We were told that Gasgano was a tall, thin, pale alien much like the one in close encounters. The difference is that he has 6 limbs with hands at the end of each which he walks on. Reportedly, he is a pod racer. Now check out this passage from the "Star Wars - The Annotated Screenplays" by Laurent Bouzereau. While flipping through the book again for trivia questions, we ran across that same passage again. However, this time we had a little bit more insight into the prequels than we did a year ago, and it seems to have even more significance than we first realized. You know how Lucas doesn't throw away ideas? Well, see if these things from the early drafts of Empire Strikes Back sound a little bit familiar:

"During story conferences, George Lucas and Leigh Brackett referred to Cloud City as "Ketbrae or Kettlebrae: The Gas Planet"; in early notes this planet is described as "nothing but clouds with cities that sit on giant piers that go down into gases." The story meetings suggest that maybe the planet has a force field that makes it invisible until one passes through a certain distance, and all of a sudden it becomes visible. Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and Threepio arrive on the Gas Planet and are attacked by the Whatnots, aliens that live in the center of the fog; they retreat back to the Falcon and take off. A patrol finds them and guides them to Han's friend, who lives in another part of the system.

"The notes indicate that the aliens should be semistoic creatures, sort of tall, thin, white, maybe similar to the aliens in Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977). They should be very noble, but threatening; they carry a spear or a pneumatic dart gun or a long pole with a beam that comes out of it. There's an alien chief described as fair, wise, and noble."

Doesn't that description sound a heck of a lot like Gasgano? Reportedly, ILM is amazed by how this guy is turning out.

If you haven't bought the Annotated Screenplays, you really need to run out this weekend and pick up a copy. It's worth every penny and reasonably priced.