Category Archives: Star Wars Celebration
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 – Blaine Christine (Sphero) Interview
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 – Ray Park Interview
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 – BB-8 Builders Interview
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 – Michael Carter (Bib Fortuna) Interview
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 – Ken Colley (Admiral Piett) Interview
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 – Ahsoka’s Untold Tales Panel
15 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THE ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY PANEL
Via Starwars.com:
ALL THE BIGGEST NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY PANEL IN LONDON!
The filmmakers and cast behind the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story came together tonight — in a special panel hosted by Gwendoline Christie — at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016. They talked about their characters, their experiences making the movie, and much, much more. Here are 15 of the biggest insights, highlights, and surprises from the panel.
1. Rogue One will look and feel unique from all other films set in a galaxy far, far away. “It’s a style that is unlike any other Star Wars movie,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said. She recounted seeing director Gareth Edwards, camera on his shoulder, testing shots guerilla-style as sign that this movie would be different. “I think that’s what’s so amazing about his style,” she said. “This is going to be an incredibly immersive experience when you see Rogue One.”
2. Gareth Edwards was star struck when he met a certain Jedi. “It’s just been the most insane, most surreal experience,” Edwards said. One day, someone nudged him and asked, “Do you want to meet Luke Skywalker?” Mark Hamill was visiting the set and wearing a Godzilla tee shirt; Edwards had directed 2014’s Godzilla. “I don’t know what I said to him,” Edwards said. But he had one thought: “Please Lord, somebody be taking a photograph of this.” Later, Edwards revealed that one George Lucas also paid a visit. “None of this would be happening if not for George Lucas,” he said. “The guy’s a genius.”
3. The concept for the film — the Rebels’ theft of the Death Star plans — dates back to the once-planned live-action Star Wars TV show, discussed around 13 years ago. The idea came from John Knoll, digital effects innovator at Industrial Light & Magic, who thought a Mission Impossible-style mission would be a good fit for the show. He dropped the idea, however, when he heard the timeline for the series, which wouldn’t fit with a pre-A New Hope story. But when they announced the standalone series, Knoll recalled his story. “I was thinking, ‘That original idea could make a good standalone film,’” he said. The more people he told the idea, the more he was encouraged to formally pitch it. Finally, he did, and the rest is Star Wars history. Knoll thought, “If I don’t [pitch], I’ll always wonder what might’ve happened if I had.”
4. Prepare to visit the sunny beaches of Scarif — that’s the beach world seen in the teaser. And shooting in such a real-world location was (not) hard for everyone. “Just so happens it was set in paradise,” Edwards said. “So we had to go to paradise to film it.”
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Celebration Reel
Mark Hamill’s Celebration Europe Panel
Via Ew.com:
Mark Hamill launched the first major panel of Star Wars Celebration in London with a one-man Q&A show and single promise: Sorry, no talk of Episode VIII.
So while next year’s sequel to The Force Awakens stayed relatively under wraps until near the end of his discussion (see below), the Luke Skywalker actor began his appearance by urging fans not to do the same with their toys. Even though he’s a collector himself, he says he encouraged his own children to rip open their action-figures rather than keep them pristine on the shelf.
“When we were doing the [original] movie, I was reading this thing and thinking, ‘It reads like a toybox!’ There are floating cars, there are fire-swords, and robots,” Hamill recalled. “So I said to George [Lucas], ‘Can I get on a list where I get one of everything?’ And he said, ‘Sure.’ I thought there’d be a poster, there’ll be a comic book, and a t-shirt maybe or a record album.”
He compared the avalanche of merchandise to the endless marching brooms from Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. “The toys just start coming to your house. Bum-bah-bump, bah-bump…,” he sang. “Every day, more toys.”
Hamill said one of the earliest words his kids said was “Kenner!”
“I gave all those toys to the kids, and they grew up later and said, ‘Oh my God, Princess Leia in the box is $1,400 in mint condition! Why’d you let us give her a Sinead O’Connor haircut with cuticle scissors?’ I said, ‘They were your toys!’”
He said his own obsessions inspired his new VOD series Pop Culture Quest, which debuts in the fall and features him exploring other people’s collections. “There’s no more room in my house for stuff,” Hamill said. “When I start putting my collection in storage, that’s no fun. … We want these things to share and look at. So Pop Culture Quest is a way for me to have an excuse to come to your house and look at your collection.”
Breaking into a Darth Vader voice, he extended a hand to the audience and intoned: “May your collection be with me …”
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