In case you haven’t yet heard, Disney now owns Lucasfilm, as well as the rights to make future Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. As I posted elsewhere, how Twentieth-Century Fox let this one go (could this have something to do with Tom Rothman leaving) is almost beyond comprehension, though their loss is Disney’s gain.
This makes me wonder…with Pixar, Marvel and now Lucasfilm under their aegis, is feels to me that Disney could potentially be less successful than their subsidiaries, that is, till you figure that Disney would be getting the profits from Star Wars toys, as well as Star Wars-themed attractions in their parks.
Here’s George Lucas himself, speaking about what motivated him to sell to Disney.
Thanks again, Deadline.
Some may instead call it stealing–which is understandable–but I think that there’s some innovation involved, if you look close enough.
When you’re working with a limited budget, sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. Gerry Anderson’s “Space: 1999″ was at the time, the most expensive series on television, but if you had to work with special effects, model making in particular, you sometimes had to make do with whatever you could throw together.
I mention this because I happened to be watching Luigi Cozzi‘s (credited as ‘Lewis Coates’) Starcrash, which is recycled in more ways than you could possibly imagine
Most of it, thankfully, having little to do with any Gerry Anderson production.
If you look at the image above, which is a screenshot from the film, you’ll see what looks to be the command module from an Eagle, the multi-purpose space craft from “Space: 1999.”
Which looks that way because that’s exactly what it is.
It’t not unusual for model makers in science fiction films to use off-the-shelf parts to build their ships, though they usually do better disguising the fact.
I also happened to notice that the soundtrack was by John Barry (if a production ever seemed to buy legitimacy, then this was it), which if you listen carefully sounds remarkably like his theme to Disney’s “The Black Hole” in places.
In fact, if parts of the “Starcrash” soundtrack replaced that which was used in “The Black Hole,” it would have benefitted, because there’s some beautiful music, most of it more subtle than that used in the Disney film.
This is interesting. I always assumed that David Prowse was the only person that played Darth Vader in the various Star Wars films and sequels, though seems that someone else played Vader during the lightsabre duels.
That person is Bob Anderson, a Hollywood fencing coach who also worked on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, among many others.
After a very illustrious career, he passed on at the age of 89 today.
Thanks to The Los Angeles Times and Hero Complex for the information.
Twentieth Century Fox is re-releasing George Lucas’s “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” in 3D in 2012, according to The New York Times.
Is such a move going to help the current box office slump?
This makes me wonder: Is adding another dimension to a pretty mediocre movie really going to make a difference to people,when money is tight, and they are already reluctant to part with what little hard-earned cash that they already have?
The decision boggles my mind, and it sounds like an epic fail to me, though there are executives at Fox that are paid a lot of cash to know these types of things.
And speaking of Star Wars: Doesn’t anyone else think that George Lucas investing in re-doing the effects of his first three Star Wars films just a tad…odd?
And “Titanic 3D?” Really?
Remember when George Lucas went back to the first three films in his Star Wars Saga and “tweaked” the special effects? It bothered me a bit because the first three films are iconic, and their effects were state of the art at the time that they were made.
The wholesale re-editing of scenes is another matter, but that’s a topic for another day.
Recently I discovered Space: 2099, which takes Space:1999–one of my favorite science-fiction series and iconic in its own right–and gives it a spit-and-polish treatment that brings it more in line with modern sensibilities.
What this “new” version of the show also does, which in its way is more important that jazzed up special effects, is to bring continuity to the stories, addressing what was at the time the biggest problem that the series had, which was the jarring change in set and costume design,and characters from the first season to the second.
Marvel Studios upcoming “Thor” and “Captain America” look to be huge hits, but there’s no way of knowing before the films are released into theaters. No one wants to be known for an unsuccessful film, which can potentially follow them their entire careers (John Travolta, no matter what he does, cannot shake the sheer, unrelenting badness that is “Battlefield Earth“). So, while there’s no such thing as a sure thing, many actors won’t venture outside their comfort zone for projects. For example, Clint Eastwood was originally considered to play Superman in Richard Donner’s 1978 film, but didn’t accept the role.
Remember that Volkswagen commercial with that little kid dressed as Darth Vader, running around his house, trying to use ‘the Force’ to move things?
