Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
John Boyega talks to Vogue UK, and he tells them that the Episode VIII script is “great” but “much darker” than The Force Awakens, and that his part in the new film “will be much more physical.”
Meanwhile, Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow talked to Entertainment Tonight about “working closely” with VII director Rian Johnson, as well as the petition to have him replaced by George Lucas.
George Lucas was on Charlie Rose (via Indiewire) recently, where he was about as outspoken as he’s ever been on Star Wars in the wake of selling Lucasfilm to Disney:
“They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that. Every movie I work very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships, make it new,” he said.
George is gonna George, I guess.
An important read for this week – particularly in reflection of these comments – is Devin Faraci’s defense of George Lucas, and the importance of cultural context. (Something which also applies the “white slavers” comment you’re seeing around so much. Though George has apologized.)
Today’s must-read was an article from Meredith Woerner at the Los Angeles Times about the women of The Force Awakens. In addition to the characters (it’s revealed that Captain Phasma will be returning for VIII,) Kathleen Kennedy also talks about the importance of having women behind the scenes, and how that helped the movie.
→ On that note, agent Adriana Alberghetti told the LAT that she’s gotten meetings for four female directors and three female writers for Star Wars films. She doesn’t name names, but Newsarama notes that her clients include Orange Is The New Black director S.J. Clarkson and Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Marti Noxon.
→ George Lucas has seen The Force Awakens and, Kathleen Kennedy tells The Hollywood Reporter, “he really liked it.”
→ Carrie Fisher was on Good Morning America this morning, and not only was she amazing, but she was full of praise for the film.
→ More The Force Awakens ornaments are coming to Hallmark… Next year. Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma are available now.
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.
Now Wired has blueprints of Starkiller Base. Or the set, anyway.
→ New Leia and Han banners have been spotted rotating on a digital billboard in Times Square. The Rey, Kylo Ren and Finn ones have been spotted before, but you can’t beat John Boyega’s reaction. UPDATE: Here’s Daisy Ridley’s.
→ Much ado has been made about the recent George Lucas interview on CBS, but I think Full of Sith has the best take on it, so I’ll leave it to them.
→ Waiting on better copies, but if you don’t mind fuzzy ones, there’s a new Disney Channel TV spot that contains our first (brief) look at Maz Kanata actually in the film, and another commercial that features two new X-wing pilots – one we think is Jessika Pava (as seen in The Weapon of a Jedi) and a Sullustan.
→ There’s a cute new TV spot with Threepio, Artoo and BB-8 from British telecommunications provider O2. Like the Verizon ad we’re seeing over here, it doesn’t contain any actual movie footage. (Is that Sean Bean narrating?)
→ A leaked Look and Find book has some spoilers for The Force Awakens. Read it if you dare. (Via Making Star Wars, who notes that it confirms some thing they’ve already leaked.)
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.
Master troll George Lucas was among the luminaries asking J.J. Abrams about Star Wars and his other projects for Vanity Fair.
George Lucas is #94 on this year’s Forbes 400, up from last year’s ranking of #114. He’s worth an estimated $4.8 billion at the moment.
Disney’s own convention, D23 Expo, began today in Anaheim, and George Lucas was inducted as an official Disney Legend. (Bonus: Be sure to check your Star Wars app for a George emoji.)
Of course, The Force Awakens has a sizable presence on the con floor, where the highlight may very well be Captain Phasma’s armor.
At least she is today: We can certainly expect something from the live-action panel tomorrow. Our own Mandy will be there! 
George Lucas is among those who will receive Kennedy Center Honors this year, it was announced today. Other honorees include Cicely Tyson, Rita Moreno, Carole King and the Eagles. They’ll be celebrated at the Center’s annual gala on December 6 in a ceremony that will air on CBS December 29th.
Before that, however, Disney will name Lucas a Disney Legend at D23 in August.