Tobar

Apparently this just broke out. Here are some live updates from twitter:

 

Getting conflicting info about what's going on at Skywalker Ranch. Spokesperson said no fire but we're hearing there's smoke at the scene.

 

Fire at #skywalker ranch actually appears to be in the main house lots of smoke

 

Breaking: Skywalker Ranch is on fire. Marin Co Fire confirms 3-alarm blaze inside buildings at George Lucas' legendary production facility

 

Update:

Okay. We talked with Mike Giannini from Marin County FD, who says there's a small fire putting off a LOT of smoke at Skywalker Ranch.

A reported chimney fire grew to a three-alarm incident Tuesday night at the Skywalker Ranch off Lucas Valley Road.

The fire was reported shortly after 5:30 p.m. as a chimney fire in the 50,000-square-foot "Main House," an office building on the property near Nicasio, firefighters said.

The private Skywalker fire crew called for help from the Marin County Fire Department, which called for backup firefighters from San Rafael. No one was injured, said county fire Battalion Chief Mike Giannini. The cause was under investigation, but Giannini said the fire apparently started in the area of a fireplace.

Giannini said the extra firefighters were called in to make sure the fire didn't spread throughout the building.

The fire caused "little to no damage," said Lucasfilm spokeswoman Emilie Nicks.

Sheriff's deputies were on scene to provide traffic control.Lucasfilm owns three properties on 6,100 acres in the area.

Source

Cars 2

Cars 2 was the only Pixar film I had missed in theaters. I was very disappointed by Cars and so I told myself I'd get around to seeing it but it wasn't a priority. Wouldn't you know it I put it off all the way until it had driven off the big screen. Then I discovered it was still playing at the local dollar theater so I went to go check it out with a friend. It was pretty entertaining, a lot better than the first.

Mars Needs Moms

Another film I missed in theaters due to low priority. The title drew me in because of its obvious inspiration. Though I was hesitant because I am NO fan of motion capture in animated films. Ultimately the setting and wanting to see how well they'd get Seth Green to sound like a child drew me in. I was surprised to discover that they had completely replaced Green's voice with an actual child. It was a good move, the kid did a great job. It was actually a surprisingly decent film in the end. The plot is pretty ludicrous but they did an excellent job of portraying emotion. It can be a little bit of tearjerker...not that I did of course. ¬_¬

I think I missed something. Is there a post or thread for these You_Too corrections?

New interview from Wired: The People vs. George Lucas Director on Altering and Bringing Balance to the Force

Well it's accurate in a way. There's still only been one remake of The Thing From Another World. The Thing isn't a remake but a prequel of the remake.

Star Wars fanatic choked his Thai bride to death after she destroyed his collection of toys

While I agree with your rating Mono, I wouldn't go that far. It's certainly one of the best modern alien invasion films though.

The script:

Luke tries to pull himself up on the weather vane but slips back down. He hooks one of his legs around the fragile instruments. All the while, a powerful current of air rushes out at him from the exhaust pipe.

 LUKE: Ben. Leia!

 There is an ominous cracking sound from the base of the weather vane and a piece breaks off, falling into the clouds far below.

Lucas and Malcolm Argue

nightstalkerpoet said:

Sometimes I wonder if newbie posts like this are exasperated sighs of relief for people who have found like minded Star Wars fans... or if they are simply way over the top simply to try and win brownie points with the regulars.

I've wondered if they're not just sock accounts made by those that would like to point to threads like these to try and discredit the site.

So has anyone gone out to see the Three Musketeers for the Phantom Menace trailer? I think I might go see it tomorrow.

Well I know the ALF dvds use syndicated episodes and then there's the cutting and splitting that's been done to Young Indiana Jones. I've been hoping someone would come along and start up a project to restore Young Indy.

Winnebago Man (2009)

Saw this tonight. It's a documentary about the infamous angry RV salesman video that's been floating around the internet for years. Turned out to be a pretty cool documentary and Jack Rebney is a really interesting character.

That's interesting when compared to this interview with Marquand:

"I fit the bill in that it seemed like they were looking for a younger man who has a great deal of experience, can work hard and fast, make up his mind and stick to it, and run a crew very quickly," he explains. "I knew then what George was searching for was not the old school movie director who would wait for the weather to get the shot he wanted. He wanted someone who could improvise, think on his feet."

"When we met, I felt extremely comfortable. It was one filmmaker talking to another filmmaker. It was very good," he says. "We talked about our films and how we dealt with certain problems. It was not in any sense an interview or the kind of thing that happens in Hollywood where you must put on a tremendous performance to impress somebody.

"I told George that, if I was going to direct this adequately, I would need loyalty and support in the areas that were new to me," Marquand says. "In a way, being the director of a film of this size is rather like being the President of the Ford Motor Company. You don't necessarily have to know how to weld a car door, but you must make damn sure the guy who is doing it for you is someone you know, that you know his skills and that he'll do a good job."

The Star Wars galaxy really does belong to George Lucas, the man who conceived the cosmos, but retired from actually directing the films. As producer, he wields a great deal of power, but on Jedi, Richard Marquand was the man in charge.

"If you are the director," Marquand says, "you are really the man who says what goes. There are always stories in the movie industry about directors getting pushed around by producers. But, all those producers are people who really don't understand how movies get made. You can only really have one person doing that job. The good thing about George Lucas is he knows that fact."

Marquand leans forward on his desk and plays with a pen. "All you can do is tell the story your way, the best that you can. I must say I like the way George made Star Wars, the way he set it up and did it was extremely clever. He made it seem to have a very simple surface, but, in fact, it had a very dense, complex background to it.

"I preferred that surface naiveté to the much more sophisticated way [Irvin] Kershner told his story. His style very much suited this rather more dark, metallic second section of the saga. I think this third segment has a different kind of glow and flavor to it. But, I tried to make it simple because the textures in Jedi are so very, very complex. There's a world of new people and some of them are incredibly difficult to appreciate at first meeting."

Full Interview

IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956)

Fun little movie that stars Peter Graves, Lee Van Cleef and Beverly Garland. I thought I hadn't seen it before but while watching it tonight I got that familiar feeling I might have seen it a long time ago. It's like It Came From Outer Space and Invasion of the Body Snatchers rolled into one. A real shame that it's not commercially available.

Yeah Dale Pollack didn't get a lot of time but there is a quick shot of him showing a copy of his book signed by G.L. himself.

A little while back my local theater chain bought a bunch of new paper towel dispensers and they make that exact same sound. I get a kick out of it every time. =P

Batman: Year One (2011)

Sadly I was disappointed. They stayed very close to the source but not close enough. They left out a lot of the inner narration that drove the story as well as altered dialogue for no reason. Lastly, they had some nice voice talent. Bryan Cranston did a good job as Gordon but I think they really dropped the ball with Batman/Bruce Wayne. Should have gone with Conroy but I guess they wanted someone who sounded younger. Didn't work.

Star Wars Art: Comics

First Frames and now this. I get the feeling George is trying to raise money for something.

Hmph.

What happened with the section of the cantina to the right of it? It looks completely different, was that changed in the SE?

Just throwing this out there but the Clone Wars has returned and is airing every Friday night.

Oh and Jaitea, the paleontologist inside me laughed. =P

Batman Year One Part 1

I actually read the whole series. What a fantastic story, extremely well written. I wish Nolan had adapted this instead. Though it is great that they recently adapted it to an animated film. I'll probably be checking that out this week.

Well color me interested.

Ghostbusters (1984)

For the month of October certain theaters across the country are screening Ghostbusters every Thursday. I attended the first one last night and it was a BLAST! Seeing classic films in a theater with an appreciative audience is the best. It just elevates the experience of the film. The best part of the night definitely had to be right as Peck has molten marshmallow dumped on him a small group of people discreetly tossed giant marshmallows into the crowd. Now that's a 4D experience! =P

The Thing (2011)

After Ghostbusters was over we stuck around for the midnight premiere of The Thing. It was pretty good. The first was definitely the better of the two but this made a good prequel. However I was disappointed in the fact that I had read an interview with some of the people involved in the production who had made claims that they were keeping CG to minimum. That was definitely not the case but the effects were still decent.

Er, did you actually click on the title in that link?