Gary Kurtz’s Star Wars Episode VI: The Disintegration of Princess Leia by the Coward Boba Fett
I’m sad that the dice are now metallic and not properly fuzzy.
I could imagine a ‘2010: The Year We Made Contact’ David Bowman-esque ghost, morphing or changing appearance of age every time we see him. They could have Luke do the same to help normalize it. (Hell, or Obi-Wan, too, I guess. Might be a little weird for Yoda to, but still possible.)
This is pretty much what I would go for as well.
The masturbation-machine and the baboons were both in the 1971 novelization of THX, FWIW.
Fine. I guess I’m just supposed to shut up and mindlessly expect the film to be manna from heaven.
Why do I care about Star Wars again?
I didn’t realize constructive criticism wasn’t allowed anymore.
I do think it’s fair. Episode IX has an evident lack of Snoke and a sudden appearance of Palpatine. It’s hardly rocket science to connect the two.
Mindlessly hating on a film isn’t the same as articulating genuine issues in its storytelling. Movies shouldn’t be above criticism. Even if most of the online chatter these days is feverish and overzealous, there still ought to be room for reasoned analysis.
What’s really interesting is with Gareth Edwards and Lord/Miller, Disney really went down their throats. They had numerous reshoots because they were disappointed with the director’s vision.
With J.J. it was less obvious, but they surrounded him with so much “protection”- teaming him up with Kasdan, and constantly mentioning how they were trying to return to the OT as a subtle jab at the PT’s wackiness.
But here comes Rian Johnson, and Disney absolutely loves him. All through the documentaries for TLJ Kennedy goes on and on about Rian is perfect for the job and his vision is perfect for Star Wars. It’s bittersweet knowing what’s going to happen. One thing we can all agree on is TLJ was the most divise of the Disney SW movies- so it is surprising for the one where they have Rian the most creative freedom to be the one it turns out was most deserving of reshoots (to play it safe).
I know we’ve heard they planned the trilogy out, but TFA and TLJ really don’t play well with each other. TLJ feels like it is making a statement, for better or worse, that the derivative elements of TFA need to go. Maybe on paper that sounded good but in practice it really feels like Rian is changing all of J.J.’s plan. Hence why 9 seems more like a one-off movie (bringing back Palpatine) rather than a conclusion to a trilogy.
So much this.
JJ had “a map to Skywalker” as if Luke Skywalker were some static feature of a planetary landscape, rather than somebody who travelled to a specific destination for reasons unknown. Because giving any further detail might prohibit the other films in the series from having a free hand. But this makes the writing of TFA annoyingly vague, and leads the film to focus on more derivative elements, like Starkiller Base.
Rian saw Snoke (rightly) as derivative, and so killed him off. But he did so via a sudden assassination that conveyed his dislike for the very idea of the character. This retroactively casts TFA in a bad light for focusing on Snoke as a big threat, and also leaves unanswered the question of how & why that guy came to upend the GFFA.
Now JJ is back, and is scrambling to do something with Palpatine because he can’t use Snoke anymore. This back-and-forth is leading to successive films where the narrative elements are working against each other, rather than helping each other tell a grander saga.
Temporary effacement of anger at the state of affairs his war on the history of his own works has led to.
It’s the only road that exists at the moment. Besides total apathy, that is.
John Mollo, Oscar-Winning ‘Star Wars’ Costume Designer, Dies at 86
Sad news. His work on SW and Alien made those films much more tangibly real. RIP.
I’ve always wished for an art book of his SW drawings. I still hope that comes to happen one day.
Mojo will not be saved by
the Holy Ghost.
Mojo will not be saved by
the god Plutonium.
In fact,
MOJO WILL NOT BE SAVED!
Is this one of those “Savior, save thyself” situations?
I like the inconsistency. Wish the SW universe would hurry up and get to becoming a multiverse without a single “canon” already.
One without “A New Hope” in the title.
For which Despecialized is fine.
Sounds like a rumor to me. In the ROTJ scripts Leia was always Luke’s sister.
Probably about as much coincidence as Tatooine being in the Arkanis Sector.
Equally random (perhaps) is a passage from Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It was a wildly popular book in the 1970s and certainly left its mark on popular culture for decades. I’ve read it a few times through the years and below is a passage that always makes me wonder. It’s a long shot that it was an inspiration, but it was a very well known NYT best seller and widely read. It’s been referenced countless times in films, music, TV, etc
“Jonathan opened his eyes. He stood alone with the Elder on a totally different seashore - trees down to the water’s edge, twin yellow suns turning overhead”.
If there are other science fiction stories or films predating the 70s and referencing twin suns (and there may be several), I’m unaware of them.
Talos IV in the original Star Trek TOS pilot was a binary system. Spock mentions it in dialog at one point.
Good observation though!
Just noticed that Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser novella Rime Isle (in which Fafhrd the barbarian loses his left hand) was first published in 1977.
Interesting…
This reminds me of the post-credits scene in one of the unreleased adaptations of Star Wars 1974.
And sadly, I’m totally serious.
According to the Wookieepedia page, the intended meaning was more like “millenarian”.
The Ewoks funded many experimental films.
Isn’t there an early script where Luke is older than Annikin? I’ll try to find where I saw it.
That would be the first draft. Luke was the Obi-Wan figure with Annikin playing the hot-headed apprentice.
Yeah, in this case the names are misleading, but the character archetypes are similar to the film we know. Though some of Annikin’s brashness later was given to Han Solo instead.
Lucas seems to have used 1974 Annikin as a template for some aspects of Anakin Skywalker: like Luke, he’s a powerful Jedi and a skilled pilot, but he has an impulsiveness and a temper that’s difficult to restrain. And Lucas in 1974 imagined Annikin with dark hair, like Jeffrey Hunter in The Searchers, and also Sebastian Shaw.
Of course, there’s also the fact that Ben’s age was said to be at least 70 in the August 1975 third draft.
ToscheStation said:
ATMachine, I think the “stumbling block” for a lot of people on the “secret Skywalker” thing for Vader’s former identity pre-Vader, is the forgone conclusion that Anakin Skywalker was envisioned as an only child back when Star Wars was made, just like he is in the PT.
This is a good suggestion. That’s an assumption on their part, though, and not necessarily warranted. I mean, you’d think Uncle Owen would be reason enough to doubt this received wisdom.
Even in the 1974 rough draft, protagonist Annikin Starkiller (who was a template for Anakin when Lucas made ESB and ROTJ) had a younger brother, and Luke had an older brother of his own in the January '75 second draft. The idea of a Skywaker sibling predates Vader being Anakin by several years.
An anthology film about the Falcon’s previous owners might actually work. Ending with Lando getting it. If the ship is still as old as it used to be.
Cast Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Kurt Russell as three of the previous owners, make it a black comedy, and I’m sold.
Ur-Han Solo owned the Falcon before Han Solo?
Seems legit.
Quondam et futurus.