SW - Episode 7: Mary Sue wakes up but there's no coffee. RAGE.

[01101010]

Moving on...

My earlier speculation was based on a few things outside of the characters.

1) Hamill loves acting and has always enjoyed his role in Star Wars. He'd gladly continue on as Luke in future movies. Would be pointless to make him the bad guy and kill him off early.
2) Ford is the opposite and despite it launching his career has always hated the role since he became a "Serious" actor. He's gotten legit pissed when asked about playing Han Solo before. Hell, he wanted Han dead after Empire, never to return in Jedi. I see no reason other than a big fat paycheck that he came back to do this one. The series would be better off letting him die and move on.

No reason they can't kill Luke off in the first movie. He'll just return like Obiwan did - though the force. But I doubt that will happen. At least not in this movie, and especially if Luke slides to the dark side.

[angry.bob]

He absolutely despises that fucking character.

Of course he would. Why wouldn't he? I hate that part too. It's part that made him rich and a household name as well as the one part that he showed any sort of personality beyond a block of very sedated wood. He's a fucking hack who would have died a carpenter if it hadn't been for blowing Lucas while he was doing work on his kitchen.

You know who doesn't hate the part that gave them their break? People who aren't hacks.

[Paelos]

If they can somehow work in a, "GET OFF MY STARSHIP!" line into the movie, I'll be happy.

[MahrinSkel]

Reading between the lines of interviews he's done, you can tell that he thought Lucas had promised him Han would die in RotJ, that was the only reason he came back for it at all, then Lucas screwed him:

“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”

Pretty sure he got it in the contract this time.

--Dave

[sickrubik]

I love the toy sales arguments... because, you know, they never made any more Obi Wan figures at all.

 

[Nevermore]

Yeah, and Boba Fett dying really killed his toy sales too.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Lucas is not known for his foresight.

[angry.bob]

If there's one company that knows how to utilize it's IP as much as they can without killing it, it's Disney. Disney buying this property was the best thing that could have happened to it. They need to get the lead out and license some X-Wing games. I'm pretty pissed they shitcanned that World of Tanks / War Thunder style starfighter mmo game though.

[Nevermore]

Some Vanity Fair photos.

I don't know if they'd already said so before but looks like the remnants of the Empire are called the First Order.

Edit: gallery was taken down

[rattran]

Borked link.

[Surlyboi]

This should work.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/05/star-wars-force-awakens-photos

[Samprimary]

i fixed up some of these promos

[Shannow]

Comic-con reel here

[Malakili]

Nice enough video.  Very clear that they are trying their best to say at every opportunity "we aren't making this the way they made the prequels."

[Tannhauser]

Very nice indeed. 

[Mattemeo]

That SDCC reel was better than any trailer could be. I love behind-the-scenes footage so much. I'm as into what happens before it gets to the screen as I am when it's on. The craft (and graft) of practical effects lights all my fires.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Won't lie, got chills just as much over this as I did the teaser trailer before.

[Ghambit]

Won't lie, got chills just as much over this as I did the teaser trailer before.

My chillfactor was way higher for that comic-con reel than for any movie-teaser in recent memory.   Maybe the misty mountains song Hobbit teaser was close.

[Soln]

Ahh.  So good.

[Samwise]

They're still focusing on mining nostalgia for the original trilogy rather than giving us any indication what they might be doing that's new and original beyond having a round droid.  As such I am still suspicious that this will basically be Star Wars: Into Darkness.  But at least the actual craft looks good.

[Pennilenko]

As such I am still suspicious that this will basically be Star Wars: Into Darkness.

Essentially, this would be miles better than 1 through 3.

[eldaec]

OTOH if it is Star Wars: The-one-before-into-darkness, that will be fine with me.

[Surlyboi]

I'll take either over the prequels.

And I kind of liked the prequels.

[Riggswolfe]

They're still focusing on mining nostalgia for the original trilogy rather than giving us any indication what they might be doing that's new and original beyond having a round droid.  As such I am still suspicious that this will basically be Star Wars: Into Darkness.  But at least the actual craft looks good.

I don't think it will be for two reasons:

1) Damon Lindledof isn't associated with this in any way.
2) Disney seems to know how to handle this shit. See MCU.

[Tannhauser]

They're still focusing on mining nostalgia for the original trilogy rather than giving us any indication what they might be doing that's new and original beyond having a round droid.  As such I am still suspicious that this will basically be Star Wars: Into Darkness.  But at least the actual craft looks good.

I don't think it will be for two reasons:

1) Damon Lindledof isn't associated with this in any way.
2) Disney seems to know how to handle this shit. See MCU.

Ayup.  It won't be as good as the first three, but better than the prequels.  I am looking forward to all the SW movies Disney cares to put out.  And I'm sure there will be a lot of them.  Just never could get into any of the animated series, the movies are canon to me.  I just hope the fan service isn't too strong, that kind of stuff used to delight me, now it's a bit too much winking into the camera.  Just tell good SW stories with great actions.

[eldaec]

They're still focusing on mining nostalgia for the original trilogy rather than giving us any indication what they might be doing that's new and original beyond having a round droid.  As such I am still suspicious that this will basically be Star Wars: Into Darkness.  But at least the actual craft looks good.

I don't think it will be for two reasons:

1) Damon Lindledof isn't associated with this in any way.
2) Disney seems to know how to handle this shit. See MCU.

No Lindlehof is unqualified good news.

But I remain nervous that only JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasden seem to have writing credits. Kasden's record is mixed and he was brought in late after Michael Arndt left the project.

I remain convinced that the writing credit is the single best advance indicator of the quality of any given film. This one says Abrams with a few Kasden edits.

[Riggswolfe]

They're still focusing on mining nostalgia for the original trilogy rather than giving us any indication what they might be doing that's new and original beyond having a round droid.  As such I am still suspicious that this will basically be Star Wars: Into Darkness.  But at least the actual craft looks good.

I don't think it will be for two reasons:

1) Damon Lindledof isn't associated with this in any way.
2) Disney seems to know how to handle this shit. See MCU.

No Lindlehof is unqualified good news.

But I remain nervous that only JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasden seem to have writing credits. Kasden's record is mixed and he was brought in late after Michael Arndt left the project.

I remain convinced that the writing credit is the single best advance indicator of the quality of any given film. This one says Abrams with a few Kasden edits.

Kasdan may have a mixed writing record but he also wrote the Empire Strikes Back and at that time he was having to fight George Lucas.

[Khaldun]

What's mixed about Kasdan's scripts? Generally good writing, good plotting, fun dialogue with an appropriate amount of genre-cheese to it. Dreamcatcher kind of sucked but I think that was probably Stephen King's meddling.

[Merusk]

I don't enjoy Kasdan's Romantic Comedies generally, As Good as it Gets being the sole exception there. However, reviewing his action stuff I enjoyed it all, even that terrible Wyatt Earp movie with Kostner had good action setup and plot.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, though the other Wyatt Earp film is much more fun and full of cheese. (I strongly suspect Costner himself was a big drag on everything after Dances With Wolves--droopy masculine pretention shot through everything he did for the next five years, until Tin Cup.)

[Tannhauser]

Kasdan wrote my favorite western; Silverado.  He also wrote, I think, The Big Chill which was a bit of a baby boomer wank fest.  Waa we're becoming middle aged, quick more self involvement!

[eldaec]

I don't enjoy Kasdan's Romantic Comedies generally, As Good as it Gets being the sole exception there. However, reviewing his action stuff I enjoyed it all, even that terrible Wyatt Earp movie with Kostner had good action setup and plot.

As Good as it Gets is a really good film, but it was written by Mark Andrus.

Kasdan's credits:

 2012 Darling Companion (written by)
 2003 Dreamcatcher (screenplay)
 1999 Mumford (written by)
 1996 Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (Video Game) (story)
 1994 Wyatt Earp (written by)
 1992 The Bodyguard (written by)
 1991 Grand Canyon (written by)
 1989 Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (Video)
 1988 The Accidental Tourist (screenplay)
 1985 Silverado (written by)
 1983 The Big Chill (written by)
 1983 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (screenplay)
 1981 Body Heat (written by)
 1981 Continental Divide (written by)
 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark (screenplay)
 1980 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (screenplay)


There is some pretty great stuff, but it tails off dramatically after 1985.

[eldaec]

Also, he is 66 and has written one movie in the last decade.

My guess he has a nice life on Raiders and Star Wars royalties at this point, and I wouldn't be all that surprised if his role on episode 7 is more as a consultant to Abrams' writing.

[Merusk]

I don't enjoy Kasdan's Romantic Comedies generally, As Good as it Gets being the sole exception there. However, reviewing his action stuff I enjoyed it all, even that terrible Wyatt Earp movie with Kostner had good action setup and plot.

As Good as it Gets is a really good film, but it was written by Mark Andrus.

Huh. I was going off the listing on Google so I wonder what his role there was. Should have gone with IMDB!

[Merusk]

Disney's version of Blizz/ Comic con going on this weekend so lots of new info has been coming around. The first poster made an appearance but it's only a D23 'commemorative'
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/08/15/d23-2015-new-star-wars-the-force-awakens-poster-revealed

It shows Finn (the black guy in Stormtrooper armor) wielding a Lightsaber, so we appear to have our new Luke.