Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Debuting only moments after The Mandalorian casting was confirmed on Wednesday, the Star Wars Fan Award winners got a little lost in the shuffle. The winners (including, above, Best Custom Costume winner, Michaela M.’s Enfys Nest) were announced on a special episode of The Star Wars Show. Check them out below, or skip straight to the interviews.
The fan film awards are back, but now it’s no longer just for fan films. The Star Wars Fan Awards now celebrate three categories of fan creativity – Videos, Photos, and Visual Art. There are multiple categories under each – video counts both short (15 seconds and under) and long (up to 5 minutes) in multiple categories, Photo also includes pet photography and food presentation, while Visual Art covers digital, 2-D, 3-D, custom costumes, and custom figures. In short, there are a lot of ways to participate.
Submissions open up at StarWarsFanAwards.com on July 18 and close September 17. Winners will be chosen by a Lucasfilm panel, with Audience Choice voting in November.
It’s been a year since Pablo Hidalgo introduced us to one of The Force Awakens most important bits of fanon: General Hux’s cat, Millicent. And I never did get around to doing a followup to last year’s post on the matter. So here’s another batch of great stuff from Tumblr.
Continue reading “The continuing adventures of Millicent the cat (on Tumblr)”
Oscar Isaac spoke briefly to the Los Angeles Times about Episode VIII, comparing the experience to “making an independent film,” and saying that “Rian [Johnson] is definitely going to places and investigating things that haven’t really been done in the ‘Star Wars’ universe.”
In spoiler corner, Making Star Wars has descriptions of Luke Skywalker and Rey’s costumes, while The Movie Bit has pictures of the setup-in-progress at Ceann Sibéal. UPDATE: Artist Natalia Trykowska has drawn the outfits based on MSW’s description.
As is quickly becoming tradition, Phil Noto (on his own) did a post-trailer poster. (Also on his Tumblr.) Revelist has collected some of the first wave fan art. (You can also keep an eye on the Rogue One tag on our Tumblr.)
→ Here’s one for any of your less-than-obsessive friends who might be confused about where Rogue One fits in, from our pal Bryan Young. (On that note, as I was writing that last sentence, my mom texted me asking about “the Jedi in the white cape.” That said, I have no doubt that Lucasfilm is already well aware of the issue and has planned marketing accordingly. We’re still most of a year away from the movie, remember?)
→ A look at the new (and old) stormtroopers we see the trailer, from a 501ster.
→ Naturally, our first official announcement post-trailer was the toy packaging.
→ Second official announcement: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, co-producer John Swartz, and executive producer John Knoll will pick the Filmmaker Select award for the Star Wars Fan Film Awards. (Seems like this replaces the ‘George Lucas Selects’ category of previous years.) Submissions are open through April 24.
→ Of course, you can’t have a new Star Wars movie trailer without folks jumping to conclusions about certain characters, and ‘Jyn Erso is Rey’s mom!’ has been popular enough to warrant pieces arguing against it from Birth Movie Death’s Devin Faraci and IGN’s Terri Schwartz, both of which I very much agree with. (I also find the oh-so-related ‘Jyn is the new Mara Jade!’ speculation deeply distasteful, which I may go into further detail on soon. As for the Jan Ors comparisons, Pablo has it covered.)
Carrie Fisher tweeted out a lovely picture of Gary today, and confirming along the way that Space Bear is the codename for Episode VIII. We first heard of the bear way back in September 2014. If anyone can translate that tweet, go right ahead, as I can’t read emoji. (I’ll never make it in the Resistance.)
UPDATE: Translation via Carrie herself! (via)
→ John Boyega says “you never know,” about a possible Finn/Poe Dameron relationship. Shippers are gonna ship regardless. (Speaking of, if you’re appreciative of the Regency fan art he posted yesterday, it’s by TheRealMcGee on Tumblr, and she also did Rey and Kylo Ren.
→ There’ll apparently be drones to take out drones when VIII films in Croatia, plus a lot of guards.
→ Speaking of location shoots, Making Star Wars has a few details on shooting at another site in Ireland that’s “a very good match for Skellig Michael.”
Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo jokes on Twitter about General Hux having a cat, Millicent. Tumblr runs with it.
Is it actually canon? Well, no. (Not yet.) But it’s pretty funny, and isn’t that what matters in the end? Under the cut, the adventures of Millicent the cat, as told by Tumblr.
On Unboxing Star Wars his week, Yowie, Baby Jawa, and I hit the road to pick up a Toys R Us Epic Battles medal and award it to a deserving Rebel. Then I review this week’s episode of Star Wars Rebels: ‘Blood Sisters’, and we get a glimpse at the new exhibition of Howard Chaykin’s original comic art for the 1977 Marvel Star Wars comic adaptation. Plus we do a little bit on the #DrawWars2015 art project.
The Chaykin exhibition at the San Diego Comic Art Gallery runs from now until January 31.
The next Toys R Us Epic Battles medal will be distributed on December 4th and 5th and will be for Yavin, and will feature Darth Vader. You can earn the certificate by playing a little Where’s Waldo type game.
To celebrate the 30 day marker, Phil Noto cooked up a new The Force Awakens piece.
→ Wired has an interview with Lawrence Kasdan and, in the U.K. version for some reason, costume designer Michael Kaplan with a straight from the set armor gallery.
→ George Lucas tells Vanity Fair why he’s done directing mainstream movies.
→ Daisy Ridley and Lupita Nyong’o aren’t the only new cast members fashion magazining it up: Domhnall Gleeson is chilling with model Gigi Hadid in Portugal for Vogue.
In official official news, Lucasfilm has teamed with HP for a fan art competition, Art Awakens. Tumblr has been training for this!
→ With Entertainment Weekly, J.J. Abrams reiterated that we won’t get a new The Force Awakens trailer at D23, or at all until fall. There’ll be no TFA footage at all, “behind the scenes or otherwise,” he said. Of course, that doesn’t mean we won’t get something, like another character reveal or a new poster. (Not to mention things regarding the Parks…) And I’d bet actual money is still that we’ll get something for Rogue One.
→ The Force Awakens scoring sessions are “beyond anything I have experienced musically in my life,” a source tells the John Williams Fan Network.
→ More juice for the theory/hope that Episode VIII will return to film on Skellig Michael at The Star.
→ I won’t be tracking every TFA merchandise leak this month, but here are a few interesting ones: A Micro Machines Millennium Falcon playset, Black Series Finn, Chewbacca and < href="https://twitter.com/Sompeetalay/status/630494610574458880">Kylo Ren and Funko Pop Vinyl figures. My favorite, though, is a lunch bag with some new-to-us Captain Phasma art, which I love because even though she is 100% in armor, the way she’s standing is badass yet makes it absolutely clear that the character is a woman. Men don’t stand like that!