Some attentive fans who boot up the new
Revenge of the Sith DVD on their computer might find a strange name attached to the DVD icon appearing on their desktop: CHARLOTTE. At first glance, one might think they've accidentally intercepted a disc outlining some clandestine plot hidden within the coding of a mass-market DVD. Or, perhaps Charlotte could be the name of some shady agent of intrigue?
In fact, both guesses would be correct -- from a certain point of view.
It's the result of a method used by the industry to safeguard some of its high-profile projects from publicity leaks -- a class of projects that includes
Revenge of the Sith. "Charlotte" was the codename assigned to the Episode III DVD project.
As most fans are aware, codenames, or "security titles", are a time-honored tradition with the
Star Wars movies -- "Blue Harvest", the cover used for
Return of the Jedi while shooting in Arizona and California, is probably the most famous example. More recently, the name "Blackeyes" was assigned to one of the Episode II trailers, inspired by the title of a 1989 TV mini-series produced by
Star Wars' own
Rick McCallum. "Charlotte" is the latest in a long list of storied
Star Wars codenames. With the release of Episode III on DVD, this little-known tradition of intrigue is finally getting its cover blown thanks to the codename making its way to some of the authored and completed discs. "It is only seen on the very first batch of the Episode III DVDs, and is being 'retired' for future manufacturing runs, so it could be a collector's item that gives the fans a glimpse into the secret history of the
Star Wars DVDs," says DVD Producer Van Ling.
Though "Charlotte" may seem to be a random name assigned to protect the Episode III project, Ling explains that it and the names used on previous
Star Wars DVD projects were carefully selected to meet a certain set of criteria. "Firstly, they each had to be a single-word female name, just to keep it pleasant and short; secondly, it had to relate to a film that was owned or distributed by [
Star Wars saga distributor] Twentieth Century Fox, so there was that additional layer of subterfuge that gave it a plausible link between the name and some other Fox-owned title; and thirdly, the film title being used as a decoy was ideally one for which that film's DVD was actually in production and slated to be released around the same time as its
Star Wars counterpart."
A self-described film geek, Ling chose "Charlotte" after the 1964 Fox film
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, starring Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland.
Previous titles assigned to
Star Wars DVD projects included "Laura" for Episode I, "Mary" for Episode II, and "Eve" for the
Star Wars Trilogy DVD set.
While "Laura" came from the 1944 film of the same name, and "Mary" was inspired by both
There's Something About Mary and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Ling claims to have found the perfect name in "Eve" for the trilogy box set. "
The Three Faces of Eve was about a woman with three personalities -- Eve White, Eve Black and Jane -- so I used these three names as the code names for the individual films -- Episode IV, Episode V and Episode VI-- respectively. So it all made logical sense and was consistent," he says.
"Clearly, I was having
way too much fun coming up with these things," adds Ling.
Here for the first time are the secret codenames assigned to the menus for the trilogy DVD box set. Try to match the titles to the menus:
Aspen, Fridge, Elephant, Swamp, Swamp House, Train Swamp, Platform, BRG, Freeze Room, Sunset, Cantina, Auction, Temple, Garage, Oscar, Tall Room, Panel, Vegas, Ice Cube, Sailboat, Tunnel, Throne, Tahoe, Forest, Bunker, Birdy, Lido Deck, Teacher's Lounge, Crazy Legs, Squid Room, Dad's Room
And here's the menu codenames for the
Revenge of the Sith DVD:
Office, Shooting Gallery, Donut Shop, Boneyard, Gigi, Lizard Run, Riverworld, Riverdance, Sauna
For those who encounter Charlotte on their way to the saga's sixth DVD adventure, give her a wink, then point, click, and brace yourself for
Revenge of the Sith.
