Cannes turns to the dark side.

[Shockeye]

Star Wars III to open Cannes
By Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail
18 February 2005

The Cannes Film Festival is going to the dark side. After months of negotiations between George Lucas and festival officials, Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge Of The Sith will open the festival in the South of France in May.

It's hoped that Ewan McGregor, who plays the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, will attend, although he'll be about to open in Michael Grandage's new London stage version of Guys And Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre.

It could be a star-packed Cannes this year. Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger are planning to attend with an outofcompetition screening of their latest picture, Cinderella Man, plus there's talk of them handing out the main prize at the closing ceremony.

Another major movie rumoured to be at the festival is Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. It's based on a short story by E. Annie Proulx.

[schild]

Please god. No.


Fuck fuck fuck.

I hope The Aristocrats follows it.

[HaemishM]

WHORES!

[Shockeye]

A couple days old, but I'll continue to break schild's childhood.

Lucas To Be In Star Wars

Star Wars director George Lucas is a bit sick of being behind the camera apparently and so has decided to make a cameo appearance in the new and supposedly last film.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith is due for release in the UK in May and if you keep your eyes peeled you might be able to spot the bearded man in one of the scenes.

According to Ain't It Cool News, George's character is called Baron Papanoida and is set to appear in the opera house scene - but blink and you could miss him.

Of course, there's always the possibility that George will get cold feet and his scene could end up being edited out.

But if he does appear, he'll be following in the footsteps of Peter Jackson who recently immortalised himself on screen in all three of his Lord Of The Rings films.

In The Fellowship Of The Ring he was uncredited as hobbit Albert Dreary, in The Two Towers he was an uncredited Rohirrim Warrior and in Return Of The King he was uncredited as a Mercenary On Boat.

[schild]

Lucas is going to be in it?

Star Wars is officially a parody of what it could have been. Though, this did happen around Episode 1, Lucas' latest stunt just solidifies that.

[Flashman]

Is there any chance that this could actually be a good film? That Lucas, after an intense period of self-awareness and realization, came to the point where he said "Hey, the last two films sucked monkeyballs and I'm going to return to the glory days of Ep. 4 and 5. Ep. 3 is going to be dark with an excellent, intelligible plot/narrative and fast moving action. People will see this film as my "comeback""


Yeah, I know, no chance at all.


Still, jesus, this guys has to be at least somewhat aware of just how bad the last two movies were. right? I mean no one can be that oblivious...

[Shockeye]

Is there any chance that this could actually be a good film? That Lucas, after an intense period of self-awareness and realization, came to the point where he said "Hey, the last two films sucked monkeyballs and I'm going to return to the glory days of Ep. 4 and 5. Ep. 3 is going to be dark with an excellent, intelligible plot/narrative and fast moving action. People will see this film as my "comeback""

I'm pretty sure people were saying this before Episode 2 came out.

The ability to delude ourselves is what makes us truly human.

[Samwise]

I hear (indirectly, from a friend of a friend that worked on the film) that the action scenes are cool, but the dialogue is worse than Ep. 2's.

We'll note that the trailer doesn't show any dialogue.  Could be a reason for that.

[Flashman]

I hear (indirectly, from a friend of a friend that worked on the film) that the action scenes are cool, but the dialogue is worse than Ep. 2's.

I don't believe you.

No dialogue in any star wars film could be worse than the awkward, painful, cringe inducing "love talk" in Ep. 2.

[Shockeye]

You must unlearn what you have learned.

Always in motion is the future.

[Murgos]

The saber battle at the end of ep1 with Qui-Gon, Maul and Kenobi is (in my mind anyway) one of the best action sequences ever put to film.  Music, choreography, setting etc...

Too bad almost everything else about the prequels is average at best (except Natalie Portman of course, nothing average there except her performance and whose paying attention to that when shes on the screen?).

[Ironwood]

Not me.  I'm usually too busy looking out for errant nipples.

Much to my wifes disgust.

[HaemishM]

The saber battle at the end of ep1 with Qui-Gon, Maul and Kenobi is (in my mind anyway) one of the best action sequences ever put to film.  Music, choreography, setting etc...

Too bad almost everything else about the prequels is average at best (except Natalie Portman of course, nothing average there except her performance and whose paying attention to that when shes on the screen?).

Yes.

Is there any chance that this could actually be a good film? That Lucas, after an intense period of self-awareness and realization, came to the point where he said "Hey, the last two films sucked monkeyballs and I'm going to return to the glory days of Ep. 4 and 5. Ep. 3 is going to be dark with an excellent, intelligible plot/narrative and fast moving action. People will see this film as my "comeback""

Lucas continues to blame the negative perception of Ep. 1 and 2 on jaded Internet fanbois who could never be made happy by reality. He's partly right. However, he does indeed not realize how much monkey ass Ep. 2 sucked.

[Signe]

Well, that makes me feel better!  It's not my fault, then.  I'm not a fan or a boi.  Yay me.

I might be a little jaded, though.

[ahoythematey]

Almost all of us are jaded because we are fucking nerds and more than likely loved the classic trilogy at some point, so I think it's important to remind oneself that there are people out there, believe it or not, who did not and do not like Star Wars, old and new.  It feels futile saying so, but I believe it's important to not have such high expectations for the movie simply based on rose-colored nostalgia.  I guess it does help that I'm more a fan of Star Trek...

[WayAbvPar]

Almost all of us are jaded because we are fucking nerds and more than likely loved the classic trilogy at some point, so I think it's important to remind oneself that there are people out there, believe it or not, who did not and do not like Star Wars, old and new.  It feels futile saying so, but I believe it's important to not have such high expectations for the movie simply based on rose-colored nostalgia.  I guess it does help that I'm more a fan of Star Trek...

There were millions of people who loved Titanic as well. Doesn't mean it wasn't a steaming pile of excrement.

[ahoythematey]

There were millions of people who loved Titanic as well. Doesn't mean it wasn't a steaming pile of excrement.

*blink* What are you trying to say?  That something which is loved by millions can also have it's detractors?  If so, you are being redundant seeing as I inferred to the same notion in the post you quoted.  If not...well, I am pretty tired and could be missing something.

[schild]

Almost all of us are jaded because we are fucking nerds and more than likely loved the classic trilogy at some point, so I think it's important to remind oneself that there are people out there, believe it or not, who did not and do not like Star Wars, old and new.  It feels futile saying so, but I believe it's important to not have such high expectations for the movie simply based on rose-colored nostalgia.  I guess it does help that I'm more a fan of Star Trek...

I didn't like the old or the new. They're all campy pieces of shit. They want so desperately to be interesting sci-fi when they're just b-rate shit with muppets much like the rest of the genre. Cowboy Bebop is a far more interesting and imho, successful, space opera. Empire was passable. But the rest is entirely unbearable, particularly the new ones. Lucas is simply a bad writer and a worse director.

[AOFanboi]

Best space opera since E. E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensman books is Babylon 5. Star Wars is 'Samurai in Space'. And Ep I was the first time Lucas directed in 22 years, and according to an interview with someone else I heard yesterday, he hated directing the two movies (American Grafitti and Star Wars) he directed back then. (In the same interview, he was referenced as wanting the full rights to SW and sequels - which he got - so that he could make money off merchandise. But you already knew that.)

The biggest problem with the "prequels" are that they aren't even "Samurai in space" - except for the dueling scenes. They are simply "toys in space", meant to fuel the important part of the Star Wars universe: The endless merchandising.

He's only in it for the money, but then again so is Cannes.

[Jayce]

Almost all of us are jaded because we are fucking nerds and more than likely loved the classic trilogy at some point, so I think it's important to remind oneself that there are people out there, believe it or not, who did not and do not like Star Wars, old and new.  It feels futile saying so, but I believe it's important to not have such high expectations for the movie simply based on rose-colored nostalgia.  I guess it does help that I'm more a fan of Star Trek...

I didn't like the old or the new. They're all campy pieces of shit. They want so desperately to be interesting sci-fi when they're just b-rate shit with muppets much like the rest of the genre. Cowboy Bebop is a far more interesting and imho, successful, space opera. Empire was passable. But the rest is entirely unbearable, particularly the new ones. Lucas is simply a bad writer and a worse director.

Give it to Mikey!  He hates everything!

[Shockeye]

Entertainment Photos - AP



Photo supplied by Walt Disney World shows 'Star Wars' creator and director George Lucas Thursday evening, Feb. 24, 2005, meeting 'Jedi Mickey Mouse' outside the Star Tours attraction which Lucas helped design at the Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. With his newest film, 'Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith' set to debut in theaters in May, Lucas is taking some vacation this week at Walt Disney World. 'Revenge of the Sith,' the final film in the 'Star Wars' saga, will be released worldwide May 19, 2005. (AP Photo/ Walt Disney World,Mark Ashmanr)

[Paelos]

I heard on the radio this morning that the official theatrical trailer will air next Thursday on Fox during the O.C. a day before it hits the theatres.

Apparently, they figured this was a good market to debut in. Or Fox let them do it for free.

[Sky]

Bah, Ep 1&2 were completely mediocre. I've actually seen them when I was really in the mood to like it, and it brings them up to maybe a 5/10.

One of the things that really blew it for me was the commentary tracks. I was watching the commentary for Ep2 and they were going on about how the movie had slowed down with too much dialogue, so they called up the animators and had them shoot the robot factory scene. Like ten minutes of meaningless, gratuitous time filling crap.

But the list is so long....I like to start the list with the flying r2. The original r2 was so much cooler, and I never thought he was cool. But hey, they made Yoda fly, pretty much. Maybe in Ep 3 Uncle Owen will shoot lasers out his ass. Because we know he can fly.

[HaemishM]

That picture of Jedi Mickey Mouse has turned my inner child into John Wayne Gacy. With a clown nose soaked in the blood of innocence.

The 10-minute robot factor scene made me think of those asstardic levels in platform games where all you do is jump over shit but one wrong misstep sends you directly back to the beginning. Lucas made the cinematic equivalent of the Library levels in Halo.