Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Co-writer Chris Terrio is Rolling Stone‘s latest The Rise of Skywalker interview.
He talks about developing the films, how to go about writing Star Wars “for real” and more. He also talks about going beyond the movies, and not just the cartoons – Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath books get a shoutout.
Continue reading “Chris Terrio speaks on The Rise of Skywalker and other news”
Today was the film’s big press day, which meant that Kathleen Kennedy, Chris Terrio, Billy Dee Williams and the elusive Adam Driver all joined the folks we’ve been seeing over the past few days… Plus, quite possibly, the ghost of Carrie Fisher.
Per usual, the Vanity Fair story on the upcoming Star Wars film – The Rise of Skywalker, the final episode of “the Skywalker saga,” the grand finale of all three trilogies, etc. – was chock full of information. Granted, most of it’s peicemeal, but that’s where we tiny fan blogs live, isn’t it? Let’s dig in.
Continue reading “What we learned about The Rise of Skywalker from Vanity Fair”
Solo: A Star Wars Story became the latest Star Wars film to strike out at the Oscars. It was only up for one award: Best Visual Effects, which went to First Man.
Adam Driver and Richard E. Grant, both up for Supporting Actor for BlacKkKlansman and Can You Ever Forgive Me
One (upcoming) Star Wars connection get gold: The Mandalorian composer Ludwig Göransson won for his Black Panther score.
We did see several other Star Wars alumni, including Diego Luna, who co-presented a segment about Best Picture nominee Roma, and Laura Dern, who talked about the Academy’s upcoming mueseum.
No Star Wars film has received an Oscar since
Last night, a poster on Reddit shared a set of small, blurry photos that claim to be costumes and concept art for Episode IX. I usually don’t post about Reddit leaks, but this one is big enough and looks like it could be possibly legit – they collaborate several other rumors, including another set of spy photos. I’m not posting the pictures, but basic details (without any descriptions or spoilers) and the link are below the cut.
Continue reading “Rumor: Big Episode IX costume leak”
→ Another fruitless few days of official Episode IX stuff (though Rey and Kylo are getting Galaxy of Adventures figures) but at least Making Star Wars has a something something, this time about costumes. And a brief on what role Billy Dee Williams’ Lando plays in the film. But, more importantly – what is he wearing? What will Rey really do with her hair? What… Threepio is wearing? And some more Black Park pictures.
→ But back to Rey, John Boyega did share a photo of Daisy Ridley the other day. Obviously, she’s not in costume, but it does point to her still being filming.
→ Richard E. Grant was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, and of course Episode IX came up.
→ And as an added bonus, Claudia Gary’s Bloodline, which is still really the only original novel to get fairly close to the new films, is on sale for $1.99 in Kindle today.
→ Meanwhile, Kiri Hart, who established the Lucasfilm Story Group, now has a new gig as as creative advisor for the Rideback TV Incubator, a program to help boost TV writers from diverse backgrounds. She’s still a consultant for Lucasfilm.
→ Anthony Daniels (and thus, Threepio) has wrapped filming on Episode IX. “…We’re so proud to have worked with such a lovely, talented cast & crew lead by J.J. & Kathy,” he tweeted this afternoon. “I’ll miss everyone but I’m glad to know that we’ve been making something exceptional together, to share with the waiting world.
→ We haven’t heard from many other cast members since John Boyega’s big hint, but we do know that Adam Driver was filming when the Oscar nominations were announced, per Spike Lee. (Here’s Driver himself on his nom.) He’s at Sundance now for The Report, where he’s perfecting his Star Wars dodges.
→ The other supporting nominee who happens to be in Star Wars, Richard E. Grant, has his own reaction in the NYT. He actually talks about IX – and his nomination – with Radio Times.
→ No matter how much wishful thinking is knocking around the internet, there won’t be anything from Episode IX at the Super Bowl. Like Solo last year, Disney’s likely contenders for a big game spot are all spring/summer releases. More at Deadline.
→ That said, I still expect that our next major drop will be the title.
→ And finally…
Oscar nominations came out this morning, and Solo got a nod for Best Visual Effects. Congrats to ILM’s Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Dominic Tuohy and the rest of the crew. It’s up against Avengers: Infinity War, First Man, Ready Player One and Christopher Robin.
We’ve also got a Golden Globes repeat in the Supporting Actor Race, with Adam Driver (for BlackkKlansman) and Richard E. Grant (for Can You Ever Forgive Me?) going up against each other, as well as Mahershala Ali (who won the Golden Globe,) Sam Elliott and Sam Rockwell.
It’s another record-breaker for Marvel, as Black Panther comes out with seven nominations, including Best Picture. It’s the first superhero movie, period, to be a Best Picture nominee. Ludwig Goransson, who will score The Mandalorian, is up for the film’s score.
Several Star Wars actors got Golden Globes nominations today –Adam Driver (for BlacKkKlansman) and Richard E. Grant (for Can You Ever Forgive Me?) are both in the running for a supporting nod, while in the TV categories we have Donald Glover (for Atlanta), Keri Russell (for The Americans), Laura Dern (The Tale) and Thandie Newton (Westworld), all in different categories (lead comedy, lead drama, lead limited series and supporting series, respectively). Grant and Russell will make their Star Wars debuts in the upcoming Episode IX.
We also see Marvel get their first Best Drama nod at any major awards show, for Black Panther. This is the first superhero picture, period, to be nominated to the category for the Golden Globes. (Deadpool did get a nod in 2017, but as a Comedy.) It’s also up for Song and Score.
You can check out all the nominations at EW.
Did Episode IX’s Director of Photography, Dan Mindel, just give us our first look at one of the film’s brand new sets? “Space lights ….. unbeatable quality source of ambient lighting,” Mindel writes. “6000 watts 6 lamps or 3000 watts 3 lamps!” The image was taken in London. If it is, chances are its J.J. approved… Or, it’s probably from 2012’s John Carter. Oh well, we tried.
Mindel notably posted our first behind-the-scenes look at The Force Awakens forest fight – after the film came out – but deleted it soon afterward.
Meanwhile, head below the cut for some other cast and crew tweets from the past week. Richard E. Grant on getting the job, BB-8 operator Brian Herring on getting started, who John Boyega has hugged, and Mark Hamill is in… Prague? Okay, that might not be related to IX. But hey, Millie is cute.
Continue reading “Our first look at an Episode IX set? (Sadly, no.)”