Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Today, Rolling Stone has an interview with The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams, who says the film is “the most challenging thing I’ve ever been involved in. By a lot.” Plus, a new photo! He also talks about The Last Jedi, co-writer Chris Terrio, the original idea behind making Rey the hero, criticisms of The Force Awakens, George Lucas and more.
A brief one-time advertising opportunity on Disney+ for Starz is the price that Disney paid to get The Force Awakens from Starz, per The Verge. Which seems odd, given that TFA – which was one of the last Disney films on Starz under a pre-Netflix contract – hasn’t actually been airing on Starz is a while, but far be it from me to assume when the contract terms actually expire.
Composer John Williams has seen an early cut of The Rise of Skywalker, likes it “very much” and has written about 25 minutes of the score, he tells The Times. The original article is behind a paywall, but head to /Film for the relevant quote.
Several new stills from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi have surfaced via an interview with with still photographer David James.
As the opening of the first Galaxy’s Edge park grows closer, there are new photos of the land and details on how they’ll be enforcing the initial four hour limit. Of course, if you have the connections, there’s always a personal tour with Bob Iger.
Avengers: Endgame began its run beating The Force Awakens’ opening and single day record. More are sure to come, as the weekend toll for the MCU’s 22nd move is expected to reach at least $349M for the weekend.
Will Lucasfilm and The Rise of Skywalker beat their step-franchise siblings come December? It’s far too early to tell, but we’ll be watching.
Star Wars Resistance is officially on The Force Awakens’ turf with ‘No Escape, Part 1’.
Kaz and his friends devise a plan to break out Tam, Doza and Yeager. But before they can, troopers begin bearing down and Kaz and CB-23 are soon on their own. Kaz unites with Torra to save their friends and family, but they soon bear witness to the full might of the First Order.
More images and a clip under the cut
Continue reading “Resistance S1 winds down as the First Order winds up”
Actor Topher Grace made some headlines in 2012 when word leaked that he’d privately shown an 85-minute version of all three Star Wars prequels. That’s unlikely to ever see the light of day, but he and friend/collaborator Jeff Yorkes have now released a 5-minute “mega-trailer” for the franchise, including both complete trilogies, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Rogue One and Solo. It’s absolutely worth a watch, and the perfect thing to come out as we await Episode IX.
The Force Awakens will debut on network TV this coming Sunday (February 17) airing at 8:00/7:00 p.m. on (where else) ABC.
This has no effect the TBS/TNT deal, which is for basic cable rights, not broadcast – The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and the first two trilogies will continue to air there as well.
Fan Jose Ruiz noted an interesting bit of information in the code for the Resistance page on StarWars.com: It pegs the show’s setting as “about six months before The Force Awakens.”
Set about six months before The Force Awakens, Star Wars Resistance tells the story of Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot recruited by the Resistance and tasked with a top-secret mission to spy on the growing threat of the First Order.
The timing of the series isn’t mentioned in what was sent out Friday, but if it’s in the page’s meta description – which is there for search engine purposes, i.e. “When is Star Wars Resistance set?” – I doubt it was ever meant to be a secret.
Continue reading “Resistance is set “about six months” before The Force Awakens”
Disney is trying to buy back the broadcast rights to Star Wars from Turner Broadcasting, which currently has them through 2024, says Bloomberg. They apparently want them for their own streaming service.
I admit that I am a bit doubtful, since it seems like streaming and broadcast rights for older titles ought to be separate? But I’m hardly an expert on this sort of minutiae, and Disney might want the exclusivity for their own service regardless of what the TBS/TNT deal allows.
TNT started showing the first two trilogies in September 2016, and got The Force Awakens this year. Rogue One is due in 2019 – if Disney doesn’t find the magic number to get them back, that is. The TNT deal was reportedly worth “at least $250 million” – Bloomberg pegs it as $275 million, and says TNT wants “programming to replace the lost films” as well.
With Episode IX due to begin filming on August 1, let’s take a look back at our first official dispatches from the set of The Force Awakens.
The clapperboard photo (#dayone) was tweeted by @bad_robot on May 16, 2014, while an official video for Omaze/Force for Change featuring director J.J. Abrams and the creature we now know as BobbaJo arrived on May 21.
Continue reading “Flashback: Our first official looks at The Force Awakens”