Star Wars won four categories at the 2017 Saturn Awards. Rogue One took Best Science Fiction Film as well as Visual Effects, and Gareth Edwards took Best Direction. Star Wars Rebels was named Best Animated Series.
Please take this bushel of Rogue One links
Rogue One is all over the place, so let’s mop this up before more comes along. Above, the Rogue One VHS commercial by Damien Kazan.
→ Gareth Edwards shares some (ancient) Jedha history, about how the city got it’s high density of kyber crystals.
→ Entertainment Weekly’s final infodump on all the scenes that weren’t, Dantooine not making the cut, cameos and plot holes..
→ John Knoll is nursing another spinoff idea, but he’s not sure if he’ll pitch it.
→ Mads Mikkelsen on how much of Galen’s backstory he knew, Felicity Jones, Oppenheimer and more.
→ A look at a featurettes about Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, Saw Gerrera.
→ Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood talk about the film’s sound.
→ Gareth Edwards on Darth Vader’s final scene.
More on how Rogue One’s Lyra Erso didn’t end up being a Jedi
We learned in The Art of Rogue One that Jyn’s mother was a Jedi in early drafts of the film, but Gareth Edwards and Gary Whitta go into much more detail with Entertainment Weekly on why they choose otherwise. Galen was always the scientist in the pairing, and Chirrut Imwe was developed to bring in the Force side of things instead.
Still, given Star Wars‘ surplus of daddy issues, it would have been a nice change if they’d decided to make Lyra the scientist instead…
This week in Rogue One: Gareth Edwards on the ending, Leia, Vader and more
With the Rogue One home release imminent, director Gareth Edwards has been making the rounds. At SWSW, he talked about how Scariff’s name came about. With /Film, he explains the original ending and what changed, plus. how he got away with killing everyone off.
At Fandango, he discusses why we won’t see cut scenes, Carrie Fisher’s reaction to Leia’s cameo and how Vader’s big moment came to be. He also stopped by Reddit for an AMA.
Meanwhile, Ingvild Deila, the actress who helped recreate young Leia, talks to The Hollywood Reporter.
We’ve also seen a few aditional Rogue One guests named for Celebration, namely Riz Ahmed and Alan Tudyk. (There’s been some speculation that Tudyk might host The Last Jedi panel, as Gwendoline Christie did for Rogue One’s at Celebration Europe.)
Why some of those iconic trailer shots didn’t make it into Rogue One
Director Gareth Edwards explained why the iconic shot that ended the first trailer didn’t make it into the movie.
Today in Rogue One: All the footage that didn’t make it, about the film’s most surprising locale
A nice video that shows many of the trailer/commercial shots that weren’t in the final film.
→ /Film takes a look at Darth Vader’s Mustafar digs, including the history, the ground-laying done in Rebels, and the hints that we may see it again fairly soon.
→ At The Verge, Andrew Liptak calls Mike Stackpole’s X-wing novels the “spiritual ancestor” of Rogue One.
→ And speaking of things revived from the murky Star Wars past, Force Material is all over the Whills, who’ve been around (vaguely) since the very beginning.
→ Rogue One has helped push Disney over the $7B global box office mark in 2016 – the first movie studio to do so.
→ DK has several behind-the-scenes photos | Alternate pun-filled titles for Michael Giacchino’s score | Gareth Edwards on the cameras and technology behind the film.
Today in Rogue One: Hear a preview of Michael Giacchino’s score
Entertainment Weekly brought us our first listen of Michael Giacchino’s Rogue One score. I’m not really much of a score junkie, but it sounds good! If you want to dig a little deeper, the full track listing has been spotted. There are few intriguing things there, so take it as you will.
→ Chatting about Columbia’s Rogue One jackets with the brand’s director of apparel design, Debra Criss. These are really some of the most impressive clothing tie-ins we’ve seen with this film, so it’s nice to learn more.
→ There’s been some pretty ridiculous stuff running around Twitter regarding an “anti-Trump” message being inserted into Rogue One at the last minute. While Star Wars has never shied away from some pointed commentary, the timeline alone here makes that deeply unrealistic. And in any case, certain themes have been baked in since the start. I expect this boycott will bear about as much fruit as the last one did.
→ The interviews: Gareth Edwards on diversity, reshoots and the “team sport” method of Star Wars (and/or filmmaking in general.) Riz Ahmed raps. The Wrap calls Donnie Yen “the perfect breakout star for 2017” and he tells Mashable “Give me a lightsaber, you wouldn’t have two hours of storytelling.”
→ A quick guide to the Star Wars books, films and TV you may want to catch up on before Rogue One.
Today in Rogue One: (Almost) everyone’s on The Star Wars Show
The cast was on The Star Wars Show! And here’s even more interviews: Gareth Edwards on how they filmed the X-wing battle. John Knoll is also talking space battles and the full-size X-wings and the (not so full-sized) Star Destroyer models. Ben Mendelsohn on where Krennic ranks on the Star Wars villain scale and addresses his relationship with Tarkin. And finally, Mads Mikkelsen on fighting Darth Vader.
→ Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican on the origins of K-2SO. Speaking of the Brez, check out his interview on the latest Steele Wars, a must-listen for anyone curious about Star Wars journalism.
→ The film has a release date in China: January 6, 2017.
→ More takes on the Rogue One press event from /Film and Fangirl Blog.
→ Shockingly, Reddit Neo-Nazis are pissed about Rogue One. More seats for us, dude.
Today in Rogue One: Hey, was that…?
Twitter had a nice freak-out this afternoon as a ship resembling the Ghost from the Star Wars Rebels cartoon was spotted in a new TV commercial. (There’s more evidence on the Tumblr.) Easter egg? Cameo? Only time will tell.
And that was only one of several new commercials dropped today. Here’s one, and here’s one and here’s one that’s actually on the official site and in high res! Of course it’s the one with the least new footage.
Speaking of new footage, there are two new scenes as well: One with Orson Krennic and Galen Erso (which seems to answer a question I asked in my Catalyst review) and another from the call sign scene. There’s also a new Chinese trailer, introduced by Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen.
→ So many more interviews today! John Knoll on how they approached the film and changes to Darth Vader’s costume. Gareth Edwards addresses the reshoots and George Lucas’ review. Riz Ahmed on being an ‘average Joe’ in the GFFA. And finally, Diego Luna on his research into being a soldier and why Cassian isn’t a typical hero. He’s really happy to be here, you guys.
→ Could something in the background of the recent creature featurette have given us a hint at that mysterious kneeling scene from the very first teaser?
→ Thanks to both The Force Awakens and Rogue One, Star Wars was Twitter’s top trending movie topic of 2016.
→ Here’s Epcot’s Spaceship Earth being transformed into the Death Star.
→ A new Rogue One collection launched at Hot Topic and Torrid today. I’m not sure this one really translates…
→ Rogue One emojjis are now in the Star Wars app!
Today in Rogue One: Interviews galore
Interviews from the Rogue One junket have begun coming in. Today, we have director Gareth Edwards and Alan Tudyk at /Film, while Birth Movies Death talked to Mads Mikkelsen and Riz Ahmed. More Edwards interviews at IGN and AICN. Full of Sith has a recording of the panel yesterday.
→ Thought that Zootopia scene in front of The Force Awakens was torturous? Well, with certain showings (70mm IMAX) of Rogue One, fans will be getting a whooping 7 minutes of Christopher Nolan‘s new film Dunkirk, per a new report from /Film.
→ Another reaction to the half-hour of footage screened over the weekend.
→ Two new TV spots: Surrender and Save The Rebellion.