Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Bonnie Burton is no longer with Lucasfilm and StarWars.com. The company has laid her off, she announced today on Twitter.
Bonnie wrote content for the website and handled social media. She was hired in 2003, during the run-up to Revenge of the Sith, and has been an outspoken force for women in the fandom ever since.
We’re a little puzzled by this move on the part of Lucasfilm, but no one is doubting that Bonnie will land on her feet somewhere!
Untruths! An article about Jake Lloyd has been floating around in which claims he called his post-Star War childhood a “living hell.” Lloyd took to Facebook on Sunday to deny it: “The quotes in the article do not accurately reflect my feelings for the time I spent on Star Wars or the time I spent in high school.” The article says the quotes came from “a magazine” and also attributes comments from his mother to a (defunct) domain similar to Sci Fi Channel Australia, which did do an interview with Lloyd (though not his mother) in 2009.
Culture. In The New York Times, Matt Richtel takes a look at how Star Wars is still captivating kids. (Did no one tell him about The Clone Wars, which doesn’t get a single mention?) Last week in the NYT: The New York Jedi. Pity about the headline fail. (Jedi is the plural. Tell your copy editors.)
Interview. George Lucas chatted with Sen. Bill Bradley on his “American Voices” radio program last week. Topics included filmmaking technology,Red Tails, good and evil in Star Wars and education.’
Randomly… Actor Topher Grace (That 70’s Show) edited all three prequels into one 85-minute film. The cut was shown only to “a private gathering of Topher’s industry friends.” There are no plans to show or release it publicly – Grace refuses to do so without permission, which seems unlikely.
Also: Play The Old Republic for free this weekend | Amanda Lucas on ESPN | What Star Wars teaches us about creativity.
Ewan McGregor spoke to /Film about his latest movie, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, his Oscar-winning Beginners co-star Christopher Plummer, the upcoming Jack the Giant Killer and, of course, the prequels:
Well I like them. I mean I saw them when they came out and I haven’t seen them since, but I was happy to be in them. I felt that it was great to be part of that huge legend of STAR WARS and you know I never involve myself in the discussion about it or the criticism of them or not. They are what they are and fortunately to the moment they’ve re-released the first one and there’s a whole generation of kids now who weren’t around when we released them before. Children love them, regardless of what the die hard STAR WARS fans from the 70’s think, kids love them to bits and I’ve always really enjoyed that with my discussions with them, you know when people’s kids who I haven’t met before come up and they see Obi Wan Kenobi. They’ve always got nice questions to ask and stuff.
He hasn’t seen The Phantom Menace 3D due to filming on The Corrections, but he hopes to go soon – and “take my kids along.”
Pros and fans alike have plenty to say on the passing of the legendary Star Wars concept artist. Below the cut, I’ve collected several remembrances of McQuarrie on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere.
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.
The Science Channel’s Prophets of Science Fiction will air an episode devoted to George Lucas on March 7. Here’s the description:
From Luke Skywalker’s light sabre to Darth Vader’s Death Star, the Star Wars franchise is one of the defining science fiction works of the later 20th century. George Lucas’ prolific imagination has already inspired two generations of scientists and engineers to push the envelope of technology. By introducing computers into the filmmaking process, he changed the way movies are made, and the way we all see the future.
(It’s lightsaber. Sigh.) Most of the subjects of the show are science fiction authors (Mary Shelley, Issac Asimov) so Lucas appears to be a controversial choice in the comments. Still, you can’t deny that Star Wars has had a lot of influence over the genre.
Rumor! Pocket Lint report that sources at the Panasonic conference in Hamburg are saying that The Phantom Menace 3D will be coming to Blu-ray in the spring.
Being Ackbar. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub catches up with Erik Bauersfeld, the radio dramatist who provided the voice of Admiral Ackbar and Bib Fortuna.
Sports. Sports Illustrated features Amanda Lucas. She claimed an open-weight women’s championship Saturday in Japan.
Honors. George Lucas accepted a Vanguard Award from Samuel L. Jackson at Saturday’s NAACP Image Awards. In his presentation, Jackson talking about lobbying for a role in the prequels: “I’ll be a Storm Trooper and just run across the screen. Nobody even has to know I’m in it.”
Random… George Lucas at Fashion Week? Yes, indeed: Lucas was spotted at the Rodarte show on Tuesday with girlfriend Mellody Hobson. According to one report, Lucas is “obsessed” with the work of the women behind the label, sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy. (Maybe George is thinking about costumes for one of his art films?)
Also at the show was Natalie Portman, who was wearing Rodarte when she got her Oscar for Black Swan last year – they designed the movie’s costumes.
Sith strategists? Forbes’ Alex Knapp looks at five leadership mistakes of the Galactic Empire.
It’s an industry. In his latest Film Critic column, John Scalzi looks at why Star Wars just won’t go away.
Haters gonna hate. Has-been mouth-frother Glenn Beck went on a rant about Star Wars this week. In addition to hating on The Phantom Menace (so last week) he also hated on… Red Tails? Really? For what it’s worth, Rick McCallum is thrilled.
Listen. Geeky band The Board of Education has a cute song about Star Wars called ‘Why Is Dad So Mad?’
Voice actor James Arnold Taylor, (Obi-Wan Kenobi on Star Wars: The Clone Wars) recently posted a trailer for his one-man show, “Talking to Myself”. Teasing his eighty-minute show, this clip covers some of different parts of his act. If you’ve seen his show from Star Wars weekends at Walt Disney World (or seen video of that half-hour show online last year), these bits aren’t new, but it is always entertaining. Hopefully Taylor will bring his show to Celebration VI!
Ian Abercrombie with Cat Taber and Matt Lanter at a 2010 Clone Wars screening. (Photo by Bonnie Burton for StarWars.com.)Character actor Ian Abercrombie, who voiced Palpatine on The Clone Wars, died Thursday at the age of 77.
He may be best known to masses for his role on Seinfeld, playing Elaine’s boss Mr. Pitt. His other credits include Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, Army of Darkness, and Wizards of Waverly Place.
Dave Filoni wrote a tribute to Abercrombie on Facebook, while several of the Clone Wars voice actors took to Twitter. See what they had to say below the cut.
Continue reading “The Clone Wars’ Palpatine, Ian Abercrombie, passes away”