The Official MovieSet Blog
Posts Tagged ‘george lucas’
Fanboys trailer hits (cyber)space
Monday, November 03, 2008
If you haven’t heard of an upcoming film called Fanboys, that’s understandable. The Weinstein Company, the film’s owners and distributors, have reshuffled the release of the film more times than George Lucas has retconned the Star Wars universe. The film’s logline is this: it’s 1998 and four friends make a pact to infiltrate Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch to watch an early cut of Episode I: The Phantom Menace. What the trailer doesn’t communicate is that the reason why these guys are going to see the movie is because one of them is dying from cancer and so can’t wait until May 1999 to see the movie in theaters.
Here’s the trailer. Watch it and then after you clean up come back for my rant. Continue reading…
Posted at 4:20PM by Patrick
Could there be a movie based on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed?
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
If you’re not into the world of video games there’s still a chance that you’ve seen a commercial or two for Lucasarts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, their new Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Nintendo Wii console game set in George Lucas’ Star Wars universe. Set between Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars (A New Hope), the game follows Darth Vader’s secret apprentice as he goes around whacking the surviving Jedi Knights. The game sold a million copies in just its first five days of release and now there’s buzz that it could — underline could — make the transition between video game to full-fledged film.
“It’s not impossible,” said the game’s project leader, Hayden Blackman, to the Los Angeles Times newspaper. “Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new Star Wars stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars expanded universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical film.”
Now I’ve bought The Force Unleashed and finished it. I think that it would make for a fantastic Star Wars movie, certainly one that would be better than the three dreadful prequels that Lucas made. The character design, the planet design, the storyline, all are superior and feel like they have more in common with the three original Star Wars films than the more recent ones. But if I can make an observation here, it’s looking pretty doubtful that Lucas would let someone else go make a movie in his universe. The Force Unleashed isn’t the first story not developed by Lucas set in Star Wars mythology; there are dozens of books set before and after the original trilogy as well as comic books and other video games. The only things that I can recall Lucas taking and incorporating into his own movies was the Jedi character of Aayla Secura and the name of the seat of the Galactic Senate, Coruscant. Lucas has had loads of opportunity to allow other writers and idea to enter his Star Wars canon and chose not to use them. That’s why I’m doubtful that we’ll ever see a Force Unleashed movie but I won’t say that it would never happen. Maybe Lucas has learned something from the tepid reviews of his Clone Wars cartoon movie and the less-than-stellar acceptance of the prequel trilogy of films amonst old school (and admittantly bitter) Star Wars fans like myself. This time I’d like to be proven wrong and a decent Star Wars movie decides to come our way.
Posted at 5:32PM by admin
Witness an early sighting of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
If you’ve been waiting to see some new Star Wars action and have been counting down the days until the August 15th release of the new animated Star Wars feature The Clone Wars, I’ve got a shot of galactic expresso to tide you over for two weeks. How do you feel about getting a four minute preview of one of the new film’s action sequences sound to you?
The battle sequence has just gone up over on Yahoo Movies and shows an attack by droid forces against Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The clip also shows off the style of animation that Star Wars creator George Lucas developed for his new Clone Wars television series. If you haven’t heard the news yet, The Clone Wars feature film is really three episodes from the forthcoming animated series that have been edited into a feature. Still, judging from the fluid look of the animation that I saw this Clone Wars film will be high on delivering lots of action. Maybe the storyline will be better than the last live-action movie? I can hope, can’t I?
Go here to watch the video clip and don’t forget to visit the MovieSet homepage for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Posted at 12:16AM by admin
The Dailies: After Comic Con
Monday, July 28, 2008
Hello once again and welcome to the Monday edition of “The Dailies”, where I get the opportunity to tell you about what’s cool or big in the movie biz…or I’ve been bought because the studio has sent me swag. But since no studio has bothered to send me swag then you know that my opinion is 100% unfiltered truth! Jeez, not even a Dark Knight sticker…I must suck.
…in case you hadn’t heard, the annual San Diego International Comic Con took place last week. I remember going to my first Comic Con back in 1996 when nary a filmmaker was there. Now Comic Con has grown and attracted the attention of Hollywood, becoming the place where nearly all of the major movie studios will unveil new trailers, bring down their A-list stars and start building the hype for next year’s summer releases. Among the big events that took place last weekend were an all-star panel featuring the cast and crew of Warner Bros. Watchmen; Hugh Jackman unveiling an early sneak preview of the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine; director McG showing off a first look at his upcoming Terminator: Salvation; and Walt Disney Pictures with its debut of the trailer for Pixar’s Up and a major surprise, footage from a sequel to the 1982 cult hit Tron. According to early estimates around 125,000 fans went to the four-day con. The con organizers are at the limit for growth and unless San Diego expands their convention facilities the SDCC could wind up heading north to Los Angeles or across the desert to Las Vegas in a year or two.
…and while we’re still on the subject of comic books, The Dark Knight is still on top of the box office for a second straight week in a row. As it stands now TDK has grossed $314 million in ten days, setting a new record once again. There’s even talk that Dark Knight could have the legs to chase after the all-time box office champ, James Cameron’s Titanic, which earned $601 million back in 1997-98. Personally I can’t see Bats beating Titanic but I can see it trickle across the $500 million dollar mark around the start of the fall. One franchise that you probably won’t hear from again is The X-Files; the second film in the series, I Want to Believe, bombed big time and only grossed $10 million.
…George Lucas is threatening us with a fifth Indiana Jones movie. The Times Online broke the story which has the Star Wars creator say this about what might lay after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: “If I can come up with another idea that they like, we’ll do another. Really, with the last one, Steven wasn’t that enthusiastic. I was trying to persuade him. But now Steve is more amenable to doing another one. Yet we still have the issues about the direction we’d like to take. I’m in the future;
Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m
trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of
tension. This recent one came out of that. It’s kind of a hybrid of our own
two ideas, so we’ll see where we are able to take the next one.” Is it just me or does that sound like it’s George Lucas’ highway or no way? Spielberg is trying to “drag it back”? Wow. That sounds a little heavy-handed to me.
…and finally Ridley Scott’s Nottingham, in which the Sheriff of N. is role reveresed to become the good guy versus the evil Robin Hood, has been indefinitely delayed. The Hollywood Reporter is citing that “script concerns, location logistics and the current labor unrest” is putting the kebosh on the project, at least until next spring when the trees will be green again. So, if you’re a producer looking for a leading man to fill your hero’s role, here’s notice that Russell Crowe is now available.
See you tomorrow with more.
Posted at 9:13PM by admin
MovieSet blasts off with “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”
Friday, July 18, 2008
MovieSet’s latest page launch is for the animated science fiction/action adventure Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a feature length film that is set between the events chronicled in the live-action Star Wars movies Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
A creation of George Lucas’ newly formed animation house, The Clone Wars is a 3D animated foray into the dangerous times when the Republic’s armies of clone soldiers fought against the droid armies of Count Dooku’s Separatists. Assigned to rescue the son of crime lord Jabba the Hutt are Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker along with Anakin’s newly assigned padawan learner, Ahsoka. Together the three Jedi embark on their mission and face the forces of Dooku’s foot soldiers as well as the fury of the Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress who is hunting down Skywalker for her master.
The Clone Wars movie is actually the first three episodes in a forthcoming animated television series. The episodes have been edited to flow as one complete tale and to spark interest in the new show which will begin its syndication run this fall. Star Wars: The Clone Wars arrives in theaters on August 15 and to better your understanding of the way of the Jedi, MovieSet has now launched its page for the film which features the latest trailer as well as over a dozen stills from the flick.
Posted at 3:35AM by admin
