Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Like the rest of us, he “can’t wait to see” the latest take on his signature animated character.
“For all those fans that dreamed of an adult approach to the material, ‘Batman Begins’ got nearly everything right,” Mark Hamill wrote to MTV News upon first seeing the trailer for Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight. “I have no doubt this one will be just as good or better.”
Like a select few event movies before it, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is getting a sizable spread in Vanity Fair, with the requite Annie Leibovitz photo shoot. There’s also an online-only George Lucas Q&A where he talks quite a bit about Star Wars, including the differences between the two trilogies:
People who are over 40 love [Episodes] IV, V, and VI and hate I, II, and III. Younger people like I, II, and III and don’t like IV, V, and VI, or they like I, II, and III better and think IV, V, and VI are kind of boring and slow. And of course the older people say, “Oh, I, II, and III—it’s too jittery, too fast, too complicated, it’s too digital,” or whatever they want to say. But definitely one generation has grabbed hold of one of them, and the other generation has grabbed hold of the next one.
The magazine ought to be on newsstands now. (via)
ETA: i09 has a rebuttal to George’s comments on why we’ll hate Indy 4. Awww. It’s so cute when they’re young and innocent enough to believe in the great and generous nature of fandom-at-large when confronted with new things.
Clearly our reporting has suffered in the onslaught of the holiday madness because this is cool!
Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films, has been cast as Edward in the film version of Twilight. (A book series that is the obsession of many of us, right now.)
The author apparently approves, as well.
Premiere Magazine does an interview with John Hurt on being in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The veteran actor talks about being cast but keeps contractually mum about the script as his role, even amid speculation that he plays Abner Ravenwood. He also discusses working with the divine Spielberg and leaving Lucas alone.
Other news from the world of Indiana Jones:
The cover of J.W. Rinzler’s The Complete Making of Indiana Jones (covering all 4 movies) has been revealed on starwars.com. The book comes out May 22, 2008.
Disc Nine of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones – Volume Two: The War Years is visited on starwars.com, with a historical lecture on War and Revolution, and for your computer, an interactive timeline and a game called “Special Delivery” based on Indy’s adventures in Africa.
And of course, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones – Volume Two: The War Years was released this past Tuesday on DVD. Get it wherever DVD box sets are sold.
ABC News rediscovers the Star Wars Holiday Special. In the realm of the slightly less awful, Nathan Rabin of The Onion’s A.V. Club revisits rat-tails and Howard the Duck.
British comedian Eddie Izzard will voice Narnia’s Reepicheep. (Interestingly enough, I was just discussing him elsewhere.) I don’t know if he’s exactly appropriate, but he’s a funny guy so I honestly don’t care.
For a quick immersion lesson, be sure to check out Thorn2200’s Lego animations of bits from Izzard’s routines. We’ve previously featured Death Star Canteen.
The Movie Blog asks: Is Star Wars robot inspiration for Wall-E? Well, this one, certainly…. This one? I’m not so sure. But hey, they have one of those cut scenes videos. Been a while since that one last came around, right?
Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) is a name that folks have been throwing around to direct The Hobbit: EW got hold of him for a brief interview about venturing into Middle Earth.
