A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

On Quora, member Saif Ramiz asks: Will Luke Skywalker have a cameo in The Mandalorian ? My reply: Contrary to rumors or speculation to the contrary, it is not likely that Mark Hamill will make a cameo on  The Mandalorian  as the galaxy’s sole post-Battle of Endor Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker. The Mandalorian  is set between  Return of the Jedi  and  The Force Awakens,  which would   not necessarily preclude an appearance by Hamill as Luke if the story really called for it. But the setting is closer to the immediate post-Endor era (five years after the destruction of the second Death Star) than it is to the Sequel Trilogy), which makes any cameos by Hamill problematic at best. There’s also the fact that the show has already been shot and is no longer in principal photography; the premiere is less than two months from this writing, and the 10-episode series’ cast list, which includes Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed from  Rocky ) and N...

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...

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) (AKA Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi ) Written and Directed by: Rian Johnson Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Anthony Daniels, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, Frank Oz Luke Skywalker: What do you know about the Force?  Rey: It's a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and... make things float.  Luke Skywalker: Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong. On December 15, 2017, almost two years after director J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered and over 40 years after Star Wars: A New Hope kicked off the sprawling Skywalker saga, Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm released writer-director Rian Johnson's epic space-fantasy Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Set three decades after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the film ...

Photo Credit: Nathan Patrick Butler. © 2012 Nathan Patrick Butler. Star Wars logos and content © 1977 Lucasfilm Ltd.  Pros:  Contains all three of NPR's  Star Wars  radio dramas; impressive presentation and nice extras Cons:  None A long time ago, in a bedrooom not very far away, I was a bored and somewhat restless teenager in one of those  I've done all my chores and my homework assignments for my high school classes, there's nothing good on TV, and I really don't have anything to do  moods that 18-year-olds without much of a social life often get into. At the time, I had a small black-and-white TV set and a radio in my room; VCRs were still very expensive and the only one I'd seen was at a friend's house, so watching a video was not an option. I also didn't yet have an Atari 2600 console...nor cable TV...and my friends didn't yet have cars, so my options for getting out of that feeling of "mindless tedium" were to read, li...

(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...