NYCC namesake corner. Tricia Barr nabbed a picture of the Kotobukiya Bishoujo Mara Jade on display. Thoughts?
Queue the eyeroll. Scott Mendelson asks if there’s Star Wars without George Lucas. To quote Brian, “Welcome to the most annoying question directed at EU fans, rest of fandom.”
Casting. On The Graham Norton Show, Harrison Ford says he “hasn’t decided yet” about Episode VII, but he’ll return to Indiana Jones “in a New York minute.” And Michael B. Jordan tells The Huffington Post that he has indeed auditioned for the film.
On that note, read this. Film Critic Hulk on why casting rumors are nonsense. None of this is a surprise, but it is definitely something to keep in mind, and one of the reasons we don’t take rumors particularly seriously around these parts. (Also: They amuse me.)
Your moment of zen Star Wars Joke-A-Day – perhaps better known as our own The Stooge – has hit upon a big scoop.
Not a fan of the Mara sculpt. I like the Jaina one.
Definitely beats the latest Western figure…
I think Forbes has a point. Even though Lucas wasn’t involved with the EU, he kept tight control over the story and the company. Obviously Star Wars was engaged in merchandising, but Lucas was always around to set boundaries. Now, without Lucas, who is going to act as the guardian for the story? What’s to stop Disney from making an origin story for Yoda just to cash in on Yoda’s popularity? Or from turning Star Wars into just yet another summer action film?
I’m also not a fan of the Mara sculpt. One day her hair will be pulled back and she’ll be wearing practical clothing and I’ll stop complaining. One day.
Star Wars is something that’s become such a cultural phenomenon, it’s evolved beyond a single person’s vision. There are so many permutations of experiences that it’s a franchise that is defined much more by its passionate community than a lone content overseer. Essentially, I see Star Wars as something that’s become self policing. The boundaries, tones, and themes are so well defined that I don’t think we have to fear Lucas not watching over it anymore.
Man, that Mara Jade figure… even I’m offended.
Just a head’s up: that’s not a “real” Forbes article, just a post from a contributor. Any random blogger can be a contributor. They even allow advertisers to post.
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/173743/what-the-forbes-model-of-contributed-content-means-for-journalism/
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/173743/what-the-forbes-model-of-contributed-content-means-for-journalism/#downsides
Attributing a contributors post to Forbes is like attributing a post to “Blogspot” or “WordPress”.
Doublesith: Huh. I’m familiar with the concept, but I somehow missed that Forbes did that sort of thing. Interesting.
As for the Mara… Well, it’s a lot cutesier than I expected from the sketch. I don’t mind a hint of that anime business (See: Choices of One PB) but that one’s a couple steps too far. Jaina fine, whatever, but Mara is not a cutesy character.
It’s awful, admittedly its much better than the recent offensive Black Series figure. I saw Jaina in a local store and its even worse up close. Just not a Manga fan. Admittedly both figures are very well sculpted, but for me Star Wars Manga style just does not do anything for me at all.
The Forbes post is interesting, and it’s a very valid question. Just look at Disney itself. Back in ’66 when Uncle Walt passed, Disney went into a tailspin for years and it took until the late 80s to get the animation division back to where it belonged. Without Lucas overseeing Star Wars there’s definitely going to be changes. It could go the Trek way – Trek prospered after ’91 without Gene’s input – but it could also go the Disney Animation way and flounder without his direction.
Do agree with Bri, its bigger than just Lucas. For sure it is now, it will be SW by a brain trust as a number of voices will take control (just talking film and tv now). I Imagine that regardless of the status of the EU it won’t change too much (hope not).
Also Tricia’s photo of Mara. Yeah, kind of the typical vision of Mara isn’t it. A ‘realistic’ version of Mara would make a nice change!
The Mendelson article was better than I thought it would be. He actually made some very valid points about how personal to Lucas Star Wars is. That’s the thing about the prequels: for better or worse, they are uncompromisingly the films he wanted to make. Not the executives, not market researchers, but him.
Of course, the comments fell into the usual asinine “Star Wars is automatically awesome without George Lucas” comments. And of course, because the author said he didn’t think the prequels were that bad, we had to have the same old laundry list of complaints posted in the comments.
(Seriously, there is a protagonist in TPM: it’s Qui-Gon. Maybe try thinking about the film instead of getting your opinions from a YouTube video.)
Catsuit. Fail.
Other than that its not too bad.