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.
