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Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Rumors
Stop reading if you're spoiler paranoid. ChazeFroy writes "The actor who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy, Peter Mayhew, will be in Episode III. Of course, this has been previously reported and comes as no surprise. However, TheForce is reporting that Mayhew's contract contains a stipulation that he must also appear in Episodes 7, 8, and 9. This was first reported in the British movie magazine Hot Dog, whose December issue with this news just hit US newstands."
Realizing I through III will not turn out to be the worshipped saga he had hoped for, and since LotR now defines the high-quality fantasy saga, George wants another shot to redeem it all?
I remember back in around 1996 seeing slots for eps I,II,III,IV,V,VI and VII,VIII,IX on the StarWars.com homepage. Though a recent trip to the WayBack Machine seems to refute that memory. But they only go back to Dec 30th of '96 and my memory of VII,VIII,IX is a pretty clear one I'm adamant of having seen. But, interestingly enough Lucas had made some pretty clear statements that he NEVER intended to make a VII,VIII,IX trilogy. But I chalk those statements up to the same sort of Soviet revisionist history that made Greedo shoot first.
However, as we all know, the prequels don't hold a CANDEL to the originals. Maybe Lucas is FINALLY starting to realize this and hoping to restore the franchise to it's former glory, removing the tarnish of eps I and II. If that be the case, I truly hope that he can. Truly.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
Just because Mayhew wants his part secured for future episodes does not mean that there will be future episodes. It would be no different then Elijah Wood securing his role as Frodo to keep another actor, say Keanu Reeves or Paul Reubens, from being cast in as Frodo in the future.
A good novel seldom makes for a good movie.
There's simply not enough time in a movie. A good novella or short story is what you really need, else you need an expert at chopping -- the better the novel is, the harder it gets, cause in a really good novel, everything is essential.
Regards,
--
*Art
me too, but it's all about branding. you don't buy MS products because they're good, you buy them because they're well known
So how many people will probably see episode 3 even though 1 and 2 sucked? I probably will. How many will see 7, 8, and 9? i might, might not... I feel 6 wrapped things up enough that I wouldn't be needing to see 7, 8, or 9 to satiate my curiosity. but Star Wars is a popular brand, so a lot of people will see them.
Thats, basically, what hes doing with the DVD release. (rumored.)
heres a list: stolen from http://www.killermovies.com/forums/archive/index.p hp/t-20784
Remember, these are only rumors.
Episode IV: A New Hope
01. The Imperial March has been added to Darth Vader's first appearance on
Princess Leia's ship.
02. When Obi-Wan is talking to Luke about his father Anakin's Theme plays
in the background and then it turns into the Imperial March as he talks
about Vader.
03. The lightsaber effects have been redone and the frame jumps of
lightsabers being turned on has been removed.
04. There's a new scene which has been shot during the filming of Episode
III in which the Emperor dissolves the Senate.
05. In the Cantina, the Duros(green aliens guys) have been replaced with
Neimoidians and some aliens from the prequels have been added.
06. The bleeding arm on the floor in the Cantina has been replaced with a
non-bleeding arm because it's now canon that lightsabers cauterize wounds.
07. The original shooting scene between Han and Greedo has been restored.
08. Jabba the Hutt has been given a makeover and Han no longer steps on his
tale.
09. In place of R2 wobbling down the stairs to the Falcon's hangar, a CG R2
navigating the stairs like he does in Attack of the Clones was added.
10. The white boxes around space ships have been removed and new CG shots
have been added.
11. The scene of the Falcon being chased by the two Star Destroyers was
modified. The Falcon now does spinning moves, avoiding the Star Destroyers'
fire.
12. When the Death Star destroys Alderaan there's a new scene of Yoda's
reaction to the disturbance in the Force that is created by all those
deaths and then it cuts to Obi-Wan reacting to it as well.
13. The Dianoga has gotten a CG makeover and were are now able to see more
of the creature.
14. The Death Star's paneling and computers have been slightly altered to
show similar displays to those in the prequels.
15. The words "Tractor Beam" with Aurebesh lettering.
16. More stormtroopers have been added to the Death Star.
17. Temuera Morrison's voice is being recorded for use with all the
stormtroopers.
18. The Obi-Wan/Vader duel has been spruced up. It is much more epic and
there is much more movement. A modified version of Duel of the Fates is
being considered for the scene.
19. The Death Star plans that are taken from R2 have been updated. When the
Rebels are reviewing the Death Star plans they look similar to the plans we
see in Attack of the Clones.
20. The Death Star battle is much more epic with more Tie Fighters and more
Rebels being blown to bits. We get to see old Naboo starfighters being used
by the Rebels.
21. There's a new scene(shot during Episode III) where Darth Vader goes to
Coruscant and lands his ship in the same building Count Dooku does at the
end of Attack of the Clones. Except now the building is all fixed up and it
is now Palpatine's palace. He meets with Palpatine to ask for forgiveness
for his failure and inform him of a new potential who is strong in the Force.
22. Chewbacca now gets a medal.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
01. The taun-tauns are now CG.
02. The battle of Hoth is much more epic. We see the Imperial ships land on
Hoth and release AT-ATs. The AT-ATs have been sped up a bit. There's a
ground battle between the Rebel soldiers and stormtroopers featuring new
ships and vehicles.
03. Temuera Morrison's voice is being recorded for the older Boba Fett and
all the stormtroopers.
04. The white boxes around space ships have been removed.
05. The slug monster is CG.
06. Ian McDiarmid has refilmed scenes as the Emperor. The conversations
between Vader and Palpatine is now longer and features a few connections to
the prequels.
07. Yoda's face is now animated in CG allowing more _expression of emotions
yet his movements remain the same. Also tw
no
Episodes 7, 8 and 9 are supposed to deal with a character that is supposed to be introduced in Episode 3. These episodes will take place after the New Jedi Order series. That allows for Lucas to use the original stars (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, etc.) and place them into the timeline approximately 30 years after A New Hope which is right around the end of the Yuuzhan Vong series (NJO). This is perfect. In 2007 these performers will be 30 years older than they were when they took the roles in the first place. This gives a lot of credibility to the whole concept.
I think LOTR made believers out of this crowd. Proof that enough money, love, time and geekdom can pull off a quality interpretation.
You'll never get a direct translation, even in a short story. A raised eyebrow or a sardonic smile means a lot more when written down than it would if you made a point of zooming in on it. Not to mention that imagery and metaphor are difficult to pull off without narration, which is too often a cheaply used device and completely blows the subtlety it had on the page.
He's currently living in (huh? Where?)- population 6500. The only other claim to fame is that we have one of the few drive-in movie theaters left in existance. Mr. Mayhew (who is actually a really cool and funny guy) has spent the last few years living there and acting at the local opera house. Yea, its wierd to see Chewie walk into the middle of a Rogers and Hammerstien musical. He has a daughter who is now a freshman in college, and attended Granbury High School (Far, Above the Brazos River; Bathed in golden light!) When episode II came out she was in HS, and my younger sister tells me there was intense competition to be dating her at the time of the premier. IIRC the guy who won that sweepstakes got to go to the premier as the date of Chewies daughter...
So yea- I'm not really surprised he has a contract for the next three. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he has a contract for the next 387. He's getting older, the condition that made him so tall has started to really fuck with his knees, and he's doing community theater. If you were him, wouldn't you do everything to assure yourself that you'd be in on it if the next shot at residuals came along?
I'll talk to the local town gossip tonight and see if I can't find out some more.
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
-If- there are three more movies made, -and- they need someone to play Chewie, -then- he'll be the one to do it if still around, and he can't refuse. This in no way stipulates that they -must- make three movies, or even that they -will- ... only that he would be required to play Chewie if they ever again need someone to do so.
It's a great way to give both actors and the audience some hope for more movies, and it lets them worry a little less about the 'how' of making more movies by already having actors lined up and contracts signed. Sheesh. Can't you boys be a little more skeptical?
That has already happened and unless George Lucas goes around lobotomising his audience there is no way it can un-happen. If you feel that your wallet has been raped then maybe you shouldn't have bought the DVD or the action figures. Spending money on a movie ticket is like forced sex to you? Someone has to get their sense of perspective checked and it is not me.
Needed to get this off my chest. So much in fact that I will throw in an extra point for the moderators to take away from me.
Hank! White!
But when you adjust for inflation:
Star Wars - $979 million
The Empire Strikes Back - $547 million
Return of the Jedi - $524 million
The Phantom Menace - $475 million
Attack of the Clones - $310 million
You say Lucas is 60 now (that's in 2004)... if so, then how will he be 66 in 2012, *eight* years from now?
Well if only one of these rumors can be granted, then I want the ewok music back. From a musicians perspective that was much better than the crap they used in the re-release.
Karma? Hey I just call it as I see it.
"People whine "OMG YOU KILLED _______" when it was actually one of the best things they could have done for the Star Wars universe."
Uh, I read the book I think you're referring to, and the 'OMG YOU KILLED ____' whining was a result of the death of that character not being terribly interesting. The book was poorly written and the story was plain and dull. The death of that character had more to do with getting copies of the book sold than some inspired story arc.
Of course, we could possibly be talking about two different books.
"Derp de derp."
Too soon to tell, I think all the stuff with Hayden Christenson is stupid as well as the redoing of the voices of the Stormtroopers. Taking out other people's contributions to the legend is wrong for the sake of the art and mean-spirited.
Why would the spirit of Padme be at the end also? I thought only Jedi masters could do this before they finally joined with the force.
Changing the music also seems like a bad idea, it again distorts the orginal art and flow of the movie. You can upgrade sound _quality_, but leave the original tracks alone.
Come to think of it, I'll stick with my original letterbox VHS until they disintegrate. The originals were perfect, including their imperfections, it's part of what made it an incredible film. Lucas changing the films to support his lackluster plotlines and mediocre characters from the first few movies is a horrid affront to the fans and his own work.
It was freakin' Lucas (as South Park pointed out) who lead the charge to keep movies from being colorized. I wish he could apply the same logic here.
"As the director, the man's actually still pretty good."
Watch epII and Minority Report back to back. They both were made a virtually the same time so they both had the same CG technology available. Watch the big-fight-in-a-factory scene that is present in both. There is no comparison. epII is cartoony and almost amaturish by comparison to to the work of Spielberg.
You can compare scenes throughout epI and epII to similar sceens in other movies with similar results. Lucas is a mediocre director at best. A number of good directors would produce much better movies than Lucas if they had the same high quality actors and technology available on epI & II, even if they were saddled with the same script.
TW
Agreed. I hated Episode 1. I hated Episode 2. I have even extended my hate to Return of the Jedi.
And yet, I will see Episode 3, and I proudly GM the Star Wars d20 RPG (in a campaign based around the Old Republic era seen in KotOR, thus preventing the players from having to meet up with any damn gungans). If they make a sequel trilogy, even if it isn't based on Zahn's great books, I will go see it. Though I think they can't help but drawn on these guys...come one, Luke and Mara Jade? The tsalmiri? Leia hiding out on a planet of violent assassins, playing up her father's infamy? Even Lucas can't deny that's good stuff!
What can I say? Star Wars is a pleasant fantasy realm that cannot be stifled even by the ineptitude of its creator. I *like* the Star Wars universe, midichlorian bullshit and all.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
You have been disappointing us. While many of us grew up with your movies and loved them, things have been steadily going down hill.
1. Hire some real writers. You got help with Empire and it was the best movie to date. Don't try to do it yourself, you're real talent lies elsewhere.
2. Hire another director. Get somebody like Peter Jackson who can film the trilogy all at once. We don't like waiting years between movies. 1 year max between releases.
3. If it's cute. Leave it out. No more muppet'y characters like the Ewoks. No more frickin' Jar Jar type characters. I just can't take it. If you would like, I will offer my services for free. You can run this stuff by me and I will tell you if it sucks.
4. Give it an edge like Empire. Your loyal fan base is getting older. We want a real plot without all of the inconsistencies that you have written yourself into in the last two movies. Remember, we're adults now. We we love the world and the characters that you created for us but we really want to experience it on an adult level. I'll say it again. No more Jar Jar's.
5. Concentrate on what you really do best. Keep pushing the state of the art in film production. Push ILM to make the movie better while producing it faster and cheaper than anyone has ever done. Bring the costs of producing epic style movies down to a more reasonable level so that even more young artists can expose us to their visions without having a $100 million bank roll. The less expensive it gets, the more variety we will have.
6. Don't concentrate on making a blockbuster. Just make the best movie that you can and show it to us. We will pay to see it. You don't have to have product tie ins everywhere we go. No more cheesy market deals. No more Jar Jar's (did I already mention that?)
7. I want the new trilogy to hit DVD before I start collecting social security. Besides if you get off your ass on this, you can sell the previous movie on DVD right before you release the next movie. Easy advertising. (Don't do like LOTR though and release a 'normal' DVD and hold out the good one for a month or two. We like that about as much as we adore Jar Jar).
7. Use your influence and $$$ to get us completely digital theaters. We all want to see the new movies on a crystal clear screen that isn't going to be completely degraded the 3rd and 4th time we go to see it. (This assumes that you make them good).
You know what. Forget it all. I'm still pissed about the whole Jar Jar thing.
He's also been quite successful on the stage. A CNN article a few months back had him saying that he was very happy with the distance he's created between Star Wars and the rest of his very-well established career as an entertainer. Not that he's not proud of his earlier work, but it's not the kind of thing an actor wants to hang his hat on forever.
Sadly my fears were proven correct. That whole fight is a total farce. Nowhere before did Yoda move in any sort of rapid manner, its been established that he's a slow moving little guy. To have him suddenly break out the kung-fu (ugh those stances he assumed were cheesy) and fly around screaming was so utterly ridiculous both me and my brother burst out laughing when we saw it in the theater.
He absolutely should have moved like the parent suggested. I would have gone so far as to have him beat down Saruman unarmed using a fighting style something like Akido.
My patience is infinite, my time is not.
And if it somehow ends up being good, I will then go see it in the theatre.
This is how I use piracy to get rid of that silly geek factor that allowed Episodes 1 and 2 to make 400 million+. I will not support a movie by paying for it if it's not any good.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Unless you mean the prequels made you realize how lame the series already was by episode 6. How hokey episode 4 was, and how the pinnacle of the series was directed and largely rewritten by people other than Lucas. That could understandably rob you of fond memories. Of course, just watching them again older and wiser would probably have done that.
I hate to tell you this but I *have* watched the original trilogy since I was a kid. In fact, I probably watch the original trilogy about 3 times every year. I still enjoy them. You may argue that my positive feelings about those films are because I'm remembering my childhood or something. But I think they were substancially different than the new stuff.
Why? The characters. The original trilogy had likeable characters who were really giving it their all to take back the galaxy. Solo was a great guy. You could feel for what Luke was going through. Leia was clearly struggling with how to give all the parts of herself equal time. The rebellion doesn't have much but, boy, do they have heart! The Jedi, on the other hand, strike me as really a bunch or arrogant elite who seem to not be doing a very good job of anything. Anakin is just a spoiled brat. Obi Wan seems to have some ability but he never gets awfully worked up about anything. Yoda and Mace just sit around looking pensive and occasionally whip out their lightsabres. I wouldn't want to sit down and have a beer with any of those guys. They're just do damn boring.
Now let's look at the villans. Sure, in the original series the stormtroopers could never shoot straight but you knew that Vader was running the show most of the times and so it seemed like the Empire had a real chance of crushing the freedom fighters. In Ep 6 we see that Vader is starting to weaken a bit but then we're introduced to the Emperor who is even more powerful than Vader. *This* guy really knows his shit and he seems to delight in tormenting Luke. To put it simply, the bad guys were fearsome and competant. Now look at the bad guys from Ep 1 and 2. Darth Maul was cool but never really given a chance to say much. The Viceroy and the other Trade Federation weenies seem utterly incompetant. And Palpatine and Dooku have yet to do anything really horribly dispicable. It's hard to get worked up about these bad guys.
So there you have my theory. Characters are what makes the difference between the old and the new trilogy. Basically the old one had characters you could love and hate. The new one just has a bunch of guys dancing around in a CGI videogame.
GMD
watch this
My pet theory is that the special editions and episoes 1 and 2 are precisely the kinds of movies Lucas wanted to make from the beginning.
Yep, I've gathered that. In early drafts of the first Star Wars script, the hero is named "Anakin Starkiller" and the plot is much, much closer to The Phantom Menace. Evidently people reading the initial script told Lucas that the story was just a big, sprawling mess that needed to have a much tighter focus around a single hero, who had to really be heroic. So Lucas went off to read Joseph Campbell and reconstructed the first script using The Hero With a Thousand Faces and Campbell's "monomyth" concept as a guidebook.
To be fair to the first trilogy, though, Lucas always had story and production control over them. Both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were written and directed by different people. If Lucas had written it entirely himself, it would have combined the banal dialogue of the first one with the banal story of the third, and been even worse than it was. :)
Except that Minority Report was sci-fi film noir, and so was filmed in a darker style. Star Wars has always been, and always will be, pulp sci-fi, a la Flash Gordon serials from the 30's. Lucas has said time and again the movies were inspired by those old serials, so of course they're going to have a "cartoony" feel to them.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
While the Star Wars movies are definitely some of my favorite movies of all time, I don't know how great everyone's acting was in all of the movies. Harrison Ford was very consistant. When I think of Mark Hamill, all I can think about is him on Bespine yelling, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" with that terrible look on his face. It was and still is very strange.
Just because you think that the new films aren't as great as the old ones are, there is a simple reason for this. All of the new ones have been hyped to no end and they will never live up to your expectations. Also, you know what's coming, the ideas aren't as original as they used to be. Don't forget that I'm sure your standard for film has been raised over the years, so the Star Wars films just don't seem as great as they once were because you expect so much.
If you just watch the movies for what they are, you won't be disappointed and might enjoy yourself. At least Star Wars makes sense. Don't get me started on the Matrix: Revolutions.