Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
We’ve had a few rather shaky rumors that Benicio del Toro and Carrie Fisher might be part of the scenes to be filmed on the newly neoned streets of Dubrovnik, but a new report from Mos Croatia names Mark Hamill and Daisy Ridley. It’s certainly a lovely place for a staring contest.
On the Oscars red carpet last night, Daisy Ridley told MTV News that Episode VIII does indeed pick up where The Force Awakens left off, and about working with Mark Hamill.
(This may not be exactly VIII related, but since we’re here: Fashion bloggers Tom & Lorenzo and the Fug Girls on Ridley’s dress.)
→ A curious dome-shaped building has been spotted at Pinewood. It’s similar to those found at the monastery at Skellig Michael.
→ The Dubrovnik street set now lights up, and not for nothing – it looks like they’ll be doing some night filming.
→ It seems the film may also be scouting for caves in Mexico.
Writer Charles Soule and artist Phil Noto talked about their upcoming Poe Dameron comic with CBR. Soule reveals that Poe’s squadron is “ike a special missions crew,” and the new First Order villain is an intelligence officer who’s almost “an evil Lando.”
The comic’s first arc will deal with “a sort of cult,” and lead into (as we’ve heard previously) the mission that takes him to Lor San Tekka in The Force Awakens.
CBR also debuted a new, BB-8-centric variant cover by Joe Quinones for issue #1. The series is due to begin in late March.
There were no wins for Star Wars at the Academy Awards tonight, but at least The Force Awakens lost (mostly) to fellow genre films. Mad Max: Fury Road pretty much swept the technical categories at the Academy Awards, shutting out The Force Awakens in Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Star Wars’ best chance was considered to be Visual Effects, which was instead won by Ex Machina in a surprising upset. John Williams lost out to The Hateful Eight’s Ennio Morricone, who paid tribute to 5-time winner Williams in his speech.
But hey, we did get an appearance by Threepio, Artoo and BB-8. Later, Daisy Ridley was joined by Dev Patel to present Best Documentary, and J.J. Abrams presented Best Director to The Revenant’s Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
This morning, Stitch Kingdom spotted a cover on the pre-order page for The Force Awakens Blu-Ray from Walmart. The product page is still live, but not searchable. Some are reporting that this is the Walmart exclusive cover, but I don’t really see any sign of that. (Though it’s certainly possible we’ll see multiple covers – I hope not just slipcovers.)
Reports have the Blu-ray coming out April 5, with digital copies available as soon as March 15. We’re still waiting an an official announcement, maybe as soon as Tuesday.
→ J.J. Abrams talks about Harrison Ford and how he reacted to his big moment in The Force Awakens with Fandango.
→ Daisy Ridley and J.J. Abrams talked about Star Wars at the Oscar Wilde Awards, which was held at the Bad Robot office. Ridley got a bit more specific (maybe too specific) on Skellig Michael with Goss.ie.
→ The Hollywood Reporter looks at The Force Awakens’ chances at the VFX Oscar. Reminder: Daisy Ridley and J.J. Abrams will be presenting at the ceremony tomorrow tonight.
→ The Force Awakens publicity team, at least, has already won one honor: The Maxwell Weinberg Showmanship trophy.
The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams was asked about the future of gay characters in Star Wars Thursday. “Of course,” he told The Daily Beast. “When I talk about inclusivity it’s not excluding gay characters. It’s about inclusivity. So of course.”
By Abrams’ logic, the sprawling Star Wars universe couldn’t possibly exist without a gay populace—even if we haven’t seen a single character identified as gay thus far. “I would love it,” he said. “To me, the fun of Star Wars is the glory of possibility. So it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world.”
Of course, fans of the new Star Wars novels know that there are already canon gay and lesbian characters there (most notably, though not without ‘controversy,’ in Aftermath) but on film it’s a different story.
Abrams’ comments are far from a promise – or a confirmation – but he does say that discussions on diversity and inclusiveness are happening in Hollywood. And given what Lucasfilm’s done so far, I doubt they’re an exception.
Variety has a story looking at how Ireland is getting a boost from film, but we all know the most important thing is a new behind the scenes picture from The Force Awakens featuring Mark Hamill on Skellig Micheal.
Bonus: I’m pretty sure this puts that whole ‘gravestone’ speculation to bed.
The Force Awakens editors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon tell The Independent that 7 deleted scenes will appear on the Blu-ray and DVDs.
UPDATE: Here’s a list of possible special features.
“There aren’t a lot. There’s one with Harrison Ford, there’s one with Rey, but there aren’t a lot,” Maryann Brandon said. So no word if Maz Kanata handing the Skywalker lightsaber off to Leia – the shot that launched a thousand questions when it appeared in the second trailer – will be one of them.
We’re still waiting on an official announcement, but the Blu-ray is expected to be a three-disc set released on April 5.
Mark Hamill joined the Space Bear photo squad with a picture this morning of an “Exotic Alien Creature” – aka his daughter’s dog. Does Gary Fisher have a posse at Pinewood? Also: #Beardwatch.
→ Another picture and even set construction video from the streets of Dubrovnik. Also, on the more spoilery side, here’s a rumor of what kind of scene they may be filming.
Looks like The Force Awakens may be released for home digital (aka iTunes and the like) as early as March 15th, per Blu-ray.com (via). Interesting, but given that staggered release dates seem to be a big thing with this movie, not at all unprecedented. Signs point to the Blu-ray and DVD coming out April 5.
→ The Force Awakens is up for 15 Saturn Awards, including nods for J.J. Abrams, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Lupita Nyong’o.
→ ANOVOS’ Kylo Ren costume is available for pre-order. So many layers.
→ Here’s one way to make a more appetizing version of Rey’s green bread.