Mark Hamill was the surprise guest at Entertainment Weekly’s CapeTown Film Festival after the Return of the Jedi screening tonight. And naturally there’s already video of him talking about the droids and doing a Harrison Ford impression.
Here are reports from IGN’s Eric Goldman and AICN’s Eric Vespe. He’s talking about him and Carrie being in Episode VII like it’s a done deal. (He hasn’t talked to Ford recently.) From Goldman’s article:
After the crowd cheered this statement, Hamill added, “That’s what the challenge is, is to try and meet expectations of what you guys want. I think there’s nothing wrong with CGI, but I think you have to have a balance, because the camera perceives the width and the depth and the weight – even if it’s a miniature model, the camera just realizes that. So when you have too much CGI and the clouds are CGI and the trees are CGI and the buildings are CGI, you’re getting to a point where the figure in the shot is like a hybrid of an animated film and live-action. And I want it to have an organic look so that we don’t get into Roger Rabbit territory.” He then added, with a laugh, “But I don’t imagine that the priority is what I want!”
He talked about how he believes to focus of the new films will be the next generation, and that his role will be more Obi-wanesque: “Heavy on the Jedi mind tricks, less on the lightsaber duels.”
Vespe stuck around for the second Q&A, where Hamill got asked about the Expanded Universe:
Hamill has never read any of the books or other extended universe stuff. “People say to me, “Dude, you’re married to Mara Jade! She’s smokin’ hot!” I go, “That would have been nice if they had thought of that when I was actually involved! You know, because it’s the ultimate good news/bad news joke. The good news is there’s an attractive woman in the universe, only one, the bad news is she’s your sister.”
Read both recaps – Hamill says we probably know more than he does about VII at this point, but he does still manage to talk quite a bit. Enjoy it while you can… And hope we get an official announcement soon!
UPDATE: Here’s a full video of one of the talks, thanks to Jason Ward!
I was right in the front, probably five feet from him. I’m uploading the video to YouTube now, it’s HD and taking its sweet time.
He talked about Episode VII as if it were a done deal. I’m not even sure why I care about an announcement at this point. There is almost no point in it.
It sucked that Harrison Ford didn’t show up. When I talked to James, it was kind of up in the air regarding who it was. But before we left, I chatted with an EW person and they said it was weird Harrison Ford put Geoff in that spot. But Geoff said it was never a for sure thing in the first place.
It was a great day. I ended up getting to see Episode VI, three times.
Here are some photos I took of Mark Hamill tonight.
http://sequeltrilogy.tumblr.com/post/49660505233/mark-hamill-discussed-episode-vii-tonight-at-the
I like Hamil’s comment about a balance between CGI and practical special effects. I hope JJ listens.
Jason, so glad to meet you last night!
I started to think it was Harrison Ford considering the trivia question from the 2pm game… would have made a great intro to Ford, the way they used a Luke Skywalker imitation contest as a pretext to pull Mark out.
That’s one nice Harrison impression. Thought he was right there.
James, it was great to meet you too! It was especially awesome because it was the best Star Wars event in years (for me anyways!)
I think it was Harrison as well.
Here is a full video of the interview me and Amanda (my wife) shot:
http://sequeltrilogy.tumblr.com/post/49750204154/full-mark-hamill-interview-from-the-return-of-the
We had to change over cameras at one point and then back again, unfortunately. But you can see the interview and hear it fairly well.