Archive for the 'George Lucas' Category

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, George Lucas, Comic/Superhero/Geek

There were a lot of photos I could’ve chosen to represent Star Wars on the film’s 30th anniversary of its original release in theaters. Which, in case you haven’t noticed, is today. But this pic — featuring Princess Leia sending a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi through a tin can named R2-D2 in a last ditch effort to save herself and her people — sparked a series of events which ultimately led to, what some say, is the greatest franchise in movie history. Seeing as I was born 16 days before Star Wars hit theaters, I never had a chance to be part of the hype — to be among the first to lay eyes upon a film that would change our world forever. Say what you want about where George Lucas took the series in the thirty years since its debut, but you can’t argue the fact that this little sci-fi flick had an enormous impact on the lives of so many people.

In celebration of this glorious time in movie history, we here at Cinematical have a number of things to keep you busy. First off, our own Kevin Kelly is on the ground at Celebration IV (that big Star Wars convention in Los Angeles), and he’ll be bringing us all kinds of tasty nuggets; including pics, interviews, etc … throughout the weekend. Apart from that, our friends at Moviefone have compiled a number of similarities between the Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises, as well as a special tribute that asks: Star Wars: Where Are They Now? (Hmm, I think I know what Han Solo is up to … ) For you fanatics out there, feel free to use this space in any way you see fit. How has Star Wars had an impact on your life? Where were you when the film first arrived in theaters? In your opinion, what would you like to see from this franchise in the future? Remember, stay positive — last thing you want is to get caught up in this kind of negativity. We’re here to party! We’re here to celebrate! Happy Birthday Star Wars — your next drink is on us.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Interviews, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Other Festivals

Steve Sansweet has probably one of the best and worst jobs related to the Star Wars empire (get it? empire?) — he’s the Director of Content Management at Lucasfilm, as well as the Head of Fan Relations. It’s that second half of his title that we’re a bit more interested in, and presents some of the more fun, and more strenuous parts of the job, I imagine. We caught up with Steve while he was in Los Angeles for something he really enjoys doing; meeting the Star Wars fans in person.

Today marks the 30th anniversary to the day that Stars Wars: A New Hope came out in theaters and sparked the big sci-fi revolution, and not coincidentally, the massive fan pleasing Star Wars Celebration IV is taking place at the Los Angeles Convention center from now through Monday. There’s a lot going on, ranging from “An Hour With Carrie Fisher” (she won’t be wearing that slave-girl outfit, we’ll bet) to a massive amount of material from the Lucasfilm Archives on display, including some things “That haven’t been unpacked for 30 years” according to Steve.

Getting to know the man behind / in front of the fans, Steve is the author of ten books about the Star Wars universe (soon to be eleven when his ‘Inside the Star Wars Vault’ is published) and he is a genuine Star Wars nut. He owns a staggering amount of Star Wars memorabilia (including one of the original Darth Vader costumes from The Empire Strikes Back), knows the films inside and out, and sports a George Lucas-esque salt and pepper beard. I asked him if Lucasfilm had a beard requirement policy, to which he replied, “Of course!”

Continue reading Cinematical Talks with Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet: “Han Shot First!”

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Fandom, George Lucas

When I first read this rumor, there was a part of me that already knew it was false — even though the words came straight from George Lucas himself. Earlier this month, apparently Lucas told some folks that he was planning to make two live-action made-for-TV Star Wars films in addition to the Clone Wars animated series and, from what I gathered, the other live-action series. But see, this is where the language got all choppy. It now appears as if Lucas was talking about the live-action series and not these supposed live-action films, so I’m thinking the original reporter (ahem, Fox News) fudged the whole thing up. Gee, who woulda thunk it?

Movieweb snagged an interview with Lucasfilm’s Steven Sansweet who, thankfully, cleared the whole thing up. When asked whether there was any truth to those “two new films” rumors, he replied: “No, no, no, no. There are going to be two more Star Wars television series. One of them is well into production. That is Star Wars: Clone Wars. It’s a CG animated show, which we suspect will be on the air sometime next year. And then George and Rick McCullen were just now starting work on a live action series. A drama. That will probably be coming out in 2009 or 2010.” When informed that those rumors were currently making their way around the internet, Sansweet added: There is no truth to that whatsoever. I haven’t even seen that rumor. I can absolutely tell you that is not true.” There you have it folks — Sansweet confirms the stupidity of a rumor that was ridiculous to begin with. And I’d like to personally thank Fox News for wasting all of our time. Don’t let it happen again …

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paramount, RumorMonger, Fandom, Scripts & Screenwriting, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Remakes and Sequels, Religious

Chud.com isn’t known as a site that posts wild, unsubstantiated rumors, so I’m taking fairly seriously their claim to have unearthed the plot backbone of ‘Indy 4‘ — consider this your official spoiler warning. A so-called reliable source has told the site that the storyline of the film will take its cues from two areas: first, a 1968 book called Chariots of the Gods, which hypothesized that the technology and religion of ancient civilizations were a by-product of their being visited by an alien race. Examples range from Biblical passages that describe spacecrafts to the famous Nazca lines in Peru — ground-level drawings of such a scope they can only be seen coherently from the air, begging the question as to how they were done by a primitive culture. The film’s plot will also involve ‘crystal skulls’ — a phenomenon with some basis in fact. Over the years, explorers have unearthed a handful of models of human skulls fashioned out of clear quartz crystal. The most famous one was supposedly found in a temple in Honduras, and the skulls are said to have any number of mystical properties and origins — Aztec, Atlantian, you name it.

The source also tells Chud that Shia LaBeouf’s character will be a ‘greaser’ — think Marlon Brando in The Wild One, with greased back hair and leather jacket and denim jeans. At some point in the story, he will come into contact with Indy, but the two will not discover they are related until a “pivotal action scene.” The source also says that the opening action scene of the film will pit Indy against Soviets in Area 51. The fact that Chud closes by noting that the script is still being worked on also strikes me as legit, since Sean Connery seems to have said the same thing in an interview only a few days ago. Who knows how all of this will fall into place.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, George Lucas, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Games and Game Movies

It’s kind of amazing how well the team behind Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventure has kept information about the film from the press. “Steven (Spielberg) thinks we can keep the whole thing a secret,” George Lucas said in a brief interview Monday night. “I explained to him that it’s impossible nowadays. We can’t live like that.” Lucas had no problem opening up about some other upcoming projects, both having to do with Star Wars. He is currently preparing another series of Clone Wars — the popular Star Wars animated series. In addition, Lucas will make two more live-action films set in everyone’s favorite galaxy far, far away. These films will likely be an hour each, and will air on television, though he doesn’t know on what channel (The Sci-Fi network?). Says Lucas of the films, “they won’t have members of the Skywalker family as characters. They will be other people of that milieu.” Very interesting…

Lucas got a little catty in the interview as well, when asked about the 2007 Summer movie season. He’s seen nearly everything, because his company — Industrial Light and Magic — did special effects on nearly all of the big flicks except Spider-Man 3. Lucas joins what seems to be most of the commenters on this site in not being much of a fan of Spidey’s third outing. Says Lucas, “It’s silly. It’s a silly movie. There just isn’t much there. Once you take it all apart, there’s not much story, is there?” Oh, George! “People thought Star Wars was silly, too,” says Lucas. “But it wasn’t.” So there’s nothing silly about any of the Star Wars films, Beardy? Nothing? The new Clone Wars is scheduled to air in 2008, and the live action Star Wars adventures — said to take place between Episodes III and IV –are set for 2009.

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