A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. and Buena Vista Home Entertainment What happened to the Galactic Empire in the Sequel trilogy? In   Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy ( The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi,  and  The Rise of Skywalker,  the Galactic Empire created by Supreme Chancellor/Emperor Sheev Palpatine 19 years before the events of  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope  is no more. With the destruction of the second Death Star, the death (presumed, anyway) of Emperor Palpatine, the death (confirmed) of his fearsome agent Darth Vader, and thousands of Imperial senior commanders and field-grade officers at the Battle of Endor and elsewhere, the old Empire shattered and was defeated after several years by the New Republic. The Galactic Civil War ended when the remnants of Palpatine’s government led by Grand Vizier Mas Ameddas signed the Galactic Concordance five years after the Battle of Endor. However, a core of Imperial fanatics, including Brendol Hux, his young...

© 2013 Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment On Quora, Jason Handleman asks:  Do you look forward to cinematic reboots and remakes or do you prefer original, untested offerings? My reply: It really depends on the film and/or genre, as well as other considerations, such as  who  is making the reboot/remake, the cast, as well as the  why. For instance, I would not care for remakes of such films as  Casablanca, North by Northwest, Jaws,  the original  Star Wars  Trilogy,  Raiders of the Lost Ark,  or  Stand By Me.  Those are films that are representative of the times in which they were made, and no matter how hard one tries, they can’t be replicated and be expected to catch lightning in a bottle twice. I am open to remakes and/or reboots of comic book movies; DC and Marvel Comics reboot their established titles every so often, so if the source material can be revamped by their respective publishers, then their movie a...

On Quora, David Bolick, a conservative troll who has been edit-blocked for violating site rules, asks this sarcastic and insincere question about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): Is one new rule that Pelosi is now more powerful than the President and that he now works for her? My reply to Mr. Bolick: No. One of the basic principles that all Americans are taught in school is that the Federal government is divided into three equal but separate branches, each one with powers and responsibilities specified in the Constitution. This was designed so that one branch would not become more dominant than the others. The three branches are: The Executive Branch, which includes the President, the Cabinet and the various Departments that run the day-to-day government operations. (Example of a Cabinet-level Department: the State Department, which handles our diplomatic efforts overseas). The Legislative Branch, which consists of a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature c...

Photo Credit: Alex Diaz-Granados What would it take to recreate the Star Wars sequels based on the Star Wars Expanded Universe rather than the new Canon? For this to occur, you would need to be living in a totally different universe, one where: George and Marcia Lucas had never gotten divorced, thereby creating an environment in which a less stressed-out Lucas would not have taken a hiatus from making  Star Wars  films Lucas personally oversaw the Expanded Universe and gave it co-equal canon status to the films The EU was consistently good and written by a core of authors who could work with Lucasfilm - and George himself - and not have any tonal or narrative dissonance The EU authors would not bring any of their non- Star Wars  “eccentricities” or import weird versions of crossover stuff from other franchises ( Star Trek ) thinly disguised as  Star Wars Luke Skywalker would not become a ridiculously overpowered demigod whose portrayal differs from one a...

On Quora, Adrian J. Zarazua asks: If it’s true that Russia meddled with the 2016 US election then why did they want Donald Trump to win and not Hillary Clinton? My reply:  First of all, there is no “if.” Russian state-run hackers working for Russian Military Intelligence (or GRU in its Russian acronym) worked at the Internet Research Agency (IRA) to intervene in the ’16 elections in favor of now-President Trump. Second, Vladimir Putin had several motives for wanting Trump to win and Hillary Clinton to lose. And none of these motives were because he favors Republicans over Democratic Party pols or because he believed all the innuendoes and myths that the conservative movement has been crafting about Hillary Clinton since the 1992 Presidential election. In any criminal investigation, you have to apply the principle of  cui bono,  or, “who does it benefit?” Or more germane to the matter at hand, what does Putin’s Russia get out of a Trump Presidency? W...

Poster art by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  On Quora, member Kisty Arant asks: How did George Lucas finance a big-budget movie like Star Wars when he’d only directed two movies previously? George Lucas did not self-finance 1977’s  Star Wars.  He had to get a major studio to put up the money in order for Lucasfilm Ltd. to make the film, and it was no easy task. First of all, while Lucas had helmed two feature-length films ( THX-1138  for Warner Bros. and  American Graffiti  for Universal), only one was a box office smash. Second, even Universal’s Ned Tanen, who appreciated the success of 1973’s  American Graffiti,  was reluctant to invest the studio’s money into such an iffy proposition as a space fantasy film aimed at young people. In the 1970s, American moviegoers tended to eschew escapist fare in favor of more gritty and realistic films. Furthermore, science fiction and fantasy films tended to cater t...

Image Credit:Wikipedia Recently, the right-wing leaning Epoch Times ran an open letter criticizing NBC News for daring to ask its staff questions about the newspaper's guiding principles (staunch anti-Communism, especially when it comes to the People's Republic of China, strong support for Donald Trump, and its connections with the banned-in-China Falun Gong movement). In it, publisher Stephen Gregory figuratively wrings his hands when an established media outlet dares to suggest it is biased in favor of Trump and other conservatives because Epoch Times founder John Tang and his partners hate China and its current government and are consistent supporters of right-wing movements throughout the world. Here are some of Gregory's "woe-is-us, we are an honest newspaper" comments: Last week, we were contacted by two NBC reporters who posed a series of highly inappropriate questions. The NBC reporters questioned the religious beliefs of some of our staff mem...

On Quora, Tyler Hoffman asked recently: What do you think about Trump’s promise to eradicate AIDS if he is re-elected? My reply: What do I think about President Donald Trump’s hyperbolic promises to eradicate AIDS and cancer  if  he is re-elected? I think it’s a typical Trump hokum. Malarkey. Bullshit. Nonsense. It’s on par with “We will build a great, beautiful wall on the southern border, and Mexico will pay for it.” It’s on par with Trump’s long-lived insistence that Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen. It’s on par with  “If and when the Vatican is attacked, the pope would only wish and have prayed that Donald Trump would have been elected president.” It’s on par with his claim that on September 11, 2001, Trump  personally  witnessed “thousands of Muslims” in New Jersey celebrate as the Twin Towers burned and fell across the river in Manhattan. In other words, I think he’s no better than a snake oil salesman trying to peddle his w...

On Quora, our old friend "Anonymous" asks: What does Queen Elizabeth think of President Trump? This is my reply to "Anonymous," complete with links to actual sources and the conservative meme in question.  Queen Elizabeth II is a dignified woman, a head of state (strictly ceremonial) not only of the United Kingdom but also of several other nations that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, including Australia, Canada, the Bahamas, and New Zealand. She has been on the throne, metaphorically speaking, for slightly over 67 years, the longest reign of a British monarch in history. And although she’s 93, she’s in excellent health and will probably be around for a few years more, setting a record for regal longevity that will be hard to break. Because the Queen is not an absolute monarch who issues commands to her ministers (save strictly ceremonial ones on certain occasions) or is directly involved in government operations, Elizabeth is not someone who giv...

On Quora, member Ethan Endres asks Why do so many people think conservatives are racist? My answer: First, I’d like to point out that I think this question is rather flawed and shows a right-wing bias. It’s a prime example of what my high school and college English instructors taught their students to avoid in their argumentative essays: a gross generality. Second, let’s be very clear that I don’t think that every individual who espouses conservative beliefs is  ipso facto  a racist. There are black conservatives, Hispanic conservatives, Asian-American conservatives, and multi-ethnic conservatives. Calling them  racist  is rather ludicrous, don’t you think? That having been said, many of us who happen to embrace liberal world-views do think that conservatives as a voting bloc tend to do two things that make them look racist. They deny that systemic racism still exists in post-Jim Crow America Many conservative voters - especially in the former Conf...