Sci-Fi Storm

Another sad passing to announce today: Stuart Freeborn, the makeup and creature wizard responsible for many of the creatures seen in the original Star Wars trilogy including Chewbacca, Yoda, Jabba and several of the Cantina creatures, passed away today in England at the age of 98.

Freeborn also worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Superman franchise, The Omen and many other movies.

I didn’t realize it was only speculation so far, but Disney’s CEO Bob Iger confirmed in a live interview with CNBC that Disney/Lucasfilm is working on several standalone Star Wars films, in addition to the continuing saga with Episode VII slated for 2015.

He couldn’t give any details as to characters or plot or anything like that, but did say that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are currently working on them, as reported back in November.

Here is the extended version of the Super Bowl trailer for the upcoming Iron Man 3!
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LucasFilm announced today that it will postpone the 3D re-releases of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, now that development is proceeding full speed on Episode VII. According to the announcement, “Given the recent development that we are moving forward with a new Star Wars trilogy, we will now focus 100 percent of our efforts on Star Wars: Episode VII in order to ensure the best possible experience for our fans. We will post further information about our 3D release plans at a later date.”

Disney obviously wants to push forward with new material quickly – this despite the fact that it has been re-release its own inventory of films in 3D on a fairly rapid schedule, with Monsters Inc. the most recent.

Update 1/26: Disney confirmed the news late last night.

“To be a part of the next chapter of the Star Wars saga, to collaborate with Kathy Kennedy and this remarkable group of people, is an absolute honor,” J.J. Abrams said. “I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid.”

“I’ve consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller,” Goerge Lucas said. “He’s an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn’t be in better hands.”

Previously: An official press release has not come out yet, but pretty much every news outlet is reporting that it is pretty much a “done deal” that J.J. Abrams, currently in charge of Paramount’s rebooted Star Trek movie franchise, will direct at least one episode of the Disney-revived Star Wars franchise. J.J. has reportedly signed (or is about to) to direct Episode VII, the first movie up and currently being written by Michael Arndt.

I’m surprised that either side would have wanted one person delving into both of the top science fiction saga franchises there are, but still I like the idea. Not as much as a “Joss Whedon is my master now” Episode VII, mind you…but Disney is planning plenty more.

Update: Roberto Orci appears to confirm the story on Twitter:

“@naddycat: @boborci Any chance you can confirm/deny about Mr Abrams directing Star Wars? So far just a lot of “sources say”…” True!

— roberto orci (@boborci) January 25, 2013

There are some questions as to what this means for the Star Trek franchise, especially since Paramount has historically not liked to share their talent. It remains to be seen, but Star Trek: Into Darkness might be the last one that involves Abrams.

Warner Bros wants to take on a new version of Homer’s epic Greek poem, The Odyssey – but set it in space. The studio has hired newcomer James DiLapo to write the script, based on his pitch of an idea Terry Dougas of 1821 Pictures (Machete Kills).

DiLapo wrote Devils At Play, a script which won the Nicholl Fellowship and was on the 2012 Black List of the most liked unproduced scripts according to studio executives.

Update: According to his publicist, the rumors are false.

Although Man Of Steel‘s Zack Snyder has previously said he wasn’t interested in working on Episode VII, word is spreading that he IS working on a Star Wars movie – but one that is not part of the main story (how should we refer to them? My first thought was “main sequence” vs. “out of sequence”…is that good?)

Reportedly Snyder wants to adapt Akira Kurosawa’s seminal Shichinin no Samurai (a.k.a. Seven Samurai) story into a story about the Jedi. And although there is no specific time period set, it is expected for it to fall sometime after the classic trilogy, when the Jedi are working to restore their order. In Kurosawa’s story, a village hires some masterless samurai to help them defend their harvest against bandits, but both sides have to learn the trust of the other.

I don’t know if I can see the Jedi as mercenaries for hire, though…

Trivia: The character of Obi-Wan Kenobi was loosely based on a character in another Kurosawa film, The Hidden Fortress. That character was played by Toshiro Mifune, who was also in Shichinin no Samurai (Kurosawa and Mifune worked together in 16 films) – and was once considered for the role of Obi-Wan by George Lucas.

Pretty much as usual, a roundup of the Oscars when looking at the science fiction and fantasy genres is a short article. Even with the expanded Best Picture list, nothing made that list, not even The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Probably the highest level award is the Best Animated Feature, which is at least full of genre entries, with Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and Wreck-It Ralph filling the sheet.

The dueling Snow White movies, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, will duke it out again for Achievement in Costume Design, while The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey did receive nods for Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design and Visual Effects, with Snow White and the Huntsman and The Avengers also getting nods in the latter.

Although I tend not to dwell on science errors in my SF programs/movies, even the most egregious ones, I do notice them and may comment on them. I try not to let it affect my enjoyment (hopefully) of the feature. But I do like lists like POPSCI’s Sloppiest Sci-Fi Movie Science Violations Of 2012, pointing out some of those really, really bad errors.

Not sure I agree on calling out the “travel back in time” thing as being impossible. After all, the Doctor does it just fine… 🙂

Here is the latest trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness – this is the one that we saw attached to the non-IMAX version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this past weekend:
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