On David Letterman last night: “Top Ten Things Never Before Said by a Star Wars Character”
“Are you an angel?”
Trying to keep up, but my internet is still fond of taking long vacations and I have to go to work tomorrow. Work? In the middle of this? What was I thinking?
On starwars.com: another new commercial, and a blogging service for Hyperspace members.
ROTS is up and off at Cannes, and they loved it. Although possibly for political reasons, but you take what you can get. ( Lucas says differently.) TFN has more Cannes stuff, if you have an overwhelming urge to see what Natalie Portman looks like bald.
The movie is still riding high with 81% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, bless their review-gathering hearts.
However, any review that starts with a paragraph about things coming out of nostrils is probably not going to be positive. Sure enough, The New Yorker was unimpressed with ROTS. I also have to wonder if the reviewer has ever seen A New Hope or his eyes ever registered the Millenium Falcon, with him going on about how ‘sterilized’ the GFFA is. And, horror of horrors, he quotes some Anakin/Padme dialouge that might make me retch more than the “angel” line from TPM. That’s about when I stopped reading. (Via kottke)
Luckily, I got to cleanse my brain with an article on Ian McDiarmid, a slideshow from Forbes on Star Wars flops , and for extra bitterness, IGN’s list of the lamest characters, half of which, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably forgotten existed. If that’s a little too much bitterness, they also have a 10 best background character list. Corpsey the Ewok. Hehe.
The usual suspects…
Two new commercials: “Brothers” and “Celebration“. Alas, I am on a computer with no Quicktime, but I’m guessing they’re light on Palpy action. There’s also a “Science of Star Wars” special airing on Discovery.
Hayden Christensen is on the cover of tomorrow’s Entertainment Weekly. It appears that this time there may actually be a real article to go with it.
Crazy fans at Grauman’s refuse an offer from George himself to be escorted by Stormies to the ArcLight.
The Scotsman on why Star Wars has universal appeal.
CNN Money explores the financial impact of ROTS on Lucasfilm, theatres, and the toy industry.
From the Christian Science Monitor (via CBS), yet another George Lucas article.
Master Replicas! You want one. Hell, I want one. And it looks like they’ll be making costumes by Halloween…
I’ve stopped counting
Must stop doing these things at midnight…
The Reader’s Digest article starring our Supreme Chancellor and featuring quotes from the fearsome PG is now online. You will read it.
The New York Sun says Star Wars fans may have a “psychological disorder” and “don’t really have a clear sense of self”. No one’s going to deny that the fandom doesn’t have a few wackos, but you don’t have to generalize. Maybe they need to take a look at Reader’s Digest.
My hometown paper The Detroit News has a 1A article today on the films and the fans. I strongly advise you to answer the Cybersurvey. The Free Press and their Knight Ridder cohorts have a wealth of coverage as well.
Finally, CNN covers the charity premieres, featuring the shocking news that Kelsey Grammer, of all people, auditioned for the Han Solo role.
Washington Post Star Wars Section
The Washington Post has a special on-line only Star Wars section
Lots of good stuff here now with more scheduled for the next week, including web chats with Matt Stover and Jeremy Bulloch. There’s also a “Sith Sense” blog with entries about DC area news. The most interesting tidbit there is that the American Film Institute theater in Silver Spring MD will be showing ANH, ESB, RoTJ, TPM and AoTC in early July as part of the AFI’s tribute to George Lucas. Details to come.
Whoohoo!
Six to go…
Got my tickets for the 12:01 am show next week – they’re playing it in three theaters at my local multiplex. Three! So now I feel like a bit of an idiot for heading straight to the theater after work. But now I’m wondering – should I try to convince my friends to relive our high school days and get there early enough to be at the front of the line? (We did that for the Special Editions… yes, I’m just a youngling, I know.)
First off, another new commercial sporting more of the lovely Palpatine footage that makes us Sith get all giggly and excited… Note to Lucasfilm: Less of Padme. More of Palpy. Sell the evil.
The highlight of today’s articles – Anthony Daniels on what kind of wine to drink while watching Revenge of the Sith.
The BBC looks at why Star Wars still matters. Because, you know, all this media coverage apparently has people wondering. Includes testimonials from fans. Meanwhile, Reuters wonders if its good for cinema.
Would you pay $500 to see ROTS early?
And now for something completely different… a bit on Lucasfilm’s new Presidio headquarters. Pretty!
One Week To Go…
And the articles just don’t stop coming.
George Lucas on The O.C. tonight. Are you fanboy enough to watch it?
Watching The O.C. isn’t exactly a given, but skipping work? “Worker absenteeism on the Thursday and Friday opening of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith could cost U.S. employers a whopping $627-million (U.S.) in the two days, according to one report.” Please – most of us arranged vacation time months ago. Get with the program, folks.
Boston Globe article on the fans. (Thanks, Helen!)
MSNBC wants these plot holes filled.
The Village Voice reviews ROTS rather unfavorably… But to call it “the most expensive stoner film in history” might be overstating it a bit. Most stoners I know are too lazy to operate a DVD player, let alone stumble their way into a theatre. And “galactic Thomas Kinkade gallery”? Them’s fighting words! (Except, well, we concede Naboo. But that hack Kinkade doesn’t do hellfire.)
In the news: George Lucas loos back at Star Wars, his future for the original trilogy characters
Associated Press has a look back at George, touting that he’s glad to leave Star Wars behind: “Lucas’ accomplishments marked a one-of-a-kind revolution. He sneaked into a Hollywood that no longer had the verve or nerve to make the weird, giddy, goofy Saturday matinees of his youth.”
MTV interviews George Lucas: “Han and Leia probably did get married,” Lucas conceded. “They settled down. She became a senator, and they got a nice little house with a white picket fence. Han Solo is out there cooking burgers on the grill. Is that a movie? I don’t think so.”
MSNBC catches up with Hayden Christensen: “It was absolutely overwhelming, just from the aspect of getting to act behind a mask,” Christensen said. “That is a very freeing position to act from, and to have that mask be the mask of Darth Vader is extremely empowering.”
Even Mark Hamill can’t escape the frenzy: “And I said, ‘There’s no way this will fail’ because it’s got a sense of humor. It’s the key element that most science fiction films don’t have, which is a sort of arch sense of humor. Now, we’re playing it completely straight, but it’s inherently absurd. I mean, I can’t tell you how much we laughed on the set to have Alec Guinness in a scene with a big, furry dog that’s flying a space ship.”
Make me cry, George. I dare you.
PVP has a very astute view of the prequels. Seems pretty much in line with my own experience…
Deja Vu
More details on the TV shows. Live action, still set between the trilogies, shot in Austrailiam but now reports have it at 100 episodes long (!) at an hour each.
Am I the only one getting a Young Indiana Jones ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ feeling here? Between the trilogies with no major characters? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but not even Boba Fett and his sure-fire fanboy tractor beam? I have a very bad feeling about this.