Why I’m Worried About The Force Awakens

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Before you read this, understand one thing.

THERE MAY BE SERIOUS SPOILERS in this piece. POSSIBLE, but SERIOUS SPOILERS.

I will be openly referring to things that might actually happen in the film.

Run away now if you don’t want to know what MIGHT happen in The Force Awakens based on internet rumors and such.

A lot of this is probably incorrect and based on rumor, so don’t get too upset with me or the film until you actually see it.

Last Warning…

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The Marvelization of Star Wars

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Love ’em or hate ’em (and just admit that you love ’em already), you have to admit that Disney knows how to run a company. They’re like the Google of the entertainment industry, which is odd to say out loud since they were around long before Google. Founded in the 1920’s, they’ve done nothing but dominate and grow in the fields of film, television, publishing, music, theme parks and more. When Robert Iger took over the helm in 2005, the company took even bigger steps to cement its place as a leader in entertainment by purchasing companies like Pixar ($7.4 billion in 2006), Marvel ($4.24 billion in 2007), and of course Lucasfilm ($4.06 billion in 2012). Read More

Star Wars Newsbones: Dec. 2013 (Shopping; Attack Squadrons; Mythbusters; Episode VII)

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Star Wars is the Keith Richards of Movies. The only difference being that one day, Keith Richards will actually die (for real) and Star Wars will live on. Just when you think interest in Star Wars is waning or going away, something happens to bring it right back to life. News is more frequent and now that Disney owns the whole mess, expect the merchandising to get even bigger. Whatever you’ve seen from Marvel in the last few years, that’s what you’re going to get with Star Wars and Lucasfilm. You’ll see new films, TV shows, comics, games and much much more. Here are a few recent news bits I thought you might enjoy and Happy Holidays! Read More

Episode VII Speculation: Darth Vader Returns!?

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There are always going to be rumors surrounding any Star Wars production. That’s a given, and that’s actually part of the fun. I’ve posted a lot of speculation on this site over the years, some of which actually came true; some, not so much. When it comes to Star Wars films, much of the speculation falls within the bounds of what we know or expect, but what would a new Star Wars film be without a few new twists and turns that no one has really thought about yet? That’s where the fun lies.

So let’s talk about Darth Vader for a minute, shall we?

Yes, I said Darth Vader. You can call him Anakin Skywalker if you want, but like it or not, he’s always going to have that Vader stigma attached to him.

I remember reading a rumor a while back that said Darth Vader might appear in Episode VII. This was probably the spawn of nothing more than a fan with an internet connection, but I remember saying to myself, “Good God! If they jump that shark, I’m off the Star Wars train for good. If they come up with some lame way to bring back Darth Vader… I’m done!”

Then I did a little more thinking and thought of something that blew my mind a little, and will maybe blow yours a bit. Who knows? Read More

To Spoil Or Not To Spoil?

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In 1996, I started this site. The “Special Editions” were just gearing up and everything in the Star Wars Universe was fun and nostalgic. Then the Prequels were announced and everything went crazy. News started to leak out in all directions and Lucasfilm went bananas trying to plug all the holes, quite often just denying stuff and calling the Internet rumors “crazy.” Well, they weren’t so crazy and while a bunch were quite ridiculous, a LOT of them were on the money.

In my case, I didn’t quite expect to be in the “spoiler” game. It sort of just fell into my lap. There were many sites posting information on Episode I before it came out but there were only 3-5 reputable ones and without sounding too smug, I think this site was perhaps one of them. It’s up for debate but I did receive a LOT of information. I was sent tons of material and in the end almost all of it proved to be legit. In fact, just the other day I was going through some old boxes and found all my old printed materials and notes. The stuff I had was surprisingly accurate and was in my hands over a year before the film was released, if not earlier. I had shooting schedules, artwork, character descriptions, scene-by-scene summaries, and lots more. At the time, I couldn’t really be 100% sure what was real but when things started coming in from multiple and unrelated sources, it became easier to draw conclusions.

In any case, the site became wildly popular and the more popular it became, the more sources sent stuff to me and/or other sites. It was hard to not just blanket-post stuff. Lucasfilm was pretty tough and they were threatening the site here and there. They almost took my domain name once. They asked for things to be removed on a regular basis. We got past it all and the film came out and did amazingly well. So their worries that spoilers would kill ticket sales were unfounded. I always maintained that (spoilers or not) the fan sites did nothing but drum up even more anticipation for a film and gave the studio TONS of free promotion/advertisement.  If things leaked, it was really their fault, not mine. Don’t blame me for posting it. Go after the leak.

For Episode II, things changed a little. I moved the site around a bit. I was associated with sites like Fandom.com (now gone) and Cinescape magazine and things got a little more complicated. Sources were still keen to come to me (many were the same ones so it was easy to trust them) but the site was under a different banner and if I posted anything crazy or too “over the line” for Lucasfilm, the Lucas lawyers went right to the top of the food chain. Many times my posts were removed before I even knew what happened.

So after a while I went back to my own server and had some more freedom but after all the Episode I spoilers (most of which I was under the radar for) they knew who I was and were watching even closer now.  Cease and Desist e-mails were a regular thing.  I still got away with posting a lot of textual stuff (rearranging spoilerish material in my own words), plus lots of sketches and images, many of which had to be removed before I was shut down.

Again, the film came out and did well, but not as well as Episode I. However, I don’t attribute that to the fan sites. I attribute that to the horrible backlash that Episode I received. Some would argue that Jar Jar Binks alone was to blame. You can make that call.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I’d even be in the game for Episode III. I thought that all the sources had moved on and nothing much would come my way. I was very wrong. While the amount of stuff wasn’t as large in total, the stuff I was sent was VERY revealing. I remember one incident where I broke the news that Lucas himself was doing a cameo in the film. I had the name of his character (Baron Papanoida) AND a photo of him in costume. I posted this on the site and a bunch of other sites picked up on it. Within hours I was forced to remove it and got lots of nasty e-mails. Someone on the inside told me I was very close to being sued (not sure if that’s true) and shut down (probably true). I was told that Lucas himself found out about it and got pissed which was why it was such a big deal. Can you imagine the internal e-mails flying around Lucasfilm? Remember, no one knew about this cameo yet. Anyway, just about everything else I had was solid and with a few little hiccups turned out to be legit.

So I had a good run for the prequels and the site was VERY popular around that time. I was pretty happy but I’m guessing that Lucasfilm wasn’t too happy with me because when it came time for them to start including fan sites at their press junkets and so on, they never once asked me which was kind of cool in a way. Wear it like a badge and all that. Ironically, years before, I was one of the first ones out there saying that Lucasfilm should have included fan sites from the start instead of demonizing them. But that’s all over now. I don’t have any regrets and it was a fun ride. History is judging the prequels as lackluster in comparison to the originals and that has absolutely nothing to do with fan sites posting spoilers on the Internet.

So the next question is: What happens with this new trilogy?

Once again, I’m at an impasse. I really don’t think any of my old sources are still “in the game.” I have no expectations. I don’t think I’ll be receiving anything spoilerific about these new films.

But what if I do?

It’s a tough call. I’d want to share it but I also want to see if Lucasfilm is going to make good on a recent promise made by Kathleen Kennedy about the fans to “…recognize they’re important to the process and acknowledge there are things you’re gonna want to make sure they get to know. So I think that’s something we’re going to monitor, pay attention to and think differently about.”

She’s obviously referring to Internet leaks here which is something this site has been known for in the past. Am I still relevant enough to be included in their list of trusted fan sites? Are they just going to stick with the top dogs who play ball that they can easily control? Will they include fan sites at all in their marketing and press efforts?  Lucasfilm was always a little behind the curve on that. They ignored most fan sites right up until the end when they realized they couldn’t all be ignored.

Let’s be honest here for a minute. People (fans and otherwise) are not at all beaming about the Prequel trilogy, box office numbers aside. The general consensus seems to be that it’s a lackluster effort with wooden acting, horrible dialogue and was a bit of a missed opportunity to really go back and explain a few things. I have always maintained that Episode II should have been Episode I and Episode III should have been split out into II and III. Lucas wanted you to see little innocent Anakin  and his mommy but in the end, people weren’t interested in THAT much back story, much of which could have been done in flashbacks or something. But it’s not our baby – it’s George’s. Well… now it’s Disney’s but you know what I mean.

So while Lucasfilm will probably deny this for all time, Star Wars took a pretty big hit. Sure, they tried to over-saturate with cartoons and other stuff but as for the films themselves, people might have “liked” them but they’re not going to go down as timeless classics like the first three seem to have. No one’s going to be saying, “Oh that Jar Jar… so funny!” thirty years from now.

So yes, even with something like Star Wars, there’s a lot riding on these new films and a lot to potentially lose here. This new trilogy has to be up to snuff. If the first one doesn’t really blow people away, people are going to just move on and the brand will suffer. I think Lucasfilm should really reach out to the fans and fan sites and come up with a good marketing strategy that keeps the sites happy and less inclined to just reflexively post anything and everything that comes into our hands.

Here’s an example which will probably never happen, but should provide a little perspective. If Lucasfilm came to me today and said they wanted to include me in their marketing strategy for promoting the film by sending me some weekly updates, maybe a once-a-month super cool exclusive that no one else would get, and perhaps some way to get other access like an interview now and then or something, I might be willing to go that route for the duration and not just blanket post things sent to me that are probably spoiler -laden and would most definitely result in me being removed from any and all contact inside Lucasfilm, thereby blowing my good standing with them (which I don’t have anyway, based on prior history, I assume.)

Alternatively, I could just ignore all that and post whatever I wanted hoping to not be shut down or sued or whatever.

Will they do it? Will they extend the olive branch to some of the popular sites? I’m sure they’re going to work with a few of the bigger ones. Those are the sites that have full working staffs and LLC statuses. But what about the smaller guys who might not get 19,000,000,000 hits a day but have been pretty successful in the past and have a decent following? I guess we’ll see what they decide soon.

The film’s being written. The director’s on board. I’m sure casting has begun. Things are going to start leaking very soon.

Get ready!

 

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What do you think? Leave some comments and let’s talk.

Star Wars News: J.J. Abrams Transitions, Rebels & Underworld, a New Battlefront title?

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There is a special feeling I get during the week leading up to Memorial Day. It’s not because of the unofficial summer kick-off or the three-day weekend, but because I’m always reminded of those special summers of the past when a Star Wars movie was released.This year, the reality of being two years away from a new Star Wars film really sunk in. Soon, those famous yellow letters will crawl their way up the screen and a new chapter of the saga will unfold. The younger generation of fans are quite lucky compared to those of us who had to wait from 1983 until 1999 for a new film. News about this new trilogy is going to start flowing soon but Lucasfilm and Disney are going to keep us plenty busy until then. I’m going to do my best to keep you updated, starting today.

 

J.J. Abrams: From Trek to Wars

Episode VII director J.J. Abrams’ newest movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness was released a short time ago. I won’t get into the plot or critique the film. I will talk about the direction, however. Overall, I felt that Abrams did an excellent job in handling the characters and he kept things moving well with a fairly good balance between action and dialogue. Abrams has said in the past that his true love is Star Wars and I hope he proves it and lets the action scenes build as opposed to the quick-fire editing of Star Trek. In Trek, the edits were very fast with hardly enough time to see what was going on. With Star Wars, I’d like him to allow specific shots to be on screen long enough to take everything in. I feel he did an excellent job with Super 8 so I am hopeful that he will use a similar pacing style.

It’s also been reported that Abrams will have creative control and receive profits from merchandise, spin-offs, television and theme parks. He seems to have taken a page from the George Lucas playbook on that one, and wisely so. It was mostly due to Lucas’ similar deal that he was able to fund future films. Disney has been sending out surveys asking people if they’d be interested in a Star Wars Theme Park. There’s a rumor going around that they might open another new park some time in the next decade out in California and a new Star Wars area might be added to this or perhaps the existing Adventureland. I hope they add a Mos Eisley Cantina restaurant!

 

Rebels & Underworld

The new animated series Star Wars Rebels was recently announced. I wonder if this series will play nicely with the long rumored live action show they’re calling Underworld. The live action show (that doesn’t center on the Skywalkers) also takes place between the two trilogies of films. As of now, the show is being “reevaluated” for development. I wonder if they’ll use some of the scripts for the animated series. Will they develop and produce two shows that take place in the same time line? Will they have crossover references?  The opportunity to bridge the time-frames and use lots of familiar characters is a great way to re-introduce the Original Trilogy to fans old and new while gearing up for Episode VII. What do you think? Leave some comments below.

 

New Battlefront?

Electronic Arts now has a contract to produce video games for Lucasfilm/Disney now that LucasArts has been shut down. This gives me a little hope that we’ll eventually see things like Star Wars: 1313  or maybe a next generation version of a Knights of the Old Republic title. It seems that EA knows what the fans want. At a recent Stifel 2013 Technology Conference, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen addressed a certain title fans have been clamoring for for a very long time: a new Battlefront title.  He said, “The opportunity to do a new Battlefront, for example, which is one of a very popular Star Wars games, or some of some of the other traditional games that were made is very exciting.” More updates on EA’s plans will be announced at the E3 Conference in June 2013.

 

That should be enough to get everyone excited and talking for now. Lets hope that at the Star Wars Europe Celebration the new President of LucasFilm, Kathleen Kennedy, gives us a special announcement or two. Leave some comments below and if you have news, feel free to submit it to us.

 

Why Brad Bird Turned Down Episode VII

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In a recent interview, famed director Brad Bird opened up about being an early name mentioned as a possible candidate to direct Star Wars: Episode VII. He recently revealed that he was not ultimately interested in the job and that the schedule Lucasfilm had in mind was what turned him off of the highly-anticipated project.

He went on to say . . . .

“I’ve known (producer) Kathy Kennedy for a while and I know George Lucas. And they did come to me. But the problem was, the schedule they had in mind made it impossible to do…unless I dropped Tomorrowland. And I was just really deeply into this film at that point. It’s easy to say, ‘Just put it on hold.’ But you’re moving now; you don’t know if you’re going to be able to move later. Maybe it’s true of filmmakers like Cameron or Spielberg, but I have to act on momentum. We had reached a critical mass where it would’ve thrown the furniture around from the train stopping. I really want to see this movie. I love the Star Wars films, and I can’t wait to see what J.J. Abrams does, but it meant I’d have to shut down one dream to participate in another. I feel like with Tomorrowland we’re making something that’s really special and unique.”

Disney’s highly anticipated sequel trilogy blasts its way into theaters in 2015.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Disney & Lucasfilm Announce Episode VII Shooting Location

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Lucasfilm and Disney Studios announced today that Star Wars Episode VII (no title yet) will be filmed in the United Kingdom.

The news comes as no surprise to long time fans, as the other Star Wars Motion Picture Films have set up production there in past years.

The J.J Abrams directed Star Wars Episode VII  will start production soon in hopes of making the previously announced 2015 release date.

This is just the beginning of what’s to become an onslaught of official news coming from Disney Studios, so fans should stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

Episode VII: The Original Dream Team Is (Probably) Returning

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In an article on Businessweek.com, George Lucas dropped the closest thing to confirmation that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher will reprise their roles as Luke, Han, and Leia in Star Wars: Episode VII.

Here’s an excerpt:

Asked whether members of the original Star Wars cast will appear in Episode VII and if he called them before the deal closed to keep them informed, Lucas says, “We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” He pauses. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.” Then he adds: “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”

The rest of the article details the selling of Lucasfilm to Disney. It contains a lot of history you may already know, but it’s worth a read if anything to see how things operate behind closed doors at big companies.

It also talks about how Lucas was on the fence about whether or not to hand over his outlines for a sequel trilogy – outlines he has claimed many times never existed.

At first Lucas wouldn’t even turn over his rough sketches of the next three Star Wars films. When Disney executives asked to see them, he assured them they would be great and said they should just trust him. “Ultimately you have to say, ‘Look, I know what I’m doing. Buying my stories is part of what the deal is.’ I’ve worked at this for 40 years, and I’ve been pretty successful,” Lucas says. “I mean, I could have said, ‘Fine, well, I’ll just sell the company to somebody else.’ ”

Once Lucas got assurances from Disney in writing about the broad outlines of the deal, he agreed to turn over the treatments—but insisted they could only be read by Iger, Horn, and Kevin Mayer, Disney’s executive vice president for corporate strategy. “We promised,” says Iger. “We had to sign an agreement.”

When Iger finally got a look at the treatments, he was elated. “We thought from a storytelling perspective they had a lot of potential,” he says.

So, I’ll be the first to say it: Here’s where the fun begins!