A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Some questions, apparently, keep coming back, like kudzu...or a boomerang.  On Quora, Raivo Berkins asks: Will Han Solo come back in the final installment of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy? My reply:  No, Han Solo, the iconic character played by Harrison Ford in the Original Trilogy and in  Star Wars: The Force Awakens,  will not come back in  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.  His character was killed off in that 2015 film in such a way that only the dimmest and least observant person could possibly believe that he survived. Consider. In his last onscreen appearance in  The Force Awakens,  Han is: Stabbed through the heart with a highly unstable but deadly lightsaber blade wielded by his own son, Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren Right after being stabbed through the heart, Han falls deep into a chasm under the bowels of Starkiller Base, a planet-turned-into-a-superweapon even more powerful than either Death Star used by the Empire Shortly t...

The Blu-ray packaging for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. © 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. and Buena Vista Home Entertainment No. First of all, (and I’m tired of explaining this over and over),  The Walt Disney Company  does not, nor did it ever have, a plan “to have the audience focus on a new set of characters.” If anyone had such a plan, it would have been  Lucasfilm,  the Disney-owned subsidiary that is responsible for actually making  Indiana Jones  and  Star Wars. Second of all, creating a new set of characters for the Sequel Trilogy was always going to be in the cards, as the window for making a post- Return of the Jedi  trilogy closed sometime between 1983 and 1994, partly because of George Lucas’s divorce from Marcia Lucas and  Star Wars  burnout, and partly because when Lucas decided to go back to big-budget filmmaking, he chose to make the Prequel Trilogy instead. Meanwhile, as Steve Perry noted in his foreword to the  Shad...

Many Star Wars EU/Legends fans would love to have seen films based on Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. But the window for a live-action version closed long, long ago. © 1991 Bantam Spectra & Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Quora member Michael Justin asks: Will Lucasfilm ever do a Star Wars movie set between Episodes VI and VII with a de-aged CGI Han, Luke, and Leia? And I say:  No. First of all, as it stands now, the technology for such a complex project is too primitive  and  extremely expensive, plus the results simply would not be convincing. Just look at  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  from 2016. which uses CGI technology to superimpose the likeness of Peter Cushing (who died in 1994) on actor Guy Henry (who wore motion-capture headgear while filming) to play Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin in a film set shortly before the events of  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope.  Ditto for the brief appearance of Norweigan actress Ingvild Deila (with...

On Wednesday, May 25, 1983 – six years to the day after the premiere of George Lucas’s Star Wars – 20 th Century Fox released Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the third and final film of the original Star Wars trilogy. Co-written by Lucas with Lawrence Kasdan ( Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back ) and directed by Richard Marquand ( Eye of the Needle ), Jedi was the terminus of Luke Skywalker’s “hero’s journey” from naïve farm boy to mature – and hopefully wise – warrior for peace and justice, as well as the final confrontation between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. (C) 2013 Del Rey Books/Random House and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 30 years later, Del Rey Books, Random House’s science fiction/fantasy imprint, released J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the third volume in a three-book cycle which coincided with the Diamond Anniversary of the premiere of each Star Wars film . Featuring an int...

Pros:  Harrison Ford returns (one last time) to the Ryanverse. Cons:  The novel was too complex to adapt fully, and it shows. What can I say about 1994's Clear and Present Danger?  The third film in the Jack Ryan series (and the last one to star Harrison Ford) deals with America's war on drugs and also the abuse of power in high places. As in Clancy's original novel, the plot hinges on one crucial question: how far can a President go to achieve a laudable goal, even if the means cross moral, legal and international boundaries? As in the novel of the same name, the interception of an American-flagged yacht in the Caribbean results in the arrest of two Colombian sicarios (hit men) who have murdered the American owner (along with his entire family). The resulting FBI-CIA investigation reveals that Peter Hardin, the late yacht owner and personal friend of the U.S. President (Donald Moffat), had extensive ties to the Cali drug cartel. Hardin, as Jack Ryan (F...

(C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation It's been over 40 years since George Lucas ( THX 1138, American Graffiti ) first shared Star Wars with millions of awestruck moviegoers in the late spring of 1977. Both the director and the studio executives at 20th Century Fox thought they'd have a modestly successful sci-fi fantasy film with "just okay" box office receipts. Instead, bucking their logic and lowered expectations, Star Wars became not only the biggest hit of its time, but it also launched both a multi-movie series and a huge merchandising/multimedia "empire" that made millions for the shy, unassuming USC film school graduate from Modesto, California. Star Wars (later renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope ) begins with one of the most stunning opening scenes in movie history: After the 20th Century Fox Fanfare and a moment of silence for the "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" card, the Star Wars logo appears with t...