A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Han Solo's mentor in the smuggling enterprise, Tobias Beckett, is the inspiration for Star Wars: The Black Series' 68th 6-in. scale action figure. Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. © 2018 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) At the 115th North American International Toy Fair, which was held in February of 2018 in New York City's Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center, Hasbro unveiled a variety of new products at its showroom. Among these was a "wave" of Star Wars: The Black Series 6-inch scale action figures which depicted characters from Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: A New Hope, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  This initial three-figure wave   consisted of: #68 Tobias Beckett   #69 Rebel Trooper #70 Han Solo (Bespin)  Hasbro shipped these figures, along with other Star Wars- themed toys and collectibles, to stores in the summer, and by July of 2018, they were available in brick-and-mortar stores as well as online retailers such as Amazon, shopDis...

On Quora, Mike Austin asks: Why has Disney-owned Lucasfilm focused so much attention towards the time before Star Wars: Episode IV with all of their spin-off material? And here's my reply:  That’s not entirely accurate. But we’ll get to that in a bit. I’m not an employee at Lucasfilm Ltd., the folks at the creative end, nor am I privy to the corporate doings at The Walt Disney Company (other than those that we know about from reports in the media). Thus, any answer I give is purely speculative, though it’s based on observation of how the franchise has evolved since 1977. I think that Lucasfilm has chosen to focus on the period that leads up to the Galactic Civil War and the Battle of Yavin because, for many fans, that is  Star Wars.  The Rebel Alliance’s conflict against Emperor Palpatine’s New Order is what the Generation of 1977 grew up/grew old with, and even though the non-canonical Expanded Universe told one possible version of the aftermath of the E...

On Quora, member Alex Meed asks: Why didn't John Williams compose the scores for the Star Wars spin-off films? My answer:  There are several reasons why Maestro John Williams didn’t compose the scores for  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  and  Solo: A Star Wars Story. First, Williams is, even at age 87, the five-time Academy Award-winning composer is still a sought-after guest conductor for at least two orchestras (he is the Boston Pops Orchestra’s Laureate Conductor, 25 years after stepping down as its principal conductor and music director). Health issues have forced Maestro Williams to reduce his travel schedule; this is why he has recorded the Sequel Trilogy scores with a Los Angeles-based studio orchestra instead of crossing the Atlantic and performing the music for the  Star Wars  films with the London Symphony at the Abbey Road recording studio. Second, Williams is still an active composer with a busy schedule that limits his availabi...

On Quora, member Michael Justin asks: Will  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker  flop like  Solo: A Star Wars Story? My response: Considering that most of the audience for the Skywalker Saga films is larger than the core of naysaying “Never Disney  Star Wars ” fan-group, I would say…”No.” Solo: A Star Wars Story  failed to perform well at the box office, not because of the success of a boycott led by  The Last Jedi- basher clique or because it was a lousy  Star Wars  film, but rather by its behind-the-scenes drama, a lackadaisical marketing campaign, spectacularly  bad  scheduling, and perhaps even a mild case of franchise weariness. Of all those factors, the most serious was Lucasfilm’s hiring and subsequent firing of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as directors of a  Star Wars  films. Reportedly, the creators of  The LEGO Movie  wanted to give  Solo  an  Ocean’s 11  comedy-cape...

Is  The Rise of Skywalker  the last  Star Wars  movie? No. While  Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker  will bring the curtain down on the Skywalker Saga that began with 1977’s  Star Wars,  it is not going to be the  last  feature film set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” To be sure, it is the swan song, as it were, of the film series that bears - for good or ill - the DNA of George Lucas’s  The Star Wars.  The Big Three - Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher have moved on: Harrison and Mark have had their characters killed off or transformed into Force ghosts, and Carrie died in late 2016, so her role in  The Rise of Skywalker  has been minimized into scenes that can make use of existing footage shot for  The Force Awakens  and (perhaps)  The Last Jedi.  And, as George himself once said, the only characters that are in the entire Skywalker Saga are C-3PO ...

Did Solo: A Star Wars Story prove that people are losing interest in Star Wars? No.  Solo’ s failure at the box office  doesn’t  prove that people are losing interest in  Star Wars. If  Solo: A Star Wars Story  does prove anything, it is that: Bob Iger, the Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, erred badly by greenlighting too many  Star Wars  films back-to-back Lucasfilm erred by hiring Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in the first place, considering that  Solo  co-writer Lawrence Kasdan did not like their approach to the material Releasing  Solo: A Star Wars Story  on May 25, 2018 was a bad idea, even though it was meant to commemorate  Star Wars’  41st Anniversary Even worse, releasing  Solo  without giving much thought to mounting an effective publicity campaign, and on a date that was close to another Disney-owned studio’s blockbuster film’s premiere, was a bad move Star Wars  is...

Han Solo (from Solo: A Star Wars Story ). Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In April of 2018 , a month before Lucasfilm's Solo: A Star Wars Story premiered in theaters, Hasbro officially released Star Wars Black Series: Han Solo as part of one of its "waves" of action figure assortments. This figure represents the first sculpt of the young Han Solo as portrayed on film by Alden Ehrenreich; Hasbro has made at least one more variant ( Han Solo - Mimban ) in his Imperial infantry gear, but this one depicts everyone's favorite Corellian orphan-turned-scoundrel as he appears in the latter half of Solo: A Star Wars Story.   Han Solo reinvents himself after leaving behind his old life. Now, Solo is growing increasingly comfortable traveling with law-benders and scoundrels. - Hasbro character description Although Solo: A Star Wars Story was not successful at the box office, it's still part of the overall Star Wars canon. and Han - no matter if h...

© 2018 Abrams and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  On May 25, 2018, New York City-based publisher Abrams Books released Phil Szostak's The Art of Solo: A Star Wars, the latest entry in the long-running  The Art of Star Wars series that began with Carol Titleman's classic 1979 work, The Art of Star Wars.  Featuring production paintings, costume designs, sketches and concept paintings for props, spaceships, and the many characters that were imagined for the 10th live-action Star Wars movie, The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story is a treasure trove of graphic artwork created by some of Lucasfilm's most talented artists. Concept art for the Vandor train heist by artist Thom Tenery. © 2018 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Published on the same day that Solo: A Star Wars Story premiered, Szostak's fourth The Art of... book is divided thusly: Foreword by Neil Lamont Foreword by James Clyne Introduction by Phil Szostak Who's Who Harry and the Boy Han Solo Qi'ra ...

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) Written by: Lawrence Kasdan and Jon Kasdan. Based on characters created by George Lucas Directed by: Ron Howard Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo On May 25, 2018 – 41 years after the premiere of George Lucas’s original Star Wars film, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures released Solo: A Star Wars Story, the second standalone movie in Lucasfilm Ltd.’s series of Anthology films set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” Written by Lawrence Kasdan ( The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark ) and his son Jon, Solo: A Star Wars Story was originally directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the filmmaking duo behind The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, but they were replaced four-and-a-half months into principal photography and replaced by Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard. It is based on characters and situati...

(C) 2018 Del Rey Books/Random House and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On Tuesday, September 4, Random House’s science fiction/fantasy imprint Del Rey Books published Solo: A Star Wars Story – Expanded Edition, a novelization of director Ron Howard’s 2018 film about the early adventures of a young Han Solo, a Wookiee named Chewbacca, and the roguish gambler and starship owner Lando Calrissian in the years before Han’s involvement with the Rebellion against the Empire. Written by author/podcaster Mur Lafferty ( Six Wakes, I Should Be Writing ), Solo: A Star Wars Story is based on the screenplay and screen story by the father-son team of Lawrence Kasdan ( Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark ) and Jon Kasdan ( Indiana Jones V ). It is a relatively faithful adaptation of the Kasdans’ story, but – as with all of the other Star Wars novels based on the Saga Trilogies and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Lafferty’s Solo contains material that was left out of th...