Nah, he's always been very generous with charity and philanthropy. He's already worth $3 billion and has committed to donating most of it to charity after his death, so him passing on $4 billion he doesn't need to charity is entirely in character.
Exactly. He's had GLEF for decades, and he's tried multiple times to make Lucas Learning a going concern. Plus there was that announcement a while back, where he and a bunch of other uber-rich people committed to donating the bulk of their wealth to charity. (IIRC it was along with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet?) I suspect the only new wrinkle here is what Athryn suggested: he's already done all the passion projects he wanted to do in movies, and now just wants to retire from filmmaking. (I'm still not a fan of his stance on under-paying workers, or going to great lengths to avoid union requirements, so I'm not nominating him for sainthood or anything. But in terms of real estate in Marin, and his long-held commitment to educational charity, he's proven several times over that he'll stand by his convictions and commitments).
I'm a little nervous about giving a large amount of influence in children's education to a guy who believes that the Star Wars actually happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
I don't think Lucas has any kind of attachment to Star Wars on that level. Half the time he doesn't even call stuff by its correct name when he's talking about it.
Well, before you shit your pants too hard, here's your new writer. I've seen Little Miss Sunshine and liked it alright, and the fact that this guy is getting as much work as he is (an upcoming Pixar film, the next Hunger Games, etc.) suggests he's not a hack. I'll give him some rope.
Which is what's really confusing if the Vader revival actually winds up happening. It's a terrible idea, and the writer is talented. Kinda morbidly curious as to how Arndt would handle it.
I didn't want to weigh in on that one on account of I haven't seen it yet, because the Toy Story collection remains on my Christmas list this year so I'm not allowed to buy it and my Netflix subscription lapsed a long time ago. It made Kevin Smith cry, though, and it certainly sounded good when I heard it described.
He seems to be pretty good at writing stories about taking groups of people on a journey. He should be fired immediately.
Just to expand upon my point, I liked the character of Admiral Thrawn, but just about everything else in that series was a bit meh. The funky 'force cancelling sloths on sticks', sounded silly even on paper, but would probably look worse on screen. That and of course, using the main characters in any capacity beyond aged mentors is not a good idea considering their current age. Unless they want to do silly stuff like CG their heads onto stunt-people's bodies.
A lot will depend on how far forward they're setting Episode 7. If they're thinking of bringing back anybody in their original roles (Harrison Ford was coy about it in his most recent ask, despite his earlier reticence, and Carrie Fisher is probably right out because she is nearly unrecognizeable at this point when you compare her to herself thirty years ago, because that's just what happens to people) you're looking at a substantial time jump. The Zahn books were set maybe five years later, so you'd definitely be recasting, which is not something that I'm convinced Disney would be eager to do. I'm actually less averse to the prospect of Vader returning on its face because, yo, all those stormtroopers are just one dude over and over and over again. Clones make anything possible, at least as far as a guy in a suit goes (though at this stage I might be a little concerned about whether James Earl Jones would be available in ten years). I'm hoping that the next film takes a big jump, though, because I'm not sure how well the mess of a protracted galactic civil war in which you have to admit the Rebellion would still be underdogs (one Star Destroyer is worth, like, three heavy Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, and even if the fleet at Endor was routed, that's hardly the entire Imperial Starfleet) would jive with the generally hopeful sensation that I associate with Star Wars. It's not like there would be any more windmills that we know of to tilt at (I agree with Zahn's conclusion that the Death Star was a monumentally stupid idea from a military point of view that any sane commander would have abandoned after the first failure). I kind of want the films to just skip over about fifty years. Then, if you are going to clone Vader, you can have him wake up in his pod after the Empire has mostly decayed away and he's your thematic link back to the first six movies. I honestly have no clue what will happen with this property, though. Return of the Jedi was really kind of the period at the end of that sentence, and I'm quite curious to see what Disney will do with an Episode 7 of that series.
Vader uses the life essence of all Ewoks to revive himself. As he steps off his personal shuttle to begin the task of rebuilding the Empire a commander asks for orders, to which Vader replies, "Yub yub."
Don't be ridiculous. No one is dumb enough to try and put Harrison Ford in an action role these days.
Ah, see, I thought you were being serious in your previous post, because I didn't see any links. I figured maybe you thought that he hadn't aged well in the past four years or something =)
Also, how the hell did I not know that (a) filming for Ender's Game started in February and (b) Harrison Ford is playing Colonel Graff?
Because then Disney wouldn't have paid him 4 billion he could use for philantrophy. I'm sorry, but 4 billion spent on education is a better goal than making a few thousand geeks happy by giving them the keys to Star Wars.
I'm supportive of them bringing back Darth Vader, especially if it is the ethically grey Vader who both killed Palpatine saving the galaxy but also murdered a school full of children. Having read nothing whatsoever of the EU here is my fanwank continuation of Darth Vader returns story. I'm thinking of a first film in a trilogy plot where the jedi descendants/children of Han and Leia are tasked with uncovering a plot against the still rebuilding alliance of planets (the galactic war against the empire having taken some time to resolve). Han (reluctantly) and Leia (responsibly) are now the heads of a new small Jedi order featuring an official role for non-force wielder oversight (Han) to try and keep them more grounded than the Jedi orders of the past. The nature of the official job roles has introduced some tension into the relationship between Han and Leia. Their children and a few other young jedi discovered after the war form an archetypal post-war generation, rebelling against their parents and revelling in their powers. Luke is mentioned as a former master at the order but is mysteriously absent for the whole film and there are hints throughout the film that there was some disagreement in the past between Luke and Leia over something. During the course of the investigation involving some classic planet hopping, political intrigue and lightsaber robot interactions the young bucks realise that it must be a re-emerged but well hidden Sith group behind the plot, but so well are they hidden that perhaps the only way to figure out who the modern day Sith Lords are is to speak to someone who knew them when they were younger and in training during the time of the galactic empire. One of the Han/Leia descendent Jedi is a very powerful force healer and at some point learns that she can use her power (and some of the dark side of the force) to raise dead animals. She shares her skillset with the other young bucks and together they decide that resurrecting their grandad and former master of the current Sith Lords, Darth Vader (whose severed arm is kept in a case at Jedi HQ as a warning) and interrogating him is the only way to determine their identity. The plan in motion requires some setup (a new redesigned Robot vader suit has to be constructed) which alerts Han and Leia who figure out the young bucks plan but arrive too late to stop it, however they are fast enough to make sure Vader is imprisoned but uncooperative at Jedi HQ at the end of film 1. We get a final scene where it is revealed that he refuses to speak to anyone but his son. Anyway the plot carries on twisting and turning for two more films with a lot of space battles and eventually we learn that either Luke or Leia is the power behind the Sith throne having been gradually corrupted by the dark side (personally I think Leia would be turned by her determination to be strong enough to hold the new alliance together). Vader acts as a Hannibal Lector-esque figure agreeing to help only if he is given certain latitudes and his current ethical status remains unclear to everybody for the entire film but his badassery is never in question. There is also a comedy robot.
The only dancing in this movie is a battle dancing showdown between Luke and his nephew. In which Mark Hamill demonstrates his old school technique to great effect, mightily impressing the young padawan. The Star Forge is regrettably lost somewhere off screen when a routine Wookie tour goes horribly wrong with humorous results.
Please, please, please don't let there be a clone Vader. Or if there is, let him turn out to be totally ordinary, maybe with a few random ailments - as you'd expect from a clone. I have similar expectations for Episode VII itself.
I actually hope the new ones will be animated. Then we can have our Luke, Han and Leia cake and eat it, too!
