Another week closer to Star Wars: The Force Awakens – it’s almost here, folks! – and that means another load of Star Wars news.
So, without further ado, let us bring you the best of the Wars news we didn’t have time to post this week. By the way, we thought we couldn’t love Carrie Fisher anymore than we did… we were wrong.
Anyway, here we go…
George Lucas has seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens
While George Lucas has very little attachment to the new movie, we are glad to hear that he has seen it and does, it seems, like it! Thank the maker! Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told The Hollywood Reporter that Lucas had seen The Force Awakens and “really liked it.”
He will attend the Los Angeles premiere of The Force Awakens on December 14th.
Uncle George seems to give The Force Awakens the seal of approval. We’d like to have heard it from him, but we trust Kathleen Kennedy.
Steven Spielberg has seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Uncle George isn’t the only one to have seen it wither, with Rey herself, actress Daisy Ridley, revealing that Steven Spielberg has seen it THREE TIMES!
RTL spoke to Spielberg about the new movie an if he’d ever go behind the camera for a star Wars movie: “I’m a true fan of Star Wars,” he said, “But I have always felt it was not in my stars to ever direct one. But it was in my stars to admire and attend and see each one numerous times.”
He also added that yes, he has seen it an he has high hopes for it, saying: ” I think this new Star Wars could be the biggest movie ever.”
While this is being speculated on all over the web as I type, we’re pretty sure he’s saying the movie will be massively successful.
Carrie Fisher has seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens
And she loved it! The actress reveals George Lucas also personally asked her to return… the actress is refreshingly open and honest about getting in shape for the role, being Leia – now a general – for so long and how she really is that character.
We seriously love this woman! This with Netflix interview is so funny you need to check it out!
Watch below…
Harrison Ford almost turned the movie down…
Harrison Ford originally turned down the role of Han Solo back in the day, because he thought he wasn’t getting paid enough.
In an light-hearted interview with Good Morning America via Squareeyed, he said he was paid $1,000 a week for the first film.
“A producer friend of mine that produced American Graffiti somehow convinced… me to read the lines with people that were auditioning for the parts of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker,” he said, “I thought I was just helping out.”
After the casting was done, they asked if he fancied playing Han Solo, but he countered with a question of the finances involved.
“I said, ‘How much?’ And then they said $1,000 a week. And I said, ‘No’. But I did, I did it for $1,000 a week. For the first one,” he added.
Ford’s payday has improved drastically since he first donned that iconic vest, but for The Force Awakens, he claimed he was more interested in the opportunity of working with JJ Abrams.
“A really good script, the opportunity to work with JJ [Abrams], who I’ve admired, and it just seemed like a good idea,” he explained.
“[I think Han Solo’s] got a more complex story now, a little bit more of an emotional context than perhaps there was before…
“But he’s still the same guy.”
Well, we’re certainly glad he’s back…
JJ Abrams talks lightsaber battles in TFA
While the leap (no pun intended) between the lightsaber duels in the original trilogy and prequel trilogy was massive (the argument being that in the prequels you see Jedi and Sith at their strongest, while in the OT they are either old or an inexperienced kid), JJ Abrams has said to expect another change in the new movie.
“When you look at Star Wars and Empire, they are very different lightsaber battles, but for me they felt more powerful because they were not quite as slick,” says the director, “I was hoping to go for something much more primitive, aggressive and rougher, a throwback to the kind of heart-stopping lightsaber fights I remembered being so enthralled by as a kid.”
This makes sense once again, given the context of this part of the story. we still wonder if Luke will be a fighter this time out and, if so, which Jedi will he be? OT, PT or something else? We’ll know soon enough…
This story makes us so sad… and happy
Every now and then a story will appear that can both make you colossally sad and also uplifted. And this is just such a story.
There’s a little pink droid by the name of R2-KT who appeared recently in Star Wars: Clone Wars. The astromech is female and sports rather a lot of pink and it’s in memory of beautiful little Katie Johnson who died in 2005.
Katie had an inoperable brain tumour and died at fives years of age. As the news got around that she was sick, the 501st Legion rallied together and created the little pick droid for her which was put together by the R2 Builder’s Club and was made pink as it was Katie’s favourite colour.
However, because her condition worsened very quickly, the Builder’s Club knew they wouldn’t be done in time and astromech builder, Andy Schwartz, painted up his own and and shipped it over. Upon it’s arrival, Katie she threw her arms around it and gave it a hug, and it watched over her in her last days.
Katie’s story has left an impression on the Star Wars fan community and, it seems, beyond that.
The images below show QT-KT, a droid owned by Aayla Secura in Star Wars: The Clone Wars which was created by Dave Filoni as a tribute to Katie, which is awesome in itself, however R2-KT also appeared in the show and now it seems will also be in The Force Awakens.
The 501st’s Albin Johnson has now confirmed the droid will be in there somewhere: “Mary Franklin of Lucasfilm asked me to pitch the idea to Kathleen Kennedy (Lucasfilm President), and after hearing the story of our pink ambassador of hope Lucasfilm requested we ship her off to London early last year. Quick repairs were made and off she went for six months,”
So when you’re watching the movie next week, keep an eye out for a little pink droid and, if you see her, think of the beautiful little girl who inspired her creation.
(Continues after pics)
The actress, addressing the horrified dad said in a recent interview: “What am I going to tell my kid about why she’s in that outfit?” Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn’t like it. And then I took it off. Backstage.”
Seems fair enough to us, really…
New Disney XD promo – check out Leia and Rey’s new outfits
New TV Spot:
New Finn Motion Poster:
It’s calling to you. #TheForceAwakens https://t.co/TEo180PlCE
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 4, 2015
Sources: Slashfilm, SWU, Digital spy, CBM, i09, SWU, The Mary Sue & Screenrant
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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