Posts

Posted on

Video: Star Wars Story Talk: ABC-3PO, LEGO Star Wars Days, The Freemaker Adventures

Star-Wars-Story-Talk-6-26-2016-title-card

The hunt for a new name for my video series is over! Since we mostly focus on the latest in new Star Wars storytelling in TV, films, books, comics, and events, Unboxing Star Wars is now Star Wars Story Talk! Yowie the skunk, Baby Jawa, and I review the latest book for the kid set: Star Wars: ABC-3PO, by Calliope Glass and Caitlin Kennedy, with illustrations by Katie Cook. We also flash back to LEGO Star Wars Days held earlier this month at LEGOLAND California and discuss the new LEGO Star Wars TV series, The Freemaker Adventures. For more details on the LEGOLAND event, check out my article on starwars.com: LEGO Star Wars Days. Plus random fun with a Jawa buddy, and then some Baby Jawa fun time!


Quick reviews
→ Star Wars: ABC-3PO – Two thumbs up! Love the Katie Cook illustrations and fun rhymes by Calliope Glass and Caitlin Kennedy. Great for fans whether kids or parents! (For ages 3-5)
→ LEGOLAND California: LEGO Star Wars Days 2016 – A lot of fun! In a year without any new permanent Star Wars additions to Miniland, the park still knows how to make a great Star Wars event with plenty of unique activities including photo ops with costumers from the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, and Mandalorian Mercs; the really awesome Fan Gallery, showcasing amazing Star Wars-themed builds from LEGO fans; family build, trivia and costume contests; and a bunch of scavenger hunts. Plus sneak preview screenings of the first episode of LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures.
→ LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. Thumbs up! If you’re a fan of the previous LEGO Star Wars series, this new show on Disney XD will delight! Maybe a little more kid-focused than some of the previous series, it still contains the great mix of Star Wars stories with LEGO humor, and introduces a new set of heroes!

Get more info on Wear Star Wars Every Day or make a donation at GoFundMe or sign up to make a per-day pledge.

Note: Disney-Lucasfilm Press provided a copy of Star Wars: ABC-3PO for review.

Posted on

The week in Star Wars: Rogue One, Aftermath and more

ro-ew-deathtrooperIt’s been a busy one, so let’s recap! The big news this week was Entertainment Weekly’s cover story on – the movie’s first. (The issue is in stores now.) Our most extensive coverage is still in the what we’ve learned post, which has been updated to cover both galleries. Additionally, EW covered Darth Vader and Mon Mothma‘s roles in the film. Rogue One also dominated the latest tweet roundup.

Our other big item was the second excerpt from Aftermath: Life Debt, which shows us Leia using the Force and sensing baby Ben.

Also this week: James reached the halfway point on #WearStarWarsEveryDay | Disney’s Bob Iger on the future of Indiana Jones | Here’s one thing from the live-action show we’re grateful didn’t make it to The Clone Wars | Don’t ever talk to George Lucas or his art museum ever again, Chicago.

And finally, here are a few other items we didn’t get to.

→ Ewan McGregor is (understandably!) sick of about being asked if he’d be in another Star Wars movie. (The answer is still yes, though.)

→ The Force Awakens won eight Saturn Awards, including best science fiction film and nods for Harrison Ford and Adam Driver.

→ Chuck Wendig on adapting The Force Awakens for Marvel.

Posted on

Game over for the Lucas Museum in Chicago

lucas-museum

The Lucas Museum won’t be in Chicago after all. Museum officials are ending plans to build there after a challenge from the group Friends of the Parks.

“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” filmmaker George Lucas said. “The actions initiated by Friends of Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government.”

Initial plans were to build the museum in a lakefront area that’s currently a parking lot.

Posted on

Mon Mothma still trying to unite the Rebellion in Rogue One

ro-teaser1-mon-close

Their Rogue One issue should be on sale (and in mailboxes) today, but Entertainment Weekly still has more to reveal. This morning, it’s all about Rebel leader Mon Mothma, whose role here will be bigger than her first appearance in Return of the Jedi.

“We actually see quite a bit of her,” Kathleen Kennedy says. “The Rebel alliance is in disarray. Pretty panicked. Up against it. And she is trying the best she can to provide the leadership, in amongst a wide variety of Rebel soldiers that have very differing opinions as to what to do.”

As we learned back after the first trailer, Mothma is played by Genevieve O’Reilly, who was cast back for Revenge of the Sith.

Posted on

Wear Star Wars Every Day: Weeks 24 & 25


Time for a super-sized review of #WearStarWarsEveryDay for the start of summer! Since I was off at JadeCon last weekend, I didn’t get a chance to wrap up that week, so here’s Weeks 24 and 25. Big thanks to Russ of Empire City Garrison for my first donation of a 501st Legion shirt. Also, thanks to Fen, PG, Shannon, Todd, Margaret, Tony, Paul, and Mediocre Jedi for all their lending of different items of clothing I show off this week. Plenty of shirts – but also a Her Universe skirt! We cover a wide range of Star Wars interests from ILM to podcasts to a Fan Force chapter. This review for Week 24 and 25 covers June 10 to June 23 of my wearathon, and an update on fundraising for Collateral Repair Project, a non-profit organization that provides emergency assistance, education, and community support to urban refugees.

wearsw-origins16

I’ve very excited to be closing in on finishing the first half of 2016 with my project – that’s over 180 days of wearing a different Star Wars article of clothing each day – no repeats! And each day I continue my project is another $4.65 donated by our pledge makers. I’d love to get that total up to $5.00 even (or higher!) for the second half of 2016. If you’d like to chip in at a dime a day or a quarter per day (or more), make your pledge at the per-day pledge form. Or you can just make a one-time or monthly donation at GoFundMe.com/WearStarWars2016.

Get more info on what Wear Star Wars Every Day is all about, or make a donation or a per-day pledge!

Posted on

Rogue One stills give us a look at new tropical planet; reshoot concerns addressed

ro-seaside

Entertainment Weekly has shared 16 new Rogue One stills. In the captions, hints at the unnamed new world that’s a key battlefield. “There’s this sort of South Pacific, tropical paradise planet that subconsciously leads into some of the imagery associated with World War II,” director Gareth Edwards says. It was shot in the Maldives.

EW also digs deeper into those reshoot reports that sent fans into a frenzy. “There’s nothing about the story that’s changing, with a few things that we’re picking up in additional photography,” Kathleen Kennedy said. “I think that’s the most important thing, to reassure fans that it’s the movie we intended to make.”

We also get what seems to be our first official confirmation that Alexandre Desplat is doing the score.

Also from this week’s new EW: Meet the (mostly) new characters and Darth Vader’s return.

Posted on

Darth Vader will be in Rogue One “sparingly”

anh-vader-corridor

Exactly how much Darth Vader will there be in Rogue One? “He will be in the movie sparingly,” Kathleen Kennedy tells Entertainment Weekly. “But at a key, strategic moment, he’s going to loom large.”

James Earl Jones is returning to voice one of his most iconic characters, with “a variety of large-framed performers” inside the suit.

But as iconic as he is to the audience, in-galaxy Vader is “still a background player.” To the Rebellion, he’s more of a legend than a fact:

“Within the Rebellion, it’s not commonly spoken about,” says director Gareth Edwards. “Within the Empire, there is the culture of knowing of the existence of Darth Vader. There’s definitely an underlying feeling that there is a power – a dark power – available to the Empire and that if you overstep your mark, you will suffer the consequences.”

The article also looks at where Ben Mendelsohn’s Director Orson Krennic fits in, and Vader’s first day on set.

And nope – no stills yet. Will Vader make his Rogue One debut at Celebration?