Tonight’s the night. After years of waiting, after the stress of getting tickets for opening weekend when the geekoshpere went on a bender, it is finally here.
For me it is so much more than a chance to see a return to the biggest movie franchise in the galaxy, it is about family, it is about tradition.
Continue reading Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Passing the Saber
Along with the previously released teaser trailers for Star Wars The Force Awakens, fans were finally given the full trailer during halftime of ESPN’s Monday Night Football on October 19. Additionally, the teasers and the full trailer have given fans footage enough to edit into new versions of trailers that are sure to entertain fans until the movie finally arrives in December and we’re here to bring some of them to you.
Continue reading Fun with Star Wars The Force Awakens Trailer Edits
As Shmi Skywalker once said, you can’t stop the change, and this has never been more true than when it comes to all the changes made to the masterpiece that is Star Wars. For years fans have stood helplessly by and watched their beloved film changed by the creator himself, and the balance of the force has been in turmoil ever since. Continue reading Cha-Cha-Changes: Fan Compiles Changes to Original Star Wars Trilogy
To show the importance of staging in filmmaking, director Steven Soderbergh reworks Steven Spielberg’s classic adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark into a moodily, affective black and white silent film. The film is essentially stripped of many surface elements to highlight the deeper ones (at least for Soderbergh). No more color or witty banter from Harrison Ford, and we lose John Williams iconic score. Soderbergh replaces all of the soundtrack with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score from The Social Network, not to draw comparisons between the two films but rather to provide audible accents to the staging.
Continue reading Steven Soderbergh Recut Raiders Of The Lost Ark As A Silent Movie
Since Star Wars: Episode VII was announced a few months ago, their has been a number of new Star Wars projects announced, such as the Star Wars: Rebels animated TV series. None of these have been quite as left field as the announcement back in April that Dark Horse will be releasing an 8-issue comic series titled ‘The Star Wars‘, based on George Lucas’ original draft scripts written back in 1974.
The original screenplay had many differences from the final draft that eventually became Star Wars. ‘The Star Wars‘ tells the story of Jedi General Luke Skywalker, who seems to be the only person concerned that The Empire is poised for an attack on the peaceful world of Aquilae. When King Kayos is killed, Jedi in training Annikin Starkiller is ordered to find Princess Leia, while Skywalker sends his only squadron against the Empire’s powerful new battle station! O,h and Han Solo is a massive green alien who artist Mike Mayhew described to the USA Today as a “worldly” and exotic gunslinger who is already a rebel agent and “a very mysterious pirate that lurks in the shadows”. Also, gone are the legendary Lightsabers, instead the Jedi wield lazer-swords which are not too different to the swords that we are used to.
You may be forgiven for thinking that Dark Horse is cashing in on the renewed interest in the series, however this project really excites me. Marvel and DC have been producing parallel world storylines for years with their ‘What if…?‘ and ‘Elseworlds‘ comics respectively, and for the most part they give us a great alternative vision of classic characters. I don’t see this as being any different. At the very least it will give Star Wars fans an insight into what George Lucas originally intended. Dark Horse also doesn’t tend to churn out any old stuff just for the sake of cashing in. For the most part their continuation of the Buffy, Firefly, and Angel series’ have been nothing less than superb.
The comics creators are also of high pedigree. The 8 issue series will be written by J. W. Rinzler, executive editor at Lucas books with Lucas’ full blessing on the project.
Writer J.W.Rinzler says on the Dark Horse website:
[box_dark]“While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing,” “While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”[/box_dark]
Artwork will be provided by Mike Mayhew, who has drawn for plenty of well known properties such as Green Arrow, Bionic Man, The Avengers and X-Men.
The first issue will be published on the 4th of September. Dark Horse will have a number of variant covers including one by legendary concept artist Ralph McQuarrie.
Disney is in talks to pay $4.05 BILLION in cash and stocks for Lucasfilm. Earlier today, George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, issued a statement:
[quote]“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next…It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.”[/quote]
Apparently it’s about to get terrifyingly real. Not only has Disney allegedly has purchased LucasFilm, they’ve announced Star Wars: Episode VII will be released in 2015. After the last several additions, it’s only a matter of time before Star Wars purists relive the terror that was Episodes I – III.
This acquisition brings Lucasfilm under the same banner as Pixar, Marvel, ESPN and ABC.
[box_dark]UPDATE: Disney’s Robert Iger revealed that not only is Star Wars Episode VII is to be followed by Star Wars Episodes VIII and IX, and that the studio plans on releasing a new Star Wars movie “every two to three years.[/box_dark]
What do you think, Bombers? Is this potentially a good thing for the Star Wars film series, or another nail in the coffin? Sound off below!
Grizzly Bomb 