George Lucas began 12 weeks of production on the last Star Wars prequel film, Episode III, on June 30 in Sydney, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. A crew of 1,000 and the main cast have returned to Fox Studios in the Australian city, where the previous two prequels were also shot.

Producer Rick McCallum told the newspaper that Episode III would be shot almost entirely inside the studios. Lucas will return for additional filming over the next 18 months, the newspaper reported.

The only shooting outside Sydney will be some "plate photography"—backgrounds for visual effects—in Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland, the newspaper reported.

Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits and Christopher Lee return, and Peter Mayhew reprises the role of Chewbacca for the first time since Return of the Jedi, the newspaper reported. McCallum described the tone of the movie—which deals with Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader—as "dark." Episode III is slated for a 2005 release.