Posted on 04/29/2014 10:24:04 AM PDT by notsofastmyfriend
Can’t anybody in any movie anywhere just retire and live out their days tending the tulips in their garden?
Some of the greatest actors of all time have come out of retirement to cash in. Big money is hard to resist and ego is involved too. Its a business for all it glamor and fame. And if YOUR corporation paid 40 BILLION for a franchise you know your are going to make that money back AND turn a profit ANY way you can! There us no shortage of stupid people who will buy bad stuff. A sufficiently dumbed down audience will buy anything.
You and me both! I went to IMDB just now. I was certain he had recently died. Looks like I got him mixed up with Maxmillian Schell, who passed away this past February.
Whoops..4.5 billion...not 40. Still unbelievable money.
I was thinking of the “archival footage” of Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156/?ref_=nv_sr_2
I was unaware that Alec Guinness was still alive at the time they finally completed Mute Witness (1994).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110604/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2
You misunderstood me. I’m not saying Carrie Fischer should stay home and tend tulips I’m saying why do we have to kill off just about every single character in a movie at some point? I know, they love the drama it creates, but 97 percent of people live to old age and don’t get killed by a Sith Lord. In Tattooine, it should be even more, since they can give you all new parts. Would love to see Han Solo and Leia living in a condo on the edge of a lake, entertaining their grandkids and puttering around.
http://www.downvids.net/this-is-freaking-great-jedi-cat—538347.html
Great light saber action...I think they’re Viking Kittens.
Okay. The reason I asked is that I saw it at the Chinese in Hollywood (70MM screen) that had the sound system that was installed for “Earthquake”. The entire theatre rumbled as the Star Destroyer cruised overhead and I was in love with the movie instantly. If you are ever in Hollywood seeing a movie there is a good thing to do.
Fortunately I no longer live in Hollywood. My wife and I escaped to Utah 32 years ago.
“..had the sound system that was installed for Earthquake...”
Ha! That must have been incredible!
Fisher was joking on a talk show when she said she wanted Leia to kill Han; Ford wanted Solo killed off in Jedi because he thought it served the character. We don’t know how he feels now (not that it matters as it’s not his call). My gut instinct is Solo dies in VII saving his and Leia’s daughter, whom I am hoping is the lead of the next trilogy. That would give his character over four films an amazing arc - going from smuggler who cares only about himself to dying for his child who’s going to be the next “new hope.”
But what the heck do I know...other than that if they split up Han and Leia and go all “modern family” on a myth, no more money spent on SW for me, since Han and Leia were my ideal couple when I was a kid.
“Do you have the Miss Piggy ?”
Always imagined R2 did his own upgrades every time he hacked into something...sometimes he shared with 3PO but golden boy got tired of the obvious viruses that R2 would add to make him say stupid things.
Ha. I'd forgotten about that one. Time to watch it again.
After 3o+ years I put it all in the perspective of TODAY’S audience and what it wants. Add in PC, the Disney Co. politics and its need to profit and fill its Disney stores with ‘MOICHANDIZE” as Mel Brooks put it-and I have no hope of a mythic epic from Disney. Their target audience is 5-17. Older, adult fans are the ‘nostalgia audience’. Look at it as a business prospect. The product is a film but what if it were 4.5 BILLION dollars worth of chicken? Would your company try to sell chicken cordon bleu to the 5-15 year olds ow would you make more profit selling chicken nuggets? You’re not getting gourmet food from Mc Donalds and you’re not getting a moving epic from the Mouse House. It’s not what they do.
Speculation? I actively dislike the Solo character and could never see the Royalty/Criminal thing working. Hit and run, yes, long term-no. IF they were smart Solo’s death will be the big dramatic moment. We are ALL assuming too much. 30 years later they all could have gone their own way. Why assume Han and Leia married, had children? They could have children from other relationships that meet up years later.The main three could have NO children, and the ‘new generation’ could be newly found Force users.
What if the Princess ended up with Lando and the black guy is her son? What if the girl is hers by another man and the black guy is Han’s son from some space-bimbo or a relationship that predates SW? Think today’s ‘multiculturalism’ and satisfying every faction. Disney has gotten very liberal!
Bottom line, I can’t see them worrying too much about the ‘old’ fans and what they want. We are a limited commodity. They have to start a new market of kids they can milk for 20 years Move the geezers off- on screen and in the audience- and get a new generation hooked. I don’t see our kind of SW movie happening. Times have changed-the culture and audiences WORLDWIDE have changed. The original SW would flop today. Dark, cynical, evil-based films make it now and even the biggest hits are on DVD within months.
I have a bad feeling about this.
I of course have a bad feeling about this too, because I think they should have let Star Wars alone.
But at least one (and maybe both) of us will be very unhappy in December 2015!
I’m a lawyer now, but my background is in screenwriting. Clearly that didn’t work out very well financially, so take my comments for what they are worth. And Han Solo is perhaps my favorite film character ever, so we have big POV differential there.
But here’s my thing about the new trilogy: The arc of the first three films led up to an ending in Jedi was more or less a “and they lived happily ever after” moment for the Big Three. Luke redeemed his father and became the first of the “new Jedi.” We learned that Leia was strong in the force (and was not actually royalty at all, but Darth Vader’s daughter) at the same time that the obstacle for Han and Leia’s relationship (Luke) was removed. Which means the only two characters set up to possibly continue the Skywalker bloodlines could continue the bloodline.
If the next movie opens with major, major events that change the status quo we all saw at the end of ROTJ (like the ones you positor other one’s I’ve heard, like Luke goes Dark) and those events have all happened OFFSCREEN in the intervening years, they have a storytelling problem: they’ll have to TELL us about it, and not SHOW it happening. Telling and not showing is one of the worst things you can do as a screenwriter. I also think they’ll have a lot problems with suspension of disbelief problems if they just tell us that the character traits that developed, the growth that occurred over the arc of first three films, and the relationships between the Big Three at the end of Jedi were not in some way permanent and fractured in the intervening years. I don’t think it’s just the nostalgia audience like us who would not buy in: I know a lot of kids who are just as steeped in Star Wars mythology and as fond of these characters as the nostalgia generation.
So I think Abrams and Kasdan need to be very, very careful about how they play with the Big Three. Personally, I’d like to see the Big Three sidelined as quickly as possible in favor of the next generation. We should have seen the most compelling moments of the characters of Luke, Han, and Leia’s lives onscreen already.
So I’m kind of hoping Kasdan and Abrams remember screenwriting 101 and if big things happen to the Big Three, they happen onscreen, and not in the intervening years(although Abrams wrote “Regarding Henry”, which is one of the worst things ever, and Kasdan wrote that horrible movie “Dreamcatcher”, which may have been the second worst thing ever). So...we’ll see.
But one thing is for sure, ClearBlueSky. You and I are both big time nerds. :)
Given the time frame and the company, I’m guessing Leia artificially inseminated some other chick, and they are now two married mommies. Solo will have gone rogue, having tired of Leia’s insults and waspish behavior once her figure ballooned to Graf Zeppelin size.
Luke? Using the force will have shrunk him 50% as he starts turning into Yoda.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.