Cynical_Dog writes in to TFN with more on the Gary Oldeman/John Rhys-Davies switch over General Grievous. The story first broke yesterday.

I can confirm that John Rhys-Davies dropped the word "Grievous" at the Brisbane sci-fi con last Sunday. Believe me, it wasn't just a throwaway comment. He put a lot of emphasis on the word, complete with a fantastic dramatic pause. "The conditions are, shall we say ...Grievous". Pure genius.

At a very rough guess, I'd say about 20-30 people would have heard the comment. How many picked up on the subtext is anyone's guess, but by the end of the day it seemed like the news had travelled all around the showgrounds. I'm surprised it took more than 3 hours to find its way online.

Anyway, I really, really hope this is true and he wasn't just messing with the fans' minds. I was kind of hoping Mark Hammil would get the gig, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Gimli playing the melodramatic villain role. It's not like this would be his first appearance in a George Lucas film...