Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
With the actual Making of book not due out until October, The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a must-read if you want a look at the development of the film. /Film runs down some of the possible plot points – warning, a lot of them are pretty deeply weird, or at least that’s the impression the book gave me. (The article barely scratches the surface.)
If you just want to look at pretty pictures, check out io9, Wired and Buzzfeed.
The Force Awakens is heading for a $200 million opening weekend, according to the early estimates. That puts it in sight of Jurassic World’s $208.4M record, something many doubted would be possible due to the usual holiday box office trends.
Disney says that it brought in $57M from the Thursday night previews, with Friday showings likely bringing the total to $100M.
→ John Williams talks about the score with the Los Angeles Times, including what seems to have become the score’s standout, ‘Rey’s Theme’. Meanwhile, you can listen to the full score on several streaming services, including Spotify.
→ Daniel Craig made a cameo after all, according to Entertainment Weekly, though I’m also seeing a lot of skeptical fans due to… Accent reasons.
→ Is there a backlash yet? I guess?
→ Badass Digest looks at the Resistance, the First Order and the Republic. Y’all may want to pick up Pablo Hidalgo’s Visual Guide to the movie.
→ Speaking of today’s book releases, io9 has a look at some pieces from The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
→ And speaking of books in general, author Chuck Wendig on the movie – and which Aftermath character we saw on screen.
→ Also: Easter egg sightings from EW and Comicbook, Adam Driver on Kylo Ren’s mask, and TFA rules Twitter
First and foremost, yes, we’re getting the first Star Wars movie in a decade this week – a lucky few (hundred? thousand?) tonight in Hollywood, and the rest of the world a few days later, depending on your location.
But for our purposes, let’s look at Wednesday first, which brings the Darth Vader Annual, Kanan #9, and the Legends Epic Collection: Infinities, because Marvel heard you’d like some alternate universe in your alternate universe.
Now Friday is when things get really interesting, as not only is there a movie, but a whole bunch of books as well. For fiction, there’s The Force Awakens novelization by Alan Dean Foster (eBook only – the hardcover isn’t out until January 5) and Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka. For reference, Pablo Hidalgo’s The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary, The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections from Kemp Remillard and Jason Fry, and of course, The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The Star Wars Rebels Facebook page gave us a look at The Force Awakens concept art that inspired the look of one of the new Inquistors, the Fifth Brother.
StarWars.com has announced The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens for a (shocker!) December 18th release. Written by Phil Szostak, the cover features a Kylo Ren painting by Doug Chiang.
Lucasfilm.com relaunched yesterday, and an eagle-eyed Justin LaSalata noticed that the lead photo on the production page – a meeting featuring Kathleen Kennedy and maybe (far right) John Knoll – shows what’s probably concept art for Episode VII that includes what looks like the Millennium Falcon, a mountainous location, an X-Wing pilot and maybe even an older Luke? (Or, maybe, ghost Obi-Wan on Dagobah in Return of the Jedi?) Look closer:
The Falcon appearing is pretty much a given at this point, but this is the first thing we have officially that even hints at it. Of course, it could all be for something else…
There’s also what looks like a few new – or at least better quality than we’ve seen – images of the Ghost on the Rebels page.
I’ve been trying something new on our Tumblr lately: Themes! This week it’s Star Wars concept art. Above is an image from the official account: A concept of the Ghost from Rebels by Kilian Plunkett.
Last week we featured art from (and occasionally inspired by) the comics and comic artists. (Plunkett is also responsible for the covers from the Mara Jade: By the Emperor’s Hand mini-series back in the day.) In addition to reblogs we had a series on comic book characters and it’s where you’ll find my Dark Horse recs.)
Prequel concept artists Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig are working on the ‘exciting new future for Star Wars,’ StarWars.com announced earlier this week. It’s not clear if they’ll be working on Episode VII, standalone films, neither or both.
They’ll be attending Celebration Europe next month.
Chiang was design director for The Phantom Menace and concept design supervisor for Attack of the Clones. McCaig, who designed Darth Maul, was one of the principal designers throughout the prequels.
Chiang and McCaig are the first major behind-the-scenes Star Wars veterans to be announced as returning for future films, aside from screenwriter Laurence Kasdan (doing a spinoff) and George Lucas as creative consultant on Episode VII.
It’s a sad day in fandom: The man who gave Star Wars its first images passed away yesterday. Originally commissioned by George Lucas to illustrate scenes from the Star Wars script in 1975, Ralph McQuarrie was the first – and certainly the most well-known – concept artist for the saga. On StarWars.com, Lucas said: “When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘Do it like this.'”
In addition to the original trilogy, McQuarrie also worked on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Cocoon, for which he won an Academy Award.
McQuarrie was 82. His official site is asking for memorials to be posted to his Facebook page or via email.
Any excuse for a gallery, and this time io9’s is concept art that reimagines the greatest space epics. The Star Wars offerings are the best of the bunch, naturally.