ratpack1961

DuracellEnergizer said:

Plagueis is a plague of ass.

That is all.

 AVGN is that you?

Anyways there's definitely alot of ass in this plotline

Luke is sitting around guarding some tomb which has always been closed anyway since before ep. 1.  And the key to open the tomb is a lightsaber crystal.  This is some supershadow level writing here.

The fact that the imperials were depicted only as humans in the OT and the rebels consisted of humans and creatures was a very slick way of showing racism amongst the imperial forces by Lucas.  By making imperial aliens they missed the point.

Max Von Sydow is cast as Mr. Exposition and has nothing to do but tell the characters backstory.

Yikes, this is not looking good.

I've always wondered why the Imperial theme from ANH was never used again and replaced with the Imperial March.  The march was used throughout the prequels so now if you watch the films in order its absence from ANH doesn't make sense.

Either Lucas or Williams must not have liked the original theme or wanted something stronger?

"The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am"

Hooterdear said:

I believe this is from an issue of Bantha Tracks. Although the sketches are legit, The whole story about filming in Death Valley is not found anywhere else and this Hal guy is pretty much now believed a liar.

This is amazing because I believe I met Hal at a local collectibles show.  One booth had a little person (dwarf, I'm trying to be politically correct) signing autographs with a Jawa photo.  I asked his name, which I don't recall, and who he played.

I then asked if there were any deleted scenes he was in.  He described this exact scene!  I knew every aspect of A New Hope including the filming and figured this had to be a lie but I just shook my head and said nothing.  I have thought for years that this man was lying and that he was trying to make money off being a little person and signing autographs as a jawa.  Now it's confirmed.  Thanks!

Fang Zei said:

Did Lucas give any input on the the Thrawn books back in the day? Who got the ball rolling on the idea of novels set post-Jedi? Why didn't it happen until 1991?

The biggest question, one we can't really know the answer to but is still puzzling, is whether GL honestly never intended to make Episode 7 as of '91 and therefore said "sure, do whatever you want, RotJ is the end as far as I'm concerned."

This is a great question.  I know the word Coruscant was made up by Zahn.   I'm not sure why they didn't use Had Abaddon which was the original name for the Imperial homeworld in the old drafts.

I think back in 91 he had no intention of even making the prequels so he was fine with the sequel novels.  His usual answer to more Star Wars movies was "someday" and "when the technology was right" but I think he was torn on it.  I read somewhere that it wasn't until a financial meeting with Lucasfilm investors that it became imperative that the prequels should to be made for revenue.

SilverWook said:

Hal 9000 said:

What are you all planning to do about spoilers? 

 It will be the acid test for our new Spoiler policy. I fully expect idiots will randomly post spoilers on other sites I frequent. People used to pop in and yell Harry Potter spoilers in chat rooms, for example.

I've already been avoiding those alleged plot leaks elsewhere.

As a moderator on a Star Wars website, it's going to be pretty much impossible to avoid this thread completely, therefore, I'm boned. ;)

 This makes you an insider in a way.  All the Lucasfilm employees get spoiled also.  A least you are a moderator on the top hardcore Star Wars website.  What other site has threads devoted to the color of the subtitles in ANH :)

Does anyone remember the Virtual Edition website that was around when Ep. 1 was in production?  A nicely put together site of completely incorrect spoilers.  The MakingStarWars site for ep. 7 is not bad but I can't stand that this guy just describes the artwork he's seen and doesn't actually post images unless another site leaks.  I get he doesn't want to screw his sources but it comes across as "look at the cool stuff I've seen and you haven't".

Tobar said:

Interesting...turns out Lucas was already in the planning stages to direct Episode VII before Disney came knocking:

Lucas already started to develop the next three Star Wars films, but he knew a third trilogy was a 10-year commitment at least. He at first expected to finish Episode VII, release it in May 2015 and then sell the company afterward.

But Disney expressed interest and came along at the right moment, Lucas says. "It's better for me to get out at the beginning of a new thing and I can just remove myself.

"The time is more important to me than the money."

Source

 This has to be misreporting.  Lucas had started writing the ep. 7 synopsis as a way to sell the company.  There was never any intention to develop an in-house Ep. 7 that would be released by Fox (or someone) in 2015.

Unless he's changing his story again.  Or maybe the idea of writing the synopsis to sell the studio was something the other reporters came up with?

Alderaan said:

It's also pretty well known that he's about the biggest dick on the planet, unless you're a sycophant.

A truly disgusting human being.

 Do you have any stories to back this up?  The only dickish thing I can remember him doing was telling some fans to grow up when they asked him about a release of the untouched original trilogy.

As for him wearing that Han Shoots First t shirt, I think he was just trying to have fun.  It shows he has a sense of humor about himself and probably doesn't take the OT that seriously.  However when confronted about what he should do artistically he's unbending.

The Detours show was a bad idea but was a way for Lucasfilm to capitalize on the parody market that has grown out of Star Wars like with the Family Guy shows.  Why let others make money on their concepts when they can produce their own show that does the same thing?

The Darth Plageus novel isn't canon anymore?  When it was released I remember the hype being it was one of the few if only novels that were actually canon.

TheBoost said:

Revenge of the Sith. Kinda dull sometimes.  I had a thought watching it last night.

Just imagine this.  Palpy and Anakin are watching the opera. A servant brings Palpy a drink, offers one to Anakin, who is going to refuse but a look from Palpy makes him reconsider and he takes it. They are both having a drink throughout the scene. 

No new dialogue. No new special effects. Just a little bit of business that:

• reinforces the subtext of the scene, serving as a kind of metaphor
• give the actors something to do other than stare at eachother.
• give the audience something to see other than bad greenscreen compositing.

I really don't see how a cool and refreshing beverage will enhance this scene.  It's not a beer commercial ya know.

I think the round droid should be called Mr. Ball, the happy kooky droid with a passion for quips and a love of all things Richard Basehart!

Oh thats Gypsy.

That story conference transcript is just...wow.  I'm surprised Star Wars Insider even published it.

Per Lucas, Vader is pretty weak and expendable at the end of a possible sequel with zero ties to Luke.  And Leia is just as expendable and almost a throw away character!  And of course there should be a romance between Leia and Luke.  As for Han, who cares we'll throw him into another story.  The viewpoint of the gallant hero on alien worlds shows that Lucas was thinking more of European comic books like Valerian and Moebius as his influence and not so much space (which is boring per Lucas).

Here's where Lucas went from all this:

1. With Vader as the main bad guy in Empire, he has to choke people all the time to show how awful a person he is, since he just stood around in the first movie and didn't do much, per Lucas.  They have to build him up to be a great villian.  The real slimy bad guy is the emperor who we get a glimpse of in ESB and then in Jedi.  Maybe Lucas always thought Vader was a poor villian during the 77-83 period??!

2. The Wizard of Oz motif was carried over to Jedi when they unmask Vader and Sebastian Shaw looks almost exactly like the Wizard from the 1939 Wizard of Oz (in my humble opinion, it was also my first reaction to his appearance as a kid).

3. Everything else about Empire (and then Jedi) was made up on the fly.  Since Leia was always expendable making her Luke's sister was no big deal.

As the years went on, I think Lucas ended up really liking Vader and probably thought he stole the show (which he pretty much did).  So his next three films ended up being entirely about Vader.

Hal 9000 said:

I speculate that Max Von Sydow is playing an elderly, partially robotic Ric Olié.

 After a long, rainy day here this comment really made me laugh :)

Max von Sydow, the great Ming the Merciless, reduced to Mr. Exposition.

SilverWook said:

Even though it was shot on film, it's not going to look like a film made in the 70's or 80's. Film stocks have changed, and cameras/lenses have changed.

They probably didn't even stick pantyhose over the lens while shooting in the desert. ;)

 This not not necessarily true that the film stock absolutely dictates the shot.  It depends on how the director of photography chooses to make the shot.  Also once the shot is done they can go in and digitally give it any look they want.

For instance, in episode 1 during the final light saber duel, when they first enter the reactor room the whole shot has a smeared light look to it.  Now you could say this is because of the lighting of the reactors but I think it gives the scene a particular 70s look to it.  In the late 70s this smeared light shot (imagine someone smearing Vaseline on a lens to get the idea) was everywhere. I think they processed that sequence as a nice throwback to the real episode 1 from 1977.

Anyways, the live action segments of the trailer might as well have been shot by Michael Bay.  I'm surprised its even done on film as it looks like something done with a Red HD cam or something.  Maybe ep. 7 has a poor DP?

Watching the trailer again, that voice over just gives it such an awful quality.  The Dark Side....and the Light! Sigh

That first shot of Boyega is not flattering to the actor.  They should have picked a better more heroic shot for him.  The Ridley shot was neither bad nor good.

If those are the best shots they have right now, which usually is what a teaser is composed of, then this film could have serious issues...

Just watched it.  You can tell it was shot on HD cameras because there's nothing film like about the footage.  That's whats giving it the modern look.  It looks even more video then the prequels.

The whole thing looks like a fan film unfortunately.  Those X Wings were great though, the only thing I liked.

I can't bring myself to go watch a movie just to see a JJ Abrams trailer.  I did that in 1998 for Episode 1 directed by George Lucas.  It was fun, theater hopping across multiple theaters to see the trailer and then leaving without bothering with the movie (it was The Waterboy).

Also later that same day the Episode 1 teaser was on the internet and ready to download thanks to cam copies.  Anyways I know the new trailer is Star Wars but its just not the same for me.

As for David Prowse not being paid, I heard him say somewhere that every year he would get a letter from Lucasfilm or Fox telling him that "Return of the Jedi has not yet made profit" and there was no money to give him.  So according to Hollywood accounting, Jedi never turned a profit and there was no money to give Prowse for royalities.

I liked the idea of Empire Day in the last episode but the rest was just a complete rip on Johnny Mneumonic.

As the series goes on, I find myself getting more bored by the episodes.  It's gotten tired fast.

I remember JJ talking about how he liked the used and battered look of the Star Wars universe.  I'm pretty sure R2's poor condition has partially to do with JJ's preference.

Poor R2!

SilverWook said:

Imagine if this had gotten out in late 1982. ;)

What the Ewoks looked like were spoiled for me by a local L.A. newscast in 1983, mere weeks before the movie was out. Somebody put the ROTJ puzzles out on the toy shelves too early.

I think I saw these same newscasts as I grew up in Orange County CA!  If I am remembering correctly NBC local news did a whole week on Return of the Jedi where everyday they had a 5 minute segment on it.  They definitely did a segment on the speeder bike chase at least.  I would love to see these preview segments again.

Also Eye On L.A. another local show that would air on ABC did a good Return of the Jedi preview but this was at least a week before the movie opened.  Those newscasts you're describing aired at least a month before.

The Ewoks were pretty top secret up until release.  The Kenner toy cardbacks had the ewok figures blurred out for the first run of ROTJ toys since they hit stores before the film opened.

The one about Leia knowing her mother really bothered me when the prequels came around and he changed that concept to her dying during childbirth.  It makes watching all the films 1-6 together pointless because of the glaring errors in continuity.

I'm sure if Lucas was ever asked about it he would come up with some explanation about Leia using the force etc.  But to be honest, I think his "its all one movie" thing is a sham.  Ep. 1-3 are the Star Wars films he always wanted to make but couldn't until he had the technology.  For him they stand on their own and so if they don't have continuity with 4-6 he's fine with it since he doesn't care for those movies anyway.  That's just a guess though.

RicOlie_2 said:

[Whoops...deleted due to minor spoilers--not that they were any worse than ratpack's, but still...].

Yeah sorry I didn't realize that the conceptual painting was spoilerish my bad. I was trying to find something positive to say and that painting was it!

Pretty much all of the artwork and designs I've seen have been pretty blah.  I think the (painting spoiler removed) was the only thing that looked remotely interesting.

Will wait for the trailer but its looking alittle grim.

This is a good time to talk about Chopper and how murderous he was by throwing things so fast it knocked the kid off the ship and he almost did it again when they caught him.

I think Chopper poorly represents Robots as a whole and shows the producers are clearly against Droids.  This started with Ep. 1 and the battle droids being inferior and stupid and has continued.  I think we need to email the advertisers to boycott the show due to this Droid discrimination.

Anti #DroidGate here.