Star Wars Anthology shit talk (Rogue One, Young Solo, TBD)

We have less than a year to figure out everything that happens in Rogue One, folks. To reiterate:

Felicity Jones
Mads Mikkelsen
Ben Mendelsohn
Alan Tudyk
Donnie Yen
Forest Whitaker
Diego Luna

Directed by the Monsters + Godzilla guy.

I'm piling the Lord & Miller Young Solo film in here too because no kidding, Rogue One is only eleven months away. That's crazy! As stated elsewhere I predict Franco the Younger gets the part.

I have been all about Ben Mendelsohn in pretty much everything he's ever been in, I see no reason to stop now

Monsters/Godzilla director has cornered visually-stunning-yet-disappointing like no other though, so I have ~concerns~

The screenplay looks to be a terrible hodgepodge. Story by an ILM technician, first draft by the guy behind Book of Eli and After Earth, second draft by the guy behind About A Boy and The Golden Compass. Then Christopher McQuarrie, who writes Tom Cruise movies, was brought in at the last minute to rewrite all of it. Yikes, people. Also, score by Not John Williams (Alexandre Desplat, whom I only know because of Wes Anderson movies).

Apparently they filmed in the Maldives (!?!) and Mads Mikkelsen is playing Felicity Jones' dad, who is also the Death Star's Oppenheimer.

Now, is Alan Tudyk going to be playing some sadistic lickspittle of an Imperial officer, or a cantina buffoon with a silly accent?

Rumors of Vader being cast for this as well with J E Jones returning to add the voice.

Every attempt I've made to explain this movie's existence to non-hardcore fans has been a disaster. "What do you mean it has nothing to do with the last Star Wars? And nothing to do with the originals either? That's stupid. Why would they do that?"

And I mean that literally. Literally every single person I've talked to about this who doesn't identify as a Star Wars fan is confused.

The common link in all your failed conversations...

TBH, I'm a bit confused too why this is set in the timeline of the original trilogy and not somewhere between RotJ and TFA...? What's the point of going over things on which we already know how they happened, instead of fleshing out some of the unknown events in the 30 year gap between episodes VI and VII?

We don't know HOW they happened though, just broadly what happened. I don't care when they set it really, as long as they come up with an interesting story and some cool new characters. But that's the hard bit.

non-hardcore fans OTM

Christopher McQuarrie did write a Tom Cruise movie that had a very good first 40 minutes (Edge of Tomorrow) and, a long time ago in a Hollywood far far away, the overcelebrated but cute The Usual Suspects. What the hell is a Rogue One?

It's a one that has gone rogue

you mean a 7

A one with an combover

Man-bun One

I did like that promo cast pic they put out.

http://cdn.idigitaltimes.com/sites/idigitaltimes.com/files/2016/01/06/star-wars-rogue-one.jpg

Where my reactions were:

1. Whoa, this looks different. This looks cool. Okay, I can dig this.

2. Alright, Donnie Yen in a SW flick. Let's do this.

3. Man, Felicity Jones is...very, very attractive.

Really not looking forward to the two months of "they don't look like bothans!"/"they're not bothans, idiot; that was the 2nd one" exchanges tho.

I wonder how much Rogue One was either pitched or constructed years ago as the studio(s) hedging their bets against a new SW flick bombing out? "Ok, folks might not dig the new chapter, so let's play it extra-safe and set it back in OT times"

what's with that gaudy red plate that guy is wearing? clashing so sharply with the nice dull palette of brown and grey they have going on. tone it down, buddy!

is this Star Wars or a Lisa Frank lunchbox?

looks like mandalorian armor

https://secure.static.tumblr.com/1abf429207b6eb04c20119407a2a3ca5/y9tpqya/wc3n85aln/tumblr_static_tumblr_static_5zgqb2cc0accsc8kksks004w8_640.jpg
http://cdn.idigitaltimes.com/sites/idigitaltimes.com/files/2016/01/06/star-wars-rogue-one.jpg

the excitement coming from that picture is just too overwhelming

this is gonna be GREAT so stoked

http://i.imgur.com/LSSmvgd.jpg
http://cdn.idigitaltimes.com/sites/idigitaltimes.com/files/2016/01/06/star-wars-rogue-one.jpg

haha, sorry, i'll stop

I'd like to think the movie will just be that photograph Clutch Cargo-ed for two hours.

they should really carry this idea through to other franchises. imagine a Harry Potter without magic and without Harry Potter or any of his friends. GOLD!

is that a promo still for the new USA series Stargate: Alderaan?

xpost I don't know if you're being ironical but there's a Harry Potterless Harry Potter movie coming out later this year.

Star Wars: Redecorating the Kitchen in a Subleased Ranch House in Newport, CT

xpost i was not being ironic, lol i must have forgot that is actually happening

lol what is this Harry Potterless movie, Dudley Goes to Camp?

Star Wars: Weekend Shift Workers Pausing To Watch the Chiefs Lose Thanks To Andy Reid's Clock Management

cast photo looks like another sw w women/minority characters driving the action, so that's a point in its favor already

lol what is this Harry Potterless movie, Dudley Goes to Camp?

― Οὖτις, Friday, January 22, 2016 11:37 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Eddie Redmayne in magical early-20th Century NYC!

a shed full of set photos and such for Rogue One

http://imgur.com/a/N75pb

Donnie Yen apparently tweeted some new helmets, get excited

http://io9.gizmodo.com/why-rogue-one-is-as-important-to-star-wars-as-episode-v-1761067899

(maybe onus is a better word)

Presumably, this will also be the first Star Wars movie not to include a Jedi (or possibly even anyone with Force sensitivity). Perhaps most importantly, it’s going to be the first Star Wars film without a Skywalker at its center.

I guess the writer hasn't seen the two Ewok movies?

rob fuckin' bricken

980 words to say 'disney will make more movies like this if this one makes money'

I have a piece in the pipeline offering the counterpoint that if the movie underperforms it may affect Disney's willingness to take similar chances in the future. It's a lid blower.

Rogue One has the opportunity (maybe onus is a better word) to realize this fundamental quality of the Star Wars universe on screen—to attempt to see if the depth that has always seemed a part of the franchise is in fact real, or merely an illusion.

fyi: nothing about star wars is real

also this is a horribly formed 'sentence'

The answer depends entirely on the fate of this first stand-alone film, and thus it will shape the future of the Star Wars movies far more than the Force itself. Are the pilots of Rogue One up for this integral mission? I’m sure they’re standing by.

srs q: is english rob bricken's first language

his entire premise is flawed bc The Phantom Menace proved you could make an absolute crap Star Wars and people will still want more

also the other two prequels

Rogue One: Integral Mission, winter 2018.

yeah but will people see an absolute crap star wars that doesn't have a skywalker in it

people love skywalkers dude

you're right people unanimously think Anakin is the best part of the prequel trilogy

People were very into the character of Anakin but iirc the unanimous praise was actually directed towards the actors who portrayed him.

Someone saw Rogue One footage at a Disney shereholder meeting:

Most of it was very quick. A shot of the black stormtrooper, possibly called Death Troopers as previously reported, another pic of that same style of helmet and armor but all chrome, reminiscent of Captain Phasma from The Force Awakens, an image showed two AT-ATs that had a slightly different look with the door panel on the side of the body painted a lighter beige color. And a couple cast photos were shown, one of Felicity & Diego Luna and another of Donnie Yen. The clip featured Felicity’s character on what looked like the inside of a ship or shuttle with her arm up holding on and the hatch/ramp open behind her. I wish I could remember what she said as part of the sizzle but it went by too fast. The new stormtroopers looked great. …

It all looked great, had a classic Star Wars/A New Hope look & feel. Bob Iger said that they didn’t have footage but that it & Episode VIII had been filming as previously stated. I’m definitely more excited for the film since it will be set close to the classic trilogy time & like I said it definitely had a similar look/feel.

the most teasery of teasers, maybe a second of footage

https://twitter.com/starwars/status/717841838044872709?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

a burning moisture vaporator? jesus fuck.

You a fan of moisture vaporators?

RIP, Unstructured Pastime of Thrones

apparently this means there are now no active GoT spin offs. HBO says they still want to do something, but I can see them either 1) waiting several years until nostalgia kicks up 2) just ditching this entirely if they're able to make strides with other series. I"m not sure what happened with this one, the article I read wasn't clear; they had a full staff and a showrunner and everything. Maybe no one was able to write a script.

full cast, I meant.

Maybe no one was able to write a script.

Didn't stop them before.

The whole thing honestly might be toxic at this point. They probably had to commit an insane amount of money to make this new show, and if the connection to GoT wasn't a really positive thing, it might be a really big gamble.

apparently this means there are now no active GoT spin offs.

They announced a new one just yesterday

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/29/20939230/game-of-thrones-spinofff-series-house-of-the-dragons-ordered-hbo-max

Poll on when it gets cancelled?

Can’t wait to see the subscription model they use to lock folks in before they get a look at it

It seems pretty obvious that the main reason they cancelled the first series because they decided to go with this other series. This idea being thrown around that game of thrones is suddenly really unpopular is a weird one.

Nah. If you've already shot a pilot for one show, hired a full cast and crew, you don't normally go 'but let's do a different series!'.

Probably not, no, but I don't suspect is has anything to do with the franchise being "toxic", otherwise they wouldn't announce another show.

Fair enough. Let's say it's still in the process of becoming toxic. Once they cancel this show as they find out there really isn't enough of a show in Fire & Blood (it's basically hundreds of pages of 'my dragon is bigger than yours!), and then just make a cheap Duncan & Egg buddy comedy, which then fails, THEN we can say it's toxic :)

Still, though. A remarkable amount of bad stories about Benioff & Weiss and GoT this week.

get these damn throne games off my goddamn star wars thread!

A War of Stars. A Strike of Empires. A Return of Jedis.

They reshot and recast the original GoT pilot and HBO have shot plenty of pilots (with starry casts and directors) that haven't been picked up

Doesn't really mean anything that they've decided to go with another GoT show

HOW BOUT THAT MANDALORIAN

was not expecting to see Bill Burr in the trailer but here we are

Whoa, I had somehow missed Taika Waititi's involvement:

Series Directed by
Deborah Chow ... (2 episodes, 2019)
Rick Famuyiwa ... (2 episodes, 2019)
Dave Filoni ... (2 episodes, 2019)
Bryce Dallas Howard ... (1 episode, 2019)
Taika Waititi ... (1 episode, 2019)

he is also the ig-88-style killbot

wow only one of those directors is a white man

ig-88-style killbot

this 1.5 seconds had me the most hyped of any star wars stuff I've seen in ages - I was totally obsessed with IG-88 when I was a kid a and the five seconds of screen time in empire didn't come anywhere close to satisfying me.

Also as someone who has zero knowledge of non-film star wars canon, is carbon freezing for transfer by bounty hunters an actual thing? I always thought it was something they did to han solo out of necessity - like fuck it, we've got this carbon freezer, maybe this will work?

totally. see also, obi-wan's "blast helmet plus lightsaber" one-off from the first film, rendered as a standard three-credit tuesday/thursday class with Yoda in the prequels

^^ otm, the carbon freezing thing is what bugged me most about it. BUT given the setting of the show five years after ROTJ, I'm wondering if Boba Fett spent some time telling his bounty hunter buddies how convenient of a method it is before his untimely demise.

Also otm re excitement for IG-11 (iirc). That had me really excited and my 8 year-old nearly jumped off the floor with excitement ("IG-88! IG-88! IG-88!"). And I know it's boring to hear, but it does really make me feel far kinder to the franchise when I get to watch him geek out over it in unexpected ways.

this 1.5 seconds had me the most hyped of any star wars stuff I've seen in ages - I was totally obsessed with IG-88 when I was a kid a and the five seconds of screen time in empire didn't come anywhere close to satisfying me.

Also as someone who has zero knowledge of non-film star wars canon, is carbon freezing for transfer by bounty hunters an actual thing? I always thought it was something they did to han solo out of necessity - like fuck it, we've got this carbon freezer, maybe this will work?

― joygoat, Thursday, October 31, 2019 12:28 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

As an IG-88 fan with zero knowledge of non-film SW canon, might I direct you to the anthology of short stories entitled Tales of the Bounty Hunters, I think you will be pleased by elevation of a certain character's role in the franchise.

Seconded, that book was great. That's the very same story that made me an IG-88 fan.

IG-88 used to freak me out in the Dash Rendar N64 game

I think one of the worst things about Star Wars across the last 40 years has been the steady erosion of believability - as a kid (7 in ‘77) I absolutely felt these movies were glimpses of a larger world, and the idea that we would someday see e.g. the Clone Wars or the Mandalorian on TV would have blown my mind. Sometime around the prequels it devolved into eh, just some starwarsy shit someone made up. The expanded universe bullshit is a major player in that dilution. You could attribute it to me having better critical faculties at 49 than at 7 but I’m not sure you’d be right.

Nah, I think it's a thing with all of this fun junk that gets endlessly spun out without ever really exceeding the bounds of its initial concept. Like I watched The Terminator last night, and it's great! And that's probably all we ever needed! Particularly when each additional iteration acts like the entire universe revolves around the Connor family and whatever robots they happen to be encountering in a given moment. There's a whole world beyond those two people, y'all.

I think the key selling point for carbonite cell was that, aside from presumably low maintenance costs, your captive is suspended with some pained expression ideal for crimelords to show off as a deterrent. It would be weird if throughout the SW Exp-U it had never been used on anyone but Solo, would be cool with seeing it in The Mandalorian.

I think C3P0's comments implied that carbonite freezing was relatively safe and not uncommon, although without referring to bounty hunter captures

The Bespin industrial facility wasn't really set up for freezing people, though. Maybe gases?

If it was a regular practice you'd think crimelords would get creative with it, maybe put their captives in like the Coppertone baby pose before hitting the freeze button, something super humiliating like that.

I'm wondering if Boba Fett spent some time telling his bounty hunter buddies how convenient of a method it is before his untimely demise.

I'm picturing him presenting a paper at a conference where like zuckuss calls him out for using too small of a sample size and storms out while a bunch of young bounty hunters start looking for vc funding and plan their ted talk about disrupting the bounty hunting business

if that's what The Mandalorian is like i guess i'm signing up for D+

I'm still planning on ditching verizon's overpriced phone service at some point, but apparently I might get D+ "free" with my plan for now? hrrm

the Blank Check podcast's Patreon feed just did a commentary-track episode, where they watched Rogue One with one of the screenwriters, Chris Weitz. pretty interesting if you're into the behind-the-scenes of this stuff.... he doesn't drop any gossip bombshells, and he is polite and professional about his role as someone brought in to work on a project on which someone else had already done writing, and which in turn was passed on to other people after his tenure. but you get a lot of little things about directions he was taking the story, stuff he thought was cool and put in, etc. i'll share just one tidbit (for fear of undermining their patreon efforts) - - -in his draft, Kassian was an Imperial double-agent, who was initially with the group only because Saw Gerrera's extremist rebellion methods had led to the death of his wife (or his family... something like that). so his initial goal is just to get to Gerrera and get revenge. i liked hearing this because i always thought Gerrera's "too extreme" tactics were very vague, along with the whole rest of his role.

Whitaker's bizarre performance vs Del Toro's annoying one in a nu-SW walk-on guest-off

Whitaker's all day.

I'd rank Whitaker as the number 2 most off-putting element of nu-SW behind the blue milk thing

Saw Gerrera is a The Clone Wars deep cut, no?

Exactly

I guess I need to get into clone wars

in my mind's eye, whitaker was great. i also thought del toro was fun tbh. casting has for the most part not been an issue in these movies - their bigger problem is wasting great performances by leaving them on the cutting room floor.

rewatching Rogue One for at least the fourth time. Not much more you can say imo

Whittaker is the only misstep in this flick imo, otherwise the best nu-SW by a considerable distance

It feels more like Star Wars in its own funky way than any of the others. There’s also some awesome shots!

I guess it’s all been covered itt

doesn't matter it's great and worth talking about again! I was kind of amazed at what a sausage factory the production was. Considering the mess behind the scenes they really pulled it together. The last 30 min are just killer.

Totally agree with you. It's the only one that, for the most part, captured the classic SW feel. "Solo" feels like a big budget TV movie by comparison.

(from when such things as TV movies existed)