Tag: george lucas

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Star Wars in the news: Favreau, TOR, hockey, sciene, and the other George Lucas

Iron Man director Jon Favreau will be presenting George Lucas with the Gene Siskel Film Center Visionary Award for Innovation in Filmmaking this weekend… In addition to being handpicked by George for an interview. So the Chicago Tribune caught up with the younger filmmaker. (via)

  • Elephant in the room: MTV asks The Old Republic team about sex in the GFFA – or rather, in their game.
  • Sports. As a Metro Detroiter, I am so sick of the Stanley Cup brouhaha I can’t muster up anything clever for A Star Wars guide to the Stanley Cup Finals. Just please let it end tonight. (Yes, this technically should have gone in the fandom post. Sorry. The Stanley Cup, at least, is news. Trust me on that one.)
  • Important questions: How far away is Star Wars gadgetry? Well, we have the Death Star… (Okay, okay, it’s just an article on the science exhibit.)
  • No, the other one. If you’ve ever have the pleasure of Google Newsing ‘George Lucas’ on a regular basis, as I have not being doing all-too-infrequently lately, eventually you’ll run into the one who doesn’t run a media juggernaught. That other George Lucas has now been appointed the next Archbishop of Omaha, Nebraska. (via)
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Lucas, Ford back on the Forbes Celebrity 100

George Lucas is on the Forbes Celebrity 100 again, this year clocking in at #24 – a hefty jump up from his 2008 spot of #46. The list’s only other Star Wars figure is, naturally, Harrison Ford, at #17.

Other geeks and geek icons making the rank include Steven Spielberg (#7,) Will Smith (#11,) Stephenie Meyer (#26,) Stephen King (#68,) Daniel Radcliffe (#70) and Tina Fey (#86.)

In less listy news, George will be honored by The Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago next weekend.

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Flashback: The original Star Wars script

Mystery Man on Film devoted yesterday to a repost that I’m pretty sure I linked before… But it’s still worth a second look. The premise, if you will:

Let it be said, my friends, that the early drafts of Star Wars should be a rich source of encouragement to every aspiring screenwriter the world over – because they royally sucked.

And they do. One example: Annikin Starkiller punches the princess in the face. Sure, she’s a hell of a lot more Vespa than Leia at this point, but… In the face. Oh George, no.

Read on for a compare and contrast of the scripts from 1974 and 1977. The difference is nothing short of amazing.

If your trainwreck syndrome is strong, you can find many of the early drafts at the Jedi Bendu Script Site.

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The fandom minute: Ima Trooping; Scalzi ponders Star Wars 3-D; BOW cake; Yoda’s travels

  • Photo fun Adventures in Stormtrooping with a little help from The Simpsons, Cobra Commander, Hellboy and a very naughty Wall-E.
  • The blogside: John Scalzi theorizes that George wants to release Star Wars in 3-D to beat Gone With the Wind in the all-timers. Seems a bit of a reach to me: If that was the case, why all this waiting? Has George seen Coraline?
  • Cake: Bearded Obi-Wan is full of… Strawberry jam? I’m sure there’s a Spaceballs joke in there somewhere.
  • Travels: Yoda sees the world.
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Neuroscience explains the prequel backlash?

io9 today links an interesting exploration of Neuroscience and Nostalgia. Included is a bit about why the prequels sparked a wave of Lucas hate:

The reaction can be partly explained by the sense of attack on our previously fond feelings. Watching the new movie automatically calls up memories from the previous series and all the pleasant childhood playtime memories associated with it. But recalling these fond memories in the context of a negative experience begins the process of re-coding, or modifying our old memories. This is an undesirable outcome for nostalgia as it is usually such a pleasant feeling. Naturally there is some resistance and cognitive dissonance when this happens and the brain will try to avoid it like any other unpleasant experience.

So, George Lucas did rape your childhood… From a certain point of view. Ouch.

Alas, it really can’t explain why I spent the late 90’s calling for the head of Kevin J. Anderson… Or does it? We all have our demons, I suppose.

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The fandom minute: Star Wars yoda; Return of the Jedi Obama references; cakes and parties

Matthew Latkiewicz explores the comedy potential of Star Wars branded yoga in a series of correspondence between faux Lucasfilm executive Steve Jones and George Lucas.