remarked, "and Nute and Rune have an almighty amount of dialogue. We said: 'Okay, we'll do them. But we need to know what they look like.' So George got out this Star Wars Chronicles book, and found a couple of green-headed characters with oblong red eyes in the back of the cantina (Duros) - they were very much background things - and just went: 'Those are the Neimoidians.'"
Click to expand...

And I believe he also related that fact in some of the other "making of" publications out around the time of the movie's release.

Slash78 · May 21, 2013

Darth Scourge said: ↑

Alexrd said: ↑

Source?
Click to expand...

An interview with Nick Dudman (make up artist and creature designer for TPM) in Cinefex issue 78, July 1999.
Page 163, to be exact:

"A case in point was the decision to employ a practical rather than digital approach in creating the duplicitous Neimoidians overseeing the Trade Federation assault on Naboo - principally Nute Gunray and Rune Haako. Just twelve weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin, Rick McCallum informed Dudman that a "rethink" was in order with regard to the characters and that a practical solution would now be needed. Unfortunately, the basic Neimoidian form - designed with CG execution in mind - was not compatible with this notion. "These are the first aliens you see in the movie," Dudman remarked, "and Nute and Rune have an almighty amount of dialogue. We said: 'Okay, we'll do them. But we need to know what they look like.' So George got out this Star Wars Chronicles book, and found a couple of green-headed characters with oblong red eyes in the back of the cantina (Duros) - they were very much background things - and just went: 'Those are the Neimoidians.'"
Click to expand...

And I believe he also related that fact in some of the other "making of" publications out around the time of the movie's release.
Click to expand...

The way I remember hearing it was that the Neimoidians were supposed to look like the Kaminoans. However they had a hard time with it so George picked the "goggle eyes" alien from the Cantina scene. Because in the EU they were already called Duros there was some retcon in the EU making the Duros and Neimodians related.

Darth Scourge · May 22, 2013

The way I remember hearing it was that the Neimoidians were supposed to look like the Kaminoans. However they had a hard time with it so George picked the "goggle eyes" alien from the Cantina scene. Because in the EU they were already called Duros there was some retcon in the EU making the Duros and Neimodians related.
Click to expand...

The EU definitely retconned the relationship between the Duros and the Neimoidians (the EU had to do a lot of retconning as a result of the prequels), but the original aborted design for the Neimoidians was eventually used for the Geonosians in AOTC, not the Kaminoans.

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PT Were Neimoidians Meant to be Duros?

Alexrd Chosen One

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Slash78 Jedi Master

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