Well, we get to see the back of Vader’s head anyway. Lucasfilm has just released the second trailer for “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and make no mistakes, there is definitely a war going on. But more of a massive ground war! Check it out!
Source: Star Wars
On Sunday evening, EA held their E3 event called “EA PLAY”. During the show, the company laid out the future of their Star Wars games for the next few years.
Throughout the rest of 2016, EA will continue to support games like Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and Star Wars: The Old Republic with tons of new content, some of it will even be free! In December, Battlefront will receive a new premium DLC that has yet to be specified, leading most to speculate it will be a Rogue One tie-in.
Things start to get really interesting in 2017, when developers DICE and Motive release a new Star Wars Battlefront game, presumably Battlefront 2. The sequel is said to include a single-player campaign, which the first one lacked. For now, EA has just said that the game will include “significant additions”.
In 2018, players will get the Star Wars game that everyone has been so eagerly waiting for. The team at Visceral, makers of Dead Space, will be bringing an action adventure Star Wars game that is set in an all-new Star Wars universe. The game is expected to have a large emphasis on great story telling, thanks to the collaboration with writer Amy Hennig (writer for the Uncharted series).
Finally, EA mentioned that Respawn Entertainment (creators of Titanfall) is hard at work on a new third-person action Star Wars game. No specific release window was provided for the game, though it was mentioned that this Star Wars title will take place on a different timeline that has not been visited before in any other Star Wars game.
Disney and Lucasfilm have launched the Star Wars Collectibles: Ultimate Studio Edition line. I have seen many collectibles, replicas and props from the “Star Wars” movies that come close to the original thing but these just take it a step further by digitaly scanning the original and having them created in Pinewood Studios.
Just watch this video. Amazing stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2H9wFeBkDQ
Star Wars Launches Most Authentic Line of Prop Replicas Ever Created
Star Wars Collectibles: Ultimate Studio Edition offers fans a completely new way of experiencing ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
Disney and Lucasfilm today launched Star Wars Collectibles: Ultimate Studio Edition bringing an unprecedented level of authenticity to prop replica products for fans. Made to order by propmakers at Propshop in Pinewood Studios using digital data collected during filming of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the production process marries cutting edge 3D printing technology with master craftsmanship to produce replicas virtually identical to those seen on screen. Available initially in the U.S., starwarsultimatestudioedition.com is the exclusive location to purchase these products.
“We’re delighted to be able to produce such a groundbreaking line of merchandise,” said James Enright, Assets Director and CEO of Propshop. “Designed, made and finished by the hands of specialist motion picture prop makers and artists, we’ve worked extremely hard to create something that we know would make fans and filmmakers proud.”
The initial offering from the Star Wars Collectibles line features eight prop replicas from Star Wars: The Force Awakens including Darth Vader’s melted helmet, Rey’s lightsaber hilt, FN-2187 Stormtrooper helmet and more. Each replica item is a limited production piece due to the high level of craftsmanship required to create them.
These made-to-order replicas will come with custom display pedestals, packed in branded wooden crates that are inspired by the real crates used to ship the film props. Each one is custom built to accommodate the shape of the replica inside.
“We are continually looking for new ways to extend the storytelling from movies in innovative ways,” said Josh Silverman, executive vice president of global licensing at Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. “We’ve worked hand in hand with the film makers and talented team at Propshop to create a unique product experience for fans and we’re excited to see their reactions to these incredible prop replicas.”
Visit Disney’s YouTube channel to view the latest installment of their “Boxed” series to get a behind-the-scenes look at Darth Vader’s melted helmet being created; then tune in each month to see reveals of new items added to the Star Wars Collectibles: Ultimate Studio Edition line. For more information, visit starwarsultimatestudioedition.com.
Some more images:
Indiana Jones will return to the big screen on July 19, 2019, for a fifth epic adventure in the blockbuster series. Steven Spielberg, who directed all four previous films, will helm the as-yet-untitled project with star Harrison Ford reprising his iconic role. Franchise veterans Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce.
“Indiana Jones is one of the greatest heroes in cinematic history, and we can’t wait to bring him back to the screen in 2019,” said Alan Horn, Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios. “It’s rare to have such a perfect combination of director, producers, actor and role, and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this adventure with Harrison and Steven.”
Famed archaeologist and explorer Indiana Jones was introduced in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark – one of AFI’s 100 Greatest American Films of All Time – and later thrilled audiences in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The four films have brought in nearly $2 billion at the global box office.
While recently on The Charlie Rose Show, George Lucas took time to continue his public war with Disney calling them white slavers in regards to how they have handled his franchise.
George Lucas: These are my kids.
Charlie Rose: All those Star Wars films.
George Lucas: All the Star Wars films.
Charlie Rose: They were your kids?
George Lucas: Well, they are. I loved them, I created them. I’m very intimately involved in them. And, obviously, to sell them off—
Charlie Rose: And you sold them.
George Lucas: I sold them off to the the white slavers who take these things and…[laughs]
In the last few months, Lucas has had no problems slamming Disney and The Force Awakens. Any good relationship that they had after the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney is gone.
Lucas has said a lot of nasty things about Disney and his relationship recently comparing their relationship to a breakup:
George Lucas: “When you break up with somebody, the first rule is no phone calls. The second rule, you don’t go over to their house and drive by to see what they’re doing. The third one is you don’t show up at their coffee shop and say you are going to burn it . . . You just say, Nope, gone, history, I’m moving forward.”
The other thing with a breakup that George doesn’t get is you don’t keep talking about it either. If anything it shows that he is still hurt and he is having more problems with the breakup then the other party.
The problem with George Lucas is he is acting like a spoiled little brat. I had respect for Lucas in the past and have held off from saying exactly how I feel about him in regards to his public blasting of Disney but to call Disney a bunch of “white slavers” is wrong and very irresponsible on his part.
Hey George, if you consider the Star Wars films your children, not only would you never have sold them to “white slavers”, you would have never sold them period. How can he expect people to feel any pity for him knowing that he got 4 billion dollars? Did he need the money? Nope. To be honest, he did donate a large percentage of his proceeds to charity. I just think he is getting carried away trying to make Disney look like the bad guy and that he was the poor innocent victim.
The main reason Disney purchased Star Wars was to make money. At the end of the day, Disney is a business and a businesses’ ultimate goal is to make as much money as possible. Are they going overboard marketing and merchandising Star Wars? I’d say so, but again they are in the business to make money. But I also think they are going out of their way to make sure that no harm comes to The Star Wars Franchise that George created. So many people love Star Wars and they are hiring the best people and consultants to make sure they don’t screw things up.
The problem really started when Lucas decided to bring back more Star Wars film in the form of The Prequels. In the past when he worked on The Original Trilogy, he had help from people working with him about the story and what was told what seemed to work and what didn’t. The Prequels may have been a financial success but for the most part they were blasted as inferior movies.
The public began to lose faith in George as a good storyteller and movie maker. I can somewhat understand how he feels because he created Star Wars. Lucas must have felt very hurt that something that wouldn’t have existed without him, was better off without him in the eyes of the public. There are many Prequel haters out there, myself included. There are some good scenes in The Prequels, but very few and very far, far between. The writing is horrible, the films were boring, the acting was terrible, the CGI was more distracting than good and it was all due to George Lucas being a control freak and not wanting any help with the movies.
Lucas’ problem is he just doesn’t understand why people don’t like them. I could sit down with him for 5 minutes (although I could probably spend several hours) and explain to him why people don’t like them.
It was one thing to ruin The Prequels but did he really have to go back and continually mess with The Original Trilogy by making changes that offended fans of The Original Trilogy? The one scene that give most fans a conniption fit is Lucas changing the scene in A New Hope where Han shot Greedo first. Lucas’ mentality was that he was concerned that by Han shooting first it would tarnish his good guy image. He even went as far to say that Greedo always shot first in The Original Trilogy but the camera angle captured it wrong. No one bought that.
My problem lies in Return Of The Jedi in which he changed the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker from original actor, Sebastian Shaw, to Prequel actor, Hayden Christensen. I’m OK if others love The Prequels. Let them enjoy them and more power to them, but I don’t like The Prequels and don’t need to be reminded that they exist, if I don’t want to, especially while watching The Original Trilogy.
Many fans complained that they did not like the changes Lucas made and that they wanted the unaltered version of The Original Trilogy back. Lucas’ answer to the fans was that while making The Special Editions, he used the original negatives and basically destroyed parts of The Original Trilogy that he took out. Basically saying, you have to like my new versions because that’s the version I like. The Original Trilogy gave it’s life so that The Special Editions could live.
Getting back to The Force Awakens, Lucas had not seen the movie until a week or two before the release. Disney and Kathleen Kennedy had been asking Lucas to view it for some time to get his opinion of their work. Before the film’s release, Steven Spielberg had seen the movie three times but Lucas had difficulty finding time to see it just once? For Lucas to go out of his way to avoid seeing it was just showing that he was pissed off that Disney and Lucasfilm did not rely on him for input while the film was being made. And knowing Lucas, I am sure he wanted Disney to use “all” of his ideas. My personal opinion is that The Force Awakens may not be a perfect movie, but it is a great Star Wars film and it’s the “Gone With The Wind” of Star Wars films if you put it against any of The Prequel films.
The person I feel bad for is Kathleen Kennedy, who Lucas hand chose to succeed him as head of Lucasfilm. She is stuck right in the middle. Kennedy has been long term friends with Lucas but also works for Disney. I am sure she understands why Disney did not want Lucas’ treatment to be part of the film because, like most people, she understands why people did not like The Prequels. Let’s not forget what he also did to Indiana Jones with his treatment for the last movie. Because George wasn’t willing to say it himself, Kennedy was asked whether Lucas finally saw the film and she gave the diplomatic answer saying that George saw the film and he liked it. But then a few days later George was asked to elaborate on what he liked about the film and he said:
George Lucas: “I think the fans are going to love it. It’s very much the kind of movie they’ve been looking for.”
That’s basically saying, I didn’t like it, but fans, who are not as at my level of thinking, will.
George has been on record saying that his ideas for Episode VII would be totally different:
George Lucas: “The issue was, ultimately, they looked at the stories and they said, “We want to make something for the fans.” So, I said all I wanted to do was tell a story about what happened. It’s called space opera, but people don’t actually realize it’s actually a soap opera and it’s all about family problems—it’s not about spaceships. So they decided they didn’t want to use those stories, they decided they were going to do their own thing so I decided, fine…. I’ll go my way and I let them go their way.”
Sorry George, but with your track record I’d rather spend my money on a movie that I am going to enjoy, even if it similar to previous Star Wars movies, then to spend money on something that is completely new but not enjoyable at all to watch.
While I was writing this article, Lucas came out and said that he didn’t mean to call Disney white slavers.
George Lucas: “I want to clarify my interview on the Charlie Rose Show. It was for the Kennedy Center Honors and conducted prior to the premiere of the film. I misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy and for that I apologize.”
“I have been working with Disney for 40 years and chose them as the custodians of Star Wars because of my great respect for the company and Bob Iger’s leadership. Disney is doing an incredible job of taking care of and expanding the franchise. I rarely go out with statements to clarify my feelings but I feel it is important to make it clear that I am thrilled that Disney has the franchise and is moving it in such exciting directions in film, television and the parks. Most of all I’m blown away with the record breaking blockbuster success of the new movie and am very proud of (J.J. Abrams) and (Kathleen Kennedy).”
“Disney is doing an incredible job of taking care of and expanding the franchise. I rarely go out with statements to clarify my feelings but I feel it is important to make it clear that I am thrilled that Disney has the franchise and is moving it in such exciting directions in film, television and the parks.”
It sounds to me that George thinks he can use a Jedi mind trick and hope that we forgot all of the things he said in the past about Disney and The Force Awakens. Well, he did apologize, but he seriously needs to just let it go. Still not sure if his comments are sincere or just damage control. Only time will tell and I hope he has learned a lesson and starts to work with Disney and Lucasfilm instead of against them. Hopefully he will personally apologize to Bob Iger and maybe they can work in bringing Lucas back as a consultant.
It’s a new year, George. Do your best to let go of your hate because you know what that leads to if you don’t.
With the immense popularity of the seventh installment of the famous Star Wars franchise firmly in place as a Hollywood mega-blockbuster, the question now is on minds (or maybe just mine) “what is in store for Star Wars Land?”
We knew that the Imagineers in charge of the Star Wars-themed land were taking major influences from Episode VII (as well as the 2 further episodes that lie ahead), but we wonder now is if the newest iteration of the franchise will take over as the only focus in the upcoming land. It had been speculated that the new area in Hollywood Studios and Disneyland would take its cues from both the new trilogy as well as the original trilogy, but clearly the new land falls somewhere in the timeline between episodes 7, 8, and 9. We know that Disney is constantly looking to cater to the next crop of fans, so is it possible that Star Wars Land will focus entirely on the new trilogy and leave the older films completely out of the equation?
The most likely scenario has the new land’s attractions focusing solely on the newer films, with a few hints of the original trilogy mixed in for nostalgia. With the recent announcement of the placement of the land within both parks, Star Tours will be left out of the equation as its own separate entity on both coasts. We are not sure of many of the details, but it definitely seems as though “The Force Awakens” and its subsequent sequels will not only have a major impact on film history, but also on the future of the Disney theme parks.
For a few months there have been rumors that Lucasfilm is ready to bring back Indiana Jones to the big screen, but now Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that we can expect to see the next Indiana Jones movie in the last quarter of 2018.
From Ain’t It Cool News:
What Harry heard was that internally at Lucasfilm they have finally dated a new Indiana Jones film, penciling in December 2018.
I asked some friendly spies in and around Lucasfilm for confirmation and didn’t get it, but also didn’t get a denial, either. As with any early rumor take this with a grain of salt, but it makes sense to me even though Indy has traditionally been a summer release franchise.
The rumors have been all over the place with Chris Pratt said to have been hand picked by Spielberg to take over the fedora (even though Pratt denied it), but no matter what we know that Lucasfilm will be making more Indiana Jones movies. There’s too much money in the franchise. Kathy Kennedy herself said as much.
I think Lucasfilm’s main concern right now is just getting “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” out the door. Lucasfilm knows that the Indian Jones franchise has always been a hot property and I think it helps that “Jurassic World” has been so successful at the box office. On top of that, the star of that film and “Guardians Of The Galaxy” is by far the fans’ front runner as the next actor to portray Indiana Jones.
But dont count Harrison Ford out just yet. I have heard that in order to get Ford to sign on to “Episode VII,” Ford wanted a guarantee from Disney that he would play Indy one more time. Most people wanted to see Indy go out an a high note and even Ford knows that “Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull” was far from a high note.
This is just speculation on my part but they could bring in Chris Pratt to play Indy’s son, who was played by Shia Lebeouf in “The Crystal Skull” (no way is Shia coming back). Then Indy could hand off the mantle to his son and he becomes the new Indy. Or they could just go the James Bond route and just have another actor play him ever few years.
One thing is for sure, we will see Indiana Jones again. It’s just to valuable of a property to just ignore.
Source: Ain’t It Cool News
Vanity Fair has just announced that during their interview with Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, she confirmed that they are working on a sequel to “Indiana Jones”.
Kennedy confirmed rumors that another Indy movie “will one day be made inside this company. When it will happen, I’m not quite sure. We haven’t started working on a script yet, but we are talking about it.”
Not much to go on but the good news is that they are talking about it. Will Harrison Ford be back? Will Steven Spielberg be back?
Source: Vanity Fair
This rumor was originally started by fans after seeing Chris Pratt in ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy,’ but now it seems that Disney is actually listening to what the fans are saying. I admit that after seeing his performance in the opening scene where ‘Starlord’ retrieves the Infinity Stone, it reminded me of the opening scene in ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’ where ‘Indy’ retrieves the Idol. Pratt would make a great ‘Indian Jones,’ (see photos below). He just seems to have the confidence and believability to take on that role more than any other actor I could think of.
According to Deadline.com, Disney is starting to turn it’s attention to reviving the ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise and that Chris Pratt is under serious consideration.
The signs have been there that Disney is about to do something with ‘Indiana Jones.’ When Disney first acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, ‘Star Wars’ was the big deal and ‘Indiana Jones’ was mentioned as a side note. Paramount still had partial ownership and I believe they were contracted to make two more Indy movies. But back in 2013, Disney and Paramount reached an agreement where Disney would retain full control of the ‘Indiana Jones‘ franchise which included future movies and home video distribution.
I also remember hearing that of the big three from the original cast of ‘Star Wars’, Harrison Ford was the holdout for ‘Star Wars: Episode VII.’ Ford apparently agreed to be in ‘Episode VII’ if Disney agreed to do 2 more ‘Indiana Jones’ movies with him in it. Ford was not happy with ‘Indiana Jones And The Chrystal Skull’ and wanted the character to go out on a high note. So I don’t know if that is still on the table or maybe it is possible for Harrison Ford to pass the reigns on to Chris Pratt. Shia Labeouf played Indy’s son in the ‘Chrystal Skull’ but Shia is now box office poison and has been bad news for several years in the eyes of the press and movie fans. There is no reason why Pratt couldn’t take on the role as an older version of Labeouf’s character. They seriously have to lose the name of ‘Mutt’ though and called him ‘Indy’, well after the inevitable happens to Ford’s character.
Harrison Ford in ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’:
Chris Pratt in ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLk59H86ww]
Some screen captures:
