George Lucas' innovative and imaginative work has attracted some of the very best talents in moviemaking, ever since the director's first teams started creating new technologies to make his vision a reality. From producers to art directors, visual effects supervisors to swordmasters, the movies of the Star Wars Saga have inspired new ideas and generated great stories.

Come and hear some of these amazing stories from movie craftsmen who have worked at Industrial Light & Magic at key points throughout the three decades of Star Wars, and have come to take part in the celebration!

Don Bies
Don Bies, the Droid Unit Supervisor for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, has a long and close association with the Star Wars galaxy. Bies started operating R2-D2 for Industrial Light & Magic for a series of Japanese television commercials in 1987. Since then, he has worked on countless films and commercials for the pioneering visual effects studio, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Congo, Starship Troopers, and the infamous "Darth Vader vs. the Energizer Bunny" commercial.

Bies worked on the Star Wars Special Editions, and added a list of on-screen appearances to his more typical off-screen contributions. He appeared as a Bith musician and Boba Fett in Jabba's Palace, as well as Imperial stormtroopers, officers, and aliens throughout the new sequences. Bies, also a senior model maker, has worked on each of the Star Wars prequels. See Bies at Celebration IV on the stage, and in the R2-D2 Builders' Room, where he encourages and inspires the worldwide group of droid builders.

Lorne Peterson
Lorne Peterson is one of the original members of Industrial Light & Magic, having been hired by George Lucas to create the models for Star Wars. In 1978, Peterson was invited by Lucas to move to northern California to oversee the production of models for The Empire Strikes Back. Since that time, he has worked on most of Lucas' movies, as well as those of Steven Spielberg.

Aside from the work he has done for ILM, Peterson has done industrial design modelmaking for McDonaldland, JBL Speakers, Kikkoman, Yamaha Snowmobiles and the feature film The China Syndrome. Peterson was honored with an Academy Award and a British Academy Award for the special effects work in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Norman Reynolds
British production designer Norman Reynolds has worked on some of the most memorable movies of the past three decades, including A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Mission Impossible. Reynolds started out working in the U.K. division of MGM Studios' art department. He worked with other British studios until 1976, when he became an art director. His first film in that capacity, The Incredible Sarah, netted him an Oscar® nomination.

Robert Watts
Robert Watts began his career in 1967 as a location manager for the James Bond classic You Only Live Twice, and a year later worked as production manager on 2001: A Space Odyssey. But Watts didn't cross paths with George Lucas until he was hired to be the production supervisor for a soon-to-be blockbuster, Star Wars: Episode IV . He continued his role as production manager and got a taste for more responsibility as an associate producer for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and associate producer for Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.

Watts continued to produce for such films as Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Alive.