Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Celebration Anaheim (or, as known to us rebels, Celebration VII) now has a poster, revealed on Hero Complex. And it looks like sales are good:
“It’s going to be really interesting, because we are way ahead with ticket sales from where we usually are this far out,” said Mary Franklin, senior events and fan relations lead for Lucasfilm. “I feel safe saying this is going to be the biggest one yet.”
Mary goes on to play coy about The Force Awakens stuff at the con, but… We know, Mary. We know.
→ Is this our final Pinewood set report for The Force Awakens? It could be.
→ Making Star Wars also has another concept art description… This one sounds a lot like it’s related to the very first piece of concept art that we saw. (And the only one we’ve seen officially, for that matter.) Well, mostly saw. Also very curious to go back and look at the comments on that post in the wake of the title announcement…
→ It’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but at her Vegas show, Debbie Reynolds did say that granddaughter Billie Lourd had been working on The Force Awakens along with Carrie Fisher, “Harrison Ford… and the other boychik.”
→ The Irish government is less than impressed at Unesco’s claims that the Star Wars shooting on Skellig Michael may have harmed the World Heritage site, the Irish Examiner reports.
→ Both Interstellar director Christopher Nolan and The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart were asked about The Force Awakens in recent interviews. And Matthew McConaughey shows up 15 minutes late to the ‘I’d love to be in Star Wars‘ party with Starbucks.
The folks at Jedi Bibliothek have discovered listings for our first Epiosde VII tie-in books for kids. The first batch is still fairly generic, but the second at least tells us that there will be four novels focusing on the era between the original and sequel trilogy:
Journey to Episode VII: Princess Leia Middle Grade Novel (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney-Lucasfilm Press, $12,99 USD, 9781484724972)
Journey to Episode VII: Han Solo Middle Grade Novel (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney-Lucasfilm Press, $12,99 USD, 9781484724958)
Journey to Episode VII: Luke Skywalker Middle Grade Novel (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney-Lucasfilm Press, $12,99 USD, 9781484724965)
Journey to Episode VII: The Fall of the Empire/The Rise of the Rebellio (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney-Lucasfilm Press, $17,99 USD, 9781484724989)
Plus a Star Wars Episode VII Character Novel for December. (Daisy Ridley? John Boyega?)
No, it’s not anything from Del Rey that we’re hoping to hear about soon – like the film’s adult novelization – but it is a sign that we’ll at least know something of the state of the galaxy going into Episode VII as soon as next fall.
The Verge discusses the font used for our first The Force Awakens logo, the oh-so-’70s ITC Serif Gothic. The examples include old Star Wars, The Thornbirds (okay, not actually on the page, but I can picture that book cover instantly) and even Star Trek. For you non-font geeks, there’s a logo generator.
It’s certainly not a surprise, but Pinewood CEO Ivan Dunleavy (via Variety) confirms that another Star Wars film will shoot at Pinewood. The Hollywood Reporter says this will be the mysterious spin-off from Gareth Edwards, which already has a December 2016 release date.
The BBC has video of Artoo’s appearance at the announcement. Reporter Lizo Mzimba also notes that per Pinewood’s website, The Force Awakened used their Exterior Tank.
We already know that Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII will film in London as well, and that there’s a ten-year deal in place with Pinewood so it won’t be the last.
→ In the wake of The Force Awakens reveal, there’s a new Full of Sith Rumor Control with Bobby Roberts. As always, a must-listen for the spoiler-lovers among us.
→ Per usual, any reveal, no matter how major, doesn’t stop the rumors. Some guy on Twitter tweeted what’s supposedly an extreme close-up of Luke Skywalker’s beard. (Yuh-huh.) Making Star Wars themselves on what was filmed at a certain outdoor set at Pinewood. And Star Wars 7 News adds a bunch of message board stuff about Luke to the MSW stuff from the other day. (Consider yourself warned.)
→ And for the non-spoilerphobes among us, Bob Iger told Bloomberg TV (skip to 10:25) that the name comes from “a few people” including Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams, Disney themselves – basically, exactly who you’d expect.
→ Some housekeeping: Yes, I’ve changed our tag for the new film to The Force Awakens, to reflect our other film tags. No, I will not immediately stop using the term Episode VII, because it is. And grammar geeks, here’s what Lucasfilm’s Leland Chee has to say about title formatting.
TheForce.Net tracked down forum member Queen Gimmedala, who guessed the Episode VII title way back in 2012. She told Eric Geller:
Ultimately this was a random guess. No inside info or connection to Lucas. But to me it seemed logical that the first movie in this trilogy would need to address the force. I’m a believer that the movie titles in each trilogy closely relate and I suspect this will carry over for the ST.
So I knew it was going to be 3 words, and the force. I also know that the wording would be vague/ambiguous/old fashioned like all the other six movie titles.
The Phantom Menace (something is wrong with the force), A New Hope (something is helping) and The Force Awakens (It’s BACK BABY). I LOVE IT.
Pretty neat! This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a fan predate an episode title, although under vastly different circumstances: The title Revenge of the Sith was used on a 1986 fan fiction novel, a story set some 40 years after Return of the Jedi.
We have a title! And a really awkward new ‘official’ hashtag, as much as any hashtag can ever hope to be official. But we all know what’s really important, and this is: The funny. Also, that one guy. You know the one.
Continue reading “#StarWars Tweets Special Edition: #TheForceAwakens”
We all knew we’d be here eventually. We have a title for Episode VII, and it’s… Well, it’s kinda weird. The Force Awakens has completed principal photography, StarWars.com tells us.
The Force Awakens. TFA.
My first reaction: “Really?”
Well, yes. Okay. It’s not like we haven’t been here before. The only title I can recall being welcomed with open arms was Revenge of the Sith.
The Force Awakens. TFA. We’ll get used to it. We always do.
UPDATE: As expected, the reaction has been fairly mixed. But! Jokes!
Jason at Making Star Wars has some good points on the title not including Episode VII. I don’t find the choice – and it’s very much a marketing choice – to be that big a deal. The movie will still be Episode VII regardless.
We all have hope that Episode VII will be good… But Anthony Daniels is certainly doing his part to rocket expectations sky-high.
Meanwhile, today saw two actors brand-new to Star Wars get some ink: Lupita Nyong’o is Glamour’s Woman of the Year, and Christina Chong talked about her Star Wars experience (somewhat) in the London Evening Standard.