Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
In an interview with IGN, J.J. Abrams is surprisingly candid about Kylo Ren, how exactly he idolizes Darth Vader, and why he turned to the dark side.
At Birth. Movies. Death., Siddhant Adlakha explores why Kylo is such a great villain, and how he works as a metaphor for Abrams himself.
And for those who wonder, Pablo Hidalgo himself on Kylo’s age.
The Force Awakens is rounding out the weekend with an unprecedented $238 millon domestic haul. That means the film has handily beat Jurassic World as the biggest opener ever. Worldwide, the film has already made $517 million – that record says with the dinos – but TFA doesn’t open in China until next month.
Variety has a rundown of the broken records.
J.J. Abrams , Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt explained Artoo’s actions (and lack thereof) in The Force Awakens at a post-screening event on Saturday, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. These are some pretty hefty spoilers, so check them out at the link or below the cut.
Continue reading “Spoilerphobes beware: On R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens”
No, you weren’t hearing things: Those were the voices of Ewan MacGregor, Frank Oz and Alec Guinness that we heard during Rey’s vision in The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
Ewan McGregor came in to record his part (after cartoon counterpart James Arnold Taylor took a shot at it,) as did Frank Oz. Guinness’ “Rey” was isolated from existing audio:
As they worked on editing the dream sequence, Bryan Burk, a longtime Bad Robot collaborator and one of the producers of the film, surprised Abrams one day with the gift of a single word: Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice saying the name “Rey …”
“I said, ‘That’s cool, is that the thing from Ewan McGregor?’” Abrams recalled. “He said ‘No, we took a line from Alec Guinness saying ‘Afraid.’”
Not only that, but the lilt in his voice from that truncated word happened to fit exactly what Abrams had in mind. “They cut it, and you hear the performance – he’s saying it the way I would have begged Alec Guinness to have said it. It is so crazy perfect,” Abrams says. “So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”
Taylor and several other familiar voices can still be heard in various parts around the film – but I’ll leave the specific IDing to those more well-versed in the cartoons than I.
Adam Driver will be the first of The Force Awakens cast to host Saturday Night Live come January 19. Dude does have comedy chops, so this is bound to be interesting.
Driver’s hosting was announced during last night’s airing of the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler winter finale, which not-so-shockingly featured no Star Wars sketches. Previous episodes this season have featured cameos from J.J. Abrams, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, and a toy commercial parody.
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
Did you see The Force Awakens tonight? (Or yesterday, or a few days ago…) Here’s a safe spot to discuss it. Spoilers are very much allowed, so stay away until you’ve seen it! (My spoiler-free review is thataway.)
The rules are pretty simple: Don’t be a jerk, and remember we have threaded comments so you can directly reply to someone if you so wish. (Some comments may get caught up in moderation, so bear with me. I do have to sleep sometime.)
StarWars.com’s Andi Guiterrez has some questions for J.J. Abrams and the cast of The Force Awakens. Also, lollipops! Sadly not the infamous Jar Jar ones.
…Or to watch now that you’e seen it. Above, a look at shooting in Abu Dhabi. Below the cut, on story and stunts.
Continue reading “Video: The Force Awakens featurettes to whet your appetite”
According to Fandango (via Variety) The Force Awakens has moved the most tickets in the site’s history. Not just presales: Total sales of movies like Jurassic World and The Hunger Games. That doesn’t account for the other online ticket-sellers and in-person sales, but it’s still pretty impressive.
Just the other day, we heard (unofficially, but supposedly via a Disney source) that the film has passed the $100M mark in total presales.
The Force Awakens has already opened in several international territories, where it’s already brought in $14.1 million from early screenings. In France alone it took in $5.2 million, their biggest December opening day ever.