August 23, Friday
Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, Disneyland
According to onlookers, the family were seen spending time at Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, Fantasyland and rode Space Mountain.
dm
Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Friday, August 23, 2019
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Sightings
She was spotted shopping at a Whole Foods in NYC "with her child" on Dec. 13, Brad attended a PGA screening and Q&A for Lost City of Z in Hollywood on Dec. 13. She was seen with Pax, Shiloh and the twins entering a building via the back door on Thursday morning, Dec. 14. She had events with Loung Ung at Asia Society and 92Y on the evening of Dec. 14, none of the children accompanied them.
Brad was reportedly spotted in NY in his "producers trailer" on Friday, Dec. 15. She had Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and Knox with her at the UNCA gala event in Cipriani's on Dec. 15. She watched The Last Jedi with the girls and the twins in Manhattan on Saturday, Dec. 16. That evening, she dropped by the after party for bangsokol in Brooklyn with Maddox, Shiloh and Loung.
She has so far not been seen out with all six children at the same time. The last event all the children attended together was the NYC premiere of FTKMF in September -- also the last time I recall seeing all of them out together.
No sightings since Dec. 16.
Brad turns 54 on Dec. 18.
dailymail
With four of her six children - Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 11, and twins Knox and Vivienne, nine - at a screening of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Manhattan. Saturday Dec. 16.
******
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Angelina Jolie loves Star Wars just as much as you do http://t.co/I8vAW4RYT9
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 4, 2015
The Oscar winner interviewed Domhnall Gleeson, and ended up revealing some interesting things about herself.
Angelina Jolie
has likely been interviewed thousands of times in her movie
career—asked all sorts of deeply personal questions by probing
journalists. And in an Interview magazine piece that hit the Internet on Thursday—Jolie’s birthday, coincidentally—the Oscar winner gets a chance to play reporter, asking Ex Machina star Domhnall Gleeson all manner of charmingly framed queries—about his family life, acting, and the upcoming Star Wars reboot, The Force Awakens. The conversation is so natural, and the rapport between Jolie and Gleeson (whom she directed in Unbroken) so easy, that the actress ends up volunteering a fair amount of fascinating details about her own personal life. One such admission, for example, is her favorite Star Wars character. When Gleeson reveals that he grew up more interested in Indiana Jones than Star Wars, Jolie chimes in, “I'm personally a Boba Fett fan.”
Knowing full well that any movie studio would move mountains to get the actress in the role of the bounty hunter, Gleeson jokingly suggests she reach out to director J.J. Abrams.
GLEESON: Well, you make a phone call and I'm pretty sure, Angie, that they'll have you in, in a second.After Gleeson reveals he had some anxiety related to accepting the Star Wars role and potentially forfeiting his privacy, as an actor associated with the world’s favorite sci-fi franchise, Jolie reassures him. “The Star Wars movies always have these beautiful messages and they are quite profound. And you will have this thing where, wherever you go in the world, you will be an artist and familiar to [fans].”
JOLIE: Can Boba Fett have a missus? Well, put in a good word for me, then.
GLEESON: Could you imagine? "Hey, I'm calling to put in a good word for Angie." [Jolie laughs]
Gleeson also manages to sneak in a few questions for Jolie—like about her early start in acting.
“My mom always wanted me to be an actor,” Jolie reveals. “And I started going to theater and going on auditions young. I only realized about five years ago that I actually didn't want to be an actor. . . . I grew up with my career being thrust upon me. It took me a long time to believe that I could do more than that one aspect of our business.”
Gleeson also wonders whether Jolie ever aspired to become a movie star.
“No,” Jolie tells him. “It's the aspect of being an artist I don't like at all. I'm a very private person. I don't go out much. I'm home with kids. I go to work. I don't really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more.”
For Jolie’s latest project, however, the filmmaker did both, directing and starring in By the Sea, the 1970s-set drama she wrote for herself and husband Brad Pitt. The film is slated to open in theaters this November.
Angelina Jolie Reveals Her Favorite Star Wars Character (Nope, It's Not Princess Leia) http://t.co/VkbFNHuU1y— E! News (@ENews) June 4, 2015
Angelina Jolie knows her Star Wars well.
Like very well.
So well that she even has a favorite character.
"I'm personally a Boba Fett fan," the Oscar winner says.
Jolie revealed her admiration for the sci-fi bounty hunter when she interviewed her Unbroken star Domhnall Gleeson (he's in Episode VII) for the new issue of Interview magazine.
When Gleeson remarked that Jolie could probably get a part in director J.J. Abrams' reboot of the iconic franchise if she really wanted one, she asked, "Can Boba Fett have a missus? Well, put in a good word for me, then."
For the record, Gleeson admitted, "I was more an Indiana Jones kid than a Star Wars kid."
During the twosome's chat, Gleeson turned the tables on Jolie and asked her a few questions.
"So were you an actor first then director?" Gleeson inquired.
"Yeah, well pretty much," Jolie said. "My mom always wanted me to be an actor. And I started going to theater and going on auditions young. I only realized about five years ago that I actually didn't want to be an actor."
Not that she's ever really stopped acting. Not only did Jolie write and direct the upcoming By the Sea, but she and her hubby Brad Pitt star in the indie film together. It's the first time they've acted alongside each other since Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Jolie also insisted being a movie star was never important to her. "I'm a very private person," she said. "I don't go out much. I'm home with kids. I go to work. I don't really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more."
Domhnall Gleeson
This December you'll have to be in a galaxy far, far away to miss the roar of Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it hits theaters worldwide. (Details about J.J. Abrams's reignition of the George Lucas interstellar saga, however, are about as scarce as water on Tatooine, so Gleeson's part is anyone's guess.) The month following, Gleeson does the Wild West with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy in Alejandro González Iñárritu's 19th-century frontier story of survival and vengeance, The Revenant. But first he will romance Saoirse Ronan in an adaptation of Colm Tóibín's historical epic Brooklyn.
It's quite a run, but one that Gleeson's pal (and director of last year's Unbroken, in which Gleeson played the survivor of a World War II-era plane crash) Angelina Jolie has been expecting. As she tells the breaking star, the only thing Jolie's husband (who is also something of a star) doesn't get about Gleeson is how to pronounce his name.
ANGELINA JOLIE: More than anybody I've ever met in this business, you're very present. I imagine a lot of that comes from your family. So what's it like to grow up in a healthy family?
DOMHNALL GLEESON: [laughs] That is the best question I've ever been asked. What a way to begin. The truth is that I don't know anything else. I've got three brothers; I think all of them are good human beings. There's this thing that you're not meant to have too many children—for global warming, it's bad. But I know lots of crappy people, and I would rather that good people have lots of kids and outnumber the baddies.
JOLIE: What is it that turns people into artists? It often comes from some kind of pain or angst, a need to understand or express something. It very rarely comes from confidence, being raised by parents who want to hear what you have to say and wants to encourage you, right?
GLEESON: People always want to ask me about my dad. Which I get because he's a phenomenal actor, and that's for the world, that's out there. But my mother is every bit as impressive and as important for the world as my dad is. It's just that she's not an actor. She was a community welfare officer. She did as much good for as many people. No one asks the community welfare officer any questions, which I understand.
JOLIE: What an amazing thing to be. What's her name, your mom?
GLEESON: Mary Weldon. She's a brilliant woman.
JOLIE: She is the normal one in the family, then.
GLEESON: Well, my dad was also a teacher until he was 34. I think there is a basis in reality. But I'd only done two jobs before I was an actor. I worked in a petrol station and I worked in a supermarket.
JOLIE: And how were you?
GLEESON: I was so diligent.
JOLIE: I'm not surprised.
GLEESON: [laughs] I remember this time I was packing Tampax, and this guy who worked in the supermarket sprinted up to me, his face all red, saying, "You don't have to touch those things. We can get one of the girls to do that." [both laugh] I also remember sweeping up the floor and him panicking and rushing over to say, "You look like you're working too hard. You're going to put people off their shopping." So were you an actor first and then director?
JOLIE: Yeah, well, pretty much. My mom always wanted me to be an actor. And I started going to theater and going on auditions young. I only realized about five years ago that I actually didn't want to be an actor.
GLEESON: Is that it? You don't want to be an actor anymore? We had this conversation on Unbroken. It's weird to be very good at something and not necessarily to want to do it, I'd imagine.
JOLIE: As you say, I never knew the other. I grew up with my career being thrust upon me. It took me a long time to believe that I could do more than that one aspect of our business. Are you happiest when you're directing or acting?
GLEESON: I think I'm happiest when there are really talented people around. I've directed two short films and also directed a music video. And they were with my father and my brother for the most part—really talented people. And still you can drive one another crazy.
JOLIE: Exactly. But you are best friends.
GLEESON: Yeah, that was one of the most fun days in my life, running around the park with my brother pretending to be cowboys and Indians. But as an actor, I've just gotten insanely lucky. I quite like being surrounded by lots of different talented people lots of different times a year. You direct now, so you're going to be stuck with a movie for two years. I don't think I could do that. I'm too restless at the moment.
JOLIE: So, Brad had a question for you. "What the hell is the M doing in your name if you're not going to use it?"
GLEESON: I'm disappointed he didn't ask, "When can we work together?" And maybe he can answer why there isn't an M in Brad? [Jolie laughs] Because his name would be so much more interesting if he had an M. No, I think for my parents it was like "A Boy Named Sue," the Johnny Cash song. A guy named Sue tries to track down his father to take it out on his father for naming him Sue. And his father says, "Look, I knew I wasn't going to be around. So I gave you the name so that you would grow up strong enough to take the hits and fight back." So I like to believe that's why my parents gave me this stupid name.
JOLIE: I love your name. It's old Irish?
GLEESON: Yeah. And the M is weird as well. Because if you spelled it in the old Irish way, it would be like D-O-M. Then there'd be a full stop over the M. It would just be a dot over the M, and then N-A-L-L, sometimes. There's a reason the language is dying out. I wish it wasn't, but there's a reason it is, which is names like Domhnall. It's pronounced like tonal, but with a D instead of a T.
JOLIE: Do you feel a part of the tradition of Irish storytelling?
GLEESON: Yeah, it's a funny one. Some of my favorite writers are the McDonagh brothers, John Michael and Martin, who've directed my dad in a bunch of stuff. They're kind of, like, London-Irish. Their parents are Irish and they're from London. Martin, in particular, any notion of a tradition, he hates. He wants to burn that down. He says, "You don't own any of James Joyce, any of Beckett. You don't take any of the kudos for that. They take it and they alone take it." But the truth is that I'm hugely proud of being Irish. And I don't even know what that means. I just know that it's true. I feel it when I go back home. Do you feel that about being American? Or does that just not exist?
JOLIE: It doesn't. Maybe because we're such a beautiful melting pot.
GLEESON: But that's something to be proud of, too, isn't it?
'm that person in the bar who's like, ‘Can they turn the music down? I would like to chat.' I don't like clothes. I'm terrible at all that stuff. I like sitting around and drinking a pint and gossiping or whatever." —Domhnall Gleeson
JOLIE: Exactly. It's a different thing to be. But I'm convinced you can't possibly be as lovely and as nice and as balanced as you are. So what makes you angry? What makes you tyrannical and just on fire?
GLEESON: People walking beside me with their umbrellas at my eye level, with just wanton disregard for how difficult it is to walk down the street when you've got no eyes. [Jolie laughs] People who don't listen make me annoyed. That's the normal stuff, isn't it? People who just try to paint themselves in a good picture—like, you ask, "What's your worst quality?" And they say, "I work too hard. I care too much." "My biggest flaw is that I just help other people to my own detriment." [Jolie laughs] No, I get really annoyed. I've got quite a short fuse sometimes. So, as a result, I've definitely enjoyed myself more on the projects where I've played a good person, rather than on the projects where I've played somebody who is morally compromised.
JOLIE: So I know I can't ask about Star Wars, but I'm going to. Because, as an actor, and as that little boy who I saw in that video with your brother ... I imagine that boy getting the phone call that he's going to be in Star Wars. How did you react to that?
GLEESON: I panicked. I met with J.J. [Abrams] and said, "I'm not okay with signing up for something when I haven't read the script. I just feel weird about it." And so they let me read the script, which is really important to me. But then I had to make a decision that night whether I was going to be at the table-read the next day, which meant signing the deal. So that night I did have kind of a panic attack. I really get on well with my agents. And I called them up and I was like, "What have I done? I like my privacy ... " Was being a movie star important to you? Or is that too personal a question?
JOLIE: No. It's the aspect of being an artist I don't like at all. I'm a very private person. I don't go out much. I'm home with kids. I go to work. I don't really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more.
GLEESON: That's a really strange thing. People will ask me what you're like, and I'm like, "What can I offer you that will make you happier about how you should feel about who Angelina Jolie is?" I think that's a very strange desire to know those things. And yet I have it, with musicians in particular. I'm desperate to know what Micah P. Hinson is like or Julian Casablancas. Philip Seymour Hoffman made me feel like that. When I met him, I immediately kind of turned into an adolescent. I said, "I think you're great." And then wandered away like an idiot, leaving him not knowing what to do. When I met you, I was too hungry to care about anything except for the fact that you were eating sushi. [Jolie laughs]
JOLIE: That was really rude of me.
GLEESON: No, you'd put it away, but I knew it was there. I knew there was food in the room. That's where we'd gotten to [with our dieting].
JOLIE: Oh, God, you were so skinny. I think we all got scared. The day that your contacts stopped fitting because your body shape changed was the day that we all got really scared and thought maybe you'd gone too far.
GLEESON: But it was also hilarious because there's food right there. [Jolie laughs] Like the idea is that the actor is sacrificing, but if you want a cookie, you can eat a cookie. You choose not to do it. Like, with the real guys, there wasn't craft services near the raft they were in. One of them actually died. And then you look around and everybody is saying, "Are you okay?" And you're like, "Yeah, I can eat a fucking cookie if I want to. They're right there."
JOLIE: If you only do one job a year and you can either have a great time and a mediocre movie or a mediocre time and a great movie, which would you pick?
GLEESON: That's impossible, isn't it? I think you would have to just refuse to accept that that's the choice. But there is this old thing that a lot of people say—that the worst experiences make the best films. I don't subscribe to it. But I've seen it happen.
JOLIE: So, can I ask if you enjoyed working on the film that cannot be mentioned?
GLEESON: On Star Wars? I did. I enjoyed it for the reasons that you enjoy any film, that people were together, and that it was actually challenging. I like a challenge. I was more of an Indiana Jones kid than a Star Wars kid.
JOLIE: I'm personally a Boba Fett fan. [Gleeson laughs]
GLEESON: Well, you make a phone call and I'm pretty sure, Angie, that they'll have you in, in a second.
JOLIE: Can Boba Fett have a missus? Well, put in a good word for me, then.
GLEESON: Could you imagine? "Hey, I'm calling to put in a good word for Angie." [Jolie laughs] There is a wonder when you see make-believe stuff. And the crew, because they were all Star Wars fans, they'd painted stuff in the forest, little personal touches in there. I did this romantic comedy [About Time], and the whole point of it was that you're supposed to take a second if life is going well, to enjoy it and not just move on with the rest of your day worrying about the next thing. And it's a really trite point in some ways. But it's bizarre how little I had done it at various points in my life. And weirdly that film comes up as much as anything else with people who like being reminded of that fact. But it does pop into my head every now and again.
JOLIE: I think we all need to remember that more.
GLEESON: You talk to anybody over the age of 80, and nobody wishes they'd worked more or spent more time being sad or anxious.
JOLIE: No. They wish that they enjoyed it more. The funny thing for you now having done this movie is it will mean so much more to you when one day your little boy is watching it and looks at you in that different way.
GLEESON: That is weird.
JOLIE: You still won't be cool to your children no matter what you do. But the Star Wars movies always have these beautiful messages and they are quite profound. And you will have this thing where, wherever you go in the world, you will be an artist and familiar to them.
GLEESON: Unless you're terrible in the movie and they hate you.
JOLIE: That should be your worry. [laughs] How long did you work on it?
GLEESON: It was stoppy-starty. And then schedules changed because Harrison got hurt. But it wasn't nearly as long as I had thought, because the most recent one I did ended up being about seven months.
JOLIE: That was The Revenant?
GLEESON: Yes, that was insane. Alejandro [González Iñárritu] told us at the beginning, "I want you to be in pain." Everyone held up a glass of wine. We thought we were going to cheer the journey ahead of us. And Alejandro started by saying, "I want you all to be in pain." So then it was, "Oh, cheers?" Like, a cheers with a question mark is never a good way to start a film. And he just put us through the shit. But it looks beautiful, and that ended up being a beautiful experience.
JOLIE: What is the story of The Revenant?
GLEESON: It's based on a true story. Hugh Glass, who is played by Leo DiCaprio ... It's really weird—if I call you Angie with people who don't know you, I sound like an asshole. [Jolie laughs] You've created that problem for me in my life, by the way.
JOLIE: I'm sorry.
GLEESON: Which is the most high-class problem that anybody's ever had. So Leo's playing a fur trapper in the 1820s who was attacked by a bear and they had to choose whether to leave him behind—he was almost dead—or bring him with them. So two stayed behind to look after him, but then they buried him alive basically. But then he crawled across this huge portion of the country to get revenge on them. It's kind of crazy. Where are you by the way? Where in the world are you?
JOLIE: I'm in L.A. for now. Most of June I'm in Europe. I'm finished with the movie. I'm doing more of my U.N. work and doing the African Union Summit and things like that. What else are you up to? I know that you really love music. Do you also write?
GLEESON: The only music I've ever written was for a film called Frank, and the idea was that it was the worst music in the world.
JOLIE: That movie, by the way, made me laugh out loud.
GLEESON: I'll take that, really. That filmmaker is as good as Ireland's got. Lenny Abrahamson, there's somebody who's Irish, who I'm really proud is Irish. Even though my task was to write the worst music, I know people who write good music. But I don't go to a lot of gigs. I'm that person in the bar who's like, "Can they turn the music down? I would like to chat." I don't like clothes. I'm terrible at all that stuff. I like sitting around and drinking a pint and gossiping or whatever.
ANGELINA JOLIE IS AN ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS AND DIRECTOR OF IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY AND UNBROKEN. BY THE SEA, WHICH SHE DIRECTED AND STARS IN, WILL BE RELEASED LATER THIS YEAR.
For more from the new Hollywood Heavies, click here.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Death Star
From buzzfeed
Andrew Kaczynski
By Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget
The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.
Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.
Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.
We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.
We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.
If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
The White House Response To The Death Star Petition Is Amazing
“The Administration does not support blowing up planets.”
Andrew Kaczynski
Posted
Here's a transcript...
This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking ForBy Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget
The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.
Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.
Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.
We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.
We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.
If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
McCarthy's input
Amen to Todd McCarthy's suggestions.
From THR
Todd McCarthy's 7 Suggestions for the New 'Star Wars' Trilogy
When Disney announced Oct. 30 that its $4 billion deal to acquire Lucasfilm would lead to new Star Wars films, I had a little chat with my ultimate source on these matters, my 15-year-old son, Nick. A lifelong series geek, Nick expressed strong and immediate opinions on what the future of Star Wars should and should not be, and together we worked out the following unsolicited advice for Disney and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, which they will ignore at their peril:PHOTOS: 'Star Wars: Episode VII' By Four Top Directors (Illustration)
1) Any new adventures should be set in the Old Republic, where plenty of plot lines and conflicts involving jedi and siths could be developed.
2) The approach and tone should be dead serious, not jokey or nostalgic. Strong filmmakers should be engaged who are not afraid to push into darker and more adventurous areas. PG-13 ratings should be sought, not avoided.
3) The films should look as vibrant and realistic as possible, more like the original trio that began in 1977, while the CGI-heavy look of the 1999-2005 trilogy should be minimized. Certainly, ever-increasing FX wizardry (enhanced, no doubt, by 3D) will greatly expand the visual possibilities for the franchise.
4) The scripts should not be based on the many quickie Star Wars books that have been published.
5) The stories should be less overtly political than the second group of films to keep a better balance between sci-fi and the mythical origins and inspirations of the series. In other words, look at what worked best in the older films and what led the later ones dramatically astray.
PHOTOS: 'Star Wars' Actors: Then and Now
6) Hire very good actors for the important parts, a strategy that has rewarded any and every series that has tried it, from Batman to Bond.
7) Finally, always remember that Star Wars is for millions of people one of the hallowed titles and franchises in the history of movies. Don't mess it up!
Monday, November 5, 2012
Han
From EW
Image Credit: Lucasfilm
Harrison Ford is open to the idea of bringing Han Solo back to life
on the silver screen in 2015, according to sources close to the
just-announced Star Wars sequel, but don’t be surprised if his contract includes a mandatory death scene for the sly old space smuggler.
“Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he’s upbeat about it, all three of them are,” said one highly placed source, referring to Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher, the trio that made a hyper-speed jump to global fame on May 25, 1977, the opening night for George Lucas’s original Star Wars film.
The Hollywood trajectories of Hamill and Fisher led to reinvention — he’s now an in-demand voice actor; she used a gift for acerbic memoir to deliver Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking. But Ford, who reached his 35th birthday in the summer of 1977, launched himself on a truly historic career run that synced up with the blockbuster bonanza of the 1980s. Ford’s star rose with The Fugitive, Air Force One, Clear and Present Danger, Presumed Innocent, Blade Runner, and of course, the four fedora films as a certain archaeologist named Henry “Indiana” Jones.
The actor, now 70, is plenty proud of Indy, Jack Ryan, John Book, and Dr. Richard Kimble but in the past he didn’t disguise his disdain for Solo. “As a character he was not so interesting to me,” the frosty Ford explained in an ABC interview in 2010.
The slippery Corellian pilot’s great talent is keeping himself alive, a skill that apparently extended beyond the screen. Solo’s death scene in early outlines for Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was scrapped, according to Ford and others, because the character was a top seller as an action figure.
As Ford told ABC in the same interview: “I thought he should have
died in the last one to give it some bottom…George didn’t think there
was any future in dead Han toys.”
Disney, which acquired Lucasfilm in a $4.05 billion deal, sees plenty of retail future with Star Wars sitting on the same corporate toy shelf as Marvel and Pixar, and they’ll certainly be offering a stellar payday to coax Ford to bring his star power back to role that started it all.
More than money, Ford might be drawn back by the upside of changes at Lucasfilm where the respected Kathleen Kennedy is taking over as company president, and with the Jedi franchise as a whole now that Kennedy is in as executive producer and Lucas will take on a consultant role, leaving the director’s chair for someone else.
Indeed, Ford won’t go to the next level of contract talks until there’s a script and director in place. Either could be a deal breaker. Still, at any stage, an “upbeat” signal from Ford on any Solo matter is enough to shock and excite fans who view Star Wars as something close to religion.
Solo, Luke Skywalker (Hamill), and Princess Leia (Fisher) appeared in two more films and when last we left them (in 1983’s Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) they were on the forest moon of Endor reflecting on the downfall (literally) of the Emperor and Darth Vader’s final act of redemption.
Now a new-look Lucasfilm — with Lucas moving into retirement and the Walt Disney Company taking over — plans to circle back with a new trilogy that picks up the story decades later and presumably uses the original trio to hand off the franchise to a new generation. (It’s a familiar approach; 2009’s Star Trek beamed Leonard Nimoy back aboard or 2010’s Tron: Legacy turned to Jeff Bridges to initiate the next cycle.)
Hamill told EW that he and Fisher heard about the idea when Lucas summoned them for a lunch in August, not long after both were onstage return guest at Star Wars Celebration VI, an official Lucasfilm event that drew tens of thousands of fans to Orlando. Many of those true believers are delirious about the new hope of a third trilogy but Hamill, 61, knows that some outsiders will roll their eyes.
“I can see both sides of it,” Hamill said. “Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material.”
In the 29 years since the red carpet premiere of Return of the Jedi, Ford has declined hundreds – if not thousands — of offers to appear at Star Wars events and cast reunions even the ones sanctioned and run by Lucasfilm. In fact, in all those years was only one offer he accepted: He attended a 30th anniversary screening of the The Empire Strikes Back in 2010 to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
About 400 fans (including Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, Jon Favreau, and Kevin Feige) paid $100-$175 each to hear Ford reflect on his Millennium Falcon days. I was the moderator for the event and the star arrived in a cheery mood but, after watching the film, he was weary of the crowd’s zeal for something he could never love.
“I don’t know that I understood it very well,” Ford said in a flat tone of the franchise’s ascension in popular culture. “I’m not sure I understand it yet…I was very happy to be involved. I was pleased to be a part of an ensemble.”
It was a bare-bones answer but still the crowd cheered and no one asked for a refund – everyone was just excited to see Ford back in the same theater as the Star Wars universe. That alone may be the Force that brings Ford and Solo back together for their date with destiny.
'Star Wars' sequel: Harrison Ford open to idea of Han Solo role
“Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he’s upbeat about it, all three of them are,” said one highly placed source, referring to Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher, the trio that made a hyper-speed jump to global fame on May 25, 1977, the opening night for George Lucas’s original Star Wars film.
The Hollywood trajectories of Hamill and Fisher led to reinvention — he’s now an in-demand voice actor; she used a gift for acerbic memoir to deliver Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking. But Ford, who reached his 35th birthday in the summer of 1977, launched himself on a truly historic career run that synced up with the blockbuster bonanza of the 1980s. Ford’s star rose with The Fugitive, Air Force One, Clear and Present Danger, Presumed Innocent, Blade Runner, and of course, the four fedora films as a certain archaeologist named Henry “Indiana” Jones.
The actor, now 70, is plenty proud of Indy, Jack Ryan, John Book, and Dr. Richard Kimble but in the past he didn’t disguise his disdain for Solo. “As a character he was not so interesting to me,” the frosty Ford explained in an ABC interview in 2010.
The slippery Corellian pilot’s great talent is keeping himself alive, a skill that apparently extended beyond the screen. Solo’s death scene in early outlines for Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was scrapped, according to Ford and others, because the character was a top seller as an action figure.
Disney, which acquired Lucasfilm in a $4.05 billion deal, sees plenty of retail future with Star Wars sitting on the same corporate toy shelf as Marvel and Pixar, and they’ll certainly be offering a stellar payday to coax Ford to bring his star power back to role that started it all.
More than money, Ford might be drawn back by the upside of changes at Lucasfilm where the respected Kathleen Kennedy is taking over as company president, and with the Jedi franchise as a whole now that Kennedy is in as executive producer and Lucas will take on a consultant role, leaving the director’s chair for someone else.
Indeed, Ford won’t go to the next level of contract talks until there’s a script and director in place. Either could be a deal breaker. Still, at any stage, an “upbeat” signal from Ford on any Solo matter is enough to shock and excite fans who view Star Wars as something close to religion.
Solo, Luke Skywalker (Hamill), and Princess Leia (Fisher) appeared in two more films and when last we left them (in 1983’s Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) they were on the forest moon of Endor reflecting on the downfall (literally) of the Emperor and Darth Vader’s final act of redemption.
Now a new-look Lucasfilm — with Lucas moving into retirement and the Walt Disney Company taking over — plans to circle back with a new trilogy that picks up the story decades later and presumably uses the original trio to hand off the franchise to a new generation. (It’s a familiar approach; 2009’s Star Trek beamed Leonard Nimoy back aboard or 2010’s Tron: Legacy turned to Jeff Bridges to initiate the next cycle.)
Hamill told EW that he and Fisher heard about the idea when Lucas summoned them for a lunch in August, not long after both were onstage return guest at Star Wars Celebration VI, an official Lucasfilm event that drew tens of thousands of fans to Orlando. Many of those true believers are delirious about the new hope of a third trilogy but Hamill, 61, knows that some outsiders will roll their eyes.
“I can see both sides of it,” Hamill said. “Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material.”
In the 29 years since the red carpet premiere of Return of the Jedi, Ford has declined hundreds – if not thousands — of offers to appear at Star Wars events and cast reunions even the ones sanctioned and run by Lucasfilm. In fact, in all those years was only one offer he accepted: He attended a 30th anniversary screening of the The Empire Strikes Back in 2010 to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
About 400 fans (including Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, Jon Favreau, and Kevin Feige) paid $100-$175 each to hear Ford reflect on his Millennium Falcon days. I was the moderator for the event and the star arrived in a cheery mood but, after watching the film, he was weary of the crowd’s zeal for something he could never love.
“I don’t know that I understood it very well,” Ford said in a flat tone of the franchise’s ascension in popular culture. “I’m not sure I understand it yet…I was very happy to be involved. I was pleased to be a part of an ensemble.”
It was a bare-bones answer but still the crowd cheered and no one asked for a refund – everyone was just excited to see Ford back in the same theater as the Star Wars universe. That alone may be the Force that brings Ford and Solo back together for their date with destiny.
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