NO DEARTH OF DARTH IN 'SITH'.

Byline: - Glenn Whipp

George Lucas and his longtime producer Rick McCallum just watched the final version of ``Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith'' for the first time. And the verdict on the two hours and 11 minutes of footage that constitutes the last gasp of Lucas' six-picture empire?

``I'm still in the tunnel, man,'' McCallum says. ``We've got 22,000 prints to make and 40 versions to dub. It was thrilling to see it, but I'm still too crazy to get a fix on it.''

McCallum compares ``Sith'' to ``The Empire Strikes Back,'' which will warm the heart of fans waiting in line right now at the Mann Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. That 1980 movie, the first sequel to ``Star Wars,'' is the consensus choice as the best movie in the series, something Lucas and McCallum know quite well.

``We knew the first two movies in this trilogy would cause problems for hard-core fans,'' McCallum says. ``They've been ready for years for Darth Vader to kick some ass.''

And in ``Sith,'' he does. The movie chronicles Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side, neatly tying the two trilogies together. It promises everything a fan could want: five light-saber duels (including Yoda battling Darth Sidious); the return of Chewbacca; and Anakin's wife, Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), giving birth to the twins who would grow up to become Luke and Leia.

``There's this bizarre cultural zeitgeist of deja vu in the movie because you're bringing so much knowledge from the second trilogy to what is happening on the screen,'' says McCallum, who produced all six ``Star Wars'' movies. ``You know the consequences. What you're learning is the how and the why.''

The PG-13-rated ``Sith'' is the first ``Star Wars'' movie to cross the PG-barrier - and with good reason. McCallum calls the film a ``Greek tragedy, very dark and, at times, hard to watch.''

``Anakin goes through a lot of (stuff) and hurts a lot of people by denying his destiny,'' McCallum says. ``It's like watching someone you care about (screw) up their life with drugs. It's almost unbearable to watch.''

Of course, we know there's ultimately a happy ending around the corner - just three episodes and six hours of screen time away.

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Photo:

(color) HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN and NATALIE PORTMAN