Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
J.J. Abrams , Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt explained Artoo’s actions (and lack thereof) in The Force Awakens at a post-screening event on Saturday, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. These are some pretty hefty spoilers, so check them out at the link or below the cut.
Continue reading “Spoilerphobes beware: On R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens”
No, you weren’t hearing things: Those were the voices of Ewan MacGregor, Frank Oz and Alec Guinness that we heard during Rey’s vision in The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
Ewan McGregor came in to record his part (after cartoon counterpart James Arnold Taylor took a shot at it,) as did Frank Oz. Guinness’ “Rey” was isolated from existing audio:
As they worked on editing the dream sequence, Bryan Burk, a longtime Bad Robot collaborator and one of the producers of the film, surprised Abrams one day with the gift of a single word: Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice saying the name “Rey …”
“I said, ‘That’s cool, is that the thing from Ewan McGregor?’” Abrams recalled. “He said ‘No, we took a line from Alec Guinness saying ‘Afraid.’”
Not only that, but the lilt in his voice from that truncated word happened to fit exactly what Abrams had in mind. “They cut it, and you hear the performance – he’s saying it the way I would have begged Alec Guinness to have said it. It is so crazy perfect,” Abrams says. “So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”
Taylor and several other familiar voices can still be heard in various parts around the film – but I’ll leave the specific IDing to those more well-versed in the cartoons than I.
The Force Awakens is heading for a $200 million opening weekend, according to the early estimates. That puts it in sight of Jurassic World’s $208.4M record, something many doubted would be possible due to the usual holiday box office trends.
Disney says that it brought in $57M from the Thursday night previews, with Friday showings likely bringing the total to $100M.
→ John Williams talks about the score with the Los Angeles Times, including what seems to have become the score’s standout, ‘Rey’s Theme’. Meanwhile, you can listen to the full score on several streaming services, including Spotify.
→ Daniel Craig made a cameo after all, according to Entertainment Weekly, though I’m also seeing a lot of skeptical fans due to… Accent reasons.
→ Is there a backlash yet? I guess?
→ Badass Digest looks at the Resistance, the First Order and the Republic. Y’all may want to pick up Pablo Hidalgo’s Visual Guide to the movie.
→ Speaking of today’s book releases, io9 has a look at some pieces from The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
→ And speaking of books in general, author Chuck Wendig on the movie – and which Aftermath character we saw on screen.
→ Also: Easter egg sightings from EW and Comicbook, Adam Driver on Kylo Ren’s mask, and TFA rules Twitter
Did you see The Force Awakens tonight? (Or yesterday, or a few days ago…) Here’s a safe spot to discuss it. Spoilers are very much allowed, so stay away until you’ve seen it! (My spoiler-free review is thataway.)
The rules are pretty simple: Don’t be a jerk, and remember we have threaded comments so you can directly reply to someone if you so wish. (Some comments may get caught up in moderation, so bear with me. I do have to sleep sometime.)
StarWars.com’s Andi Guiterrez has some questions for J.J. Abrams and the cast of The Force Awakens. Also, lollipops! Sadly not the infamous Jar Jar ones.
…Or to watch now that you’e seen it. Above, a look at shooting in Abu Dhabi. Below the cut, on story and stunts.
Continue reading “Video: The Force Awakens featurettes to whet your appetite”
According to Fandango (via Variety) The Force Awakens has moved the most tickets in the site’s history. Not just presales: Total sales of movies like Jurassic World and The Hunger Games. That doesn’t account for the other online ticket-sellers and in-person sales, but it’s still pretty impressive.
Just the other day, we heard (unofficially, but supposedly via a Disney source) that the film has passed the $100M mark in total presales.
The Force Awakens has already opened in several international territories, where it’s already brought in $14.1 million from early screenings. In France alone it took in $5.2 million, their biggest December opening day ever.
In an email to employees, Disney’s Bob Iger called The Force Awakens “one of the proudest and most exciting moments” in Disney history.
→ The BBC report and photos from The Force Awakens’ London premiere. Meanwhile, you can watch this morning’s the London press conference.
→ The Military Times profiles Adam Driver.
→ You won’t need to be a Star Wars expert to enjoy The Force Awakens, Bobby Roberts points out in The Portland Mercury.
→ Buzzfeed takes a look at J.J. Abrams’ previous movies, leading into some interesting casting bits on The Force Awakens
→ J.J. Abrams and Harrison Ford were on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the other day, where we get ‘exclusive video’ of J.J. Abrams convincing Harrison Ford to return as Han Solo. Colbert is also pushing the hashtag #SpoilerSpoilers. (My favorite.)
The Force Awakens reviews came off embargo very early this morning, and there are a lot of them (I did one!) They are also, for the most part, overwhelmingly positive, and as of Wednesday afternoon the film is 94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Here are a select few:
→ The prize for most innovative goes to Hannah Lodge at The Beat, which is helpfully divided to let you choose your own spoiler level. (It’s still not all that spoilery.)
→ io9’s Charlie Jane Anders has become one of my favorite reviewers, and her take on TFA is mostly positive – it passes her “grin test.”
→ I’m super jealous of Chris Taylor’s opening line at Mashable, if only because he said it better than I did. I could not pull off his Beatles references, though.
→ Our pal Bryan Young at Big Shiny Robot is a little more hesitant, particularly on the editing front.
→ Drew McWeeny at Hitfix praises how TFA grapples with the legacy both on and off screen.
→ The Guardian’s Jordan Hoffman is heavy on the detail – mainly of the Easter Egg variety, not so much the spoilers.
→ Devin Faraci of Birth. Movies. Death. calls The Force Awakens “the Star Wars movie for remix and remake culture,” a fair enough assessment. He’s cynical on a lot of things – that’s Faraci for you – but he’s also full of praise for the characters and the final saber battle.
→ Among a handful of not-so-positive reviews is Scott Mendelson at Forbes, who found the nostalgia a bit too overpowering, and the details not sketched in enough.
The Force Awakens is one of the American Film Institute’s Movies of the Year. Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian were also honored.
→ For GQ, Oscar Isaac covers Bill Murray’s classic lounge-singer version of the Star Wars theme. With new words! Also singing: Everyone.
→ Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post looks at how The Force Awakens plays into the ‘great cultural debates’ of our time.
→ Gizmodo takes a look at Star Wars merchandising in Hungary, which gets pretty damn weird. (Creamed corn? Chicken nuggets? Foie Gras?)
→ Rolling Stone posted their full interview with Harrison Ford; Greg Grunberg on getting his own action figure.
→ Quentin Tarantino has accused Disney of trying to strong-arm his latest movie, The Hateful Eight, out of ArcLight theaters with The Force Awakens.