On Good Morning America this morning, Daisy Ridley admits she cried after watching The Force Awakens, and John Boyega does an impression of the Gingerbread Man from Shrek.
Everyone is auditioning for young Han Solo
There are a lot of names in this story from The Hollywood Reporter on the many actors who are vying for a shot at the role of young Han Solo. So many names. I wouldn’t count on anyone making the finals yet, though:
“This has been the easiest movie to audition for,” says an agent with a client who has auditioned. “They are seeing everyone.”
We do learn that the film’s code name is “Red Cup.” (Naturally!)
The young Han Solo spinoff film will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller from a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan. It’s expected to begin shooting in January 2017. The release date has been announced as May 25, 2018.
Video: Harrison Ford was delightful on Jimmy Fallon last night
Harrison Ford’s appearance on The Tonight Show last night was joyfully bizarre. There were Academy Award jokes:
And drinks:
And it all ends with a doll mutilation:
LEGOLAND California brings out the fun for the holidays
While winter brings the cold across much of the U.S., southern California stays snow-free near the coast – except at LEGOLAND California in Carlsbad. The theme park puts on its annual winter celebration, Holiday Snow Days and Winter Nights, and Baby Jawa, Grandma Jawa and I got the opportunity to check it out. This was a big treat for baby girl as it was her first time in the snow! Plus we got a chance to see Star Wars miniland and the rest of the park.
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Today in The Force Awakens: More magazine covers, interviews
Carrie Fisher is on the cover of Good Housekeeping, or at least the U.K. edition, for January. (That’s December in magazine world.) Most of the soundbites pulled out of the interview have been about being older in Hollywood and having to lose weight for The Force Awakens, but it does look like there may be more to the interview. Lifestyle magazines, go figure! Other new Star Wars covers include Lupita Nyong’o for Elle UK (you can find her on Essence in the U.S.) and Daisy Ridley for Glamour UK. Daisy’s December cover for Elle US is on shelves now. People also has a The Force Awakens ‘collector’s edition’ coming to newsstands December 9.
→ On Good Morning America, Harrison Ford revealed he’s seen The Force Awakens and declines to reveal Han Solo’s relationship status. Howard Stern had Adam Driver on, and I definitely recommend giving it a listen. (Driver revealed – accidentally? – he’s signed for 3.) And going back to yesterday’s J.J. Abrams interview on Sirius XM, he talks about that first cast photo.
→ New features from the Disney Channel on Finn and BB-8. And in his second explainer video, Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican talks about Rey’s speeder.
→ If you feel like you’ve been seeing a lot of Star Wars commercials lately, that’s because Disney has claimed the top spot in movie ad spending for The Force Awakens.
→ Of course Abu Dhabi (aka Jakku) will be hosting the film’s Middle Eastern premiere. It’ll be December 16th at the Dubai International Film Festival. Meanwhile, the movie will open on January 9th in China.
And now there’s Star Wars ice cream
With the collaboration of Lucasfilm and Disney, Brooklyn’ Ample Hills Creamery has created two limited edition Star Wars ice cream (frozen custard?) flavors. Per Entertainment Weekly, the flavors are:
The Dark Side (ultra-dark chocolate ice cream with espresso fudge brownies, cocoa crispies, and white chocolate pearls) and The Light Side (bright marshmallow ice cream with homemade crispie clusters, as well as a smattering of handmade cocoa crispies).
They can be ordered online and come in four-packs with collectible containers.
Wizard! Best #StarWars and #TheForceAwakens tweets for Nov. 20-30
I believe we’ve reached the point of the runup to the movie where things start to get a little… Weird.
Continue reading “Wizard! Best #StarWars and #TheForceAwakens tweets for Nov. 20-30”
The Force Awakens’ will feature music from J.J. Abrams and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda
The big news out of J.J. Abrams’ appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon was that he collaborated with Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda on the music for The Force Awakens’ Cantina equivalent. (Maz Kanata’s place, no doubt.)
Hamilton probably needs no introduction (but here’s one from PBS,) since it’s the rare Broadway show that the internet can’t shut up about. You can listen to the original cast recording on Spotify.
Miranda confirmed, in case anyone doubts Abrams:
We did.
Worked on it between 6pm & 7:30 on 2 show days for the past 2 months.
JJ is the best.
Can't wait to see.
https://t.co/pPYu8nRsxI
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) December 1, 2015
Today in The Force Awakens: Gwendoline Christie models a Phasma dress, J.J. Abrams makes the rounds
Gwendoline Christie herself models the Giles Deacon dress inspired by Captain Phasma.
→ No one got too much out of J.J. Abrams today, but he showed up on Good Morning America, Howard Stern and shared some interesting tidbits about Adam Driver and General Leia on Sirius XM.
→ Steven Spielberg thinks The Force Awakens could be “the biggest movie ever.”
→ Retailers aren’t stocking enough Rey (or Phasma) merchandise. Imagine that.
George Lucas on Star Wars old and new
The Washington Post has a new profile of George Lucas, where he talks about Lucasfilm, the old movies, the new movie (he hasn’t seen it yet,) and his reasoning for Han shooting second:
“Han Solo was going to marry Leia, and you look back and say, ‘Should he be a cold-blooded killer?’ ” Lucas asks. “Because I was thinking mythologically — should he be a cowboy, should he be John Wayne? And I said, ‘Yeah, he should be John Wayne.’ And when you’re John Wayne, you don’t shoot people [first] — you let them have the first shot. It’s a mythological reality that we hope our society pays attention to.”
There’s no doubt in my mind he’s said something like that many times, but even I can’t spare any more brainspace for these things. They are what they are, and sometimes being healthy about Star Wars means you just have to shrug.
On “the divorce” with Star Wars and Lucasfilm:
“There is no such thing as working over someone’s shoulder,” he says. “You’re either the dictator or you’re not. And to do that would never work, so I said ‘I’m going to get divorced.’ . . . I knew that I couldn’t be involved. All I’d do is make them miserable. I’d make myself miserable. It would probably ruin a vision — J.J. has a vision, and it’s his vision.”
Later, he compares it to a grown child getting married, and admits “it is what it is and it’s a conscious decision that I made.”
In any case, it’s a nice profile that doesn’t avoid the unavoidable, but does the job of catching us up with George.