In a clip from The People vs. George Lucas, which comes to DVD next week, A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back producer Gary Kurtz opines on the prequel trilogy. He’s not a fan, but you probably knew that.
Expanded Universe. Suvudu is offering up 50 pages of Paul S. Kemp’s Riptide. The book will be out Tuesday, but you can read a review at Lightsaber Rattling.
Live-action. I’ve been rolling my eyes at the inevitable wave of ‘what about the live-action show!?!’ whine that inevitably accompany any news of other TV projects, so those folks can feel free to take it to io9, where Charlie Jane Anders’ tells you what she wants from the live-action Star Wars and Star Trek TV shows.
Merchandise. Hallmark’s Star Wars exclusive ornaments are fast sellers at conventions, shocking… absolutely no one. Next year’s regular ornaments will be TIE Interceptor, Han on Taun taun, General Grievous, Darth Maul, and a Lego Stormtrooper.
People Mark Hamill says goodbye to the Joker. At least until they make another video game…
Kurtz is totally entitled to his opinion. But considering they were associates, it doesn’t come off as very classy. With his track record for film, he really doesn’t have a lot of ground to stand on as a professional.
If you’ve read The Making of Empire you know what to to think of Gary Kurtz. He loves to portray himself as this true custodian of Star Wars, the man who made ANH and TESB good (as opposed to Lucas who wasn’t all that important), but realistically all he did was almost bankrupt Lucasfilm because he wasn’t able to deliver the film on budget. I used to have great respect for his contributions but by now I think of him mostly as a kind of quack.
And honestly, a bittersweet ending for a fairy tale? Wouldn’t that have been rich… First you get people to believe in hope again, and then you screw them over by killing off the good guys. Doesn’t work that way, Gary.
Totally in agreement Aaron. RotJ needed a happy, victorious ending. ESB only worked as a dark film because it was the middle part of a trilogy.
If they had made a sequel trilogy, then sure, you could have the Empire win in RotJ. But you can’t just leave it that way for ever.
(Also, and this is as much in response to the io9 article as anything, ESB is not the uber-dark fest everyone makes it out to be. Or at least, that’s not why it’s good. It’s the lighter moments that make the film – 3PO and R2, crazy Yoda, Han and Leia’s romance, the action set pieces. Without all that it would just be depressing.)