A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

 'During Vader's confrontation with Admiral Motti, why doesn't the Dark Lord choke Governor Tarkin when he intervenes?' Because, as powerful and menacing as Darth Vader is, he can’t Force-choke anyone who is equal in stature, or even above Vader’s standing in Imperial hierarchy, even if he is tempted to. It’s just not something one does in a chain of command, and especially not in the ruling circles of the Galactic Empire. Understand. In  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,  Vader is not the big bad villain representing the Empire. That role belongs to Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Governor of the Imperial Outland Territories, author of the Tarkin Doctrine, and commander of the Empire’s new Death Star battle station. He is also a confidante and friend to Sheev Palpatine, aka His Imperial Highness, Emperor Palpatine. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  In  Episode IV; A New Hope,  in which the “I find your lack of faith disturbing” altercat

© 2017, 2018 Del Rey Books/Lucasfilm Ltd. Which elements of 'The Last Jedi' do you think J.J. Abrams will retcon in the upcoming 'Star Wars: Episode IX'? Oh, Sithspawn. Will  The Last Jedi  bashing ever stop? All right. Listen. Apparently, you never took Basic Screenwriting 101 or understand how moviemaking at that level works  really  works. First, even though J.J. Abrams did not write or direct  Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi,  he is one of the film’s executive producers, which is the same job title George Lucas had when Lucasfilm Ltd. made  The Empire Strikes Back  and  Return of the Jedi. That means that even though he was not on-set every day or oversaw production in a hands-on way, he read Johnson’s script way before principal photography began. As executive producer, along with Kathleen Kennedy and others on his decision-making level, he had  veto power  over Johnson’s script. Thus, if Abrams believed, like quite a few fans seem to think, th

Concept art from The Empire Strikes Back by Ralph McQuarrie. © 1980 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) No. Going strictly by what we see in  Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi,  it is obvious that Yoda is  not  referring to Rey from  Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Yoda’s last words to Luke before crossing over to the other side of the Force are: “There is…another…Sky…walk…er.” In the  very next scene,  which is what writers sometimes call an “exposition dump,” we find out who  the other  is: LUKE I can't kill my own father. BEN Then the Emperor has already won. You were our only hope. LUKE Yoda spoke of another. BEN The other he spoke of is your twin sister. LUKE But I have no sister. BEN Hmm. To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born. The Emperor knew, as I did, if Anakin were to have any offspring, they would be a threat to him. That is the reason why your sister remains safely anon

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 still one of the most popular franchises in existence, and it has survived through

© 2007 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) How did George Lucas envision the Star Wars franchise while making the first movie? To be honest, I don’t believe that Lucas had a grand blueprint for a “franchise.” When he was writing and directing  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars -Episode IV: A New Hope,  he had a vague outline for the Prequels (proof of which is the prologue to the novelization of  Star Wars ), the four drafts of  Star Wars,  and ideas (not a complete screenplay that he pared down into thirds, as he has claimed) for possible sequels. That’s it. No more, no less, as a certain Jedi Master that sounds suspiciously like Fozzie Bear as a Zen master might have said.  Between 1973 and 1976, and especially when he was shooting Star Wars, Lucas didn’t have a grand scheme to make a nine-part Saga with secondary Expanded Universes all over the media. He had  hopes  that  Star Wars  would be a decent enough hit at the box office to be able to make all kinds of films, inc

 Did Kirk's Enterprise complete its five-year mission? Yes. It did. The original   Starship Enterprise,  registry number NCC-1701, completed its five-year mission under the command of Capt. James T. Kirk. This much was confirmed by the fact that Kirk is an Admiral in  Star Trek: The Motion Picture,  as well as certain other plot points, such as the fact that the  Enterprise  has undergone an extensive refit and that most of the crew has been reassigned to other duties within Starfleet. (Kirk’s line to McCoy about his fitness to command after being at a desk job for two-and-a-half years includes the words. “five years out there, dealing with unknowns…”) What  is  not clear - on screen, anyway - is  when,  exactly, the five-year mission ended. Right now, the canonical reference works  The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future  and its companion work,  The Star Trek Chronology,  state that Kirk’s five-year mission ended a short time

You know…I had to ask that question to a few of my friends who were into  Star Trek  back when I was in my early teens….back in the late 1970s. I was born just a few years before  Star Trek  premiered on September 8, 1966, so I wasn’t what you might call a First Generation Trekker. I think I first saw  Star Trek  in the early 1970s (or maybe 1969) when I lived in Colombia with my mom, older half-sister, and other relatives. It was, of course, dubbed in Spanish and was titled  Viaje a las estrellas.  I didn’t know what to make of it, so I didn’t watch it a lot. (Don’t judge me…I was only 7 or 8 years old at the time!) © 1966 Desilu Productions/Norway Corporation/CBS Intriguing looking ship….too bad it isn’t as detailed as the ships in  Star Wars …… When we moved back to the States in 1972,  Star Trek  was in its “lost in the wilderness” stage: NBC had canceled the show three years earlier, but it was popular in syndication. I was space-crazy at the time (Apollo had still

The answer is simple: The Axis powers consisted of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and a militaristic, aggressive, and expansionist Japan, plus various satellite nations (such as Hungary, Romania, and (for a time) Finland. The Axis nations were led by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo, three guys who would never earn the Mr. Congeniality award either in their lifetimes or in prosperity’s point of view. In essence, the Axis nations are considered to be World War II’s bad guys for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that their war aims were: Territorial expansionism at the expense of their neighbors Deliberate genocide of entire ethnic and religious groups Totalitarian rule on a continental scale Interestingly, though Germany, Italy, and Japan were nominal allies in World War II, their military alliance was more or less cosmetic. The two major powers, Hitler’s Third Reich and Tojo’s Japanese Empire, discussed the division of their conquered lands i

No. One of the main pillars of National Socialism was persecution of ethnic, social, and religious minorities, not only in Germany proper but in Europe on a continental level. You have to keep in mind that Adolf Hitler’s goals were not simply to establish a one-party regime, “right the wrongs” that Germany perceived had been done to her after World War I, and rearm for self-defense. As early as the mid-1920s, Hitler stated his goals of destroying Jewish-Bolshevism, creating a Greater German Reich by conquering neighboring countries, and eventually invading the Soviet Union. You also need to remember that Hitler did not “trick” ordinary Germans into following him, even when he made that leap into the abyss and invaded Poland in September of 1939. Many dedicated Nazis, including women and teenagers, were ecstatic at the outbreak of war and continued believing in  der Fuhrer  till the fortunes of war turned against their “Thousand Year Reich.” (Ordinary Germans, on the other hand

Before the advent of home video, in any format (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, or digital download)? That’s easy. Star Wars. Or, as it’s been officially renamed (since 1981): Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Now, Star Wars was not the first movie that I saw more than once in theaters (for the purposes of this answer, home video/television broadcasts don’t count). That honor, for lack of a better word, goes to this 1977 movie, which opened a couple of weeks after George Lucas’s space-fantasy film. © 1977 MGM//United Artists When Star Wars premiered in May of 1977, I was more into military history than I was into science fiction/space fantasy. In fact, I didn’t want to see Star Wars that summer - even though almost all of my friends told me it was a “must-see” event. I saw A Bridge Too Far twice within a period of two weeks. My mom was not terribly thrilled to drive me to the theater to see the same flick twice, but since she was mere