Sci-Fi Storm

I had the fortune of talking with Being Human‘s Sam Witwer, who plays the vampire Aidan, ahead of Being Human‘s Season 3 premiere next month on January 14th on Syfy. We talked about Being Human, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and how he originally turned down the audition for Being Human because it was for the role of a vampire…
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I’ve been asked many times since the announcement that Disney would acquire Lucasfilm what I think of the news. I just haven’t gotten around to finishing this article…now that the feds have cleared the acquisition, I remembered 🙂

It’s no secret that I’m a big Star Wars fan (and of other Lucasfilm productions – heck, I still see humor in Howard The Duck…), nor is it a secret I’m a big Disney fan. As I mentioned to a certain Disney Jedi friend of ours, it’s two of our worlds colliding!

But is it a good thing? I think so.
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These are not the sequels you are looking for…

It has yet to be confirmed that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg have been hired by Disney to work on the the Star Wars franchise films, THR reports that they are working on the franchise, but not necessarily on the expected Episode VIII and IX films.

It seems that as part of Disney’s desire to expand the franchise (and apparently wants to do so quickly), the two may be working to take the franchise in different directions with spinoffs or similar projects, which they would produce, and could eventually be given “Episode” status.

I haven’t done one of these in a few years, but I thought I’d put together a small holiday buying guide for SF lovers – at least some of the items I think readers of this site would like…

To start, I cannot say enough about Ashley Eckstein’s Her Universe – except that I am jealous as the merchandise is for females of the species. My loss appears to be my wife and daughters gain – they love their shirts, and they might just be finding a few more delivered by Santa this year…just this week there are two new Doctor Who shirts – “Whovian” and “The Girl Who Waited”, while on the Star Wars side there are new “Cute Vader” pajamas and a Japanese-style V-neck. And the Ahsoka Tano hoodie, representing Ashley’s alter ego, is now available in adult sizes due to demand.
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We already know Michael Arndt is penning the first of three planned Star Wars sequels – now it appears that Disney is reaching back to the past and asking Lawrence Kasdan to write on of the others, according to Deadline.

Kadsan wrote the scripts for both The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi along with Raiders Of The Lost Ark, so this could harken back to the “glory days” of the franchise.

Disney is eager to get moving on the franchise, so they appear to be approaching the writers early to get the ball rolling.

Deadline also says that Simon Kinberg, who wrote X-Men: The Last Stand and Sherlock Holmes and is currently working on X-Men: Days Of Future Past has been approached for the other script.

Michael Arndt, who won the Oscar for the screenplay for 2007’s Little Miss Sunshine and was nominated last year for Toy Story 3, wrote extensive treatments for the three proposed Star Wars sequels and will write the Episode VII screenplay that is now moving forward after Disney acquired Lucasfilm last week. The treatments were apparently written several months ago, well before the acquisition.

Arndt also wrote the upcoming Hunger Games: Catching Fire screenplay.

Disney hopes to release Episode VII in 2015.

A bit of Star Wars lore will finally be revealed! In tomorrow morning’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, “The Gathering, Part 1”, a group of Jedi padawans, led by Ahsoka, will journey to build their own lightsabers – something of a mystery to fans. We knew they built their own, but not how…

Here is a preview of the episode, which airs Saturday, November 3rd, at 9:00am ET on Cartoon Network.
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Disney’s Bob Iger confirmed during a conference call that Disney, with it’s acquisition of Lucasfilm today, have already for treatments for three new Star Wars films, with the first planned for a 2015 release (a little aggressive I think) and the next two at two- to three-year intervals – and possibly more beyond that. But Iger also says they plan to make use of the franchise in other areas, including their theme parks (Disney/SW fans have been wanting a Star Wars “land” expansion for years), games, and other initiatives. Speculation is that some television will be involved as well, although it still seems unlikely that that live action series that everyone was all a-Twitter about thinking they had already filmed it will be made, unless Disney has figured out something…

He didn’t elaborate on the treatments for the movies, but everyone seems to think this is the fabled “sequel trilogy”. A bit of history – back after the original Star Wars became a blockbuster hit, and the second run was modified to include “Episode IV” in the opening crawl, Lucas explained that he had plans for nine (to as many as twelve!) stories, and since the original was actually the fourth story he titled it as such. He then said that after making episodes V and VI, then visit the first three, and after that he would see.

Over time, however, Lucas began to disavow that he ever had plans beyond Episode VI, and that anything after that would be “made up”. However, his desire to not revisit the idea seemed like him being tired of the process of planning and filming a whole trilogy, which he said takes about 9 years of his life, as well as the poor feedback he got from doing the prequels. And he insisted no one else would make them either. It could be that since he won’t be directly involved now (he’d be credited at least as a “creative consultant”, but that could be an honorary credit) he handed over his treatments for them to develop more.

Now the BIG question – who will take the reins? The first word that came to my mind? Whedon. Joss is already at Disney playing in the Marvel universe…

WHOA!!!!

In a blockbuster deal just announced, Disney will acquire LucasFilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock. Kathleen Kennedy, currently the co-chair of LucasFilm, will become the President and report to Walt Disney Studios chief Alan Horn.

The deal appears to be in line with George Lucas announcing earlier this year that he wanted to step away from LucasFilm and go back to “hobby movies”. Lucas said as part of the announcement, “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come.”

It is also being reported that there will be a new Star Wars film, to be released in 2015! No details, and it seems a little soon for something no one has heard of yet, but George Lucas has been mulling various ideas for a while…
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[As usual, instead of attending a big SF event, I get to stay home and do the work of three people, on-call 24×7. I hope to resolve that soon…]

Today at Celebration VI in Orlando, the creators of Robot Chicken, Seth Green and Matt Senreich, showed footage of their upcoming animated show Star Wars: Detours, which is a CGI-animated comedy series that takes place between Episodes III and IV in the Star Wars continuity.

The style shown is deliberate caricatures of the characters themselves – small bodies with big heads, Princess Leia’s hair buns are larger than her head, etc. The Han Solo in this reminds me a bit of the very odd version of him shown in the original animation done for the Star Wars Holiday Special. And the scenes revolve around what goes on when they aren’t trying to blow up planets, smuggle goods or stage a rebellion – when the galaxy is kinda quiet and peaceful.

And a lot of big names are associated with the production – Jane Espenson in addition to the many writers who have contributed to Robot Chicken over the years, Jane Espenson, who has written for many shows our readers should be familiar with including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tru Calling, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Torchwood: Miracle Day, etc. etc. is also contributing. And the voices heard include Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), Joel McHale (Community), and even Billy Dee Williams reprising the role of Lando Calrissian.

Among the other voices to be heard include Anthony Daniels and Ahmed Best reprising their roles as C-3PO and Jar-Jar Binks, respectively, along with Zachary Levi Chuck, Felicia Day (The Guild), Weird Al Yankovic, Abraham Benrubi (ER), and Star Wars: The Clone Wars alums Dee Bradley Baker, Jennifer Hale, and Catherine Taber.

No release date or network was revealed but expect to see it some time next year.

Read on and watch the trailer and clips!
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