Tag Archives: star wars

Harrison Ford will be back for Episode VII

han-solo

According to Latino Review Harrison Ford will be back as Han Solo in the J.J.’s Star Wars movie. There seems to be a lot of cynicism over the news with people bringing up Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I get where they are coming from, but I think this could totally work. I’m all for bringing back Luke, Leia, and Han, with two reservations. One, they have to be mindful of what, as Devin Faraci calls it, “small universe crap”. That is, it seems like the universe revolves around the Skywalker family. And two, they have to kill off Luke, Leia or Han. It would give this new trilogy emotional weight, and allow the story to continue forward without being tied to much to the original trilogy. Just like Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode I and Obi-Wan in Episode IV, someone should die in this movie.

Via Latino Review

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J.J. Abrams is directing Star Wars Episode VII!

I am very conflicted about this news. Here are some of my thoughts:

The Good

Episode VII will be good. No seriously, it will be. J.J. has a proven track record of making good movies, and he is capable of making a good Star Wars movie.

Episode VII will be fun. His Star Trek movie especially shows that J.J. knows how to keep a fun tone which the Star Wars franchise is in desperate need of.

Episode VII will probably have good characters, but it will certainly be well cast. J.J. was able to recast the iconic original Star Trek cast, and did some great casting (especially the child actors) in Super 8. This may be the key to the films success-Probably the biggest thing wrong with the prequels (of which there are many…) is the lack of compelling characters (hell forget characters, most of the cast didn’t even feel like human beings *cough* Hayden Christensen *cough*).

The Bad

It feels very strange that one dude will have effectively rebooted the two biggest science fiction franchises. I really hope that J.J. will be able to keep both franchises feeling separate.

Episode VII will probably not be incredible. Look at this point the Star Wars franchise, and Disney especially, needs Episode VII to be a solid movie. It makes total sense to tap J.J. for that purpose-it’s a safe choice. All of J.J.’s movies to this point have been good to very good, but none of them have incredible. A riskier director could have had the potential to make Episode VII transcendent.

The Ugly

The Bad Robot of it all. I’m not looking forward to years of damn mystery boxes and viral marketing.

Most scary of all though: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and *shudder* Damon Lindelof. Let’s keep them as far away from Star Wars as we can

Via Ain’t It Cool

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Zack Snyder is developing a Star Wars Movie? Updated, maybe not

So it isn’t official yet, but the rumor is that Zach Snyder is going to be directing a movie in the Star Wars universe. Apparently it would be inspired by the Seven Samurai. Zach Snyder isn’t the most solid director ever, but It would be nice to see a visually compelling Star Wars movie for a change. Does this officially one of my predictions for 2013 correct? Damn I’m good. Thoughts?

Update:

Zack Snyder’s people has denied this is true saying to the Hollywood Reporter:

“While he is super flattered because he is a huge fan, Zack is not involved in any way with the new Star Wars. He is currently in post on his two films, Man of Steel and 300: Battle of Artemisia.”

Half Credit?

Via Ain’t It Cool

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Predictions for 2013

Warm Bodies will be better than World War Z

With all the reshoots that have happened with World War Z and the fact that they brought on Damon Lindelof to help write a new ending (*shudder*) this isn’t that bold of a prediction. That said, if someone had told me a few years ago that they were making an adaptation of a zombie book that I really liked, and it would be the first epic scoped big budget blockbuster zombie movie, but that I was more excited about a movie that is basically Twilight with zombies I wouldn’t have believed them. I do really like the imagery of the World War Z trailer but I can’t shake the feeling that it will just be a straight ahead hero’s story starring Brad Pitt that happens to feature zombies. Hopefully both films will be good, but If I had to place my bets, Warm Bodies will be significantly better than WWZ.

Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be divisive.

I was a bit surprised with how divisive An Unexpected Journey was. I knew it wasn’t going to get the same glowing reviews the LOTR films got because it isn’t the underdog that those films were. Critics complained the Peter Jackson was repeating himself (which is why he was so reluctant initially to do the Hobbit), complained about length (ironic considering the number of films that that were also 2 hours and 45 minutes: Les Mis, Zero Dark Thirty, Django etc), and that it had been split into three films. Yet viewers generally embraced the film judging from the box office. I predict that The Desolation of Smaug will be even more divisive than the first. I suspect that the middle chapter will have a lot more added material than the first, and critics will continue their complaining about PJ being indulgent, I mean if they had a problem with Azog the Defiler not being in the book, how will they feel about Evangeline Lilly’s character who wasn’t even created by Tolkien? Yet even the most negative reviews will point out how great the scene is will Bilbo talking in riddles to Smaug (just as they said about the Gollum and Bilbo in the first) and they will say it is because Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch have chemistry from Sherlock.

After having a conversation with Pete, here is my hope/prediction about the structure of the next two films:

Desolation of Smaug – Starts with a flashback of Gandalf getting the key and map from Thorin’s father to put the focus on the Necromancer and Dol Guldur. The story from the book will continue without too many changes except that when Gandalf is gone we see him investigating Dol Guldur. The Smaug/Bilbo scene will take place towards the end of the film, similarly to the Riddles in the Dark in the first one. The movie will end with the Battle of Dol Guldur, and at the very end to set up the next one Gandalf will say something about how the dragon still lives, and might even bring up the concept of greed.

There and Back Again: This one will be insanely action packed. There will be a big battle scene with Smaug, and then the Battle of the Five Armies will rival anything in the LOTR trilogy.

High Frame Rate

I predict that at least one major movie will announce that it will be shot in High Frame Rate (my guess is the next X-Men film). No matter what your thoughts are on HFR you should really read this article on Collider . It does a great job of explaining where the negative reactions were coming from. While I personally didn’t enjoy it and it actually dampened my enjoyment while watching The Hobbit, it is easy to see the benefits. There is an overhead shot in Django of people walking on a road and then a huge location title that fills the entire screen moves from right to left across the length of it. I noticed the “strobing” effect so much that it actually hurt my eyes. I really wished The Hobbit wasn’t the first HFR movie, but rather a documentary film like Baraka or Koyaanisqatsi, or a an animated movie. 24 fps is an artifact from another time and there is no reason to think that it can’t be improved upon, and with directors like Cronenberg singing its praises it is not to hard to imagine some other upcoming film project deciding to shot in HFR (not including the next two Hobbit movies or the next two Avatars which will be released in HFR).

Marvel Phase 2 movie reviews will all refer to the Avengers

That’s not much of a prediction, Avengers was one of the biggest movies ever, and this will be the first time since then that we will see the same characters. But specifically I predict that most reviews will say how Iron Man and Thor should have just called in his Avengers friends to help them defeat the villain. It will be just like the Eagles in The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (why didn’t they just fly them to Mount Doom/The Lonely Mountain), where no matter what the reasons why that wouldn’t/shouldn’t happen (They are a sentient race and not transportation, The Eagles would be corrupted by the ring, then there wouldn’t be a movie… etc ), critics will feel clever when they say it.

Disney will announce another Star Wars film that isn’t Episode VII, VIII, or IX

This is the most unlikely out of all my predictions but there was talk of Disney doing a Star Wars movie every year or two, and with talk of Lawrence Kasdan working on a Star Wars project that isn’t Episode VIII or IX, it is possible. The film will be scheduled for a 2016 but more likely 2017 release, and they will use words like “dark” and “gritty” to describe it (maybe it will be a bounty hunter movie that people seem to think would be a good idea)

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Disney Buys Lucasfilm! New Star Wars film in 2015

Disney just bought Lucasfilm outright for upwards of 4 BILLION dollars.  They are already stating that they are planning on getting a new Star Wars film (episode 7) into theaters by 2015.

I can barely believe this news.  Not only would Disney own the past rights to Star Wars, but they also will get their hands on the Indiana Jones franchise as well.  With their marketing muscle, we’re going to see some of the biggest films get bigger.  What I think might be the best part of this story is that George Lucas is apparently stepping down from his helm of Star Wars overlord to give new younger filmmakers a crack at telling stories in his world, while he’ll stick around as a creative consultant.  This is what I’ve hoped for for years.  Not only will episodes 8 and 9 happen too, but Star Wars world films will come out every 2 or 3 years after that.

Why the hell not?  Star Wars has such a rich world, that theres tons of other stories to tell.  Lucas created a fleshed out world so now with other people being able to get involved I think this can mean great things.

Just think about 2015.  We’ll have Disney putting out a Pixar film, Marvel’s Avengers 2, and Star Wars Episode 7.  They just won the box office war.

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