20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones
17. The Script Was Finished Just A Week Before Shooting
The Phantom Menace's wildly mixed response caused a major rethink on Lucas' part for the sequel, and he was said to be hesitant to put pen to paper.
It was only in March 2000, three months prior to Attack of the Clones' shooting start date, that Lucas ended up turning in his very first rough draft of the script.
As Lucas iterated upon his ideas while sets were being built, he hired writer Jonathan Hales, who previously wrote numerous episodes of his series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, to help punch up the final draft.
Ultimately the shooting script was completed just a week before principal photography started, which is rarely an encouraging sign.