Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Black Angel Coming to Mill Valley Film Festival 36

The California Film Institute is holding it's annual Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) October 3-13, 2013. The event will feature some interesting Star Wars and Star Wars related content.

On October 7th their will be a special 30th anniversary screening of Return of the Jedi.  The pre-show events for this screening will begin at 5:30 pm while the screening itself will start at 6:30 pm.  Tickets are on sale now and priced very reasonably at $14.50 for adults, $13.50 for members and $10 for children 12 and under.  If you do attend any screenings at this festival ensure that you arrive 15 minutes early to secure your seat.

Cosplay is encouraged by the festival for this screening at it will feature prizes and giveaways as well as special guests for a question and answer session.

This will likely be very much like Entertainment Weekly's CapeTown film festival 30th anniversary screening which took place at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre on May 4th of this year.  As an attendee of the CapeTown screening, I can say that it was a lot of fun to see Return of the Jedi on the big screen and being there with hardcore Star Wars and film fans was a tremendous amount of fun.

On October 13th on the final day of the festival, there will be a screening as part of the 5 @ 5 Shorts section, of Black Angel and some festival favorites. This screening will begin at 8 pm and run 90 minutes.

Black Angel is a 22 minute short film written and directed by Roger Christian, a set decorator on A New Hope and Second Unit Director on The Phantom Menace. The short film was funded by George Lucas and packaged with the theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back in it's foreign release in the United Kingdom, Australia and Scandinavia.

An August 12, 1997 profile of Christian on StarWars.com during the production of The Phantom Menace gives a bit of the back story on his career and how Black Angel fits into it.

It was his experience on the original Star Wars and his growing love for film that led to Christian's career change. "After Star Wars I art-directed the first Alien film, then I wrote a short film and went back to film school," he says. British theaters then almost always showed short films along with features and Lucas wanted something that would go well with The Empire Strikes Back. By chance Christian met a Fox Film executive and told him of his un-produced script for a medieval fantasy, The Black Angel, which was too expensive to do in film school. Lucas read the script, okayed it and Fox gave the money for it to be made. "And that's what kicked me off," Christian says.

One of the interesting things about Black Angel, which I haven't seen but would love to is that it was never released in any home video format and it was believed lost until a copy of the film was found in 2011 by a Universal Studios archivist. A digitally restored and remastered version of the film will be screened at the festival.

Sources: Arstechnica, Mvff.com, StarWars.com(via backup link) and Wikipedia

Star Wars: Episode VII Audition Rumors: Rachel Hurd-Wood and Alex Pettyfer

Fan created Poster Art via Joblo

Latino Review has a pair of names that it's "sources" claim have already been on auditions for roles in Star Wars: Episode VII.

British actress Rachel Hurd-Wood (Peter Pan and Solomon Kane) and British actor Alex Pettyfer (I am Number Four and Magic Mike) reportedly have gone for auditions on the film.

A cautionary note before we jump to any conclusions, just about every actress and actor that could fit the parameters of the casting call is likely to try to land an audition for Episode VII.  Hurd-Wood and Pettyfer were both born in 1990 making them both 23 years old.  Hurd-Wood could potentially play slightly younger and fit either of the two female roles. Pettyfer would fit perfectly age wise for the younger male role and possibly could play older as the late twentysomething male.

Late-teen female, independent, good sense of humour, fit.

Young twenty-something male, witty and smart, fit but not traditionally good looking.

A late twentysomething male, fit, handsome and confident.

Seventy-something male, with strong opinions and tough demeanour. Also doesn’ t need to be particularly fit.

A second young female, also late teens, tough, smart and fit.

Forty something male, fit, military type.

Thirtysomething male, intellectual. Apparently doesn’t need to be fit.

Another factor to keep in mind with casting is that we could see actors and actresses cast such as Hurd-Wood and Pettyfer who have had some work but haven't had that breakthrough performance yet.  One reason for this is that any actor or actress that Disney wants to appear in all three films will have to be signed to a contract that covers all three films to prevent a rapid escalation of production costs.  It will be much cheaper and easier to fill these roles with actors and actresses who are less well known than to attempt to land an A-list actor or actress.

There are many steps between auditioning and casting.  For a reminder of that see below:

The Princess Leia Auditions:

Lisa Eilbacher



Terri Nunn




Cindy Williams




Amy Irving



Anne-Marie Martin





Linda Purl



and  Carrie Fisher




SOURCES: Latino Review and WishItWas1984

Star Wars: Episode VII Release Date: Why I Think It Will Be Released In April or August

The rumormongering surrounding Star Wars: Episode VII is in full effect and a recent release date rumor set the internet ablaze with the possibility that Episode VII could be pushed back until December 2015 instead of the announced Summer 2015 release window.

Big Shiny Robot editor Bryan Young posted a great dissection of why he thinks this rumor is false.

Traditionally Star Wars films have been summer fare, opening in May and extending into the early summer in theaters.  The summer blockbuster concept as we know it really kicked off with JAWS (1975) and the success of the first summer blockbuster was confirmed and expanded upon by Star Wars (1977).  The success of JAWS and Star Wars has lead to the summer movie season as being the landing spot for blockbuster films, or as has become a popular way to refer to them studio "tent pole" films.

Analysing historical box office results and release dates going back almost 40 years can be problematic. For example while both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back premiered in May, their initial release was limited and it wasn't until June that they saw a wide release.  There is also some issue with looking at the box office results from the Special Edition theatrical released for the original trilogy because of the monthly back-to-back-to-back release schedule that was employed in January through March of 1997.  

We may also take some guidance from the Disney/Marvel Studios films and some other resent blockbuster films as we consider potential release dates and box office half-life.  

Let's take a look at how 2015 is shaping up so far:

2015 Theatrical Release Dates via ComingSoon.net

January 16
- Beware the Night (Sony: Screen Gems) Paranormal thriller.
- Norm of the North (Lionsgate) Animated comedy.
February 13
- The Longest Ride (20th Century Fox) Drama, Romance.
- SpongeBob SquarePants 2 (Paramount Pictures) Animated comedy.

March 6
- Fantastic Four (20th Century Fox) Comic book, Action-adventure.
March 13
- Cinderella (Walt Disney) Fantasy.
March 27
- Chappie (Sony) Sci-Fi comedy.
- The Penguins of Madagascar (3D/2D theaters and IMAX 3D) (20th Century Fox/Dreamworks Animation) Animated Comedy.
March TBA
- Christ the Lord (FilmDistrict) Drama.

April 3
- Ted 2 (Universal) Comedy.

May 1
- The Avengers: Age of Ultron (Walt Disney/Marvel Studios), Comic Book Action-adventure.
May 29
- Monster Trucks (Paramount) Animation.

June 5
- B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations (3D/2D theaters and IMAX 3D) (20th Century Fox/Dreamworks Animation), Animated comedy.
June 19
- Assassin's Creed (20th Century Fox/Ubisoft) Action-adventure.
- Inside Out (Disney/Pixar) Animation.
June 26
- Terminator (Paramount) Sci-Fi Action-adventure.

July 3
- Independence Day 2 (20th Century Fox) Sci-Fi Action-adventure.
- Untitled Illumination Entertainment 2015 Project 3D (Universal) Animation.
July 10
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Walt Disney) Action-adventure comedy.
July 17
- Superman/Batman (Warner Bros.) Comic Book Action-adventure.
July 25
- The Smurfs 3 (Columbia/Sony Animation) Family comedy.
July 31
- Peregrine's Home for Peculiars (20th Century Fox) Family fantasy.

September 25
- Hotel Transylvania 2 (Sony Animation) Animated comedy.

November 6
- Ant-Man (Walt Disney/Marvel Studios) Comic book, Action-adventure.
- Bond 24 (Sony's Columbia Pictures/MGM) Action-adventure.
- Peanuts (20th Century Fox) Animation.
November 20
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (Lionsgate) Sci-Fi drama.
November 25
- Finding Dory (Walt Disney/Pixar) Animated comedy.

December 11
- Alvin and the Chipmunks 4 (20th Century Fox) Action-adventure comedy.
December 18
- Inferno (Sony's Columbia Pictures) Action drama.
December 23
- Kung Fu Panda 3 (3D/2D theaters and IMAX 3D) (20th Century Fox/Dreamworks Animation) Animated Adventure.

So Disney's 2015 slate so far is Cinderalla (3/13), The Avengers: Age of Ultron (5/1), Inside Out (6/19),
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (7/10), Ant-Man (11/6), and Finding Dory (11/25). In projecting a release date or attempting to analyze Disney|Lucasfilm's potential box office strategy we not only have to look at Disney's slate but also what other studios are doing with their films.  The goal of any studio is to use each film to make as much money as possible, as such you may think your film will outperform another film but if both films share a common audience you may be better off avoiding this box office face off to maximize your profits.  

Examining the box office performance of some Star Wars films and some other recent films, can give us an idea of performance trends and tell us how big a release window Episode VII may need and what dates on the calendar are needed for Disney's other projects. In doing this analysis I will be looking at the number of weeks as the #1 film, as a top 10 film, in more than 1,000 screens, performance as a percentage of total box office at the four, six and eight week marks and overall performance. 

A note on my methodology, this is hardly a comprehensive review, greater time and resources would no doubt allow us to develop box office metrics much like advanced baseball statistics to help predict performance. Alas I don't have the time and resources of a major studio to devote to this research project, so this is the back of the envelop numbers I have to work with. 

Live Action Star Wars Films Box Office Stats

May 25, 1983: Return of the Jedi: 
Total Domestic Gross: $252,583,617. 
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 3, plus 6 of first 7 weeks.
Weeks as a top 10 film: 18
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 14
% of Gross after four weeks: 48%
% of Gross after six weeks: 62%

% of Gross after eight weeks: 73%

May 19, 1999: The Phantom Menace:
Total Domestic Gross: $431,088,295
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 3
Weeks as a top 10 film: 11
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 12
% of Gross after four weeks: 72%
% of Gross after six weeks: 83%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 90%

May 16, 2002: Attack of the Clones
Total Domestic Gross: $302,191,252
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 2
Weeks as a top 10 film: 6

Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 8
% of Gross after four weeks: 86%
% of Gross after six weeks: 94%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 97%

May 19, 2005: Revenge of the Sith
Total Domestic Gross: $380,270,577
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 2
Weeks as a top 10 film: 8
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 8
% of Gross after four weeks: 89%
% of Gross after six weeks: 95%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 98%

Conclusions: The Prequel Trilogy films all averaged 2.33 weeks as the top film in the box office, spent  8.33 weeks as a top 10 film, and stayed on over 1,000 screens for at  9.33 weeks. If you focus on Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith they averaged 87.5 % of their total domestic gross in the first month in theaters, 94.5% of their gross in the first six weeks and 97.5% of their gross a the eight week mark. So two months is basically their theatrical shelf life but by the fourth week they make the vast majority of their money and by the sixth week they make just about as much as they will make total, the rest is just scraps coming in.

Top 3 Performing Live Action Films of 2012 and 2013 Box Office Stats

May 4, 2012: The Avengers
Total Domestic Gross: $623,357,910
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 3
Weeks as a top 10 film: 8
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 10
% of Gross after four weeks: 85%
% of Gross after six weeks: 93%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 97%

July 20, 2012: The Dark Knight Rises
Total Domestic Gross: $448,139,099
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 3
Weeks as a top 10 film: 8
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 9
% of Gross after four weeks: 89%
% of Gross after six weeks: 95%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 98%

March 23, 2012: The Hunger Games
Total Domestic Gross: $408,010,692
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 4
Weeks as a top 10 film: 10
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 11
% of Gross after four weeks: 84%
% of Gross after six weeks: 92%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 95%

Conclusions: The top grossing films of 2012 were only able to sit atop the box office charts for an average of 3.33 weeks, spent 8.66 weeks in the top ten, and stayed on over 1,000 screens for 10 weeks. These three films made 86% of their gross in the first month, 93% in the first six weeks, and by the eighth week had made 97% of their totals. The Avengers and The Hunger Games both had long legs, but The Avengers was more top heavy while The Hunger Games as a percentage did better in later weeks.

May 3, 2013: Iron Man 3
Total Domestic Gross: $408,351,942
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 2
Weeks as a top 10 film: 5, and 6 of first 7 weeks.
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 7 weeks
% of Gross after four weeks: 92%
% of Gross after six weeks: 97%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 99%

June 14, 2013: Man of Steel
Total Domestic Gross: $289,875,976
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 1
Weeks as a top 10 film: 5
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 6
% of Gross after four weeks: 95%
% of Gross after six weeks: 99%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 99%

May 24, 2013: Fast & Furious 6
Total Domestic Gross: $238,546,400
Weeks as #1 Movie in Box Office: 2
Weeks as a top 10 film: 5
Weeks on 1,000 screens or more: 5
% of Gross after four weeks: 94%
% of Gross after six weeks: 98%
% of Gross after eight weeks: 99%

Conclusions: The top grossing films of 2013 were only able to stay atop the box office for an average of 1.66 weeks, spent 5 weeks as a top 10 film, and 6 weeks on over 1,000 screens.  They made 94% of their money in the first month, 98% in the first six weeks and 99% of their money by the end of eight weeks. The interesting thing is that two films were released in May 2013, this is something that we could once again see in 2015 if The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: Episode VII are both released in May.  Iron Man 3 barely made more money then the third top grossing film of 2012 and perhaps the addition of Fast & Furious 6 only three weeks after Iron Man 3's release cut some of the legs out of Marvel's film.  

Concluding Thoughts:

The Avengers made $215 million more than Iron Man 3, and I have a hard time seeing Disney potentially costing itself $150-200 million in lost box office revenue by putting Star Wars: Episode VII and The Avengers: Age of Ultron too close together.

I think a good rule of thumb looking at the above box office numbers is what I am going to call the 85/95 rule. A true blockbuster film will make approximately 85% of it's revenue in the first month of it's release and 95% of it's money in the first six weeks.  If you believe your film is of this category, then you need to attempt to get as much uncontested box office during that crucial first month and if you are lucky favorable genre/demographic match ups in that week four through six period to attempt to give your film legs. 

The two hundred pound guerrillas of the 2015 box office season are Warner Bros.' Superman/Batman (7/17) and Disney/Marvel Studios' The Avengers: Age of Ultron (5/1). The Avengers release makes it most implausible that Star Wars would release the same month.  The team up of DC Comics titans Superman/Batman means that the last weeks of July and the first few weeks of August are also going to be tough box office weeks for other films to premiere in.  

There are four months that would arguably fit in the announced Summer 2015 announced release window.  April, August, September and October are the months that I can see Episode VII fitting into the current theatrical release calendar. April would be earlier than would be considered part of the summer movie season and October would be later than what would be part of this movie season.  

April theatrical release dates: 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th.

August theatrical release dates: 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.

September theatrical release dates: 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th.

October theatrical release dates: 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th.

If Star Wars is released in April there are three films to think about surrounding it right now. Disney's new Cinderella film will be released March 13, the comedy Ted 2 will be released April 3rd and The Avengers: Age of Ultron will be released on May 1st. The potential hints to an April release are the timing of Celebration Anaheim April 16th-19th. If Episode VII were to be released in August, September or October, the mid-April convention date would drastically limit the content that could be presented at the convention and also would limit the promotional bounce and media attention that could be put towards driving more butts to the movie. 

If Episode VII is released on April 3rd it gives Disney three weeks for Cinderella to perform before it has intramural competition, and gives Star Wars four weeks before The Avengers comes out. Releasing on April 3rd would put it head to head with Ted 2, which is hardly a family friendly fare. 

If Star Wars is released in August then the July slate of films is something we need to keep in mind. Disney's next Pirates of the Caribbean film comes out July 10th, Superman/Batman will come out July 17th, and then there are two family films coming out at the end of the month in The Smurfs 3 on July 25th and Peregrine's Home for Peculiars on July 31st.

If you are Disney and want to release Star Wars in August, then the 14th is the date I would target. You give your own film Pirates of the Caribbean five weeks and you give Superman/Batman four weeks in the theaters.  The less appealing family films coming out at the end of July should fade after 2-3 weeks leaving a relatively open path for Star Wars to dominate the box office turnstiles. 

To my mind for promotional reasons April makes the most sense for Episode VII, but in terms of favorable box office competition August makes the most sense. I don't think we will get a traditional May release because the chances of box office cannibalization between Star Wars and The Avengers is just too great. 

SOURCES: ComingSoon.net, Big Shiny Robot

Star Wars Episode VII Rumor: Star Wars Cinematographer Named, To Use Film Instead Of Digital Cameras

Always at the cutting edge of cinematic technology, George Lucas was always trying to push the boundaries.  This included his promotion of digital filming and digital theater projection.  Star Wars Episode II and III were both shot on Sony CineAlta, high-definition digital cameras.

The hiring of J.J. Abrams to direct Episode VII foreshadowed a shunning of this digital film making and a return to the more traditional use of film.

In June at the Producers Guild of America, Produced by Conference, Abrams said the following about digital versus film movie making:

“I have not yet shot a movie digitally,” he explained. “Film is the thing I am most comfortable with. If film were to go away — and digital is challenging it— then the standard for the highest, best quality would go away...Also, with all the CG, it was important to me that it was as warm and human and analog as possible... "It may not be obvious to many of the people who saw it, but I think it is more important than people know."

Twitter user @bobafettfanclub posted the following tidbit of news today:

EXCLUSIVE: Cinematographer Dan Mindel ASC BSC is shooting the next Star Wars, on Kodak film 5219. Announced at ASC Clubhouse minutes ago.
— Boba Fett Fan Club (@bobafettfanclub) August 22, 2013

The ASC is The American Society of Cinematographers, an by invitation only group of just over 300 professional cinematographers with the Clubhouse located in Hollywood.

Cinematographer Dan Mindel has previously worked as director of photography with JJ Abrams on Mission Impossible III, Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness and has previously worked for Disney on the recent John Carter film. Mindel is the man behind the camera for the next Spider-man film as well, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 due out May 2, 2014.

The ASC's magazine had some in depth interviews with Mindel in it's June 2009 issue regarding the shooting of Star Trek and it's June 2013 issue regarding the shooting of the sequel Star Trek: Into Darkness.  These comments may give us a window into how Abrams will shoot Star Wars: Episode VII and may fit with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy's statements at Celebration Europe.

At the Star Wars fan convention Kennedy discussed briefly the film making process that she envisions for Episode VII:

10:55: “Much like many of you, looking at all the Star Wars movies and getting a feeling of what the early films did in combination with real locations and special effects — that’s something we’re looking very seriously at. We’re going to find some really cool locations for Ep VII. We’re going to use every tool in the toolbox for this movie.” – Kathleen Kennedy

10:56: “It’s using artwork that you can touch and feel in combination with CG effects.” – Kathleen Kennedy

American Cinematographer June 2009 Interview:

Mindel, who previously teamed with Abrams on Mission: Impossible III (AC May ’06), recalls, “J.J. told us early on to use the original TV show as our key reference. He wanted us to pay attention to that young, go-get-’em, positive attitude.” 

Mindel was eager to employ the anamorphic format for Trek’s 23rd-century vistas. “I’m not interested in using Super 35mm,” says the cinematographer. “J.J. wanted me to convince him to shoot anamorphic, so he and I looked at every test we could do, and when he saw the 50mm Primo projected, with the falloff in focus, he was convinced.” 

American Cinematographer June 2013 Interview:

Mindel on filming:

 In the end, J.J. agreed we should use anamorphic combined with Imax. So, we set off down a road that involved 15-perf and 8-perf 65mm and anamorphic 35mm, and that allowed us to create a gorgeous movie.” (Some inserts and aerial plates were captured digitally with Red Digital Cinema cameras.)The basic breakdown involved shooting 35mm for all interior scenes and 65mm for exteriors. Abrams mandated long sequences in each format because he didn’t want the transitions to be distracting. “As the information changes, the mind goes with it if [the approach] is consistent,” he observes. “I think most people won’t be aware of the format changes.”

Abrams on 3D and filming:

Abrams is equally pleased that he was able to shoot Into Darkness on film and convert to 3-D. “I think film has the greatest look and the greatest resolution,” he says. “The studio wanted a 3-D movie, and [shooting film] became an easier decision once we realized we could deliver that with a quality conversion. We were lucky to work with stereographer Corey Turner, who did incredible work that adds to the thrill-ride aspect of the movie. My goal was to make as good a film as I could in 2-D and let it be converted to 3-D for those who wanted the ‘hot sauce.’ I think we achieved that.”

It is worth noting that Kodak has agreements in place with six major Hollywood studios to supply film for it's movies, these include Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., NBC Universal Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Sony Pictures, and 20th Century Fox. The Walt Disney Company is now the parent company of Lucasfilm.

For more information on Kodak Vision3 500T (5219/7219) film visit Kodak.com.

UPDATE: The Boba Fett Fan Club now has the story up on their website.

SOURCES: Twitter, THR , Star Wars Blog, ASC Magazine June 2009 and June 2013

Episode VII Rumor: Ewan McGregor Returning As Obi-Wan Kenobi For Episode VII?

The Episode VII casting rumors just keep coming.

Just the other day the hot rumor was that actor Ian McDiarmid would be reprising his role as Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious in some form in Episode VII. That rumor was first reported by Jedi News, a UK based fansite.  Subsequently the website Latino Review ran with a similar story.  Both the Jedi News and Latino Review stories cited anonymous sources, but it is not clear if the source was the same for both stories or not.  It sounds like Latino Reviews source is based in England so it may be the same person talking to both sites.

.@Latinoreview just got a call a few minutes ago from source in England. We have to delay scoop till morning @ source's request. Sorry guys.
— elmayimbe (@elmayimbe) August 16, 2013

Now we have a report from Latino Review that Obi-Wan Kenobi will be showing up in the film as well and that Ewan McGregor may be returning to play the character.

"I have confirmed this with three close sources that are on the project and they all confirmed to me that Ewan McGregor would be back as a Force Ghost in the upcoming sequel trilogy."

"But that is not all! Check this out! The interesting part of the conversation I had with my source was that McGregor also wants a solo standalone film! Whether he gets one or not is still up in the air. The other question now is whether or not Hayden Christensen will return."

It sounds like Episode VII is starting to resemble the Hogwarts dinning hall with all these ghosts floating around.  So there really are three parts to this rumor;

1. Ewan McGregor to return as Force Ghost Obi-Wan.
2. McGregor wants a stand-alone Obi-Wan film.
3. Hayden Christensen may return as well as a Force Ghost.

Let's take these rumors apart one by one.

1) Ewan McGregor to return as Force Ghost Obi-Wan

Lucasfilm has the technology to digitally animate Sir Alec Guinness if they wanted to for this film.  Older fans like myself who remember the controversy of the changed appearance of Anakin's Force Ghost probably would prefer them to take this approach if they were to include Obi-Wan in the film.  They could then have someone like James Arnold Taylor do a voice match of Guinness.  If Obi-Wan's role in Episode VII is small it is probably more time and cost effective to use a flesh and blood actor instead of going the CGI route.

I actually like the idea of a younger Force Ghost of Obi-Wan and let me explain why.  As Yoda explains to Luke, "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter," why should Force Ghosts be tied to the physical appearance of their body at their death? We know that Anakin's original Force Ghost played by Sebastian Shaw had all his limbs, yet we saw Anakin lose both legs and an arm in Episode III.

This is an opportunity to expand the mythology surrounding Force Ghosts.  The idea should be that when a Jedi learns how to retain his consciousness in the Force after death, that not only can he choose when to appear but also how to appear. A simple bit of exposition and even a joke perhaps Luke saying to Ben that he looks better than the last time he saw him and Ben retorting that Luke looks a little worse, could provide a humorous moment as well as a chance to explain more about Force Ghosts and Obi-Wan's changed appearance.

An example on how this deepening of Force Ghost mythology could retroactively fit is Obi-Wan appearance only as a voice in Episode IV. It can be explained because in these situations Luke was busy fleeing from Imperial troops in the hanger and later flying his X-Wing down the Death Star's trench.  If Obi-Wan had appeared physically it would have been a visual distraction for Luke.

So I think it can work story-wise for McGregor to portray a younger version of Obi-Wan as a Force Ghost.  Another thing to keep in mind is scheduling.  McGregor currently has three filming commitments lined up for 2014, Mortdecai, co-starring Johnny Depp and Gweneth Paltrow, Born to Be King, co-starring Kate Hudson, and Our Kind of Traitor, co-starring Ralph Fiennes and Mads Mikkelsen.  So in addition to filming these three films McGregor probably has to do some significant promotional work next year as well. Scheduling may be tricky but if the role isn't extensive I would have to imagine they could find a way to fit him in to filming.

2) Ewan McGregor wants a stand-alone Obi-Wan film

McGregor's Episode III portrayal of Obi-Wan was so powerful and wrought with pain that it brought an emotional depth to the character that took it to a whole new level.  A film set featuring Obi-Wan set between Episodes III and IV is right near the top of my wish list for any spin off or stand-alone movies that Lucasfilm does.  For an idea of how awesome a story can be featuring Obi-Wan and set in this time period, I cannot suggest highly enough reading the soon to be released, Kenobi by John Jackson Miller.  The book due out on August 27th, deal with Obi-Wan as he first returns to Tatooine and begins his self-imposed exile to watch over infant Luke Skywalker.

3) Hayden Christensen may return as well as a Force Ghost

One possibility is that we see Luke in Episode VII learning the Force Ghost technique and we could see not only Obi-Wan, but Anakin, Yoda, and Qui-Gon all appear.  Christensen seems personally to be on good terms with George Lucas based on recently attending Lucas' wedding.  But I have no idea if Christensen would be interested in reprising his role as Anankin in Force Ghost form.

SOURCES: Latino Review

Spoiled: Will You Embrace Or Avoid Spoilers For Star Wars: Episode VII?

As the rumor mill gets cranked into over drive for the next two years leading up to the release of Star Wars: Episode VII, I felt it was a good time to address the topic of spoilers generally, and the approach that I plan on following more specifically.

There is much debate regarding spoilers, in the age of serialized television, DVR's, binge watching and near constant social media use the avoidance of spoilers has become increasingly difficult.  TV watching in particular has become a communal event on social media.  Alas not everyone is on the same schedule, the differences between time zones or just the interruptions of daily life can lead us to consume our favorite media at times other than it's initial airing or release.

There are different approaches by different writers and publication on how they cover entertainment and how they handle the issue of spoilers.  The Vulture.com's Dan Kois proposed the following rules for writers regarding spoilers.

	Unmarked spoilers allowed in text of article	Spoilers allowed in article headlines or in non-show-specific articles
Reality-TV shows	As soon as the episode is over.	As soon as the episode is over.
Narrative TV shows	The day after the show runs in its normal time slot.	Three days after the show runs in its normal time slot.
Movies	The Monday after the movie opens.	One month after the movie opens.
Plays	One month after the play opens.	Three months after the play opens, or when it closes, whichever comes first.
Books	Three months after the book is published.	Six months after the book is published.
Operas	100 years after opera's premiere.	Never.

From my perspective the very concept of journalism embraces the transitory nature of events.  News is news because there are events that occur and must be highlighted within the shadow that those events cast. There is a never ending conveyor belt of events and as such if you don't cover the event with immediacy it becomes irrelevant or of greatly diminished relevance rather quickly. 

Spoilers and Star Wars:

Given the age of the original Star Wars trilogies and it's ingraining in pop culture we all know that the spoiler of Darth Vader being Anakin Skywalker and thus Luke's father is one that is ruined for almost everyone who was born after the films release.  But there are also other significant instances of spoilers such as the soundtrack for Episode I revealing that Qui-Gon would die in the film.  More signicantly we had the novelization of the original Star Wars film coming out in December of 1976 long before the film's release on May 25, 1977.  A New Hope was also spoiled by the Marvel Comics adaptation the first issue of which hit newstands in April of 1977. Star Wars and spoilers have a long history and the hunger of the modern fan community will only lead to more spoilers as media outlets seek to use the intense interest in Episode VII to drive viewership and readership.


What will this website's policy be?

I will approach Episode VII just like I approach other story telling that I cover on this site.  This site has no official ties to Lucasfilm and as such no fiduciary duty regarding information that may be revealed either to me or to others on the internet regarding Episode VII. As such I consider just about everything regarding the film fair game.  So in the lead up to the film, information such as setting, casting, plot synopsis, etc all will be discussed as news develops.  If a major plot twist or ending is leaked before the film is released I will almost certainly not discuss that on the website, just because I feel that that is going a step to far.

In any post that does involve story spoilers the headline of the post and the body of the post will both include spoiler warnings.  I will effort to keep headlines as vague as possible to avoid unintentional spoilers but I cannot promise that this effort will be 100% effective.

Once the film is released everything is fair game and I would anticipate a post as soon as I get home from the movie, followed by subsequent more in-depth posts to follow.

Testing the effect of spoilers:

Interestingly a 2011 University of California, San Diego research study by Jonathan D. Leavitt and Nicholas J. S. Christenfeld found that at least in literature spoilers don't ruin the enjoyment of the story, in fact study participants enjoyed the stories more when they were spoiled.

The experiment involved 176 male and 643 female test subjects in which they read three different types of stories, ironic-twist stories, mysteries, and more evocative literary stories. For each story the scientists crafted an introductory paragraph that briefly discussed the story and seemed to inadvertently include a spoiler of the ending of the story.

"Each experiment included four stories selected from anthologies. Each subject read three of these stories, one spoiled (with the spoiler paragraph presented before the story), one unspoiled (with the story presented without alteration), and one in which the spoiler paragraph was incorporated as the opening paragraph."

The results of the experiment:

The study found that in the case of the ironic-twist and mystery stories the study participants "significantly preferred spoiled over un-spoiled stories."  The evocative literary stories were still preferred in the spoiled condition but to a lesser degree than the other story types.

The authors of the study assert a couple theories that may influence these findings including the concept of "perceptual fluency" as well as "schema discrepancy theory."  The reach the conclusion that "In all these
types of stories, spoilers may allow readers to organize developments, anticipate the implications of events, and resolve ambiguities that occur in the course of reading." As a result of their findings the authors suggest that we are perhaps wasting our time try to avoid spoilers.

Now this study is focused on written story telling and doesn't deal with the visual story telling of films or television. The study also used short stories exclusively in their testing.  So I have some concerns that the spoilers my be less preferable in serialized storytelling in which there is a significantly higher time and psychological investment in the character, plot and their outcomes. On the other hand a film may be more analogous to a short-story than to a TV series, so this study may have more weight when discussing films.

What do I recommend?

I am not sure if I am the norm when it comes to spoilers or not.  I am not one to turn to the end of a book and read the last page before beginning. At the same time I don't fear spoilers and for stories that I love I want as much information about them that I can get as soon as I can get it.

As an example of why I don't fear spoilers, this past year I accidentally ran across an image of Robb Stark dead on a throne with his wolf's head in place of his own and the description that he had been killed.  Now this spoiled a rather significant plot point in the Game of Thrones TV series for me, but it didn't impair my enjoyment of the series a bit.  I didn't go any further, I didn't seek out how or when Robb was killed, but as season two progressed it became pretty clear that the end was coming soon.  The Red Wedding occurred in the ninth episode of season two, "The Rains of Castamere," is a delightfully gruesome episode and the shocking effect of the deaths in that episode were still startling and emotionally stirring for me.

As in everything in life I think you need to embrace what you enjoy and what makes you happy, if you prefer to stay spoiler free then you should try to do that.  I would argue that in the information age staying spoiler free is virtually impossible and that you shouldn't expect us to hold the spoiler train for those late arriving at the platform.  The voracious Star Wars consumer that I am will not be able to resist spoilers in most cases, what will you do?

SOURCES: Vulture, UCSD, Psychological Science, NPR.

Episode VII Rumor: Ian McDairmid To Return as Palpatine?

The tremendous fan site Jedi News has published a report based on the rumor from one of their sources that claims veteran actor Ian McDiarmid will be reprising his role as Palpatine in Episode VII.  

"Information passed to Team Jedi News via an unnamed source has informed us that Ian McDiarmid is set to return to the galaxy far, far away for a part in Episode VII.

The specifics of the role are unclear, but it seems likely that McDiarmid will be returning to his signature role of Palpatine. Whether as the original or a clone of, we are yet to discern."

There has been no official confirmation or denial from Lucasfilm as of this posting, but some things make me think this rumor has some real legs. 

There are a number of way that McDiarmid could be used in Episode VII. Most of these ways would be incorporeal, but there is one way where he could have a very significant role in the film. 

The most likely scenario for McDairmid to appear is that he could appear as a holo-recording, a Sith spirit, or as the avatar of a Sith Holocron.  Of these the Sith spirit idea is the least likely because during The Clone Wars series Lucas is reportedly to have killed an appearance by Darth Bane and Darth Revan because he didn't like the idea of Sith surviving death in a way similar to Jedi Force ghosts. A holo-recording could have McDairmid appearing in any number of ways.  For example if the plot features visits to worlds still under the control of the Imperial military there could be propaganda recordings of the Emperor playing.  Or we could have a scenario where through the use of digital projections they create a virtual Emperor and present the Emperor's death as false Rebel propaganda and have the Empire clinging to control with a virtual Emperor being the public face of the Empire still.

The way that I am most intrigued by is the idea that Palpatine created a Holocron in order to corrupt a future Jedi or Force-user to the ways of the Sith.  This holocron gets discovered and we see a new character learn from Palpatine and becoming the trilogies villain. In fact we could see a villain's journey that parallels the heroes journey of the protagonist in the film building to the climactic finale in Episode IX. 

The way that McDairmid could have a more substantial role as the villain of Episode VII is if they borrow ideas from the Dark Horse Comic's Dark Empire comic books or the Thrawn novel trilogy.  Both of these Expanded Universe launching stories relied heavily on the concept of cloning.  Dark Empire focused on the cloning of bodies of Emperor Palpatine and the transfer of his essence from his apparent death on the second Death Star into the cloned bodies. 

McDairmid is a brilliant actor and Palpatine is a great character, but I don't have much interest in seeing Palpatine return as a clone to be the main villain in Episode VII.  

The timing of McDairmid's return to more active involvement in Star Wars coincided rather conveniently with George Lucas' hiring of Kathleen Kennedy, his retirement and sale of Lucasfilm to Disney and his gestating plans for a sequel trilogy. Kennedy was hired in June of 2012 and a few months later Celebration VI (August 2012) marked the first U.S. Celebration that McDairmid attended.  We know that in August 2012 Lucas had lunch with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher and revealed to them hi plans to go ahead with Episodes VII, VIII, and IIX.  It seems likely that if he viewed Palpatine as playing a role in Episode VII that he may have talked to McDairmid that same summer as well. 

SOURCE: Jedi News http://www.jedinews.co.uk/news/news.aspx?newsID=12985

Reacting to D23's Disney Live Action Film Panel

This weekend the Anaheim Convention Center hosted Disney's fan convention D23 across the street from Disneyland.

In the convention center's arena fans where treated to a star studded presentation that included trailers, rough cuts and behind the scenes footage of some of Disney's upcoming slate of films.

There are plenty of stories out there that give you a proper news accounting of the event an even complete dialogue from the scenes shown, so instead I am going to focus on some impressions about what we saw.

Admittedly I am not the biggest Disney nerd, I enjoy the films, have visited Disney World multiple times, but I could really appreciate the passion that hardcore Disney fans have for the company because we Star Wars fans are the same way about Star Wars and Lucasfilm.  The panel was hosted by Walt Disney Studious Chairman Alan Horn and featured Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Disney Live Action Production President Sean Bailey.

Horn kicked the show off by detailing the history of Disney's growth, celebrating the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm.  He related some interesting personal stories about how his proposal to his wife involved Bambi and how he got a speeding ticket following the 1977 premiere of Star Wars attempting to reach lightspeed.

Lucasfilm was clear going into D23 not to expect any news regarding future Star Wars projects and Alan Horn reiterated what has already been disclosed about the crew working on Episode VII and had some kind words for Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. Just as a reminder to fans, they are still working on the Episode VII script. Nothing has been shot for the film yet, so expecting a reveal of anything significant seems unrealistic.

What we did see was footage some of which was shown at San Diego Comic-Con and some of which was new.

Marvel Slate:

The Marvel presentation showed us a first look and trailer for Thor: The Dark World (11/8/13) an featured appearances by Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Hiddleston.  The extended look focused on a battle in which Thor takes down a giant rock troll. We also got to see Jane going to Asgard and Portman showing off her comedy chops interacting with Odin.

From the look of the film, Thor will be a lot of fun. The trailer did seem to reveal that Thor is going to have a very rough film.

The Captain America: The Winter Soldier (4/4/14)  presentation featured an appearance by Chris Evans (Captain America), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson / The Falcon), and Sebastian Stan  (Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier). It featured two scenes Cap in an elevator and Cap on a mission boarding a freighter as well as a trailer.  The first thing that pops out from these clips was that Winter Soldier will be a much darker Captain America.  The uniform has been updated with a much darker and more subdued color pallet. The scene in which we see Cap boarding the freighter we see a level of violence and bodily injury caused by the character that to me indicates Cap may be losing his way early in the film as he attempt to adjust to modern realities.  I will say I loved the comedic interaction between Evans and Johansson as the Black Widow spends the mission trying to set Cap up on a date.

Marvel's Kevin Feige seemed especially excited for Guardians of the Galaxy (8/1/14) and after seeing the clip we did I can see why.  I have zero familiarity with the comic book, but this looks like a fun story.  We are introduced to the Starlord (Chris Pratt). We then saw an extended sequence set in a prison where John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey puts each one of the films main characters through a futuristic mugshot/lineup. The entire clip is set to the song "Hooked on a Feeling," which adds a very whimsical feeling to what appears to focus on a prison riot.  I loved the absurdity of Rocket Raccoon and I can't wait to see more of this film.

A the end we got a very brief teaser of Ultron's head being formed while audio played from previous movies, and the shot of the title logo for Avengers 2.

Disney Nature Slate:

Disney series of animal focused nature films is returning with Bears (4/18/14). The film appears beautifully shot and follows a family of bears, from when the cubs are born to the challenges the family faces. It was announced that the National Park Foundation will receive a portion of the ticket sales for the first week of the films release.

Disney Studios Slate:

The Walt Disney Studios slate featured Muppets Most Wanted (3/21/14), Into the Woods (12/25/14), Cinderella (3/13/15), Malieficent (7/2/14), Tomorrowland (12/12/14), and Saving Mr. Banks (12/20/13).

Ty Burrell appeared on stage and Tina Fey appeared via video for the Muppets segment, Kenneth Branagh appeared via video for the Cinderella segment, Angelina Jolie appeared for Malieficent, Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof for Tomorrowland and PJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman appeared for Saving Mr. Banks.

Of all these films Tomorrowland described as a mystery-adventure has me most intrigued.  We were shown a short "found" animated clip that seems to reveal a bit about the film.  To me this smells like a combination of LOST and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. There are indications of a secret society of scientists and a secret project underneath the 1964 World's Fair It's a Small World ride.  Bird and Lindelof had a lot of fun showing off contents of an old box and may have put the Disney PR folks out of work by coming up with "dusty old box and crappy old sound" as a marketing campaign for the movie.

Malieficent looks like a real trip and if executed right promises to put Sleeping Beauty in a different perspective, after all every character is the hero of their own story.

The film that most surprised me is Saving Mr. Banks. Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers is tremendous and has great chemistry with Hanks.  The added benefit of co-starring Bradley Whitford makes this a film that while I wasn't planning on seeing it, is one that I think will be too much fun to miss.

The show closed with a live performance of Let's Go Fly a Kite by Schwartzman and Novak with a suprise appearance by Richard Sherman.  The performance and reception that Sherman received was a lot of fun to see.

The Vision Thing: What Lucasfilm can learn from Marvel Studios

The stewardship of Marvel Studios by President Kevin Feige has been a resounding success.  It shouldn't be seen as a coincidence that Feige went into this with a long term plan and continues to form long term plans for the future of Marvel Studios and it's film franchises.

As Abraham Lincoln said "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will sped the first four sharpening the axe." The importance of having a plan and a vision is key.  While a great deal of the success of Marvel's The Avengers film can be attributed to planning, execution, adaptability and luck also play a major role in this.  Picking the right people to execute the plan is just as important as having a plan. The two most obvious examples from Marvel Studios is the decision to cast Rober Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man and the decision to hire Joss Whedon to write and direct The Avengers. The massive success of Iron Man provided validation for Feige's vision and allows Marvel to continue following it's plan.  Success breads confidence and opportunity, the success of The Avengers allows Marvel to take on more risk as it attempts to expand it's stable of cinematic characters and franchises.

From comics to film vs. from film to film:

It is important to remember that Marvel and Star Wars are fundamentally different properties. Marvel at it's core is a comic book company.  Comics are cyclical storytelling vehicles, where stories run guided by a single writer or series of writers for a limited period of time and then very often end and begin again.  This cycle of character origin, growth, decline/death and re-birth happens across the industry on widely varying timelines.  The nature of the story telling results in not only numerous characters but also numerous incarnations of the same characters.  This does allow continuity to exist but said continuity can be very fractured.  

While Marvel Studios is using characters and stories that originated in it's comics, it is crafting a series of films that fit together in their own continuity, there is an internal consistency within the film universe.  This universe is created as the individual character films tell their stand-alone stories, set up their own sequels but also set up the larger cross-franchise story of the Avengers.  

Star Wars at it's core is a film property.  While it has birthed an Expanded Universe of comics and novels and other story telling mediums, the focus of the franchise is cinematic.  George Lucas has borrowed from the Expanded Universe, particularly the comics bringing them into the Prequels as well as The Clone Wars series.  As an already established film franchise spanning over 30 years, there is already an established film continuity that is guiding Star Wars storytelling.  This is vastly different then some of the haphazard films produced featuring Marvel characters in the 1980's and 1990's.

Instead of moving on from Episodes I-VI and rebooting the Star Wars franchise, it appears that Lucasfilm is embracing it's cinematic continuity and building upon it. I believe this approach creates a richer experience for fans but creates a more challenging situation for storytellers.  It is often commented that the world J.R.R. Tolkien created for The Lord of the Rings is one of the richest and most nuanced examples of world-building that we have in fiction.  I would assert that the Star Wars universe is the richest and deepest fictional universe ever created.  

Structuring the film franchises:

At the same time it is important to remember that Star Wars and Marvel are structuring their movie plans in what appears to be fundamentally different ways.  

From all that has been revealed so far about plans and rumors regarding the Star Wars films is that we will get a new Sequel Trilogy. In the years between these films it has been announced that Disney is planning to release stand alone Star Wars films.  Speculation is that these will be a story focusing on a young Han Solo as well as a movie focusing on Boba Fett.  If these rumors are accurate we will be seeing films that are set in the Star Wars universe but would not be serving the same role as the Marvel character franchise films. The Star Wars stand-alone films would not be used to further the overall saga story line. At the same time Star Wars is ahead of Marvel at joining it's television universe and it's cinematic universe's together.  George Lucas as the driving force behind both the first six films as well as The Clone Wars series and the now on the shelf Live-Action series provided story telling across the theater and television screens that were all part of the same grand story.  Marvel is just beginning to do this with it's new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. 

So if the Star Wars saga and stand-alone films are not going to all tie together in a larger story arc as tightly as Marvels franchises, it presents a different challenge that perhaps speaks to a different plan for executing and structuring the future of the Star Wars franchise. 

If you look at the structure of the way Lucasfilm is handling it's television and film properties it may be telling.  Word of the Lucasfilm "Story Group" as well as the announced involvement of certain individuals working on multiple projects provides for a sort of storytelling cross-pollination.  

Episode VII, VIII and IX (Released between 2015-2021)

On Episode VII we have Kathleen Kennedy as an Executive Producer, J.J. Abrams as Director and producer, Bryan Burk (from Abrams' Bad Robot) as a producer.  We have Michael Arndt writing and we have Lawrence Kasdan, Simon Kinberg and George Lucas serving as creative consultants. Kennedy revealed at Celebration Europe that she is very involved in the writing process as they refine the script for Episode VII.

Star Wars Rebels (Premiering Fall 2014)

For Rebels we have three co-executive producers in Dave Filoni, Greg Weisman, and Simon Kinberg.

Filoni and Weisman both come from television animation backgrounds whereas Kinberg's experience is as a writer and producer for feature films.  It  isn't yet clear how involved Kennedy is or will be on the series, but presumably the majority of her focus will be on the feature projects.

Stand-Alone Films (Between Between Saga Episodes)

We assume we are getting at least two stand-alone films, Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed those plans to release these movies between Episodes VII, VIII and IX.

Writing these stand alone films will be Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan and reportedly J.J. Abrams will serve as a consultant on these films.  

Unannounced Animated Feature (Unknown Release Date)

We know Lucasfilm is also working on an unannounced animated feature film project directed by Gary Rydstrom, with Kennedy presumably as executive producer, and potentially written by Irene Mecchi with Brenda Chapman getting either a consulting or writing credit on the film.  It isn't clear if this project is Star Wars related.

Conclusions:

It is important to note that both Feige and Kennedy are producers having production experience in both television and film.  I believe that Kennedy's role as President of Lucasfilm because of the other companies that fall under her domain may be forced to delegate the development of the Star Wars brand a bit more then Feige has to at Marvel Studios.  It seems clear that the workload necessary to run Lucasfilm as well as be the creative lead on a Star Wars trilogy is a terribly difficult task and one of the reasons it took George Lucas so long to make the Prequels and contemplate making the Sequels.

It looks like what Kennedy and her team have assembled at Lucasfilm, between the creation of the Story Group and the involvement of individuals on multiple projects is to create a connective tissue that will ensure that the overall story and continuity will mesh. The new films must have that Star Wars "feel" to them, a lived in universe that mixes the grander heroic themes and archetypes with sci-fi action, humor and romance.

Outside of Kennedy herself it appears that the guy to really keep an eye on at Lucasfilm is Simon Kinberg who seems to have a hand in every project.  It makes me wonder if Kinberg is serving a role to Kennedy similar to what Rick McCallum did for so many years for George Lucas.

So as we look at it what Lucasfilm can learn from Marvel in the broadest terms is to have a clear overall plan mapped out. Feige has revealed that in 2006 Marvel Studios was already planning out it's various film "phases" and projects until 2015 and currently they are planning out until 2021.  Not only does this give the company a road map from which to proceed it also has the ancillary benefit of reassuring fans and exciting fans. Fans want to know that when they are emotionally investing in characters that they will see those characters' stories continue.

This plan doesn't need to be publicly revealed but it should be as forward reaching as possible.  It also should accept the fact that some projects may not work as well as others.  Marvel didn't allow the difficulties with The Incredible Hulk star Edward Norton and having to recast the character derail it's larger plans for The Avengers.  There will be Star Wars films that preform less well as The Clone Wars theatrical premiere demonstrated.  You have to trust the plan.  If an element of the plan isn't working you have to figure out a way to work around that and be willing to make some hard and expensive choices.

What Star Wars can't do is simply copy the Marvel model.  The linkages that Marvel has created in it's movies provides a narrative momentum.  Star Wars storytelling whether in comics, books or television has often been non-linear.  We jump back and forth in the timeline and if the new stand-alone movies follow this pattern they can't really be used to connect Episode VII to Episode VIII or Episode VIII to Episode IX.  As a new Star Wars continuity develops, what the stand-alone films and television vehicles can do for the franchise is to provide depth and breadth to the universe, similar to what the comics and novels did. The difference being that with tighter narrative control by the Story Group and the creators involved we should get a new continuity that is far less messy and takes the Star Wars universe in new and interesting directions.

Binding the Galaxy Together: A Look at the Lucasfilm "Story Group"

A seemingly minor bit of news out of the recent Star Wars: Celebration Europe convention was an oblique reference to something called the "story group" within Lucasfilm. If you know me at all you know that not only do I love a good story, but I am also fascinated by the creative process of writing and of collaborative storytelling.  The idea that there may be significant changes in the decision making and creative processes of how the story of Star Wars is told has me very curious. It has me wondering...

What is the story group?

@stern_man More than 140 chars allow. Nutshell: story group is about ensuring future storytelling meshes better far more than in past
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) July 29, 2013

Background on Continuity and Storytelling:

In interviews with some key players at Lucasfilm we get a background on how the cross division storytelling process and continuity review has worked previously.  This background allows us to guess at what has changed with what appears to be this new working group across Lucasfilm's divisions.

In a 2010 interview Pablo Hidalgo, Lucasfilm's Brand Communications Manager (formerly manager of on-line content) discusses his previously informal input in the storytelling process.

"20. And now, fan questions. Lord Tuetanus from Durango asks, what is the editorial process for creation of new content in Lucasfilm? Continuity, magical word, how is it controlled?

If you’re referring to published, expanded universe content, then it’s really up to the editors in our Licensing group to work with the publishing partners and the authors to develop a story, and the editors and Leland Chee review the story for any new continuity, potential conflicts, or opportunities to connect to other stories. I have no formal involvement in this, but I am an occasional guest who is allowed to sit in on story conferences and offer input from time to time.
If you’re referring to the stories that come out television production, that comes out collaboration from George Lucas, Dave Filoni, and a team of writers during a story conference. They have access to all the Expanded Universe reference books during development, and will occasionally send queries to Leland and myself to see if there’s opportunity to connect with the EU. But aside from that, I have no involvement on the story side of The Clone Wars." (Source: Korpil.net Interview with Pablo Hidalgo, Nov. 2010)

On the publishing side former Lucas Licensing Executive Editor Sue Rostoni described the story creation process to EU Cantina.

"EUC (Fan Question): I was wondering if you could describe how you handle manuscripts. I don’t fully understand what happens when you get them. Do they come to you electronically, or on paper? How do you make edits? When editing, what do you look for?

SR: The manuscripts arrive electronically. In the past, I would print them out and edit on paper, but over the last few years I’ve grown fond of editing electronically. It’s easier for me and I believe I do a better job. For one, my writing gets sloppy after a few sentences and there’s never enough room in the margin or between lines to really get my thoughts out. There’s no limit to my verbosity when editing electronically. So I edit in “Word” using “Track Changes” and the “Comments” options.

I especially use the comment option when there are continuity issues for Leland Chee’s input, or specific things for him to note in the Holocron. Leland will make his comments in the manuscript and send it back to me.

Shelly Shapiro is more responsible for seeing that the story works as a whole and the writing runs smoothly, while I make sure the story and characters fit the sensibility of Star Wars. I watch for things that take me out of the story, sometimes just a word like “typewriter” will do it, sometimes it’s when someone acts out of character. And since Star Wars is populated by an abundance of aliens, I have to remind myself that while most readers will automatically “see” a Wookiee, it helps to have a few reminders of the appearance of some of the less known aliens.
And, of course, I want to have an emotional response to the story, to both be entertained and challenged, and to be able to identify how the events change the primary characters." (Source: EUCantina.net Interview with Sue Rostoni, May 2011)

Leland Chee, Lucasfilm's Continuity Database Administrator (a.k.a Keeper of the Holocron) explains the Holocron and his role in the creative story telling process.

Image by Siddique Hussain

The Holocron which Chee created replaced the old Star Wars bible (a set of large black binders) and contains various in-universe information broken down by subject matter of Character, Location, Alien/Creature, Technology (Droids, Vehicles, Weapons), Group/Organization, Terminology, Event, Flora, and Language.  As of 2011 there was over 45,000 entrees in the Holocron.  The Holocron is used by various individuals withing Lucasfilm as well as select licensees and writers.

 "In the real world, the Holocron is an internal database maintained by Lucas Licensing that tracks all the fictional elements created for theStar Wars universe. The database includes material from the films and The Clone WarsTV series as well as everything from the Expanded Universe (EU) which includes books, comics, videogames, trading cards, roleplaying games, websites, toys, cartoons, and just about every officially sanctioned fictional element of the Star Wars universe." (Source: Keeper of the Holocron on Facebook)

The Holocron allows folks whether it is editorial staff or writers themselves to check elements of their stories against the established continuity.

Roqoo Depot did an excellent interview with Chee in which he details what his job is and isn't as well as his input on the creative process.

"What’s a typical day at the office?

LC: Because we have so many diverse projects going on at a time, I can never be quite sure how my day is going to go. The bulk of of my time is spent going through novel manuscripts, comic book scripts, and video game documents. Oftentimes, the authors and editors will add or point out specific continuity questions on the manuscripts they’d like me to address. As I am going through these, I am creating new entries in the Holocron database for anything new that’s created and adding any new backstory to existing entries. I also spend time going through art, whether it be interior art for Essential Guides, video game concept art, or comic art. At any point through the day, I may get calls or e-mails from editors or authors with questions or requests for reference. The scope of my duties goes beyond publishing and video games. I might be asked to check the text on the back of a trading card, or check trivia questions on a calendar, or confirm vehicle stats on a t-shirt. I might be asked to check pronunciations for an audio book, or someone needs the Aurebesh font, or someone might be looking to confirm that the appropriate translation for “Darth Vader” in French is “Dark Vador.” And I do this for the Indiana Jones material as well.

What are the most common misconceptions about your job?

LC: Star Wars continuity, even EU continuity, does not rest on my shoulders. Our licensees submit product directly to either our editors or our product development managers. The Holocron serves as a tool for them to check any issues regarding continuity, and after that, if the editors or developers have any questions, they pass it along to me to check for continuity. At the same time, I am constantly on the lookout to make sure that any new continuity being created gets entered in the Holocron. With regard to the the films and The Clone Wars, I am not involved in continuity approvals though I have often been asked to provide reference material.

At what point in the reviewing/editing process of a Star Wars book do you come in and look for continuity errors? Do you work with the author during the writing process, after the final draft is submitted, or after the editors go over it?

LC: I work with the Licensing editors at the onset looking at outlines and manuscripts. I have been present for nearly all of the writers’ conferences for the multi-author/multi-book story dating back to when I started in 2000. I work directly with the authors when there are specific continuity points that need ironing out or if the books are heavily tied to other titles currently in development, whether it involves The Clone Wars, video games, or other fiction." (Source: Roqoo Depot Interview with Leland Chee)

In addition to the processes they described we know that there are different story conferences that occur at Lucasfilm each year.  For The Clone Wars series before a season went into production, Lucas, Filoni and other writers and production staff on the series would meet at Skywalker Ranch to break the stories and assign writing duties for episodes and story arcs to writers.  On the licensing end there has been a greater push in recent years of cooperation between the comic license holder Dark Horse Comics and the adult novel license holder Del Rey.  This spirit of cooperation has extended to editorial staff conferences at Lucasfilm where the staff at Lucas Licensing (LucasBooks) get together with editors from Dark Horse and Del Rey and develop story ideas and plot out the direction of the Expanded Universe.

So in the past while there were certainly organized periods of time when story telling whether it was an adult or young adult novelization of a television property like The Clone Wars, or multiple stories taking place in the same time period with some of the same characters like the Knight Errant comic and novel, we have seen cooperation between Lucasfilm, Lucas Licensing and it's licensees.  What we haven't really seen is a unified storytelling vision that has been executed across all platforms.

I think some of this stems from previous leadership, where as his own privately held company, George Lucas may have allowed the licensing division to let other storytellers play in his universe, he didn't really consider that part of his story so he tolerated it's existence and sometimes enjoyed it and borrowed from it.  At the same time his focus was very much on telling the stories he wanted to tell.  The result is you had the storytelling in Star Wars being pulled in various directions across multiple in-universe time periods.  Folks like Leland Chee played traffic cop, seeming to prevent as many crashes as possible but acknowledging that it was never going to all fit perfectly.

With the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney and the announcement of new films and new TV ventures it created a great deal of uncertainty for the direction of future Star Wars storytelling in other formats. What seems to have developed is a bit of a holding pattern.  Until it is known what exactly the Sequel Trilogy is going to do to continuity we don't really know what is going to happen to the Expanded Universe.

What is the purpose of this new "Story Group?"

Disney did not become the giant corporation that it is by being stupid.  The prime revenue sources for the Star Wars property will come from feature films.  Everything else is and should be secondary to the films.  It also makes sense that as you attempt to attract new fans and hook them on new Star Wars stories for years to come that you would want simplify the Star Wars universe, grounding everything primarily in the first six films so that they can jump in now with Episode VII or with Star Wars Rebels and the stories will make sense and fit.

To me the indication based on the description above is that the purpose of this group is to enforce narrative or continuity discipline going forward.  Which means a different emphasis in the editorial oversight from Lucasfilm and not allowing as much decision making on the licensee end of things on the direction of plots and characters.

I believe that this will have two effects in the short term. The first is that it will provide a more cohesive set of stories.  The second is that we will hit a storytelling bottleneck, where the pace and number of stories released in other medium will be greatly reduced until we have a clearer picture of where the story in the films is going.

Of course the beauty of the story group is that assuming the key players on the film side of the company are part of it, it should allow the story group to have access to the film stories as early as possible which will let them commission books, comics and animation that fit with this.

There will no doubt be some conflicts as last minute edits and decisions in the films could create continuity hiccups with other materials, but no matter what system you establish that is going to occur.

What do we know about the Story Group?

At present we don't have a great deal of information about the story group.

It is not clear whether it is a formal structure within Lucasfilm or more of an informal or ad hoc working group.  Based on Pablo's tweet it sounds like it is more formal than anything they have had in place in the past.

The membership of the group is also unclear. We do not know how many members the story group has or who is part of the group.

Jennifer Heddle, LucasBooks Senior Editor

It appears that at least Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee are part of the group.  As Senior Editor at Lucasfilm/LucasBooks Jennifer Heddle is almost certainly part of the group as well, she is the successor to Sue Rostoni and deals with both novels and comics.  Simon Kinberg who is one of the three executive producers on Star Wars Rebels is also involved in the Star Wars feature films for Lucasfilm so it would make tons of sense for him to be a key figure in the story group.

Other likely names to be involved would be Michael Arndt, Lawrence Kasdan, Dave Filoni, and Greg Weisman.

At the senior leadership levels of Lucasfilm, Paul Southern is Lucasfilm's Vice President, Licensing and Consumer Products Marketing and Senior Advisor Howard Roffman (former head of Licensing) could also be part of the story group.

Additionally it could be a bit like the United Nations Security Council where there are some permanent members and some temporary members. Individuals like JJ Abrams or Kathleen Kennedy may sit in on meetings, lead a meeting or simply send a memorandum with instructions to a meeting or they could be core members of the story group.  We simply don't have much information at this point.

While the exact details of the story group may not be clear at this point, or whether the Expanded Universe will survive in whole, in part or be rebooted, what is clear is that going forward Lucasfilm is making a concerted effort to ensure that all the storytellers are on the same page.